In contemporary urban areas, a growing ‘generation rent’ is finding shelter in expensive and precarious private rental housing. Tenant organisations and legislative initiatives have been pushing to improve housing conditions for renters, yet have been met with strong resistance. Intense policy and academic debates have ensued. This paper delves into the discourses used by dominant actors involved in legislative changes affecting the private rental sector in Catalonia and Spain. Through a critical discourse analysis of the positions of governments, opposition parties and landlord organisations, we identify three main arguments employed to limit or contest ‘post-neoliberal’ measures favouring tenants: ‘the vulnerable landlord’, ‘the counterproductive effects’ and ‘the violation of property rights’. Each of these arguments is placed under theoretical and empirical scrutiny, revealing important weaknesses. By unsettling dominant discourses, we contribute to advancing the terms of the debates and sketch out the coordinates for a counter-discourse informed by critical theory and the interests of renters rather than rentiers.

中文翻译：

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包容“代租”：加泰罗尼亚和西班牙有关租赁住房改革的主流话语令人不安

在当代城市地区，不断增长的“一代租金”正在昂贵且不稳定的私人出租房屋中寻求庇护。租户组织和立法举措一直在推动改善租户的住房条件，但遭到了强烈抵制。激烈的政策和学术争论随之而来。本文深入研究了影响加泰罗尼亚和西班牙私人租赁行业的立法变革中的主导者所使用的话语。通过对政府、反对党和房东组织立场的批判性话语分析，我们确定了用于限制或反对有利于租户的“后新自由主义”措施的三个主要论点：“弱势房东”、“适得其反的影响”和“侵犯财产权”。这些论点中的每一个都经过理论和实证的审查，揭示了重要的弱点。通过扰乱主流话语，我们有助于推进辩论的条款，并勾勒出以批判理论和租客而不是食利者的利益为基础的反话语的坐标。