Tiago Ferreira Flores
Doctoral researcher at the LISER
Tiago works on the project ‘LAND AND PROPERTY OWNERSHIP IN LUXEMBOURG: FROM FEUDALISM TO INDUSTRIALIZATION‘ under the supervision of Antoine Paccoud
The project focuses on the historical evolution of land and property ownership in Luxembourg, with a focus on the transformation of Dudelange from a rural town to a key industrial, and later, a post-industrial urban centre. It analyses the persistent concentration of landownership within a select few families through an in-depth analysis of cadastral matrices and genealogical records over two centuries. The combination of these sources makes it possible to follow every property owner and their family over time, revealing that, in spite of significant societal and economic shifts such as industrialisation, land in Luxembourg has largely remained in the hands of established family lineages, with important consequences for Luxembourg’s ongoing housing crisis and urban development. Indeed, the first results show how historical landownership patterns, and especially constrained access to land, have structured the country’s urban landscape (quantity and location of housing produced, siting of economic activities). The project thus aims to draw on the case of Luxembourg to contribute to scholarly discussions on the societal impacts of long-standing inequalities in the access to land and property.