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R. Essl:
"Urban crisis and multiple disruption: the invisible workers and dwellers of Silicon Valley";
Supervisor: S. Knierbein; Institut für Raumplanung, Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Culture and Public Space, Forschungsbereich 285-02, 2021; final examination: 2021-01-20.

This diploma thesis investigates the multidimensio-
nal socio-spatial effects of Silicon Valley´s creative
cluster on the San Francisco Bay Area. The region is
dramatically influenced through tech´s inherent drive
for disruptive innovation, which caused immense
economic success and subsequent urban inequality.
The contradictions that arise through the techno-eco-
nomic progress become particularly evident at the
given case study on working homelessness. The
case is discussed via a qualitative content analysis of
various media sources on the everyday life and urban
conflicts, which arise through the immediate presence
of the working homeless population in public space
- supplemented by a reflection on power structures
in discourse and semi-structured expert interviews
that illustrate the vast context of tech disruption and
the interconnected state of a multiple urban crisis.
While the invisible workers and dwellers of Silicon
Valley become increasingly pushed into unbearable
living and working conditions due to ever-growing
housing costs and gig economy work ethics, their
means of informal dwelling, in residential vehicles
and cars parked in urban space, are contested by
the city municipalities, formal residents, and corpo-
rations. This phenomenon is symptomatic for the
urban crisis, which can be encountered globally. Yet
it certainly reached gigantic levels in the Bay Area.

https://publik.tuwien.ac.at/files/publik_301117.pdf