One-day seminar organised by the Centre for Housing Research, University of St Andrews and sponsored by the Housing Studies Association

 

Date: Thursday 4 July 2013

 

This one-day seminar is concerned with the recent emergence and revival of different forms of community-led and owned solutions to housing and regeneration issues. While the role of communities in addressing housing issues is far from new, it is particularly prominent in contemporary government policy in all four jurisdictions of the UK. Community action is of significance in the context of fiscal austerity and pronounced housing difficulties, including undersupply, lack of affordability and dereliction. Organisations such as community land trusts, self-help housing groups and new co-operatives are growing in number to address these problems, reviving traditions of self-help, philanthropy and local democracy, while new social housing models built on principles of mutuality offer new prospects for tenant control and empowerment. Yet there remain challenges in the establishment and implementation of forms of community ownership, including issues of equity, power, legitimacy, representation, capacity and resource. There is therefore a need for careful examination of the underlying rationales, processes and practices that help or hinder new forms of community ownership and governance.

 

This seminar seeks to engage with the scope, design and delivery of community-led organisations by bringing together and comparing research from across the UK. Papers related (but not limited) to the following are encouraged:

 

• ·         Rationales for and geographies of community ownership of housing and regeneration;
• ·         The impact of changing policy processes and relationships between the state, market and civil society on community-led housing organisations;
• ·         Comparative and critical analysis of community ownership structures in different localities, regions and nations;
• ·         Case studies interrogating the benefits, success, effectiveness or sustainability of community-led organisations.

Presentations drawn from a variety of social science disciplines, of different theoretical underpinnings and reporting different methodological approaches are welcomed. Abstracts of 200 words that address these or other aspects of community empowerment, ownership and governance in housing and regeneration should be submitted to Dr Tom Moore ([log in to unmask]) by Friday 17^th May 2013.  Abstract submission from early career researchers is particularly encouraged. Those wishing to attend the event should also register their interest in advance.

 

The organisers are grateful to the Housing Studies Association and the Centre for Housing Research, University of St Andrews for their support, endorsement and hosting of this event.

 

 

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Dr Tom Moore

Centre for Housing Research

The Observatory, Buchanan Gardens

University of St Andrews

Fife, KY16 9LZ

 

E: [log in to unmask]

T: 01334 461967

 

Project administrator for ESRC Seminar Series The Big Society, Localism and Housing Policy (2013-14): http://bigsocietylocalismhousing.co.uk/

 

Member of the Housing Studies Associaton Executive Committee: http://www.housing-studies-association.org