This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Darcy, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

The Discourse of 'Community' and the Reinvention of Social Housing Policy in Australia

Department of Social Policy and Human Services, University of Western Sydney, Macarthur, PO Box 555, Campbelltown, NSW, Australia, m.darcy{at}uws.edu.au.

Recent developments in Australian social housing policy encompass a larger role for non-government housing providers. The new emphasis is mediated and supported by the discourse of 'community' housing. 'Community' is invoked as an ideal by liberal critics of the centralised state, and conversely, by critics of liberalism who pose it as an alternative to individualism and the abstract formalism of the liberal state. Much of the rhetoric of community housing in Australia has emphasised its claimed potential to demonstrate ways in which social housing management can be made more accountable and responsive, as well as more equitable and efficient, but the evident contradictions in the discourse raise questions concerning the reasons for, and likely outcomes of, state sponsorship of community housing. This paper employs 'textually oriented discourse analysis' to examine key policy documents which have informed the development of community housing policy in Australia, and demonstrates linkages between these discourse samples, and the international tendencies in the societal order of discourse identified by Fairclough as 'democratisation', 'commodification' and 'technologisation'.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				F. Miraftab and S. Wills Insurgency and Spaces of Active Citizenship: The Story of Western Cape Anti-eviction Campaign in South Africa Journal of Planning Education and Research, December 1, 2005; 25(2): 200 - 217. [Abstract] [PDF]

				F. Miraftab Public-Private Partnerships: The Trojan Horse of Neoliberal Development? Journal of Planning Education and Research, September 1, 2004; 24(1): 89 - 101. [Abstract] [PDF]

				F. Miraftab The Perils of Participatory Discourse: Housing Policy in Postapartheid South Africa Journal of Planning Education and Research, March 1, 2003; 22(3): 226 - 239. [Abstract] [PDF]