For early career researchers engaged in the study of housing, and its intersection with social theory, policy, urban design, inequality and change: “To promote the communication and dissemination of ideas, through a supportive medium, to early career housing researchers”
The Early Career Housing Researchers’ Network (ECHRN) is an interdisciplinary, informal email network. Membership is open to all early career researchers (working in academia, public and private sectors) and PhD students, with research interests relating to housing and society.
The network operates as an independent email forum, linking members into key events and news in housing research. Members can also use the mailing list to ask each other for advice and support in conducting their research, and to promote events, publications and new research that they are involved in. Informal social events will be held, linked into housing conferences, to provide new researchers with an opportunity to meet face to face. The first such social event – the formal launch of the Network – will be at the Housing Studies Association Annual Conference (2 – 4 April 2008).
Early career researchers are encouraged to attend this important housing event, and present their work – further details are available at There are reduced conference rates for those presenting in the ‘early career housing scholar’ stream – but please note the deadline for abstracts is the 20th January 2008. Hope to see you there!
To join the network please send a brief note of your name, research interests, institution and email address to:
Dr Carol Corinne McNaughton, Centre for Housing Policy, University of York, cm583@york.ac.uk
Or contact Regional Co-ordinators for more information:
Jamie Keddie
London School of Economics
Cities Programme
j.e.keddie@lse.ac.uk
Kirsteen Paton
University of Glasgow
Department of Urban Studies,
k.paton.1@research.gla.ac.uk
We are actively seeking more regional co-ordinators across the country. Please indicate if you would like to act as a co-ordinator for your institution when you reply and we will contact you with more details.
Please Note - The network in independent from the HSA.
NEWS FROM RESEARCH CENTRES
Centre for Comparative Housing Research (CCHR)
De Montfort University, Leicester
Centre for Social Justice
Peter King, Reader in Social Thought in CCHR, has been invited to take part in two policy groups of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ). Peter will contribute to the Economy Dependency and Housing policy groups. These policy groups are part of a comprehensive and ongoing attempt by the CSJ to consider the reform of the welfare and criminal justice systems in the UK. It is hoped that the Economic Dependency and Housing groups will produce reports in Summer 2008. More details on the CSJ's work can be found at http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk.
New Book by Peter King
Peter King has a new book coming out in March 2008 entitled In Dwelling: Implacability, Exclusion and Acceptance (ISBN 978-0-7546-4870-3). It is to be published as part of Ashgate’s Design and Built Environment series.
The starting point for the book is that a dwelling is quite clearly a physical entity; it is its structure that keeps us dry, warm and secure. It prevents intrusion by unwanted others and allows us to pursue our own interests in relative peace and quiet. But this physicality also allows us to develop attachments and to form relationships within the boundaries of the dwelling. The physical space we call a house is therefore full of meaning for us. While it can protect, it can also exclude, and one must take care not to exclude all and become isolated, to allow us to flee from responsibility.
A dwelling can be implacable, in that it can work for us or against depending on how we are able to access and use it. This means that we have to learn to accept dwelling as it is and find some accommodation with our surrounding environment. This book develops a new approach to looking at dwelling and how we use it. It explores the manner in which use housing to exclude others and so protect our privacy. But also it suggests we need to exclude others in order to protect and nurture our loved ones.
The book combines philosophical analysis and film criticism to puts forward an innovative and insightful new approach to looking at housing. It draws on the work of thinkers as diverse as Aristotle, Derrida, Kierkegaard, Nussbaum and Scruton and the films of Chaplin, Kiorastami, Tarkovsky, Tarr, Teshigahara and Van Sant to construct a new theoretical approach to housing research.
Rural Housing
The Centre is involved in a number of initiatives on rural housing including:
- Contributing to the Improvement and Development Agency’s rural excellence programme – see http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=7408199. This has included a briefing paper that critically investigates the potential of community land trusts.
- Housing and Community Cohesion in Rural Areas: Dr Tim Brown delivered a paper on this topic at the Conference on Europe and its Established and Emerging Immigrant Communities at De Montfort University on 10 & 11 November 2007.
- Advising Local Authorities in Shropshire on the Future Direction for the Housing Service as part of Local Government Reorganisation.
- Developing a Rural Homelessness Strategy for Harborough District Council.
For more details of the Centre’s work on rural housing, please contact Dr Tim Brown (tjb@dmu.ac.uk).
UK Housing Awards
The Centre’s Postgraduate Certificate in Housing Studies, which has been developed jointly with Places for People (the largest housing association in England), was a finalist for the UK Housing Awards under the heading ‘Developing Skills and Capacity’. CCHR and Places for People are now in the process of converting this into an MSc programme.
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