HSA Annual Conference 2009 - FIRST CALL

Housing and Government: A Decade of Difference?
Cardiff University, April 15 -17 2009

Over the past decade we have seen the emergence of fragmented policy-making in the UK. Constitutional change has led to varying amounts of power being devolved to new government structures in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. This has allowed the development of different approaches to the provision and consumption of housing across the four jurisdictions and has impacted upon policy-making and service delivery. However, the potential for the emergence of new forms of relationships between different levels of government and service providers is constrained by external factors.

This conference is intended to provide a space for reflection on the differences, similarities, constraints and opportunities that have emerged and explore the responses to problems and issues that have arisen both between and within individual countries

Confirmed contributors include:

- Dr Matthew Watson, Warwick University
- Professor Kevin Morgan, Cardiff University
- Jocelyn Davies AM, Minister for Housing, Welsh Assembly Government
- Ken Gibb, Glasgow University
- Grainia Long, Director, CIH Northern Ireland

Further details of the conference can be found on the conference website.

Major themes for the conference, which is being organised by Pauline Card of Cardiff University and Jane Mudd of University of Wales Institute Cardiff (UWIC), are:

- Housing Policy: A Decade of Difference?

- How different are the responses to common problems? What impact has the fragmentation of government had on the policy making process?

- Providing and Governing Housing

- Are new types of housing organisation emerging? Have financial and regulatory frameworks diverged? How have housing organisations developed within, and responded to different financial, legislative and regulatory frameworks?

- Consuming Housing

- Have issues of access to housing diverged? How are the needs of different groups being met? What issues are emerging as priorities for the next ten years?

The questions raised can be explored within a number of key policy contexts, including: homelessness, community participation, regulation, housing strategy, housing management, allocations, housing market analysis etc.

Following its success at last year’s conference, an Early Career Housing Scholar Stream will again run in parallel with the main conference.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Offers of papers (title plus 200 word abstract) should be e-mailed to CardPD@cf.ac.uk and jmudd@uwic.ac.uk . The closing date for abstracts is Friday, 30th January 2009. We welcome papers that fall outside the main conference themes and particularly papers from those with policy and practice backgrounds.