ISA HOUSING CONFERENCE - SOME REFLECTIONS

Housing Assets, Housing People

A research conference for ISA RC 43 was held in Glasgow, Scotland, from September 1-4 2009. The conference was hosted by the Department of Urban Studies at the University of Glasgow. It was chaired by Kenneth Gibb, vice-convener of RC43. The purpose of the conference was to exchange international experience about the causes, impacts and policy responses associated with the credit crunch and major housing-economic recessions afflicting neighbourhoods, communities, cities and regions in different parts of the contemporary global economy.

The Housing Studies Association was a partner organisation to the conference and hosted a well-received special panel session on the future of housing tenure. This session was chaired by Paul Hickman and featured contributions form Dave Mullins, Hal Pawson and Duncan Maclennan.

In total, more than 220 delegates from 40+ countries participated in the successful four day conference. The Minister for housing and communities in the Scottish Government, Mr Alex Neil, addressed the conference at its opening plenary session. There were three plenary sessions featuring notable housing academics (Professors Dan Immergluck, Duncan Maclennan, Susan Smith, Yosuke Hiramaya and Chris Hamnett) who presented papers including a discussion of the madness of mortgage lenders (Hamnett) and a plea for more relevant evidenced-based housing policies fit for the present times (Maclennan). Smith presented a performativity-based case for introducing a house price futures financial instrument that is purported to reduce market volatility and allow households to hedge against capital losses. Hirayama provided an impressive overview of the current situation in Japan including a detailed account of unprecedented levels of urban homelessness in the capital, Tokyo. Immergluck set out the depth and geography of foreclosures in the United States.

The conference also featured, in addition to the HSA’s panel, a number of special sessions and more than 160 papers presented across a range of parallel sessions that ran throughout the conference. The conference was held in the iconic Mitchell Library in the city centre and use was also made for social events at the City’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, as well as the Peoples’ Palace Museum. There was also a full range of study tours and an urban housing archive kindly provided by the Mitchell Library. The conference organisers are very grateful to the support of a number of sponsors who contributed massively to the success of the conference:

• International Sociological Association
• Glasgow Housing Association
• Scottish Government
• Glasgow city council
• Joseph Rowntree Foundation
• Northern Ireland Housing Executive
• Taylor and Francis
• Emerald
• Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland
• Scottish Federation of Housing Associations

Further information on papers, presentations and useful links can be found at the conference website http://www.gla.ac.uk/events/housing/

Kenneth Gibb
Conference Chair
Department of Urban Studies
University of Glasgow