How to get a PhD and look after yourself

To kick start a regular series of contributions from Early Career Researchers, Rowland Atkinson offers a reflection on his own expereince of undertaking his PhD research and provides some advice for surviving the process.

I don’t remember the final months of my PhD with a great deal of fondness. Stuck in my bedroom because my campus had closed down (ok, so it was unusual as circumstances go) I cranked up from around seven hours of writing and analysis per day to a seven day week that ran into the evenings. Amazingly my wife is my then girlfriend and without her ministrations I probably would have become a bit of a wreck, but I do still find it hard to work at home and much prefer the relative sociability of the office. Of course it shouldn’t and doesn’t need to be this way, there is no reason why doing a PhD should be the hard task that it often is. In this brief piece I want to locate a number of anxieties and fundamentals about the PhD process that reflect on my own experience and that of some that I have supervised.

I remember picking up the book, How to Get A PhD, the message that still stays with me from that was the importance of recognising that isolation is a key feature of the doctoral student experience. People’s experience of this varies a great deal of course and much may depend on how well the student culture of your institution is orchestrated, often it may come down to a key member of staff or a student with a penchant for organising festivities in breweries. Even better than this is to take charge of the social scene, bearing in mind that contact with your peers is important for your own sanity and for checking and sharing your own learning. Don’t be fooled into thinking that someone specialising in housing finance cant talk to a Bourdieusian expert on domesticity. We have masses to learn from each other and cross-fertilisation is essential to the creative writing process, go and speak to the nerd down the corridor, you can bet that they think the same of you but they wont half appreciate a cup of tea and a chat to relieve their eye strain.

Other aspects of exchange and contact are open to PhD students, make sure that you take part in existing seminar series and if the chance isn’t offered make a point of offering to present your results to these forums or strike up a group of students and present to each other. These skills are not only critical but these kinds of supportive environments, even if they don’t seem it, diminish nerves, boost confidence and make these encounters more predictable. Generating the skills of an ad-libbing confident presenter is one of the great transferable skills and getting stuck in makes a massive difference. Feel the fear and do it anyway, a warning though, it really is scary – but we often need that pit in the stomach to make sure we do a good job, breath it in and go for it.

I often see post-grads burning out as a result of plugging away analysing data or writing for long periods of time without taking a break. Routines are the death of creativity and often knock confidence. It is important to see breaks as constructive ways of getting on track in the longer term. This doesn’t mean boozy lunches or extended coffee breaks. Remember that the PhD is essentially a job, but outside of doing this as a 9 to 5 (always a good mindset to be in) you need to vary your daily patterns. A key reason for this is that research tells us that varying routines and taking breaks spurs the creative process, brains straining at the seems with new information and stressing over deadlines tend to close down. If you can recognise when you are beginning to struggle and have the confidence to shift into a different mindset (take a walk, have lunch out of the office for once etc) you will find yourself making connections and generating ideas much more quickly. Even varying your route to work and ensuring you talk to your peers are simple strategies to get out of ruts.

At the back of your mind it is important to remember why you are doing this and what it is that you are doing. This may sound too obvious but at times when it is all too much you are going to need to be clear about why you are slaving away while everyone else appears to be having all the fun. For me I was committed to what I felt was a concealed social problem, for others there will be other conundrums, the lifestyle itself and, most likely, the prospect of a job in a related field. For all this it is essential that enjoyment is the core of the experience, obvious but central to ensuring completion and a less stressful experience. Remember that doing a PhD is supposed to be a training in research methodology and that your expertise will be much stronger if you are able to situate your research questions and approach in a broader universe of knowledge. I still cringe at the ten minute responses I gave to the casual conference dinner question, “so what is your PhD on?” It is important to get distance to the extent that an academic, and any other, career will invariably involve a much greater emphasis on broad areas of knowledge and expertise. Remember that not everyone speaks Deleuze and that not everyone may care about the latest developments in statistical techniques.

Is there life after a PhD? I’m not sure if I am evidence of that, but labouring to make the PhD part of a broader plan is essential to getting on to a place in which new challenges can be started. I still value the days of doing my PhD and what was initially an opportune choice has felt like the revelation of a vocation. My English teacher would often say, we now have the luxury of a full hour to discuss literature, it is important to remember that we have the privilege of spending three (ok, sometimes four) years concerning ourselves with the all of the minutiae of a particular topic, its important not to waste that feeling and to ensure that you are in charge of a process which is still likely to remain a core part of your identity, either as an academic or in any other career.

Rowland Atkinson
HACRU, UTAS

Contributions from Early Career Researchers are actively encouraged by the HSA Blog. Please contact Rob Rowlands or Kim McKee with offers of articles.

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Editor

Book Review

Heino, J., Czischke, D. and Nikolova, M. (2007) Managing Social Rental Housing in the European Union: Experiences and Innovative Approaches. CECODHAS European Social Housing Observatory, VVO-PLC, Finland.

Billing itself as the first pan-European study to explore social housing company strategies within their rapidly changing economic social and political context, this report is based on a survey of 42 such companies in 12 EU member states and case studies of six companies in six different states. Instead of the usual financial and housing policy focus found in most comparative studies of social housing (Boelhouwer, 1997, Whitehead and Scanlon, 2007) here we have an account that gets closer to the reality of decision making and priority setting by a powerful set of institutions who touch the lives of around 25 million households across Europe and sit between state and market influences.

Unusually within the literature in this field the study draws mainly on strategic management concepts such as mission and values, core activities and diversification, comparative advantage and strategy formation rather than concepts drawn from social policy or economics. Nevertheless we also find some analysis of housing systems and institutional frameworks, welfare states, privatisation and residualisation more common is such studies. Empirically the study has the benefit of a grounding in the work of CECODHAS European Social Housing Observatory in outlining the different national contexts for social housing (informing Annex II) and in mapping the extent and nature of social housing provision (CECODHAS, 2007).

The most striking empirical findings of the survey and case study are that despite sticking to a core task of meeting housing needs of low income households there has been a general tendency across Europe for company activities to widen in scope to include urban regeneration and neighbourhood management and other ‘non-landlord activities’ to fill gaps in a retreating welfare state. A scenario with analogies to the role played by the third sector in earlier liberal welfare settlements before social democratic welfare states expanded. At the same time we have seen a change in the business models of these companies to include more commercial activities and to adopt more strategic management approaches. It is argued that these changes are partly a response to a rapidly changing environment in which there is less public funding and more intense pockets of social need as a result of the retreating state. This chimes with other recent work on drivers for diversification by European social landlords (Brandsen et al 2006).

Because of their long term local anchorage housing organisations have been strongly drawn into strategies to turn around declining areas, both through their asset management and investment activities and though their emerging wider role in promoting local economic revival, and improving local social and community services. While such involvement has led to legitimacy challenges, many housing companies believe that they are uniquely placed and have the organisational capacity and resources to take on this role. However, we might question the extent to which the ability of housing companies to plug gaps in wider welfare provision is contingent on the ways in which the state has withdrawn from housing itself. The huge assets inherited by Dutch housing associations from decades of earlier investment and ten years of house price inflation cannot be compared to the position of housing associations in countries like Ireland where rental policies prevent organisations from accumulating sufficient surpluses to keep their own homes maintained let alone subsidise wider social welfare. Similarly the ability and willingness of housing organisations to take on social tasks is a reflection of internal goals and missions.

Another added value of this study is in clarifying the active agency played by the companies themselves, with mission statements and core tasks being defined in generally social terms rather than market terms (with the exception of the growing emphasis on customer satisfaction). This mirrors earlier work in England (Mullins and Riseborough, 1997,2000) which found that housing association executives valued both social purposes and business efficiency but when forced to choose consistently saw social purposes as more important than business efficiency. Similarly recent Dutch research has found the hybrid model to be central to organisational identities, with social and commercial purposes much poorer differentiators than a division between entrepreneurial prospectors and defenders (Gruis, forthcoming). With the Robin Hood principle deployed to reinvest commercial returns into social purposes these hybrid organisations can always present their commercial activities as a means to an end, funding social investments.

Inevitably the six case studies that illustrate the company profiles generally focus on socially driven activities that embody these organisations’ missions: energy saving in Finland, eco-building in Brescia, historic quarter rehabilitation in Metz, 24 hour drug centre in Wilhelminasingel, a call centre in Bromley and resident artists to refresh declining neighbourhood in Hamburg. However, while private companies might have selected similar examples to illustrate their sense of corporate social responsibility, it still seems reasonable from the evidence presented in this report to believe that there remains a significant distance in terms of mission, activities and outcomes between these social entrepreneurial organisations and private companies that operate in the same field.

In their conclusion the authors call for further work to explore the tension between social and commercial objectives but this will demand new methodologies and perspectives. Earlier writers (e.g. Walker, 2000) had suggested that the adoption of private finance models and new public management would cause housing associations to shift from a people to a property focus. It has also been suggested that commercial drivers could see harder nosed approaches to social housing management itself (for example in relation to access policies and eviction procedures). But as we have seen the Robin Hood principle makes it hard to unmask these tensions, since commercial behaviour can always be justified by social investment of surpluses. Perhaps new evidence will begin to emerge from situations where there is direct competition between social landlords and the private sector and where we may begin to see which business models are adopted and adapted by whom (Mullins and Walker, 2007, Elsinga et al 2007). Social housing remains an intriguing field where further research is required, however Heino, Czischke and Nikolova have done a great service by opening up a strategic management perspective and an organisational level focus to these questions in a variety of European housing market contexts.

David Mullins, Centre for Urban & Regional Studies, University of Birmingham

References
Boelhouwer, P (1997) Financing the social rented sector I Western Europe. Housing and Urban Policy Studies 13, Delft University Press.
Brandsen T, Farnell R and Cardoso Ribeiro T (2006) Housing Association Diversification in Europe: Profiles, Portfolios and Strategies. Coventry, Rex Group.
CECODHAS, (2007) Housing Europe 2007 Review of Social Co-operative and Public Housing in the 27 EU Member States. Brussels, European Social Housing Observatory.
Elsinga M, Haffner, M, van der Heijden, H and Oxley, M (2007) How competitive is social rental housing in England and the Netherlands. ENHR Conference, Rotterdam.
Gruis, V (2008, forthcoming) Organisational Archetypes for Dutch Housing Associations. Environment and Planning C
Mullins D and Riseborough, M (1997) Changing with the Times. Critical interpretations of the repositioning of housing associations. School of Public Policy Occasional Paper 12. University of Birmingham
Mullins D and Riseborough M (2000) What are housing associations becoming? Final report of Changing with the Times project. Housing Research at CURS Number 7. 102 pp.
Mullins D and Walker JB (2007) Mixed Motives? The impact of direct public funding for private developers on not-for-profit housing networks in England. ENHR Conference, Rotterdam.
Walker R.M (2000) The Changing Management of Social Housing: the Impact of Externalisation and Managerialisation Housing Studies 15.2 281-299
Whitehead, C and Scanlon, K (2007) Social Housing in Europe.

New Shelter Publications

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ENHR New Housing Researcher Colloquium

- in association with the 2008 ENHR Conference, Dublin, 4th to 6th July 2008

New housing researchers are invited come to this colloquium to present papers about ongoing research and to interact with other new researchers as well as more experienced housing researchers. The colloquium for new housing researchers is being run in association with the 2008 ENHR conference at University College Dublin, July 6-9. It is organised by Professor Chris Paris & Dr Michaela Keenan with the help and support of colleagues from the University of Ulster Conference Office.

The aim is to provide an opportunity for new researchers to present and discuss papers on their on-going research and gain feedback from both their peer group and international mentors. To gain from the format of discussion by mentors and peers these papers will normally discuss research objectives, methodology and first results - but not be finished products.

The colloquium is designed for:
- PhD students, whether full-time or part-time, working on housing and housing-related topics;
- People developing careers within housing research in the university, public or private sectors; and
- New housing researchers who have recently completed Masters Degrees and who are interested in developing their interest in the field.

The ENHR has run these colloquia for some years in conjunction with the main ENHR conference, though this is the first time that the colloquium is to be held at a different location from the main conference.

There is no specific theme for this colloquium, but participants are encouraged to orient their papers if possible to the theme of the main conference: Shrinking Cities, Sprawling Suburbs, Changing Countrysides.

Accommodation and conference fee is £85.00, payable in £ sterling. This fee includes single occupancy ensuite accommodation, continental breakfast, morning and afternoon tea and coffee, lunch on Saturday 5th July, a first evening drinks reception and the bus tour of Belfast on Sunday 6th July.

Participants should be aware that papers presented at this colloquium may not be presented at the main ENHR conference at University College Dublin, July 6-9 2008.

Paper abstracts should be up to 400 words.
Deadline for submission of abstracts - 14 March 2008.
Deadline for submission of papers - 13 June 2008.

More details can be found from the website: http://www.enhr.ulster.ac.uk/index.html

Newsletter December 2007

EARLY CAREER HOUSING RESEARCHERS’ NETWORK (ECHRN)

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.

News from Research Centres (Updated)

Centre for Housing Policy, University of York

New staff

Carol McNaughton joined CHP on 1 October on a year's ESRC postdoctoral fellowship. She will be working in the area of homelessness and in particular helping to develop CHP's interest in new migrants and homelessness.

New projects:

An Evaluation of the Sanction of Housing Benefit: funder: Department for Work and Pensions
Led by Sheffield Hallam University, this research will monitor and explore the housing benefit sanction schemes in the 8 pilot areas, including assessing how the schemes are established and managed, the effectiveness of the schemes and the impact of the schemes on affected households and local communities.

Housing Costs, Employment Incentives and Benefits in London: funder: GLA, London Councils and the London Child Poverty Commission
An analysis of the impact of the higher housing costs in London on work incentives. Literature reviews, qualitative interviews, and formal analysis of the inter-relationships between rent levels and tax and benefit structures (and take up rates and delivery) will lead to reform proposals for improving work incentives in London.

Homelessness and Substance Misuse: evidence-based approaches to the provision of effective services: funder Scottish ExecutiveCHP will lead this project, supported by colleagues from York and Oxford Brookes. Its aim is to produce evidence to facilitate the development of outcome measures that can accurately assess service efficiency and effectiveness in the field of homelessness and substance misuse.

The Difference that Faith Makes: Faith-based organisations and the provision of services for homeless people: funder AHRC/ESRCThis project will examine the responses made to homelessness by Faith Based Organisations (particularly those with a non-Christian religious affiliation) and the ‘difference that faith makes’ to the nature and outcomes of welfare interventions for vulnerable people.

An Evaluation of the Glasgow Homeless Hostel Decommissioning Programme; funder Glasgow City CouncilGlasgow Homeless Partnership is funding this long-term (3-year) evaluation of the city's hostel decommissioning programme, which is now entering its final phase.

Newsletter - November 2007

NEWS

New on-line Journal.

A new on-line journal was launched People, Place and Policy Online provides a forum for debate about the situations and experiences of people and places struggling to negotiate a satisfactory accommodation with the various opportunities, constraints and risks within contemporary society. The journal will publish reflections on broad theoretical and methodological debates, as well as findings from empirical studies and policy analysis. In addition, the journal welcomes think pieces and debates between academics, policy-makers and practitioners. Professor David Robinson and Professor Peter Wells are the joint editors. Find out more about PPP Online and access previous and current issues at http://extra.shu.ac.uk/ppp-online/ To receive new issue alerts please e-mail ppp-online@shu.ac.uk.

Stepping up to the Mark: Building Societies responding to the Housing Affordability Crisis

The Building Societies Association has recently published a report based on research into the housing market and housing affordability issues. Key findings from the report include:

• Greater lending input into the development of government schemes to ensure that they reflect the needs of lenders and borrowers as well as government and other public sector organisations
• Reform of the section 106 planning system to ensure that such agreements don’t conflict with lender’s requirements
• Government needs to help identify ways in which first time buyers can be helped to save for a deposit

There are fundamental issues that need to be addressed by government around housing supply (not enough being built) and the cost of home purchase (taxation and fees) to resolve affordability issues.

Copies of the report can be obtained by contacting lynne.bartlett@bsa.org.uk

Forthcoming Events

The Housing Studies Association Annual Conference

Housing and Cohesion

University of York, 2nd, 3rd and 4th April 2008

Public policy has become increasingly convinced that differences within society are promoting division and undermining cohesion. A particular concern is the perceived segregation of certain groups into particular neighbourhoods, which is believed to be allowing the emergence of communal values at odds with the dominant moral order. Be the consequence persistently high levels of worklessness, anti-social behaviour and crime, social disorder or community conflict, housing policy and provision is repeatedly identified as both a cause and a solution. Meanwhile, the sense that towns and cities increasingly consist of socially cohesive but divided neighbourhoods is promoted by the residential choices of better-off households, as the wealthy retreat into gated communities and the information savvy turn to web-based neighbourhood information systems to seek out zones of sameness.

Plenary Speakers: Confirmed speakers include Professor Ted Cantle (IDeA), Dilwar Hussain (The Islamic Foundation), Dr Deborah Phillips (University of Leeds), Professor David Robinson (Sheffield Hallam University), Dr Peter Shirlow (University of Ulster) and Professor Ronald Van Kempen (Utrecht University, the Netherlands).

Early Career Housing Scholars Stream sponsored by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation: The Housing Studies Association is committed to supporting the development of academics and practitioners working in the field of housing studies. We very much welcome the attendance of PhD students and researchers in the early stages of their careers at our conferences and we are keen to learn more about their work.

At the 2008 Housing Studies Association Conference, we intend to organise workshops dedicated to the research of early career housing scholars, working in any area of housing studies. If you are a PhD student or an early career researcher who would welcome the opportunity to present your work to a supportive audience and to learn of the work of other scholars at a similar stage of their career, we would like to invite you to present a paper at our conference. Thanks to the very generous support of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation early career scholars giving papers will be offered a discounted conference rate.

If you wish to submit an abstract or to learn more about this conference stream, please e-mail John Flint at j.f.flint@shu.ac.uk

You can find more about the Housing Studies Association and the 2008 Conference by visiting the website at: http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/chp/hsa/

Key themes for the conference, which is being organised by John Flint, Paul Hickman and David Robinson at CRESR, Sheffield Hallam University, are:

• policy perspectives and agendas on cohesion and neighbourhoods - including the disputed and problematised nature of neighbourhoods and their populations and debates about the impact of housing processes on neighbourhood diversity and cohesion
• the key dynamics of neighbourhood diversity and cohesion - including the intersection of difference, housing processes and connections or disconnections within and between neighbourhoods
• emerging and neglected dimensions of disconnection - including new immigration, territoriality within neighbourhoods, the role of new technologies in constructing neighbourhood differences and the growth of gated communities

OFFERS OF PAPERS: Offers (title plus an abstract of 200 words) should be e-mailed to j.f.flint@shu.ac.uk and please note that we welcome papers that fall outside the conference themes. Offers should be submitted by 20 January 2008.

FURTHER INFORMATION: Further information about the conference, including more information about the Early Career Housing Scholars Stream and how to book a place, can be found at the HSA website: york.ac.uk/inst/chp/hsa/conf2008.htm

Sustainability, Space and Social Justice: The UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference

Queen's University, Belfast, 18-20th March 2008

Call For Papers

Papers are invited for the UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference, providing an opportunity for leading national and international planning scholars to present and debate current issues in planning research in a multidisciplinary and supportive environment.

Although the conference includes tracks papers on all aspects of planning research, the event will has a special theme of Sustainability, Space and Social Justice. Each of these concepts presents a separate challenge for the field of planning, yet the ability to address them in an integrated and coherent way is central to the very concept of planning and is a challenge that runs deep in the history and ideology of the discipline. These important issues will provide a framework for the more general discussions on the future of planning practice and research at the conference and will particularly be addressed by the high profile speakers that will address the plenary sessions of the conference. Confirmed key note speakers include Dr. Julian Agyeman (Tufts University), Prof. Susan Owens (Cambridge University) and Frank McDonald (The Irish Times).

The Call for Papers is open until 15th December 2007 and contributions are invited under the following tracks:

1. Inclusion, diversity and social justice
2. Urban and rural regeneration
3. Governance, policy and spatial planning
4. Sustainable cities and the challenge of climate change
5. Planning, accessibility and transportation
6. Planning education and skills
7. Rural planning, the countryside and wildlife
8. Urban and rural design and the built heritage

Submitted papers will be peer reviewed by a panel of leading researchers in each of these fields.
The organisers are also keen to encourage proposals for themed sessions and these should be submitted no later than 30th November.

For further details, see http://www.qub.ac.uk/prc2008belfast/ or contact the organisers at prc2008@qub.ac.uk

The Human City Institute

The Human City Institute (HCi) is a Birmingham-based, independent and charitable research initiative founded in 1997 but now active again after a period of ‘hibernation’. After previous concentration on citizens’ ‘hearings’ and community development action research projects, HCI has gone back to its roots as a community-centred research agency exploring the dynamics of ‘human cities’ and promoting solutions to urban problems. HCi has developed a thematic research programme covering:

• Creating the Human City ~ encompassing the policy areas of housing, planning, urban regeneration, health and social care.
• Faith, Ethnicity and Social Exclusion ~ exploring the interrelationships between faith, ethnicity and social exclusion, cohesion, integration, and social capital.
• Social Investment, Enterprise and Innovation ~ quantifying how innovative social investment and enterprises impact on disadvantaged communities.
• Chronicling Human Neighbourhoods ~ recording and promoting innovative examples of human neighbourhood development and projects.
• Human City Index ~ capturing key data to compare the extent and nature of ‘human cities’ in England.

Two recent reports are:

‘Hills Cave and After: Renewing Social Housing’ by Alan Murie, Robert Pocock and Kevin Gulliver pp 81 (free download) ISBN 978-1-906149-04-8

This report discusses the future of social housing in England. It is a contribution to the debate begun by the Government-commissioned Hills and Cave Reviews in 2007. The report argues that the concerns behind the creation of a social housing sector historically have not gone away, while the private sector has not filled the gap left by reductions in social house building in recent decades. Within this context the report rails against arguments that we no longer need social housing or that social exclusion and concentrations of poverty can be tackled by reducing the security and rights of tenants. There is a positive future role for social housing built upon coalescing Government themes of recent times: quality, choice, regeneration and local democracy. Social housing’s future is inextricably bound up with that of neighbourhoods, the need to enhance the tenure’s appeal, and to take actions that enhance the real-life experience of tenants and their communities. The report puts forward a range of proposals that will enable social housing to play a continuing and important role in supporting ‘human’ cities.

‘The Unexpected Community: The Needs and Aspirations of Birmingham’s Somali Community’ by Adrian Jones pp 56 (free download) ISBN 978-1-906149-06-2

Somalis in Birmingham constitute a newly emergent community which has grown dramatically in size since 2000. Yet there is very little accurate information about this growing section of Birmingham’s citizenry, although some estimates put the size of the population as high as 40,000. This research report seeks to provide a more extensive evidence base about Birmingham’s Somali community, its housing, health and economic needs, and what sort of future the community aspires to. The report is built upon a review of existing literature about the Somali communities in the UK, information supplied by Birmingham City Council, interviews and focus groups with representatives of the Somali community in Birmingham, and interviews with service providers. The report shows that many Birmingham Somali households are living in overcrowded and poor housing conditions, often in the private rented sector, and suffer disproportionately from homelessness. The community is one of the most deprived of ‘recent arrivals’ and are concentrated in the poorest Birmingham neighbourhoods, and face exclusion from work, education and training opportunities, as well as some of the worst housing conditions.

Ongoing Projects

Current projects include:

• the future role of housing co-operatives with Centre for Urban & Regional Studies (University of Birmingham), Matrix, Hanover and the Smith Institute;
• creating greater asset equality between home ownership and social renting;
• the needs of the Vietnamese community with Trident Housing Association;
• the accommodation needs of people with mental health problems in Walsall;
• and two major faith and social exclusion mapping studies.

Contact Details:

The Human City Institute
239 Holliday Street Birmingham B1 1SJ
Tel: 01384 230849
Fax: 01384 252297
Email: hcinst@tiscali.co.uk
http://www.humancity.org.uk/

News from Research Centres

CRESR, Sheffield Hallam University

CRESR has recently been contracted by Leeds City Council and Wakefield District Council to carry out evaluations of the Leeds 'Signpost' FIP and Wakefield's Families First FIP respectively. The Government’s strategy to develop sustainable solutions to anti-social behaviour (ASB) is based on a ‘twin track’ approach involving legal sanctions to protect communities together with measures to address the underlying causes of offending behaviour. Family Intervention Projects (FIPs) provide intensive support to those families deemed to be the most 'challenging' and are at the cutting edge of the latter agenda. FIPs seek to provide families with specialist, intensive and long-term support tailored to their particular needs. Project workers engage in direct work with individual children, adults and the family group on specific issues with the aim of effecting positive change. As well as dealing with ASB, it is hoped that FIPs can contribute towards improving the life chances of those most in need and tackle the cycle of inter-generational disadvantage. The Signpost evaluation is due to completed by end of November 2007, while the Families First evaluation will be completed in March 2008. For further details please contact Sadie Parr, S.Parr@shu.ac.uk.

CRESR has recently been commissioned by four local authorities (Chesterfield, Bolsover, Bassetlaw, and North East Derbyshire) in the Northern Housing Market Area to conduct a study of the housing needs of young people. Using qualitative and quantitative methodologies, the study aims to identify some of the housing needs and aspirations of young people between the ages of 18 and 30 across the four areas. The study shall discuss the range of issues facing young people at the initial stages of their housing careers and investigate what influence being young has on this cross-section's perceptions of and experiences in the housing market. A summary of the findings and some policy recommendations will be outlined in a final report in March 2008. For further information please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Stephen Green, head of the project team, by e-mail at stephen.green@shu.ac.uk or by phone at 0114 225 2831.

Publications

Robinson, D., Reeve, K., Casey, R. and Goudie, R. (2007) Promoting Equality and Sustainability Through Housing Market Renewal: A Strategy for Bridging NewcastleGateshead Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder. Newcastle: BNG. (available at http://www.bridgingng.org.uk/research.htm)

This document sets out a focused, innovative and evidence-based strategy for meeting housing need and promoting cohesion through housing market renewal. The strategy focuses on the case study of NewcastleGateshead. Attention focuses on ensuring that housing market renewal involves a positive process of change for all residents. This involves maximising the potential of renewal activities to be a force for good, as well as recognising the need to effectively manage potential difficulties associated with the ongoing process of transformation brought about by housing market renewal.

Robinson, D., Reeve, K., Casey, R. and Goudie, R. (2007) Minority Ethnic Residential Experiences and Requirements in the Bridging NewcastleGateshead Area. Newcastle: BNG. (available at http://www.bridgingng.org.uk/research.htm)

The report presents the findings of a major research project delivered by a team from the CRESR, which was commissioned by Bridging NewcastleGateshead Housing, one of nine Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders in England, in a bid to help sensitise the Pathfinder’s activities to the needs of all groups resident within and likely to move into the BNG area. The report details the findings to emerge from a review of existing evidence and data, which was supplemented by a survey of the views and opinions of more than 100 minority ethnic people living within the BNG area.

Reeve, K., Casey, R. and Goudie, R. (2007) Homeless Women: homelessness careers, homelessness landscapes. London: Crisis.

This is the second of two reports from research conducted exploring the expeirences of homeless women in England. The first report - 'Homeless Women: still being failed yet striving to survive' was launched in Westminster in November 2006. This new report focuses on women's trajectories into, out of and through homelessness. It explores the ways in which their trajectories are influenced by a range of processes, actions and interactions. By charting this 'landscape of homelessness' the very complex and multi-faceted nature of women's homelessness is illuminated.

Reeve, K. and Robinson, D. (2007) 'Beyond the multi-ethnic metropolis: minority ethnic housing experience in small town England', Housing Studies, 22, 4, 547-571.

Cole, I. (2007) What future for social housing? People, Place & Policy Online, 1/1, pp. 3-13

Staffing News

Congratulations to John Flint on securing his Chair, John is now Professor of Housing and Urban Governance at CRESR.

CRESR is also pleased to announce the appointment of a new Research Associate. Deidre Duffy joins the CRESR housing team having completed her Masters degree in Terrorism and International Relations at the University of Wales Aberyswyth. Her research interests include: community cohesion and local involvement; radicalisation and alienation; and cohesion and dissent within the EU.

Centre for Comparative Housing Research (CCHR)

De Montfort University, Leicester

Gypsy/Traveller Research

Dr Jo Richardson’s report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Providing Gypsy/Traveller sites: contentious spaces, was published by CIH at the end of October 2007 and a launch event was held at Portcullis House on 30 October 2007, chaired by Lord Avebury. Findings can be seen on http://www.jrf.org.uk/.

Jo led a team which undertook a Gypsy Traveller Accommodation Needs Assessment (GTAA) in East Kent; the final report was presented to stakeholders in September 2007.
Over the summer 2007 Jo provided advice to the East Midlands Regional Assembly on the GTAAs as part of the Examination in Public of the draft Regional Spatial Strategy.

In addition to the JRF report, another recent publication is: Richardson, J. (2007) ‘Policing Gypsies and Travellers’ in (eds) Hayes, M. and Acton, T. (Eds) Travellers, Gypsies, Roma: The Demonisation of Difference: Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars Press.

Forthcoming publications include a chapter with Andrew Ryder entitled ‘New Labour’s policies and their effectiveness for the provision of sites for Gypsies and Travellers in England’ in Trehan and Sigona (eds) Contemporary Romani politics: recognition, mobilisation and participation, published by Palgrave Macmillan. Also Jo is contributing a chapter for an Italian book on Roma People in Europe edited by Tomasso Vitale and published by Nicola Teti press.

Rural Housing

Dr Tim Brown is working with the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) and Housing Quality Network on a project on rural excellence for strategic housing services – see http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=689771. The current phase of the project involves running action learning sets in Bristol, Leeds and London (see http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=6441363). These have a focus on economic regeneration and rural housing, developing and implementing a strategy, resources and community involvement.

Unitary Authority for Shropshire

Dr Tim Brown is acting as advisor to the proposed new unitary authority in Shropshire on the steps necessary to ensure excellent housing and planning services from May 2009.
Housing Research in the East Midlands

Centre staff are working with other consultants on two major projects in the East Midlands:

• Affordable Housing and the Use of Section 106 Agreements: This project is led by the Centre for the East Midlands Regional Assembly. It focuses on reviewing existing policies and identifying best practice. A report is scheduled to be published in spring 2008.
• Low Cost Home Ownership: This project is led by Dr Richard Turkington (Housing Vision) and has been commissioned by the Housing Corporation.

The results of both studies will feed into the current review of the Regional Housing Strategy (see http://www.emra.gov.uk/meetings/regional-housing-planning-transport-joint-board/regional-housing-group).

Newsletter - September 2007

NEWS

THE HSA AND CIH JOINT BOOKS SERIES

Several recent and forthcoming publications in the joint series will be of interest to HSA members – especially those teaching housing and related subject areas. Prices given here are for HSA or CIH members only and include a 20% discount on the cover price.

And of course new proposals for books are welcomed by the editorial panel.

Most recent titles

Supporting Safer Communities – Housing, Crime and Neighbourhoods
Alan Dearling, Tim Newburn and Peter Somerville

This book is about the key issues which practitioners now face in trying to meet the challenge of creating safer communities. It argues for a balanced and proportionate response to anti-social behaviour and crime - one that offers strategies for prevention, intervention, support and enforcement. Fifteen thought-provoking chapters address themes of ‘disorder and regeneration’, the ‘policing of crime and disorder’, ‘service provider approaches to safe communities’ and ‘social inclusion and community safety.’ The authors explore the importance of working with residents in community safety responses and examine how staff in housing, social work, police and education can overcome barriers by working in partnership.

Order no: 125 ISBN: 978-1-905018-30-7 Price: £20 plus postage.
Available (as are the books below) from CIH publications (www.cih.org/publications or pubs@cih.org or phone 02476 851 700)

Housing, ‘Race’ and Community Cohesion
Malcolm Harrison, Deborah Phillips, Kusminder Chahal, Lisa Hunt and John Perry

This book looks critically at government policies on ‘race’, ‘equality’ and community cohesion, from the perspective of both housing providers and of the ‘housed’. It argues that there is a gap between what government says should be done, and the realities and practicalities that apply at community level. The authors argue that practical initiatives are needed to support deprived communities and promote contact and understanding (often in modest ways). And indeed in many places they are already happening. Government often fails to recognise this or – worse – makes policies that run counter to it.

Issues covered include: the housing market and how it works for ethnic minorities; developing law and practice; the government’s community cohesion agenda; policy and attitudes towards asylum seekers and refugees;
changing housing needs, and racist harassment and how it is being tackled.

Order no: 114 ISBN: 1-903208-21-X Price: £20 plus postage.

Housing Finance
David Garnett and John Perry

The revised edition of this standard text has just been reprinted to meet expected demand in the new academic year.

Order no: 121 ISBN: 978-1-903208-53-3 Price: £21.60 plus postage.


Also still available

Introducing Social Housing by Stephen Harriot

Matthews and Private Renting in Transition by Peter Kemp.


Forthcoming titles

New titles planned or possible in 2008 include:

Rebuilding Housing Markets by Ed Ferrari and Peter Lee

Looking into Housing by Douglas Robertson

Housing and the Environment – an edited book covering the climate change issue, taking forward ideas from the last HSA conference.

Homelessness - a new book by Suzanne Fitzpatrick and colleagues at York.

Housing and Social Justice – by Isobel Anderson and Duncan Sim.


Ideas for titles should be sent to Peter Williams (consultpwilliams@btinternet.com) or to any of the other members of the editorial panel - Peter Malpass (representing HSA), John Perry (CIH) or Alan Dearling.


NEWS FROM RESEARCH CENTRES

Centre for Comparative Housing Research (CCHR), De Montfort University, Leicester

New Research

Rapid Evidence Assessment of the research literature on the purchase and use of second homes

The Centre for Comparative Housing Research (CCHR) at De Montfort University has been awarded a contract by The National Housing and Planning Advice Unit (NHPAU). This is a new independent body that has been set up to advise national and local government and other bodies on the affordability of market housing in England. Its creation follows Kate Barker’s Review of Housing Supply in 2004 and her recommendation for the creation of a body to provide expert advice on housing matters, particularly affordability.

NHPAU have commissioned CCHR to take an independent view of the existing evidence base on the impact of second homes on house prices and the affordability of housing by first time buyers. The research will also consider:

- What specific factors attract people to buy second homes and what types of property do they buy, and where?
- What is the geographical distribution of second homes across England, and what are the characteristics of places with a high concentration of second homes?
- What are the social and demographic characteristics of those buying second homes?
- Do households own more than one second home, and what is the distribution?
- Has there been any improvement in the supply and quality of the housing stock as a result of second home purchases?
- What are the social and economic impacts of households owning second homes?

The research project is led by Professor Michael Oxley (moxley@dmu.ac.uk). The research team includes Dr Tim Brown, Director of CCHR, Ros Lishman, Lecturer at CCHR and Dr Richard Turkington, Honorary Research Associate at CCHR and Director of Housing Vision.

The research is being carried out from August to October 2007.

Housing & Community Cohesion

The Centre is involved in a number of projects linked to this important and topical theme. The Commission on Integration and Cohesion published its final report, ‘Our Shared Future’, in June 2007 and highlighted a number of significant issues for the housing sector including:

- Affordable housing providers and funders should include an assessment of how schemes promote integration and cohesion;
- Development of community lettings plans; and
- Effective action to tackle unscrupulous landlords in the private rented sector.

CCHR’s work centres on:

- ‘Mixed Communities’: This is a joint study with the University of Warwick funded through the Institute of Community Cohesion. The first stage has involved a review of the policy and research on this topic.

- Housing and Community Cohesion in Rural Areas: CCHR ran a seminar on this issue in July 2007 with a wide range of policy makers and practitioners to identify and debate key issues. These included the ability of councils and local communities to respond positively to the sudden and rapid changes brought about by A8 / A2 migration and the need to take action to address problems in the private rented sector.

- Developing a potential research project with OTB at Delft Technical University, in The Netherlands, on housing allocations and social segregation/community cohesion.

Choice Based Lettings

Dr Tim Brown and Nicola Yates have produced a briefing paper for the Housing Quality Network on the future of choice-based lettings (CBL), ‘Whither Choice’ (available online at http://www.strategynetwork.org.uk/briefings.php#Access_and_Choice). It argues that the debate needs to move onto the bigger picture rather than concentrating on detailed procedures and processes. There are opportunities to align CBL with sub-regional housing market studies, the Department of Health initiatives on personalised budgets and self-directed support, and the Government’s ‘better public services’ agenda.

Tim Brown is also advising Ashford Borough Council and Salford Borough Council on CBL.

Community Asset Trusts

Dr Tim Brown is advising North Shropshire District Council on the policy framework for establishing a district-wide community asset trust to help to maximise the provision of affordable housing following the successful completion of a large scale voluntary stock transfer.


For more information about the work of the Centre contact Ros Lishman, phone 0116 257 7434 or email rlishman@dmu.ac.uk, or visit http://www.cchr.net/ and http://www.dmu.ac.uk/.


Centre for Housing Policy, University of York

Appointments

Peter Williams joined CHP as an Honorary Professor in February 2007. Peter was Deputy Director General of Council of Mortgage Lenders for a period of 12 years to late 2006. He is now an independent consultant working in the areas of housing and mortgage markets, financial services and government relations. He holds a number of executive and non-executive positions. He will contribute to both research collaboration and strategic development within the Centre.

Suzanne Fitzpatrick, Director of CHP, has joined the European Observatory on Homelessness as one of ten European members. The Observatory was set up ten years ago, funded by FEANTSA (European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless).

Mark Stephens, CHP’s Assistant Director, has been appointed Lead Member of the Housing and Communities Analysis Panel, one of three expert panels newly convened by CLG.

New Projects

Developing the Sustainable Home Ownership Partnership (funder: Joseph Rowntree Foundation)

A CHP team is developing the proposal for a Sustainable Home Ownership Partnership (SHOP) between mortgage lenders, home-owners and the government. SHOP is intended to provide a better safety net for home-owners than the current mix of ISMI and private insurance.

Evaluation of the Shelter London Prisons Project (Shelter)

CHP are conducting a three year evaluation of the Shelter London Prisons Project, a pilot initiative providing housing support to resettle women on release from HMP Holloway. The research involves a detailed monitoring exercise including tracking of former users, as well as focus groups with service users and staff and prison representatives.

The Influence of Neighbourhood on Health (Glasgow Centre for Population Health)

This literature review, adopts some of the methods of systematic reviewing, and considers how the evidence regarding the impact of the built environment at neighbourhood level of levels of health and well-being, physical activity and obesity.

Links between green spaces and health: a literature review (Greenspace Scotland)

This literature review will consider the impact of different aspects of urban greenspaces on health and well-being, including physical, mental, and social health.

Youth Homelessness in the UK (Joseph Rowntree Foundation/Centrepoint)

CHP, in collaboration with Centrepoint, is undertaking a review of youth homelessness across the UK. The research aims to assess the progress being made with alleviating homelessness in the four nations. It involves a desk-based review of statistical and other evidence on the scale, nature and trends in youth homelessness as well as six detailed local authority case studies and a consultation exercise with young people and key experts.

Private Rented Sector: solving or causing homelessness (Shelter)

On average, around 14 per cent of homeless households present as such with the PRS as their immediate past tenure. Research has been underway in collaboration with Shelter to review ‘crisis’ terminations of tenancies in the PRS and consider appropriate preventive measures.

Achieving mobility in the intermediate housing market (Joseph Rowntree Foundation)

The expansion of low cost homeownership (LCHO) is a key policy ambition and this research, will examine what facilitates or constrains the ability of people to move on from their initial subsidised purchases once their aspirations or circumstances change. The project will use survey, interview and focus group methods in six case study housing market areas across the UK.

Choice and constraint in non-permanent housing: attitudes towards mobile homes and residential boats (ESRC)

This research will explore the role that mobile homes and residential boats can play in terms of widening diversity and choice within housing markets. The project will last for 15 months and will examine residents' views and experiences, as well as the attitudes of public and private sector agencies towards these forms of accommodation.

Telling the story: a new retirement village (Joseph Rowntree Foundation)

This longitudinal project will “tell the story” of the early development of a new retirement village operated by the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust and Hartlepool Borough Council. It will examine the initial thinking and expectations around the development of the scheme from the perspective of key stakeholders and prospective residents, and consider how these expectations are met over time.

The impact of demographic change on housing (CLG)

This project will consider how the coming demographic changes will impact on housing. The outcomes of the project inform the forthcoming Housing Strategy for an Ageing Society currently being developed by CLG.

UK Housing Review

The UK Housing Review 2006/7 was published in December. As in previous years, a proportion of the contents is available online at http://www.ukhousingreview.org.uk/
Members are reminded that they are eligible for a 25% discount on this publication, if purchased via the HSA secretariat at CHP.

More information is available on the CHP website.


NEW PUBLICATIONS

Fitzpatrick, S. and Pawson, H. (2007) 'Welfare Safety Net or Tenure of Choice? The Dilemma Facing Social Housing Policy in England', Housing Studies, vol. 22, issue 2, pp163-182.

Holmans, A., Stephens, M. and Fitzpatrick, S. (2007) 'Housing Policy in England since 1975: An Introduction to the Special Issue ', Housing Studies, vol. 22, issue 2, pp147-162.

Jones, A., Elsinga, M., Quilgars, D. and Toussaint, J. (2007) 'Home owners' perceptions of and responses to risk', European Journal of Housing Policy, vol. 7, issue 2, pp129-150.

Quilgars, D. and Jones, A. (2007) 'Safe as houses? Perceptions of home ownership in the UK', in M. Elsinga, N. Teller, and J. Toussaint (eds) OSIS Qualitative Book (Descriptive Title Only), Delft: Delft University Press.

Stephens, M. (2007) 'Mortgage Market Deregulation and its Consequences', Housing Studies, vol. 22, issue 2, pp201-220.

Wilcox, S. (2007) Housing Market Affordability in Northern Ireland, Belfast: Northern Ireland Housing Executive.

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