Public housing and territorial stigma: towards a symbolic and political economy

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Abstract

This article illustrates how the stigmatization of public housing in Australia has been co-constituted by material and symbolic forces over several decades. Drawing on discourse analysis in conjunction with historical-institutional analysis of housing policy trajectories and the place of housing within political-economic change, it shows how territorial stigmatization can be understood as the product of media, policy and social scientific discourses which problematize public housing as well as histories of policy reform and political-economic restructuring which shape its social, material and institutional conditions. The discursive problematization of public housing estates in particular works to obscure the role of restructuring and reform and thus present demolition and redevelopment as a ‘common sense’ response, even as a form of destigmatization. The understanding of stigmatisation that this article advances—as a recursively symbolic and political-economic process—is therefore conceptually significant and important for critically evaluating government interventions in the context of stigma, including claims of destigmatization.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1199-1218
Number of pages20
JournalHousing Studies
Volume39
Issue number5
Early online date12 Aug 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Publisher 2022. Accepted Author Manuscript Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

  • territorial stigma
  • discourse
  • estate renewal
  • public housing
  • social housing

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