De-concentration of disadvantage and mixed income housing : a critical discourse approach

Despite differences in the history, form, and tenant populations, housing authorities in the UK, USA and Australia have embarked on similar redevelopment projects designed to address social exclusion by replacing areas of concentrated public housing with ‘‘mixed-income’’ developments. Drawing on examples from Australia, this paper analyses the discourse which supports these redevelopment projects. Elements of the discursive strategy revealed include: the construction of public tenancy as a disadvantage in itself; the creation of particular research categories and objects (such as ‘‘estates’’) based on selective use of statistics and scale; the generation of binary narratives concerning community life; and constrained forms of consultation and participation. The analysis demonstrates that while purporting to be an anti-poverty measure, policy directed at de-concentration of public housing and ‘‘mixed income’’ development forms part of a neo-liberal agenda of housing reform and fails to address the demonstrated connections between housing and social disadvantage.