Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/46509

Title

What foresight! Understanding Australia's housing future

Author(s)

Burke, Terry;  Hulse, Kath

Abstract

Futures analysis has been little used to inform housing policy debate, despite the fact that historical precedent is becoming increasingly limited as a guide for policy direction. This paper examines the potential utility of 'strategic foresight' in considering possible housing futures for Australia. It examines the particular foresight methods employed, and processes used, to develop possible housing futures in the year 2025 and their policy implications. The paper concludes that foresight analysis, although not without its problems, creates the opportunity to move beyond current thinking and 'path dependent' policy parameters, enabling discussion of housing futures in a way that prompts critical discussion of the institutional arrangements and policies that shape housing policy in the present.

Publication type

Journal article

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Life and Social Sciences. Institute for Social Research

Source

Futures, Vol. 41, no. 5 (Jun 2009), pp. 325-333

Publication year

2009

Keyword(s)

Australia;  Futures analysis;  Government policy;  Housing policy;  Strategic foresight

Publisher

Elsevier

ISSN

0016-3287

Publisher URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2008.11.008

Copyright

Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Additional information

This project was funded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Ltd. (AHURI), an independent, non-political, national research institute which receives funding from the Australian, state and territory governments to carry out a program of research into housing and urban development. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors, not those of AHURI or its funders.

Peer reviewed