Challenging the stigma of public housing: preliminary findings from a qualitative study in South Australia

Search Swinburne Research Bank

Home

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/25838

Title: Challenging the stigma of public housing: preliminary findings from a qualitative study in South Australia
Author(s): Palmer, Catherine; Ziersch, Anna; Arthurson, Kathy; Baum, Fran
Abstract: Many poor suburbs in Australia with higher than average numbers of public housing tenants do not simply suffer material disadvantage but also suffer from poor reputations that are reinforced though stigmatising assumptions that portray their residents negatively. Preliminary findings from qualitative research undertaken in Adelaide, South Australia paint a somewhat different picture of some residents in public housing which counters such stereotypes and assumptions and suggests that the picture is not as bleak as the stigmatised accounts suggest. This article examines the ways in which residents in stigmatised suburbs and housing actively resist and challenge the negative image ascribed to them and concludes by considering the public policy implications that come from the research.
Publication type: Journal article
Source: Urban Policy and Research, Vol. 22, no. 4 (2004), p. 411-426
Publication year: 2004
Keyword(s): Australia; Housing; Public housing; Public policy; Social conditions; Social housing; Social isolation; Social marginality; Social policy; Social welfare policy; South Australia; Stigma; Suburbs
Publisher: Routledge
ISSN: 0811-1146
Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0811114042000296326
Full text
Peer reviewed