The Big Society, Localism & Housing Policy

自2010年英国联合政府成立以来，“地方主义”和“大社会”已经成为政治和政策议程上的关键流行语。这些概念既模糊又不固定，反映了权力下放给社区的假定好处，以及志愿工作、自助和慈善事业的社会价值。这些理念在英国各地的住房政策和实践中具有很大的影响力。他们的影响力可以从以下方面看出，例如，在负担得起的住房部门中越来越强调社区和相互提供，以及在英国地方主义法案中纳入社区“挑战权”。然而，住房改革也卷入了关于福利在“大社会”中的适当作用的更广泛的辩论。首相卡梅隆唤起了“破碎的英国”的言论（正如最近英国骚乱所反映的那样），以证明对英国福利国家进行根本性重组的合理性。因此，目前的《福利改革法案》就社会住房的未来作用以及如何向低收入家庭提供住房支助提出了重要问题。至关重要的是，这些潜在的后果可能会在英国各地有所不同，这取决于权力下放的政府（以及地方当局）使用其权力和预算的方式，这可能会导致住房政策的差异比我们迄今为止在权力下放下看到的更大。为了进一步了解“大社会”对英国住房政策和实践的影响，本系列研讨会旨在解构和评估这些想法的影响，对英国各地的国家政策差异敏感，同时借鉴国际经验。该系列的形式将导致建立一个新的跨学科，跨部门的网络，批判性知情的研究人员（包括早期职业研究人员）。

Since the formation of the UK coalition government in 2010 'localism' and the 'big society' have become key buzz words featuring high on political and policy agendas. Both fuzzy and fluid terms, they reflect the presumed benefits of devolving power downwards to communities, and the social value of volunteering, self-help and philanthropy. These ideals have been highly influential in housing policy and practice across the UK. Their influence can be seen, for example, in the growing emphasis on community and mutual provision within the affordable housing sector, and the inclusion of a community 'right to challenge' in the English Localism Bill. Yet housing reforms are also entangled in wider debates about the appropriate role of welfare in the 'big society'. Prime Minister Cameron has evoked the rhetoric of 'broken Britain' (as reflected in the recent English riots) to justify a fundamental restructuring of the British Welfare State. The current Welfare Reform Bill therefore poses important questions about the future role of social housing, and how housing support will be provided to low-income households. Crucially, these potential consequences may differ across the UK depending on the way devolved administrations (and also local authorities) use their powers and budgets, perhaps leading to greater divergence in housing policy than we have seen under devolution so far. In order to further our understanding of the effects of the 'big society' on housing policy and practice in the UK, this Seminar Series aims to deconstruct and evaluate the impact of these ideas in a way that is sensitive to national policy differences across the UK, whilst at the same time learning from international experiences. The format of the Series will lead to the establishment of a new inter-disciplinary, cross-sector network of critically informed researchers (including early-career researchers).