This book provides an important new contribution to debates around housing policy, race and community. There has never been a more prescient time to discuss these concepts: the book gives an interpretation of housing, race and community in a highly politicized and fluid policy context. It is designed to initiate discussion and debate but this should not be esoteric and limited to a group of academics. Rather, the aim is to bridge academic and policy audiences in the hope that this fusion provides a basis for a different and emerging perspective.
Race and community have been key features of social housing policy over the last 20 years with many high-profile interventions, from the proactive approach by the Housing Corporation to support black and minority ethnic housing associations, to the influential Macpherson report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the Home Office-led inquiry documenting segregation in towns and cities following the 2001 riots. However, the volume of policy interventions and reports has not been matched by academic outputs that co-ordinate, integrate and critically analyze race, housing and community.
Race, Housing & Community: perspectives on policy & practice is the first systematic overview during this tumultuous period. The material presented is robust and research-based but also directly engages with issues around policy and delivery. The book is designed to reflect the interests both of the academic research community and policy makers on both sides of the Atlantic. It is not rooted to specific policy interventions that could quickly date but instead focuses on developing new ways to analyze difficult issues that will help both students and practitioners, now and in the future.