Toward a theorised housing studies: A counter‐critique of the provision thesis

Abstract

Abstract Hayward's critique of my Australian work (Housing Studies Vol 1 No 4) was based upon a perspective that takes the provision of housing as its starting point. In this paper I reply to that critique, both in terms of the wider conceptual concerns it is based upon and the substantive critique of my analysis of home ownership in Australia. I argue that the ‘provision thesis’, as I term it, involves a mistaken focus upon what should or should not be the substantive focus of housing research, instead of, as would be more fruitful, developing a theoretically adequate approach to the study of housing as a whole. The critique of my Australian work exemplifies the problems that can arise when provision is taken as the starting point for any analysis of housing to the exclusion of other concerns.