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Housing Australia C. Paris
South Melbourne, MacMillan, 1993, A$36.95 pbk, A$74.95 hbk ISBN 0732906954/0732906946
Although there has been a great deal of housing research in Australia over the past 25 years, there have been few book-length attempts to cover the field. Paris sets out to fill this gap. His basic aim is to provide a coherent framework for understanding housing in Australia.
More specifically, he aims, first, to separate for detailed analysis, the many dimensions of housing in a mature capitalist society, seeking to distinguish longstanding factors from recent or new forces at work. Other aims are to provide a historical perspective on contemporary housing issues and policies in Australia and to relate Australian experience to developments in the wider world.
Again, unlike much Australian housing research, Paris gives prominence to the need for an adequate theoretical account of the subject. He compares three broad approaches-housing market analysis, the 'housing system' approach, and 'structures of housing provision'-opting for a somewhat eclectic combination of these, which, in fact,...