The Question of Community in a Mobile Society

1. The Question of Community in a Mobile Society Dr Gabrielle Gwyther Social Justice and Social Change Research Centre University of Western Sydney The 2nd Australasian Housing Researchers’ Conference: Reshaping Australasian Housing Research Brisbane, 20-22 June 2007

2. Introduction 1. Wellman’s ‘Community Question’ Community Lost- Social capital Community Saved Community Liberated- Social Space - Homophily - New Mobilities 2. Housing Policy: two case studies NSW Dept of Housing:Community Regeneration Landcom:Master Planned Communities

3. Community Lost • Historically the most prominent view of community. • “Densely knit, self-contained solidarities”, are lost through the contractual arrangements of urban life. • Modern society has weakened communal solidarities and authentic community. • The emergence of the social capital discourse in the 1990s parallels the rise of neo-communitarianism as a political movement.

4. By building their social capital (through stronger networks, trust and shared values), communities can offer individuals more opportunities for economic and social participation. (McClure Report 2000) In the neo-liberal era of welfare reform, privatisation of public assets and user-pays, social capital has become a policy metaphor for ‘local community’ and ‘self-help’.

5. Community Saved Empirically based, positive response to the pessimistic picture of anomie, isolation, social disorganisation, and community breakdown suggested by proponents of the Lost perspective.

6. Community Liberated Deriving from network analysis the Community Liberated perspective abandons the local area as the starting point, and inquires directly into the structure and network of primary ties. Tokyo’s subway map

7. Relational aspects of the Liberated Community SOCIAL SPACE: multiple locations which give rise to the production of social relations HOMOPHILY:the tendency for individuals to associate and bond with others who have similar interestsor characteristics. NEW MOBILITIES: communicative and mobility technology has changed the structure and nature of social ties in contemporary society. Source: G Gwyther (2007)

8. The community turn in social policy The second part of this paper examines two instances of government housing policies in NSW which have been heavily influenced by the “politics of community”. (Everingham 2003)

9. ‘Community Regeneration’ and the Moral Underclass Discourse Three Discourses of Social Exclusion: • Redistributive (RED) - reflected concerns for citizen’s rights and inequality. • Social Integrationist (SID) - with an emphasis on labour market participation. • Moral Underclass (MUD) - concerned with the morality and behaviour of individuals. (Ruth Levitas 2004)

10. Community Regeneration in Gordon Estate, Dubbo “You can't describe the pain of knowing that my family is gonna be split up and I don't I just… I can't put it into words. When I think about it, just the pain is just ripping my heart out... But we are only one family they are doing it to. They're doing it to a lot of other families.” (Natalie Eastwood, Gordon Estate Resident of 22 years – SBS TV Living Black17 May 2006) Boys playing outside Gordon Community Centre (SMH 29/1/2003)

11. Community Regeneration:Gordon Estate, Dubbo “My little house is very comfortable. I've got my chip heater and everything in there, where it's warm in the winter time and cool in the summer, you know.. And there's a lot of beautiful homes here. Why do they want to knock them down? It's because of what a few are doing, not everyone, you know.”(Myrtle Knight of Gordon Estate: SBS TV Living Black, 17 May 2006) Demolishing the Gordon Estate, Dubbo. (www.abc.net.au).

12. Community Regeneration in Minto, South-west Sydney “I was moved two years ago into Leumeah private, from Valley Vista. I was one of the first townhouses to be demolished and I feel like I’ve gone back 20 years. I’m a ‘houso’ again. People in private don’t want to know me, they look down on me.” (Former resident of Minto, cited Minto Resident Action Group, 2005: 99) Demolishing Minto www.wsws.org/articles/2005

13. Community Regeneration:Gordon Estate, Dubbo “Indeed, there has been a relative panic in towns surrounding Dubbo, such as Narromine, Parks, Forbes and Peak Hill, and in other parts of the city of Dubbo. People are worried that families with problems are being forcibly moved into their neighbourhood.” (Andrew Stoner MP, Leader of the Nationals cited NSW Legislative Assembly Hansard 2006) Private housing in Dubbo

14. Master Planning Communities: Garden Gates “I knew guys that lived in Mt Annan, but they were actually in housing commission… That’s the older section. But this Garden Gates estate is totally different. It’s just new, fresh… I saw some potential for growth and gain. I’m not class racist… I can get on with the guys down there with the little houses that are falling apart and the paint peeling off the walls and look a little bit grotty from time to time. But that’s the way they live and we live differently.”(Resident of Garden Gates cited Gwyther 2004: 264)

15. Dr Gabrielle Gwyther Post Doctoral Research Fellow Social Justice and Social Research Centre University of Western Sydney Email: g.gwyther@uws.edu.au To be a poor colony of a republic of growing affluence may in its own way be the cruellest fate of all(David Burchell, Griffith Review 2007).