Enabling and learning from the community-led housing sector
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Liverpool
Department Name: Geography and Planning
Abstract
This fellowship will allow the findings of my PhD research into the factors that support community-led housing growth to be disseminated to a range of audiences in policy, practice and academia. It will also contribute to my development as an academic researcher and lead to further research activity concerning sustainability in the built environment.
Community-led housing offers a radical rethink of how housing development is undertaken. The sector offers new ideas for housing development which could offer solutions to some major contemporary housing challenges including; affordability, social cohesion and environmental sustainability, while facilitating greater community control over planning and development processes. In the context of housing crises affecting communities across the world to which bold solutions are necessary, community-led housing approaches aim to restructure the processes of housing development in order to serve the interests of the local population. My research seeks to understand how community-led housing approaches can be best supported, including through organisations which provide advice and support at the local level, known as enabling hubs.
During this fellowship I will engage with stakeholders both in the UK and internationally through workshops and written outputs which summarise the findings of my existing research. I will also produce two academic journal articles based on my existing research.
Furthermore, I will undertake activity which will act as bridge from this existing research towards further research activity with the community-led housing sector focused on the role of the community-led projects in net-zero, responding to the nature crisis and climate adaptation. This additional research project will support the development of a project proposal for a larger project considering the role of community in adapting the built environment to meet contemporary environmental challenges.
The fellowship will also support my development as an academic engaged in policy relevant housing and planning research. I will utilise the opportunity to develop research networks both within the UK and across Europe through disseminating my research work at conferences and through an Overseas Institutional Visit to the UNESCO Housing Chair at of Rovira i Virgili University (Tarragona, Spain). I will also undertake further training which will enable me to better communicate with policy audiences.
Community-led housing offers a radical rethink of how housing development is undertaken. The sector offers new ideas for housing development which could offer solutions to some major contemporary housing challenges including; affordability, social cohesion and environmental sustainability, while facilitating greater community control over planning and development processes. In the context of housing crises affecting communities across the world to which bold solutions are necessary, community-led housing approaches aim to restructure the processes of housing development in order to serve the interests of the local population. My research seeks to understand how community-led housing approaches can be best supported, including through organisations which provide advice and support at the local level, known as enabling hubs.
During this fellowship I will engage with stakeholders both in the UK and internationally through workshops and written outputs which summarise the findings of my existing research. I will also produce two academic journal articles based on my existing research.
Furthermore, I will undertake activity which will act as bridge from this existing research towards further research activity with the community-led housing sector focused on the role of the community-led projects in net-zero, responding to the nature crisis and climate adaptation. This additional research project will support the development of a project proposal for a larger project considering the role of community in adapting the built environment to meet contemporary environmental challenges.
The fellowship will also support my development as an academic engaged in policy relevant housing and planning research. I will utilise the opportunity to develop research networks both within the UK and across Europe through disseminating my research work at conferences and through an Overseas Institutional Visit to the UNESCO Housing Chair at of Rovira i Virgili University (Tarragona, Spain). I will also undertake further training which will enable me to better communicate with policy audiences.
