An updated exposition on the subject of
housing imagination(s)
Joseph,
K.K. Ho
Dated:
April 10, 2018
Abstract: Since the launching of the subject of Housing Imaginations in 2013, the
writer has accumulated teaching and research knowledge on it and the closely
associated subject of Housing Imagination. This article offers an updated
account of their status together and named this combined form of study as
Housing Imagination(s). This updated account on the teaching and research
experience on Housing Imagination(s) as at 2018 let readers in the housing
studies and contemporary systems thinking fields to comprehend this novel
intellectual venture in these two fields.
Key words: Critical
Systems Thinking, Human Geography, Housing Imagination, Housing Imaginations,
Housing Imagination(s), Housing Studies, Sociological Imagination.
Introduction
The intellectual
theme of housing imaginations was initially conceived in early 2000s, as attested
by the British Housing Studies Association Autumn Conference held at Cardiff University,
UK on September 4-5, 2001 (Ronald, 2002). This conference explicitly endorsed C.
Wright Mills' "aspiration in The Sociological
Imagination (1959)[1]
to develop "intellectual craftsmanship" across the social sciences"
(Ronald, 2002) and encouraged intellectual endeavor by the academic housing community
to redress the concern expressed by some academicians, notably Jim Kemeny, at that
time on "the lack of theoretical progression in housing studies" (Ronald,
2002). The subject of Housing Imaginations itself was first formulated by the
school of Built Environment of Leeds Metropolitan University (now renamed as
Lees Beckett University) in 2013 for the BA(Hons) Housing Studies. According to
its Module Guide 2013/14, the subject's aim is to: "To provide
opportunities for students to understand the many and different ways in which
housing may be perceived by different interests. To develop understandings of
how people and place are connected. To foster an understanding of the multiple
ways in which social space and place may be represented and communicated"
(Leeds Metropolitan University, 2013). In 2014, this writer was the teacher of
this new subject in Hong Kong. Out of the teaching and research interest on
this subject, this writer offered his exposition of the subject via the lens of
critical systems thinking to come up with the subject of Housing Imagination (Ho,
2014a). By now, the teacher has accumulated about four years of teaching and
study of this subject. It is thus useful to provide in this paper an updated
exposition on the subject. As the name of the original subject is called
Housing Imaginations while the version postulated by this writer is named
Housing Imagination, a combined name is coined for them as Housing
Imagination(s).
The basic ideas of Housing Imaginations as
a subject
The
intellectual roots of Housing Imaginations are three: (i) sociological
imagination, (ii) human geography and (iii) housing studies. From these three
intellectual roots, a number of basic conceptual ideas constitute the defining
characteristics of Housing Imaginations:
I. From
sociological imagination (Mills, 1999):
(a) The sociological
imaginative leap to relate personal troubles to public issues/ and
broader social historical conditions. This, in turn, is considered to useful for
enabling us to "make great leaps toward changing the world for the
better" (McDardell, 2012);
(b) Other
sociological
concepts that are often employed, including sociological perspectives, social
class, gender, family, social relations, socialization, social conflict, social
stratification, and social structure.
II. From
human geography
(a) spatial
thinking, comprising the notions of scale, space and connections
between places; other constituent ideas are time-space, place and home.
(b) artifact,
i.e., material aspects of a culture in cultural geography;
III. From
housing studies, covering housing topics such as
homelessness, housing exclusion, home, housing affordability, home ownership,
public housing, gentrification, urbanization and urban renewal.
There are
also hybrid concepts arising from cross-fertilization of ideas among
sociological imagination, human geography and housing studies, notably
geographical imaginations (Gregory, 1994) and housing imaginations (Ho, 2014). It
is also clear that the three intellectual roots are themselves open academic
platforms that are receptive to ideas from other subjects and disciplines based
on diverse research and sociological paradigms. In addition, the subject
endorses imaginative thinking, which
favors "looking at the big picture, taking initiative, challenging assumptions
and coming up with creative solutions to problems" (1dxtra.com, n.d.). All
in all, the subject of Housing Imaginations obtains intellectual inspiration
from several academic sources.
From the
outset, the subject of Housing Imaginations identifies four specific study
objectives (Leeds Metropolitan University, 2013):
Objective
1: "Critically evaluate competing perspectives on social
housing and home";
Objective
2: "Understand and reflect on the sources of conflict arising from the different and often contested ways of
representing housing neighborhoods";
Objective
3: "Interpret different ways in which attachment,
emotion and belonging transform space to place":
Objective
4: "Critically assess how the multiple
character of a place develops".
The
writer has made some words bolded in these four objectives to indicate some
additional study themes in Housing Imaginations. These are: (i) critical
evaluation and reflection, (ii) conflict, (iii) competing perspectives, (iv)
multiple character of a place, (v) attachment, emotion and belonging and (vi)
housing neighborhoods. These study themes reveal the relevance of other topics
in sociology, human geography and housing studies for the subject of Housing
Imaginations. They are: various sociological perspectives, i.e., the functional
perspective, the symbolic interactionist perspective and the conflict
perspective (notably Feminism and Marxism), Humanistic geography and Critical
geography. In particular, in the writer's teaching notes on Housing Imaginations,
the works of David Harvey (Wikipedia - David Harvey) and Doreen Massey (Wikipedia
-Doreen Massey) have often been referred to.
Via the
teaching and research works on the subject from its inception, the writer has
produced and posted study materials on the subject on a Facebook group (namely,
Housing Imaginations) and a Facebook page (namely, Housing Imagination). The
following Housing Imaginations lecture note produced by this writer on the
topic of social exclusion (Exhibits 1 to 3) further illustrate how the basic
Housing Imaginations ideas and study topics have been employed to examine the
notion of social exclusion (and also housing exclusion).
[1]
The edition of The Sociological Imaginations by C.W. Mills
shown in the reference of this paper was published in 1999.
Exhibit 1: a mind map on social exclusion
Exhibit 2: using the notion of
sociological imaginative leap and sociological perspectives to examine the
topic of social exclusion (and housing exclusion)
Exhibit 3: Making use of multiple
perspectives to critically evaluate social and housing exclusion
Referring
to Exhibits 1 to 3, the lecture note on Housing Imaginations utilized the
writer's other skills from his study on mind mapping and the Multi-perspective,
Systems-based (MPSB) Research (re: The
MPSB Research Facebook page). The next section moves on to the related
subject of Housing Imagination.
Research status on Housing Imagination
The
writer work on Housing Imagination (Ho, 2014a) did not just present an overall
intellectual picture on Housing Imaginations as documented in Leeds
Metropolitan University (2013), i.e., the Housing Imaginations module guide. It
also postulated a version of Housing Imaginations that is theoretically
grounded on critical systems thinking, called Housing Imagination. Since then,
a number of intellectual endeavors have been made to conceptually and
methodologically enrich the subject of Housing Imagination, as evidenced by the
following published articles:
1.
Ho, J.K.K.
2014b. “A Research Note on Home Study in Housing Imagination using Soft Systems
Methodology” European Academic Research 2(3) June: 3659-3675.
2.
Ho J.K.K.
2014. “An examination of the place notion for Housing Imagination study based
on Systems Thinking” European Academic Research 2(6) September:
7537-7552.
3.
Ho, J.K.K.
2014c. “An Elaboration of a Systems-based Housing Imagination Evaluation
Framework for Research and Pedagogical Practices” European Academic Research
2(4) July: 5099-5121.
4.
Ho, J.K.K.
2015. "A review of the notions of quality of life (QOL) and livability
based on Ackovian Systems Thinking" American
Research Thoughts 1(11) September: 2513-2532.
5.
Ho, J.K.K.
2016a. "An elaboration on the space-place-home (Sph) matrix for exploring
housing-related problem-situations" European
Academic Research 3(12) March: 13166-13185.
6.
Ho, J.K.K.
2016b. "An examination of the space-place-home (sph) matrix as a
conceptual tool for studying housing policy" American Research Thoughts 2(5) March: 3737-3747.
7.
Ho, J.K.K. 2018.
"The housing imaginations (hi's) statement analysis worksheet (HISAW): a research
note" Joseph KK Ho e-resources blog
April 17 (url address: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2018/04/the-housing-imaginations-his-statement_17.html).
These
critical systems thinking based articles on Housing Imagination all endorse the
aspiration of Housing Imaginations to be multi-perspectives. On top of that,
these Housing Imagination articles explicitly employ contemporary systems
thinking, notably critical systems thinking, which has not been considered in
the Housing Imaginations literature. Studying the works of Housing Imagination
and Housing Imaginations together as one whole subject, i.e., Housing
Imagination(s) presents a stimulating and conceptually rich pathway to
investigate housing studies topics. This academic venture constitutes one pathway
to address the expressed concern as raised by Ronald (2002) in early 2000s regarding
the "the lack of theoretical progression in housing studies".
Concluding remarks
The
launching of the subject of Housing Imaginations is a novel intellectual
venture in the housing studies field. In the same vein, the critical systems
thinking-based Housing Imagination is an original academic endeavor in the
fields of housing studies and critical systems thinking. The teaching and
research knowledge accumulated over the last four years by this writer has now
been presented in this article. It should be able to offer a useful and fresh
account of the subject of Housing Imagination(s) to readers and students in the
housing studies and systems thinking fields who are interested in it.
References
1dxtra.com.
n.d. Insight: Imaginative Thinking, 1dxtra.com (url address:
http://www.1dxtra.com/category/imaginative/) [visited at April 10, 2018].
Gregory,
D. 1994. Geographical Imaginations,
Wiley.
Housing Imagination,
Facebook page maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address:
https://www.facebook.com/housing.imagination/).
Housing Imaginations,
Facebook group maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1589262871142096/).
Leeds
Metropolitan University. 2013. Housing
Imaginations - module guide 2013/14: BA (Hons) Housing Studies, School of Built Environment, Leeds
Metropolitan University, U.K.
Ho,
J.K.K. 2014a. "An Endeavor to Establish the Subject of Housing Imagination
based on Critical Systems Thinking" European
Academic Research 2(2) May: 2048-2066.
Ho, J.K.K. 2014b. “A Research Note on Home Study in Housing
Imagination using Soft Systems Methodology” European Academic Research 2(3)
June: 3659-3675.
Ho J.K.K. 2014c. “An examination of the place notion for Housing
Imagination study based on Systems Thinking” European Academic Research 2(6)
September: 7537-7552.
Ho, J.K.K. 2014c. “An Elaboration
of a Systems-based Housing Imagination Evaluation Framework for Research and
Pedagogical Practices” European Academic Research 2(4) July: 5099-5121.
Ho, J.K.K. 2015. "A review
of the notions of quality of life (QOL) and livability based on Ackovian
Systems Thinking" American Research
Thoughts 1(11) September: 2513-2532.
Ho, J.K.K. 2016a. "An
elaboration on the space-place-home (Sph) matrix for exploring housing-related
problem-situations" European
Academic Research 3(12) March: 13166-13185.
Ho, J.K.K. 2016b. "An
examination of the space-place-home (sph) matrix as a conceptual tool for
studying housing policy" American
Research Thoughts 2(5) March: 3737-3747.
Ho, J.K.K. 2018. "The housing
imaginations (hi's) statement analysis worksheet (HISAW): a research note"
Joseph KK Ho e-resources blog April 17
(url address: http://josephho33.blogspot.hk/2018/04/the-housing-imaginations-his-statement_17.html).
McCardell,
C. 2012. "The Sociological Imagination as a Solution" April 29,
Bizgovsociii.wordpress.com (url address:
https://bizgovsociii.wordpress.com/2012/04/29/the-sociological-imagination-as-a-solution/)
[visited at April 10, 2018].
Mills,
C.W. 1999. The Sociological Imagination,
Oxford University Press.
Ronald, R.
2002. British Housing Studies Association Autumn Conference.
Housing Imaginations: New concepts, new theories, new researchers. HSA Autumn Conference.
Cardiff University September 4th and 5th 2001, Housing, Theory and Society 19(2): 112-113, DOI:
10.1080/140360902760385664.
The Multi-perspective, Systems-based
Research, Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/multiperspective.systemsbased.research/).
Wikipedia
(n.d.) "David Harvey" (url address: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Harvey).
Wikipedia
(n.d.) "Doreen Massey (geographer)" (url address: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doreen_Massey_(geographer)).
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