Institute for Social Science Research

Aboriginal Lifeworlds, Conditionality, and Housing Outcomes

This study addresses the issues of obtaining an optimum balance between conditionality (especially tenancy rules and duties) and preserving Indigenous social capital, so as to enable an effective ‘recognition space’ between tenants’ life values and housing managers’ rule structures, to achieve positive housing outcomes within current Australian policy constraints.

Aims

This project aims to explore:

  • The intersection between the conditionalities imposed by housing management and policy
  • The positive social capitals within Indigenous lifeworlds
  • The extent of mutual (agency-tenant) recognition of different housing values and significant housing outcomes (four broad variables)

It is premised on the hypothesis that for positive outcomes, an intercultural recognition space is required involving mutual recognition of moral relationships of duty and care between:

  • Individual householders or tenants
  • Community Leaders and Elders (local governance structures) and
  • Government (including quasi-government and NGO) housing managers and policy administrators

Two premises of this study are that:

  • Conditionality should be understood as the moral relationships of duty and care that occur within and between individuals, communities and the state 
  • in understanding how conditionality impacts on indigenous housing outcomes, processes of inter-cultural recognition and mis-recognition are critical to examine

Project team

Project details

Duration: January 2012–December 2016

Partners: AHURI

Funding: AHURI

Contact: Professor Paul Memmott (p.memmott@uq.edu.au)