This is a presentation to the Asia Pacific Network for Housing Research (APNHR) Conference held in Guangzhou, China in December 2016. As a presentation it does not includes references.
In her article on the socio-cultural sustainability of housing, Rebecca Chui (2004) notes the need for “a holistic and comprehensive framework for analysing housing issues”. David Clapham in a review of theoretical perspectives on housing concludes that “the lack of a coherent and comprehensive theoretical framework for the analysis of housing is a substantial weakness, because it becomes impossible to transcend the individual partial analyses”. He goes on to ask, “How do you put together different insights to understand how they relate together? How do you devise a policy when all you have to go on are partial insights?” (2012b p.485).
Housing with its very diverse characteristics, roles and uses varies markedly within and across countries, continents and historical periods. Each characteristic, role and purpose is related to others and unless policy-makers consider housing policies within its broader context they are apt to provide solutions that are limited, indeed may create further problems.
This paper will explore what a holistic theory of housing entails and whether it is possible to develop one. It will propose a particular approach and explore in more detail why a holistic theory is central to housing research, in particular housing policy and comparative housing research.