Living Co-operatively: Affordable Housing – Sustainable Communities
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December 18, 2007Suzanne Henderson from CACOM – the Centre for Australian Community Organisations and Management – has advised us of a Living Co-operatively Symposium to be held at Petersham in Sydney, in Feb 2008. The great potential for co-op solutions – not only to the housing crisis, but many other pressing issues for society – will be addressed.
Representatives of local and state governments, housing bodies, political and social advocates and all those interested in the debate around housing and sustainable communities.
Keynote Speaker A Swedish Co-op Leader And International Co-op Housing Expert
Gun-Britt Martensson will visit Australia in 2008, giving her the opportunity to reflect on the Australian situation and us the chance to tap into her wide experience for future ideas.
The ‘Living Co-operatively’ Theme
Focussing on the co-operative organisational model – which in Sweden is an integral part of community life – the idea of communities living in an co-operative, democratic way will be explored over the 2 days of the symposium.
Gun-Britt has lived her entire life in co-operative housing and is an outspoken advocate for the benefits of co-operative living. She is a former mayor and member of the international peak body for co-operatives, The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA).
Looking at different ways for Local Government to provide affordable housing and alternative financing arrangements fro co-operative living should make for some interesting discussions and a possible future direction for us here in Oz.
Confirmed Speakers
- Professor Julian Disney – Director, Social Justice project University of NSW and Chair, National Affordable Housing Summit
- Gary Moore – Director Community Services, Marrickville Council
- Professor Jenny Onyx – Director, Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centre, UTS
- Katherine Shellshear – EO, Association to Resource3 Co-operative Housing
- Dr Jo Barraket – University of Melbourne
- Steve Bevington – Managing Director Community Housing Limited and Chairman Community Housing Federation of Australia
- John Mant – Lawyer and urban planner
- Professor Peter Phibbs and Dr Louise Crabtree – Urban Research Centre, University of Western Sydney
- Professor Peter Weber – Emeritus Professor of Urban and Regional Planning Sydney University.
Other speakers are currently being finalised.
Consortium Members
Key members are University of Technology Sydney, the
Marrickville Council and Parramatta Councils, supported by the Association to resource Co-operative Housing (ARCH), the Co-operative Federation of NSW and The Mercury Centre.
For more info you can visit the conference website at www.mercury.org.au/lc.
3 Comments
More publicity would be good for the Cooperative Housing Movement I have been a member of a Housing Cooperative since 1989. We meet in the local Neighbouhood House, and have our office there, so have a reasonable high profile.We have 11 housed members, but still find other people have ‘never heard of us’!
Hi I have been trying to interest people in Newcastle in living semi-communally for a while. I am interested in selling half my house and turning it into two apartments. We would share the backyard and outbuildings. I am in Tighes Hill 10 mins from CBD and beautiful beaches. Two quiet road frontages. In the bend of the river. Cycleways/ Walkways. Friendly neighbourhood. OR I would could sell the house and join in with other peoples’ ventures. I had happy experiences of shared living in the hippy days. It is important to have private living as well as shared areas. Contact me on mob 0407 612 115. or email me at tomorrowtrading@hotmail.com
I too must being living under a rock Dorothy as I have never heard of the movement in Aust either, & I pride myself with keeping well informed I thought. I am aware of the Swedish model but nothing in Aust. so have some valuable info here on this website.
I have been trying to obtain info about the Nimbin model & Community Titles in SA but can’t seem to be able to get to the right people at the moment, & councils are more than useless in Qld. about the subject.