This article centres on the reactions of residents to a New Zealand public housing city. It found, in contrast with both popular opinion and the findings of much overseas (notably American) research, that residents responded to their dwelling and residential environment in a largely positive way—a reaction determined by the provision of mainly single-family housing, contact with neighbours and the localization of friends and kin. Dissatisfaction was greatest among residents of dwellings with densities greater than single-family housing and among "pool" housing residents: government employees living in dwellings specially set aside for them.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BELL, W. (1968) "The city, the suburb, and a theory of social choice," pp. 132-168 in Scott Greeret al. (eds.) The New Urbanization. New York: St. Martin's Press.
2.
BELLUSH, J. and M. HAUSKNECHT (1967) "Public housing: the contexts of failure," in Jewel Bellush and Murray Hausknecht (eds.) Urban Renewal: People, Politics and Planning. New York: Doubleday.
3.
BERGER, B. M. (1961) "The myth of suburbia."J. of Social Issues19: 38-49.
4.
BERGER, B. M. (1960) Working Class Suburb: A Study of Auto Workers in Suburbia. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
5.
BRYSON, L. and F. THOMPSON (1972) An Australian Newtown: Life and Leader-ship in a New Housing Suburb. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
6.
COOKE, R. B. , et al. (1971) Report of the Commission of Enquiry into Housing in New Zealand. Wellington: Government Printer.
7.
FIRTH, C. (1949) Public Housing in New Zealand. Wellington: Ministry of Works.
8.
FRIED, M. and P. GLEICHER (1961) "Some sources of residential satisfaction in an urban slum."J. of Amer. Institute of Planners27 (November): 305-315.
9.
GANS, H. J. (1968) People and Plans: Essays on Urban Problems and Solutions. New York: Basic Books.
10.
GANS, H. J. (1967) The Levittowners: Ways of Life and Politics in a New Suburban Community. New York: Pantheon Books.
11.
GANS, H. J. (1963) "Effects of the move from cityto suburb," pp. 184-198 in Leonard J. Duhl (ed.) The Urban Condition: People and Policy in the Metropolis. New York: Basic Books.
12.
GANS, H. J. (1962a) The Urban Villagers: Group and class in the Life of Italian-Americans. New York: Free Press.
13.
GANS, H. J. (1962b) "Urbanism and suburbanism as ways of life: a re-evaluation of definitions," pp. 625-648 in Arnold M. Rose (ed.) Human Behavior and Social Processes. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
14.
HARTMAN, C. (1963) "The limitations of public housing: relocation choices in a working-class community."J. of Amer. Institute of Planners29 (November): 283-296.
15.
JEPHCOTT, P. (1971) "High rise friendships."New Society (September): 602-604.
16.
KELLER, S. (1968) The Urban Neighborhood. New York: Random House.
17.
KREISBERG, L. (1968) "Neighbourhood setting and the isolation of public housing tenants."J. of Amer. Institute of Planners34 (January): 43-49.
18.
KTSANES, T. and L. REISSMAN (1959) "Suburbia: new homes for old values."Social Problems7 (Winter): 187-194.
19.
LANSING, J. B. and R. W. MARANS (1969) "Evaluation of neighbourhood quality."J. of Amer. Institute of Planners35 (May): 195-199.
20.
McGEE, T. G. (1969) "The social ecology of New Zealand cities," pp. 144-180 in John Forster (ed.) Social Process in New Zealand. Auckland: Longman Paul.
21.
MICHELSON, W. (1970) Man and His Urban Environment: A Sociological Approach. Reading: Addison-Wesley.
22.
MICHELSON, W. (1968) "Social insights to guide the design of housing for low income families."Ekistics25 (April): 253-255.
23.
MILLS, C. W. (1943) "The professional ideology of social pathologists."Amer. J. of Sociology49 (September): 165-180.
24.
RAINWATER, L. (1966) "Fear and the house-as-haven in the lower class."J. of Amer. Institute of Planners32 (January): 23-31.
25.
REX, J. (1971) "The concept of housing class and the sociology of race relations."Race12 (January): 293-301.
26.
REX, J. (1968) "The sociology of a zone of transition," pp. 211-231 in R. E. Pahl (ed.) Readings in Urban Sociology. Oxford: Pergamon.
27.
TAUBE, G. and J. LEVIN (1971) "Public housing as neighbourhood: the effect of local and non-local participation."Social Science Q.52 (December): 534-542.
28.
TITTENSOR, J. (1972) "A closing circle of housing hopes."Book review of M. A. Jones, Housing and Poverty in Australia (in The Australian, 7th October, p. 34).
29.
YANCEY, W. L. (1971) "Architecture, interaction, and social control: the case of a large-scale public housing project."Environment and Behavior (March): 3-21.
30.
WESTERN, J. S. , P. MULLINS, and M. GIBBINGS (1972) "The new suburbia-planning for people," pp. 164-170 in Paul R. Wilson (ed.) Australian Social Issues of the 70's. Sydney: Butterworths.
31.
WILLIAMS, J. ALLEN, Jr. (1971) "The multifamily housing solution and housing type preferences."Social Science Q.52 (December): 543-559.
32.
WILLMOTT, P. (1963) The Evolution of a Community. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
33.
Reprinted in Robert Gutman and David Poponoe [eds.] (1970) Neighborhood, City, and Metropolis. New York: Random House.
