We welcome Dr Alistair Sisson who recently joined Macquarie’s School of Social Sciences as a Research Fellow focusing on housing, gentrification, urban development and planning. His current MQRF project will analyse the ways contemporary housing problems are quantified and the highly uneven availability of quantitative data.
1. What is your background and what brought you to Macquarie?
I joined Macquarie in January this year on a Macquarie University Research Fellowship (MQRF) in the School of Social Sciences. It’s a position that I feel very fortunate to have and owe thanks to Professor Kristian Ruming, in particular, for sponsoring my application and helping me through the process. Over the previous three years I worked as a postdoctoral research fellow/associate at the University of Sydney, University of Wollongong, and UNSW, and before that completed my PhD in geography at the University of Sydney.
2. How did you originally become interested in your area of research, and what keeps you interested in it?
When I started my PhD research I was interested in the concept of stigma and, in particular, how it functioned spatially – what has become known in urban geography and sociology as ‘territorial stigma’. When I moved to Sydney the NSW Government had just announced the redevelopment of the Waterloo public housing estate – a 2000+ home estate in inner-Sydney, near USYD and not far from where I was living at the time. The project would mean the relocation of all residents, demolition of the entire estate, redevelopment at a much higher density and mix of 30% public housing and 70% private housing. When justifying the project, politicians spoke about the supposedly terrible state of the buildings but also various social problems, which they claimed would be fixed through redevelopment.
This became the central case in my PhD research, which was about the causes and consequences of the stigmatisation of public housing estates. I joined a group of local residents who were contesting the project and also observed the various planning and consultation processes that unfolded over the next few years. That project is still ongoing, and I’m still working with Waterloo residents and those of other estates who are trying to defend and extend public housing, through a group called Action for Public Housing. These relationships are a big motivation for my research.
This PhD topic meant that I was drawn into wider housing research, starting with a few casual research contracts and then at UNSW City Futures. I’ve become interested in housing, urban planning and urban development more broadly, particularly as housing inequality has become increasingly stark and increasingly politicised over the past few years.
3. Tell us a bit about your current research and what makes it so important?
My MQRF project is about (and is titled) the politics of housing data. I’m trying to understand how different actors or organisations construct the ‘housing crisis’ and propose or advocate for solutions to it through quantitative data and statistics. In particular, I’m interested in issues of housing supply, homelessness and evictions, as they demonstrate the highly uneven availability of quantitative data. There’s a huge volume of data on housing supply, a growing interest from a range of organisations in counting homelessness, and almost no data on evictions. I think it’s important because quantification is a powerful mode of knowledge production that shapes the way we think about these problems and how we can solve them, but quantitative data are often taken for granted or thought of as neutral or apolitical.
4. Is there something you would like staff to know about?
You can call me Al (seriously).
5. What is something you have recently accomplished?
I was pleased to have an article published in The Guardian recently which demonstrated how market rate housing supply alone can’t solve the affordability and security problems that we currently face, and that we therefore need to increase public housing and regulate rents.
6. What do you need to do your best work?
A supportive institution and workplace is really important. That includes manageable workloads and realistic performance expectations so that people have the capacity to support one another and do engaged research in/with communities.
7. What do people always ask you when they find out what you do for a living?
People often ask me for a solution to the housing crisis. There’s a 50/50 chance that I shrug or rant in response.
8. What is something you’ve read recently that has had an impact on you?
I read Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s essay and article collection Abolition Geography when it was published last year and it inspired and helped me articulate the way I think about the relationship between academic research and political/community organising.
9. What is your definition of success?
I don’t have a very clear definition but I hope to be able to do research and teaching that contributes to social movements and change as well as new knowledge or ideas.
10. A bit about where you live and what you like about it?
I live in Dulwich Hill with my partner and cat. It’s a nice area for a range of reasons, including public transport. Coming from Perth, I really appreciate not needing to drive everywhere.
11. A personal quality you value in others?
I’ve been extremely privileged to work with supervisors and mentors who have always been generous with their time, knowledge, advice and access, so that generosity is something I really value.
12. A moment you felt proud?
One of the most rewarding experiences is reading work by students that reflects an interest in and engagement with the content you’ve taught. For example, this semester a group of third-year students asked me for advice on a topic for their podcast assignment and after our discussion produced an excellent podcast on gentrification in Byron Bay.
13. What is on your agenda for 2023?
I’ll be starting fieldwork for my MQRF project in the second half of this year and working on a couple of early papers. I’m attending the Institute of Australian Geographers conference in my hometown of Perth in July as well as a workshop on impactful research prior to that. In July I’m helping organise a forum on alternatives to redeveloping public housing, where OFFICE Architects will present their Retain/Repair/Reinvest model.