A Public Housing Revolution for Degrowth with Dr Alex Baumann

Housing is an essential human need, but as the average median house price in Australian capital cities now exceed $1 million, this requires some very significant dropping into the marketplace in order to afford a roof over our heads. According to the research of PGAP’s esteemed guest Dr. Alex Baumann, the act of owning a property of one’s own can place one in that dreaded 1% richest people in the world.

Alex discusses why the privatisation of land forces us all into lifestyles that are antithetical to the degrowth movement and why housing needs to be at the core of post-growth activism. Alex also explains why public housing is one overlooked solution and how reinvigorating this asset is part and parcel to a degrowth future. Ready to have your whole perspective on housing turned around? This is the episode for you!

Dr. Alex Baumann and I found each other on the Town Planning Reblellion (TPR) Facebook group. Find out more about TPR and its parent organisation, Holistic Activism here. Want to be an ACTIVE part of the housing revolution? This is a great place to start.

I interviewed TPR founder, Mark Allen on season 2’s “Exploring Christie Walk EcoHousing with Adelaide Chronicles and Town Planning Rebellion.” If you liked the themes in this episode you’ll love that one.

I first came across Alex’s good work in an article in The Conversation titled: “We are the 1%: the wealth of many Australians puts them in an elite club wrecking the planet.” The article was co-written with Samuel Alexander, whose has been a inspiration for me in the Degrowth movement.

Speaking of Samuel Alexander! The song of choice for this episode, “Meditations on Simplicity” is from the Mortimer’s Method album ‘Dreaming Backwards, Falling Awake’, based on excerpts from the Degrowth fiction novel ‘Entropia’ by Samuel Alexander.

‘Entropia’ isn’t the only fiction work on post-growth out there. PGAP interviewed Sharon Ede, post-growth activist and author of ‘Mage’, in season two of PGAP.

Alex is even more animated on video! He explains many of the points raised in this episode and more in the YouTube video “A New Path to Sustainability.”

Ted Trainer is an inspiration for Alex and was brought up several times during the interview. You can hear the PGAP interview with Ted in full here.

Finally, Martin Tye, Australian regional chapter director of CASSE, will be giving a zoom presentation for the Sustainable Living Festival on "Degrowth & the Steady State" on 06th February, 9am AEDT. More information can be found on the SLF website. Martin was a guest on the first ever episode of PGAP and I’m sure he will be just as excellent in his presentation as he was on the episode! Essentially, I can't recommend him enough.

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Post-Growth Australia Podcast is made possible from the kind support of SPA