Bigger Ideas for 2022

Time to think bigger

Bigger Ideas 0

Welcome to Bigger Ideas, a new section of Where We Go From Here, the Substack of Alex Schafran.

I started the Substack with my wonkish side - trying to put out very practical pieces that directly relate to current debates and discussions in California Housing - without getting too deep into the bigger, and often more philosophical, issues that lie beneath. 

Now it is time to dive into that other side - or perhaps the underside - of housing, politics, urban systems, and more. These pieces will be interspersed with California Housing as part of a regular publication schedule. Sometimes, like with BIgger Ideas #1 on Resident-controlled Housing, it will be co-published with a California Housing newsletter. Other times, pieces will stand by themselves.

Subscribers should have the option to choose only one of the sections if that is what you prefer, or keep getting the full deal.

Many pieces will draw on my previous work: there will be essays that explore diversity in housing tenure - all those legal relationships we have with our homes. Some will derive from my 2020 book The Spatial Contract, which imagines a new politics of systems like housing, transportation, energy, water and food. Some will focus on vulnerability, and my work to develop Housing Vulnerability Analysis. 

In keeping with my love of the listicle, and my desire to use these intro lists as a gauntlet, here is a sample of what you can expect in 2022. Just like with California Housing, reach out with suggestions or requests - perhaps we can even collaborate. 

Thanks for reading. Best, Alex

The Operating Bigger Ideas List

1. Ownership Matters: Resident-controlled Housing and California’s Missing Coalition

2. Temporary Housing is Permanent: Let's make peace between permanent and temporary housing. We need both.

3. Loving diversity - thoughts on how to both/and our way to a better future

4. Many Markets: Moving beyond the Market-rate / Affordable Divide

5. Real Estate Ethics for Impact and ESG Investors

6. Collective ownership for regular folks

7. Direct Democracy in California is neither Direct nor Democratic

8. Getting the players to change the game: Why housing stagnates while the needs only grows

9. Process, Mechanisms, Outcomes

10. Housing across the lifecycle