SHAPING FUTURES

Shaping Futures is an International Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Building project sponsored by its partners. The aim of the project is to provide a forum for dialogue on housing policies for the 21stcentury. Shaping Futures will bring together experts from Australia, Canada and the UK with input from the US, the Netherlands and France. The partners in the project range from housing and urban academics, to housing practitioners, to local and regional governments to foundations. It will initially build on existing research and knowledge and create new insights and directions for policies. The process of discussion and guided research in critical topic areas will build knowledge in the participants that can be shared through knowledge exchanges in their communities. It is clear that new finance mechanisms are needed, that housing does not stand on its own as a discipline or as a sector and requires an interdisciplinary approach. We need a new story on housing, one that incorporates its roles as economic infrastructure and place builder.