Our love affair with real estate has brought the global financial system to its knees. Are we now over property pornography? Are we still the Renovation Nation? Has the property market returned to home buyers and left the real estate speculators behind?
FIONA ALLON (LOCAL) FIONA ALLON is a writer and critic who specialises in the analysis of contemporary Australian culture and politics. She is a commentator on current affairs, social issues and popular culture, and researches and writes on a broad range of subjects. She is currently working on a Reserve Bank of Australia-funded project on mortgage distress. She lectures at the University of Sydney. She is the author of Renovation Nation: Australia’s Obsession with Home.
GABRIELLE GWYTHER (LOCAL) GABRIELLE GWYTHER is an urban sociologist and postdoctoral research fellow with the Social Justice and Social Change Research Centre, University of Western Sydney. Her PhD dissertation from UWS examined socio-economic differentiation and the master-planned community, with specific reference to the development of social capital in communities in south-west Sydney. Her current research interests involve relationships between new mobilities and social inclusion, and the production of new knowledge through engagement of marginalised groups. She has lectured at UWS and UNSW, has worked in an advisory capacity for Members of Parliament, and has been employed within the commercial and residential property sectors, including the Department of Housing.
CAROLINE BUTLER-BOWDON (LOCAL) CAROLINE BUTLER-BOWDON is the head curator of the Museum of Sydney and an award-winning author. Her most recent book, Homes In The Sky: Apartment Living In Australia, co-authored with Dr Charles Pickett, was the winner of the Australian Institute of Architects Bates Smart Architecture in the Media award and the EnergyAustralia National Trust Award for Interpretation and Presentation for 2008. She co-authored Shooting Through: Sydney By Tram and Sydney Then & Now, and was co-editor of Talking About Sydney: Population, Community And Culture In Contemporary Sydney. She has curated and co-curated numerous exhibitions at MoS, including Art Deco, Federation Sydney: 1880-1910 and Leunig Animated.