Heseltine Fellow discusses new book on reconstructing public housing at virtual launch event
Dr Matt Thompson, a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Heseltine Institute, held a virtual launch event on 10th December to discuss his new book on the radical history of public housing alternatives in Liverpool.
In Reconstructing Public Housing: Liverpool’s Hidden History of Collective Alternatives, Matt explores how Liverpool became host to two pioneering social movements in collective housing and urban regeneration experimentation: the housing co-op movements in the 1970s; and more recent campaigns for urban community land trusts. In tracing the connections between these movements and their impacts on the politics, economics, culture and urbanism of Liverpool, Reconstructing Public Housing presents a vision of how we might re-imagine public housing on more democratic and cooperative foundations.
With an audience of over one hundred, this virtual launch event featured input from attendees intimately involved in the local history that the book portrays – in addition to dozens of attendees from elsewhere in the UK and internationally. As part of the event, a presentation by the author was followed by a lively question and answer session – recordings of which have been provided below.
Interested readers can also click here for a series of reflections from Matt in response to the launch event, which we have published to the Heseltine Institute blog.