ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how social constructionism can be used to critically interrogate contemporary policy metaphors that have captured the attention of housing researchers and policy makers in Australia and Europe. It focuses on the example of social exclusion and social inclusion as a way of illustrating the contested meaning of metaphors that inform housing policy and practices. Following Europe, social exclusion has emerged as an important theme in Australian housing policy debates. The chapter addresses the prior question about why this concept has emerged as a popular policy metaphor. It also explores the argument that the homogenising tendencies embedded in some uses of the social exclusion/inclusion discourse denies political contestation, obscures the relations that create social inequalities and clouds clear thinking about what could be done to create a more equitable housing system. Poverty is an ideological formation, it is a truth produced by particular discursive strategies, it is also a social construction—and people die from it.
