The Great Australian Dream reconsidered: A review of Kemeny

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Abstract
This paper evaluates Jim Kemeny's analysis of the causes and consequences of mass home ownership in Australia. The first part of the paper summarises Kemeny's position, and the second questions the adequacy of some of the key theoretical and historical aspects of his argument. The critique pivots on three theoretical themes: firstly, Kemeny's apparent failure to recognise that home ownership is simply a category of consumption which is given historical, political and economic specificity by the social relations of housing provision; secondly, Kemeny's tendency to ‘fetishise’ home ownership; and thirdly, the problematic way in which Kemeny attempts to account for state housing policy formulation. Historical material is presented to show how these theoretical and conceptual problems result in Kemeny developing a questionable explanation of the development of mass home ownership in Australia, and tentative policy implications are offered. Although the paper concentrates on Kemeny's contribution to Australian housing studies, many of the points raised in the review are of particular relevance to other countries with high home ownership rates.