Searching for YIMBY public discourse in Sydney

Abstract

The terms NIMBY (Not-in-my-backyard) and YIMBY (Yes-in-my-backyard) describe negative and positive attitudes towards building higher density housing. Based on a series of newspaper articles that reported on a Sydney council hiring a community planning advocate and comments by a Liberal party candidate regarding housing supply, this paper seeks to identify if NIMBY and YIMBY discourses exist in reader-generated comments made by self-selecting commenters. Critical discourse analysis is mobilised to examine the actors and the framing in the newspaper article, as well as the discursive strategies used in the readers’ comments. The paper finds the readers’ comments are dominated by NIMBY discourse but does find evidence of a YIMBY public discourse.Practitioner PointersProperty industry promotes a positive self-presentation by identifying other stakeholders as being responsible for a lack of housing supply.A discourse of housing supply links higher density housing to a positive influence on housing affordability and the environment.Readers’ comments explicitly link immigration and population growth with housing supply issues.

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