Learning from the past: international housing policy since 1945—an introduction

This brief paper forms an introduction to this special issue of Habitat International on International Housing Policy since 1945. The introduction highlights three major issues that impact on any such historical study of developing countries, and particularly a study of the history of housing policies: the continuities between the colonial and postcolonial eras, the magnitude of the impact of developed nations upon the less developed, and how the direction of influence has also run the other way. As the collection of papers show, generally speaking, continuity has been more important than radical change.