The paradox of tenant empowerment : regulatory and liberatory possibilities
Date
2008Keywords
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Abstract
Tenant empowerment has traditionally been regarded as a means of realising democratic ideals: a quantitative increase in influence and control, which thereby enables “subjects” to acquire the fundamental properties of “citizens”. By contrast governmentality, as derived from the work of Michel Foucault, offers a more critical appraisal of the concept of empowerment by highlighting how it is itself a mode of subjection and means of regulating human conduct towards particular ends. Drawing on empirical data about how housing governance has changed in Glasgow following its 2003 stock transfer, this paper adopts the insights of governmentality to illustrate how the political ambition of “community ownership” has been realized through the mobilization and shaping of active tenant involvement in the local decision-making process. In addition, it also traces the tensions and conflict inherent in the reconfiguration of power relations post-transfer for “subjects” do not necessarily conform to the plans of those that seek to govern them.
Citation
McKee , K & Cooper , V 2008 , ' The paradox of tenant empowerment : regulatory and liberatory possibilities ' , Housing, Theory and Society , vol. 25 , no. 2 , pp. 132-146 . https://doi.org/10.1080/14036090701657363
Publication
Housing, Theory and Society
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1403-6096Type
Journal article
Rights
This is an electronic version of an article published in Housing, Theory and Society, copyright © 2008 Taylor & Francis, which is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14036090701657363
Description
The doctoral research on which this paper is based is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.Collections
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