Power, discursive space and institutional practices in the construction of housing problems

Abstract

A constructionist approach to the study of social problems and housing policy provides a theoretically informed means of analysing the ways in which housing policy is formulated and implemented. Yet despite a strong commitment by housingresearchers to policy relevance, constructionist studies of how specific social problems are generated and deployed have so far made only a limited impact on housing research. Thepaper addresses this lacuna by first discussing important literature and the keyconceptual issues in this field of study. This is followed by a discussion of two examplesfrom recent UK housing policy (the shift in the 1980s from defining lone mothers as thevictims of housing shortages to a morally questionable group subverting needs-basedallocation policies and the re-emergence of anti-social behaviour as a problem on housingestates). The paper’s conclusion is that the ‘construction of problems’ provides a rich source of new material as well as offering significant opportunities to develop a morecritically informed housing research agenda.