Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-4hvwz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-31T22:04:03.044Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

one - Housing and the new governance of conduct

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2022

Get access

Summary

Introduction

Anti-social behaviour (ASB) has emerged in recent years as a predominant concern for government, media discourse and social housing management in the UK, and a plethora of new legislation and management techniques have been introduced in order to tackle the problem. This chapter has three aims. Firstly, it seeks to place the governance of ASB within the wider context of emerging forms of governance in advanced liberal democracies in order to link studies of housing interventions to policy developments in policing and crime control. Secondly, the chapter aims to assess the extent to which current developments represent a ‘new’ housing governance of conduct rather than a continuation of historical housing management practices. Thirdly, the chapter sets out three central themes that underpin the ‘housing’ governance of ASB: the emergence of community and neighbourhood governance, the rise of contractual governance and the new mixed economy of governing ASB.

The governance of conduct

A defining characteristic of contemporary governance in advanced liberal democracies including the UK is the conceptualisation of subjects as active, autonomous and rational agents (Foucault, 1991; Rose, 1999). Subjects, as consumers or citizens, are identified as being agents and nodes of power through which governmental objectives are to be achieved; less through direct acts of state intervention, but rather by reshaping the behaviour of autonomous citizens. In this ‘governance at a distance’, the self-regulation of individuals is utilised as ‘technologies of the self ‘ to achieve governmental aims, combined with enhanced roles for non-state actors and organisations (Dean, 1999; Hope, 2000; Garland, 2002). Subjects become identified as individuals desiring autonomy and responsibility for their own life outcomes and are to be empowered to have the capacities, opportunities and responsibilities to do so (Foucault, 1991; Rose, 1999; Forrest and Kearns, 2001).

Such empowerment and freedom are not limitless, but rather operate within a framework of bounded autonomy (Etzioni, 1995) built on a moral dominant discourse shaped by government and other forces such as the media, of what constitutes required, appropriate and ‘correct’ behaviour (Dean, 1999). These discourses construct ‘grammars of living’ (Rose, 2001) which establish rules for conduct based around norms and values.

Type
Chapter
Information
Housing, Urban Governance and Anti-Social Behaviour
Perspectives, Policy and Practice
, pp. 19 - 36
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×