Space Power and Participation: Ethnic and Gender Divisions in Tenants Participation in Public Housing Book

Dealing with the theoretical and practical issues surrounding the relationship between social and physical space, this book examines the complex relationship between individuals, collectivities and the welfare state and how ethnicity and gender issues figure in these practical relationships both in general and in housing processes in particular. The main theoretical issues to be looked at are the social divisions of ethnicity and gender and related notions of "power"/"empowerment", "identity"/"difference", "participation" and the "community" socially and spatially both at macro and local levels. The book is based upon an investigation that aims to analyse the decision-making processes in housing in order to see the extent to which tenants are able to participate in these processes. Of particular interest in this examination are the ethnic and gender divisions. The author carried out an in-depth study of three different types of housing projects where the degree of tenant involvement in housing processes varied considerably. Each of these three types of housing projects characterised a different way and degree of participation by tenants in decision-making. These were firstly, council managed estates in which all major and minor decisions are taken by the local authority; secondly, tenant management co-operatives in which tenants take over the responsibility of the day-to-day management of their estate while the ownership of the estate remains with the council and some of the major decisions are taken by the council; and thirdly, self-build projects which involve tenants in the actual building and management processes of their housing and in which tenant involvement is supposed to be at its highest level.Read More