‘Aided Visibility Work’ and Social Exclusion in Housing Association Organizations

Abstract

This study examines how Housing Association (HA) organizations and their micro enterprise and employment support partners carry out institutional work aimed at disrupting social exclusion processes in the global North. Through a qualitative case study comparison, we uncover how Anglo-French HA organizations navigate the visibility of their social tenants/clients in order to help, especially those who are “invisible” or “negatively hypervisible”, come back to the labour market, start a business or volunteer and thus enable them to be seen anew in a more positive light within their ‘small worlds’. Three interrelated mechanisms underpin their strategic intervention through what we call here aided visibility work: (1) handholding/accompagnement, (2) outreach/aller vers, and (3) stigma mitigation activities. Our findings have implications both theoretically in terms of bridging the institutional work, organizational stigma management and (in)visibility literatures, and also practically in terms of unveiling the role that HAs have as applied institutional workers.