Abstract
ABSTRACTThe paper illustrates and discusses the changing nature of public accountability relations in public services that are transferred to a mutual organization. The paper contributes to the literature that studies resistance to the neo-liberal restructuring process, highlighting civil society campaigns as important actors. A social housing case study in Britain is developed, combining a critical realist and dialogical influenced analysis. The case study identifies the role of private finance, illustrating tensions between democratic-styled and NGO-styled public accountability relations. A conclusion that housing mutuals are in danger of being apologia for private capitalism is established.
Highlights
Housing continues to be a major political and policy issue in Britain (Dorling 2014; The Lyons Housing Review 2014)
Critical realism provides powerful tools for analysing the changing nature of phenomena and the role of individual/collective agency in reproducing or transforming social structures (Bhaskar 2008; Modell 2009). Two such tools used in the case study below are the conception of a stratified reality with our empirical experiences based on the emergent outcome of generative mechanisms (Modell 2009) and Bhaskar’s contribution to the structure/agency debate in the form of the transformational model of social activity (TMSA)
There are three main conclusions that can be drawn from the foregoing case study
Summary
Housing continues to be a major political and policy issue in Britain (Dorling 2014; The Lyons Housing Review 2014). The remainder of this paper is structured as follows; the section discusses the nature of public accountability starting from a basic definition of accountability that is contextualised in democratic societies, before exploring the relevant elements of Critical Public Accountability (Smyth 2012, 2013a) to understand the restructuring/resistance dynamic evident in the competing conceptions of an accountable landlord This is followed in the section ‘Housing stock transfers and NGSO’ by an analysis of the stock transfer policy in Wales and how the use of a CHM attempts to develop new governance/accountability structures, while attracting private capital investment. These two themes are explored further in the case study below
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