Trouble at the Top: The Construction of a Tenant Identity in the Governance of Social Housing Organizations

Abstract

The project of citizen governance has transformed the social housing sector in England, where 20,000 tenants now sit as directors on the boards of housing associations, but the entrance of social housing tenants to the boardroom has aroused opposition from the chief executives of housing companies and triggered regulatory intervention from government inspectors. This paper investigates the cause of these tensions through a theoretical framework drawn from the work of feminist philosopher Judith Butler. It interprets housing governance as an identificatory project with the power to constitute tenant directors as regulated subjects, and presents evidence to suggest that this project of identity fails to completely enclose its subject, allowing tenant directors to engage in “identity work” that threatens the supposed unity of the board. The paper charts the development of antagonism and political tension in the boardrooms of housing companies to present an innovative account of the construction and contestation of identities in housing governance.