Tenants’ responses to substandard housing : hidden and invisible power and the failure of rental housing regulation
Chisholm, Elinor
Tenants’ responses to substandard housing : hidden and invisible power and the failure of rental housing regulation - Housing, Theory and Society, 2018. - 24 pages
KEYWORDS: Unsafe housing, private rental regulation, landlord/tenant relationship
Unsafe and unhealthy housing is a major problem in the private rental sector in a number of countries, despite the existence of regulations intended to protect people from such housing. Rental housing quality regulation often relies on tenants reporting problems with their housing, but this fails to take account of power dynamics in the tenant-landlord relationship that make it difficult for tenants to do so. Drawing on Lukes’ three-dimensional view of power, we build a new framework for analysing power at the “micro” level of the relationship between tenant and landlord. We apply this to a review of qualitative research on tenants’ responses to housing quality problems in Australia, England, New Zealand and
the United States. We find that the interactions of visible, hidden, and invisible dimensions of power work to prevent the effective airing and resolution of grievances about housing quality and render current forms of regulation inadequate.
CITATION: To cite this article: Elinor Chisholm, Philipa Howden-Chapman & Geoff Fougere (2018): Tenants’ Responses to Substandard Housing: Hidden and Invisible Power and the Failure of Rental Housing Regulation, Housing, Theory and Society, DOI: 10.1080/14036096.2018.1538019
1651-2278
Health & Comfort--Australia--International
Tenants’ responses to substandard housing : hidden and invisible power and the failure of rental housing regulation - Housing, Theory and Society, 2018. - 24 pages
KEYWORDS: Unsafe housing, private rental regulation, landlord/tenant relationship
Unsafe and unhealthy housing is a major problem in the private rental sector in a number of countries, despite the existence of regulations intended to protect people from such housing. Rental housing quality regulation often relies on tenants reporting problems with their housing, but this fails to take account of power dynamics in the tenant-landlord relationship that make it difficult for tenants to do so. Drawing on Lukes’ three-dimensional view of power, we build a new framework for analysing power at the “micro” level of the relationship between tenant and landlord. We apply this to a review of qualitative research on tenants’ responses to housing quality problems in Australia, England, New Zealand and
the United States. We find that the interactions of visible, hidden, and invisible dimensions of power work to prevent the effective airing and resolution of grievances about housing quality and render current forms of regulation inadequate.
CITATION: To cite this article: Elinor Chisholm, Philipa Howden-Chapman & Geoff Fougere (2018): Tenants’ Responses to Substandard Housing: Hidden and Invisible Power and the Failure of Rental Housing Regulation, Housing, Theory and Society, DOI: 10.1080/14036096.2018.1538019
1651-2278
Health & Comfort--Australia--International