'Just because we are amateurs doesn't mean we aren't professional': the importance of expert activists in tenant participation

Abstract

The current UK government is committed to extending participation in civil society, with the aim of significantly increasing volunteer numbers by 2005. It has put much effort into attracting ‘representative participants’, particularly from traditionally under‐represented groups. ‘Natural joiners’ attract far less interest and are often written off as ‘the same old faces’. But the growth in opportunities for participation has actually encouraged the natural joiners because the nature of much modern participation requires people like them. Focusing on natural joiners and their motivations rather than looking at why the non‐joiners don’t join, should increase understanding of why people participate and suggest new ways forward. This article looks at people active in tenant participation – a case study of a government ‘Sounding Board’ and some preliminary results of a survey of activists. There are some unexpected findings, including that the motivations of natural joiners are close to those of career professionals in the same field, and that interest in the ‘subject’ of participation may be a motivator, rather than an outcome.

The ‘Responsible’ Tenant and the Problem of Apathy

“…In order to interrogate this top-down political desire to 'responsibilise' social housing tenants through their active involvement in decisions relating to their housing, it is important to go beyond normative agendas, which simply reverberate the benefits of tenant participation and governance (Somerville, 1998(Somerville, , 2005, or individuals' motivations to get involved (Milnward, 2005). The aim here is not to neglect nor undermine the undoubted benefits the participation process can offer (Paddison et al, 2008).…”

Examining power struggles as a signifier of successful partnership working: A case study of partnership dynamics

“…Under the Labour government, regions received devolved powers. This 'Government Modernisation' agenda was wrapped in discourse of citizen and community engagement and enhanced public participation (Barnes et al, 2003;Millward, 2005). Devolution would bring government closer to the people.…”

The political identities of neighbourhood planning in England

“…As neighbourhoods assume collective identities around the right to plan, boundaries of political conflict are established on the foundations of earlier grievances and on competing claims of legitimacy. Participatory democracy can be depicted as a model of self-selection in which the 'usual suspects' get to be heard (Millward 2005). In contrast local authorities are paraded as egalitarian and even-handed, with their democratic mandate securely evidenced in the ballot box (Allmendinger & Haughton 2011;Ellis 2011).…”