Good, Fair, Needs Supervision or Unsuitable: Housing and Community in the Governance of Anti-social Behaviour

1. Good, Fair, Needs Supervision or Unsuitable:Housing and Community in the Governance of Anti-social Behaviour John Flint Department of Urban Studies, University of Glasgow  Presented at the Housing Studies Autumn Conference: ‘Housing and Crime: Dealing with ‘Dangerous’, ‘Deviant’ and ‘Disreputable’ Places and People’ University of Lincoln, 8th and 9th September 2005

3. Key Themes of the Predominant Discourse Anti-social behaviour at neighbourhood level Anti-social behaviour expanded to city centres Welfare dependency, dishonesty and ‘the undeserving’ Failure of traditional authority (police, judges and MPs) Exactly the same ‘folk devils’ as 20 years ago (except terrorism) (Seabrook, 1984)

4. ‘Society must be defended’ Foucault, 2003 Moral Panics (Cohen, 2002)   Deviancy amplification: The Established and Outsiders (Elias and Scotston, 1994)   Deserving and Undeserving

5. A Politics of Conduct A New Politics of Conduct/Behaviour (Rose, 1999: Field, 2003)  Anti-social behaviour: a politics beyond technical definitions, legal application and quantification “A largely self-governing society developed these values [politeness, considerateness and thoughtfulness] which automatically guided behaviour” (Field, 2003: 34) But self-regulation depends on identities, which are constructed  ASB is in part a construction of social housing management (Brown, 2004)  But further…

6. Grammars of Living 1 Grammars of Living (Rose, 1999)  The development of a new vocabulary in the public domain (Paris, 235) Anti-social Behaviour, respect, responsibility, welfare dependency A Historical Example:

9. Grammars of Living 2 The pleasure culture of war was one means by which the young could be imbued with the right values and attitudes to ensure national survival (Paris, 2000: 257)  Self-help, the work ethic and the need for good citizenship (Paris, 2000: 78)  Active Service League / Active Citizenship Unit

11. Community Governance: Two Extremes

12. Community Governance: Two Extremes

13. The quest for self-governing and self- policing communities “To remain peaceful, societies over the long run have to self-governing” (Field, 2003: 24)  ‘Organic’ Communities: Local and Ethical  Towards self governing communities (LGA, 2005)  “Communities that can stand on their own feet” (ODPM, 2003)  Citizen governors

15. Taking a Stand Taking A Stand / It's Your Call Taking a Stand Awards   “We need the public to play their part too and take some responsibility for where they live” (Hazel Blears)

16. Neighbourhood Governance of Anti-social Behaviour: Empowerment Holding police to account Neighbourhood Charters Parish Councils: powers to police environmental crimes Powers to instigate local byelaws Ability to instigate ASBOs Mediation Community Reparation Strathclyde Police Speeding Pilot

17. Housing and Community Governance Landlords governing neighbours and neighbourhoods, rather than tenants Stock transfer and community ownership Governance extended to the conduct of others: Strategic dimensions of tenant participation Good Neighbour Agreements Tenant Reward Schemes American volunteering Naming and shaming

18. Increased State Presence and Tiers of Governance Visible Authority: police, Community Support Wardens, Community Support Officers  Legal Mechanisms of Control: ASBOs, dispersal and curfew orders  Contractual governance: probationary tenancies, Acceptable Behaviour Contracts, Codes, Covenants and Regulations  Tier of governance: housing management, mediation, management companies, private security guards

19. A New Housing Governance?

20. A New Housing Governance? “Treat tenants as responsible agents” (Central Housing Advisory Committee (1959), quoted in Ravetz, 2001: 124)   “We are living under moral government … there is a disciplinary element … it [problematic behaviour] must be remedied through the householder, by constant pressure upon the man as a rational and responsible human being.” (Doctor in Victorian Glasgow, quoted in Damer, 2000: 2012)

21. Conclusions Community governance both empowers communities and transfers responsibilities Parochial governance (gated communities, contracted policing) Secessionary spaces Contractual governance (Crawford, 2003)

22. Conclusions 2 In governance through communities ideas of required conduct are applied to communities as well as individuals:  “Good, Fair, Needs Supervision or Unsuitable” Applied to individual tenants in property inspections in 1927 (Ravetz, 2001)

23. References Brown, A. (2004) Brown, A. (2004) ‘Anti-social Behaviour, Crime Control and Social Control’, The Howard Journal, 43(2), pp.203-211 Cohen, S. (2002) Folk Devils and Moral Panic, London: Routledge Crawford, A. (2003) ‘Contractual Governance’ of Deviant Behaviour’, Journal of Law and Society, 30 (4), pp. 479-505 Damer, S. (2000) ‘Engineers of the Human Machine’ The Social Practice of Council Housing Management in Glasgow, 1895- 1939, Urban Studies, 37(11), pp. 2007-2026 Field, F. (2003) Neighbours From Hell: The politics of behaviour, London: Politico’s Elias, N. and Scotston, J.L (1994) The Established and the Outsiders, London: Sage Foucault, M. (2003) Society Must Be Defended, London: Penguin Home Office (2003) Respect and Responsibility- Taking a Stand Against Anti-social Behaviour, London: Home Office Home Office (2004) Building Communities, Beating Crime: A Better Police Service in the 21st Century, London: Home Office Local Government Association (2004) Towards Self-Governing Communities, London: Local Government Association Paris, M. (2000) Warrior Nation: Images of War in British Popular Culture 1850-2000, London: Reaktion Books Ravetz, A. (2001) Council Housing and Culture: The History of a Social Experiment, London: Routledge Rose, N. (1999) Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Seabrook, J. (1984) The Idea of Neighbourhood: What Local Politics Should Be About, London: Pluto Press