Against the grain: towards a critical genealogy of
Transcription
Against the grain: towards a critical genealogy of
Against the grain: towards a critical genealogy of resident resistance to public and social housing policy change 8TH AUSTRALASIAN HOUSING RESEARCHERS CONFERENCE, 18-20 FEBRUARY 2015, HOBART - TASMANIA Dr Angela Nunn, Southern Cross University Background My current interest in public and social housing tenants’ views and experiences emerged from my doctoral research on Community Renewal in NSW – Explored how ‘community’ was constituted and deployed in the government of public estates and what it meant for those involved – Utilised a governmentality analytic – Finding 2: the extent that tenants could act in their own interests , even after having been engaged in tenant participation and capacity building through Community Renewal, was impeded by structural, institutional and organisational factors (Nunn 2014) Finding 2 Finding 2: – The extent that tenants could act in their own interests , even after having been engaged in tenant participation and capacity building through Community Renewal, was impeded by structural, institutional and organisational factors (Nunn 2014) – In the case study of one site where Community Renewal was deployed tenants with a long history of volunteerism and community engagement disengaged due to their experiences with Community Renewal (Nunn 2014) Reflections 1 Reflections on Finding 2 – The tenants who were active but then disengaged based on their experiences – Broad claims that public and social tenants are disengaged (welfare dependency discourse) – We know this adds to the stigma of places and people – Interested in involved tenants (those still involved) and how their situated knowledge can be acknowledged, and – The possibilities for rethinking resistance through their knowledge and experiences Reflections 2 Reflections on governmentality – Best understood as an analytical toolbox – Avoid applicationism (Walters 2012) – Critical potential is found in encountering this toolbox (Walters 2012) How do we encounter governmentality? – Concept development (cf. Rose & Miller 1992) – Change the angle of analysis (cf. O’Malley 1996) – Critical potential of genealogy (cf. Bevir 2010; Medina 2011) Governmentality Definition of the term is a matter of debate but can be understood in three ways – Governance in its broadest sense: ‘the conduct of conduct’ (Foucault 1982, pp.220-221) – Governance in the domain of states: thinking and acting on populations (Foucault 1991) – Liberal approach to governance: ‘transformation of the modern state’ (Walters 2012, pp.12-13) Concerned with the first two of these – How tenants are governed and govern themselves Change the angle of analysis Take a new starting point for analysis – Start with the situated knowledge of the objects of a political intervention (public and social housing tenants) – Rather than analyse the state’s political rationality – AIM: to problematise how governing is conducted – Doing so is one way to recognise the impact of past housing policies already noted in the literature (cf. Peel 1995, 2003; Vinson 1999) – Tentative question becomes: How is governing, conducted as it is, a problem? Genealogy Critical potential of genealogy is heightened if we think in terms of producing a counter-history – The aim is to illuminate what is disqualified from conventional histories As Medina suggests: ‘The counter- histories that critical genealogies can produce are possible because there are people who remember against the grain, people whose memories do not fit the historical narratives available’ (2011, p. 12 emphasis added) . Some possibilities … Call into question the policies and practices that have created the current public and social housing system in Australia – A system that many have described as a failure Twin emphasis – Recognise tenants’ situated knowledge which is typically downplayed, ignored or disqualified (Foucault’s subjugated knowledges) – Question the matter of responsibility for the state of public and social housing References • Bevir, M 2010, ‘Rethinking Governmentality: Towards genealogies of governance’, European Journal of Social Theory, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 423-441. • Foucault, M 1982, 'Afterword: The Subject and Power', in HL Dreyfus & P Rabinow (eds), Michel Foucault: beyond structuralism and hermeneutics, Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead. • Foucault, M 1991, 'Governmentality', in G Burchell, C Gordon & P Miller (eds), The Foucault effect: studies in governmentality, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. • Nunn, A 2014, Governing the Estates: the deployment of ‘community’ on public housing estates, unpublished thesis, The University of Queensland. • Medina, J 2011, ‘Towards a Foucaultian Epistemology of Resistance: Counter-Memory, Epistemic Friction, and Geurilla Pluralism’, Foucault Studies, no. 12, pp. 9-35. References • O’Malley, P 1996, ‘Indigenous governance’, Economy and Society, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 310-326. • Peel, M 1995, Good times hard times: the past and the future in Elizabeth, Melbourne University Press, Carlyon. • Peel, M 2003, The lowest rung: voices of Australian poverty, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. • Rose, N & Miller, P 1992, ‘Political power beyond the state: problematics of government’, British Journal of Sociology, vol. 43, no. 2, June, pp. 173-205. • Vinson, T 1999, Unequal in life: the distribution of social disadvantage in Victoria and New South Wales, The Ignatius Centre for Social Policy Research, Jesuit Social Services Ltd, Richmond. • Walters, W 2012, Governmentality: critical encounters, Routledge, London. Thankyou [email protected]