Housing Management: The social construction of an occupational role

The focus of this article is the management of public rented housing in Britain (that is, housing provided by local authorities and housing associations). The objective was to understand the nature of housing management as it is practised by housing managers on a day-to-day basis. This research was therefore undertaken to discover how housing managers viewed their world. More specifically, the aim was to examine the way in which housing managers defined and delineated their role, and thus socially constructed the nature and scope of housing management in interaction with tenants and people from other occupational groups. This is important, because public rented housing increasingly caters for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged sections of the population. It is argued that housing management plays a significant role in mediating between the state and this section of society.