Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
What becomes a problem is, to a considerable
extent, contingent on the ways in which interest
groups compete with each other to impose a
particular definition and exclude others. In this
respect, problems are socially constructed, as policy
makers seek to establish a dominant policy agenda
in response to changing economic and social
conditions and their own needs.
Such a perspective is very different to those
approaches to the subject that maintain that
problems are simply a reflection of underlying
realities. Instead, a social constructionist
perspective emphasises the dynamic aspects of
problems and how definitions articulated by
policy makers can change in a short space of time.
For example, system-built tower blocks are now
viewed in the United Kingdom as inadequate,
even though in earlier periods they were seen as
high-quality accommodation (Plate 28.1).
Homelessness is another problem subject to
changing definitions and policy responses. In some
developed countries, for example the United
States, homelessness is not seen as a failure of
economic policy but as a result of individual
choice. This redefinition of homelessness has taken
place in spite of the attempts by pressure groups
to coerce government to undertake more radical
policy responses. The measures now being adopted
in many developed countries reflect the relative
weakness of those least able to influence the
political agenda or define their concerns as a
problem meriting substantive policy intervention.
The merit of the 'social constructionist'
approach adopted by Kemeny is three-fold. First,
it acknowledges that housing problems are not
capable of ostensible definition. Second, seeing
housing policies as the outcome of competing
claims can help us to understand why so many
policies are often contradictory and rarely directed
towards one consistent, unified aim. Housing
priorities are ultimately subordinate to
government's overall ideological concerns, even if
such interventions impact detrimentally on those
reliant on social housing. Third, such a perspective
establishes a linkage between housing problems
and decisions in other areas of social and
economic policy. A clear example of the
construction of housing problems can be
illustrated by the way in which housing allowances
to claimants in some developed countries have
been eroded when interest groups have not been
able to protect their entitlements. For example, in
Plate 28.1 Tower block
demolition, Clapton Park
Estate, Hackney, London. Only
one tower block remains, the
rest having been demolished to
make space to build new homes
for rent.
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