Conceptualising the Bounded Agency of Housing Researchers: The Case of Housing Market Renewal in England

Abstract

Academic research on urban systems has recently come under criticism for its role in the promotion and justification of certain forms of state policy. This critical literature on research impact has identified increased client control of research agendas and processes. However, this paper argues that a rigorous conceptualisation is also needed of the precise ways in which urban researchers are themselves able to mould and establish new policy agendas. To this end, it offers a genealogical inquiry into the discursive resources drawn on by housing researchers in a bid to attain agency and direct government policy on housing market renewal. In contrast with representations of housing research as rational and objective, this account offers a means of reconceptualising applied research as a political practice of working within bounded agency spaces.

Key Words:

• Knowledge
• discourse
• impact
• housing studies
• actor-network theory
• housing market renewal
• England

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to John Flint, Stuart Cameron, Andrew Donaldson and two reviewers for their insightful comments on early drafts of this paper. As always, the arguments presented are those of the author alone.