Anti-social or intensively sociable? The local context of neighbour disputes and complaints among social housing tenants

Abstract

The prevalence of neighbour disputes among social housing tenants is often seen as the outcome of social residualisation and the physical characteristics of social housing. While such explanations have usefully drawn attention to the structural sources of problem neighbours in the social housing sector, rather than reduce them to the anti-sociality of tenants, this work has been disconnected from a consideration of the social and interactive contexts of neighbouring more broadly and its influence on how neighbour problems emerge and are managed in specific situations. In response, this paper examines the conditions that lead to the formation of a distinct style of neighbouring among social housing tenants, one that is prone to conflict and tension because of its intensively sociable, as opposed to anti-social, nature. Drawing on mediation data from Dispute Resolution Centres in Queensland, Australia, this paper illustrates how intensive modes of neighbouring combine with disadvantage and close physical proximity to create the conditions for neighbour problems to arise.

Key words:

• Neighbours
• disputes
• social housing
• anti-social behaviour
• neighbourliness
• housing policy

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Dispute Resolution Branch of the Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney General who kindly provided the data on which this paper is based.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.