Housing associations have traditionally been bound together by notions of providing
for those in housing need, non-profit making and a voluntary ethos. Since the mid-
1980s these understandings have altered when associations began to develop a private
sector ethos leading to: increased priority given to the needs of private funders;
the professionalization of boards of management, largely at the behest of the state
regulator; and a reimaging of tenants as ‘customers’. These
changes have raised fundamental questions about the appropriateness of
associations’ modes of internal governance through voluntary governing
bodies. This article explores those shifts in culture and the ways in which they
have created difficult and contradictory subject positions for members of boards,
particularly tenant board members. The article raises questions about the
application of corporate governance models to the housing association sector, and
the appropriateness of applying private sector principles of corporate governance to
organizations in the voluntary/quasi-public sector. Using Foucault’s
insights on the subject and power the article will consider how tenant board members
are constructed by others and themselves, and how these constructions could affect
their potential for intervening in the power relations of the board.
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