A Political Sociology of Eviction Practices in the Scottish Social Rented Housing Sector

Abstract

Based on in-depth semi-structured interview data from 35 housing professionals, this study examines the question; why do social landlords evict their tenants. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu this study argues that by examining the relationship between objective and subjective positions, the false antinomy of structure/agency can be dissolved, providing a more heuristic understanding of eviction practices in the social rented housing sector. This relationship is captured in what Bourdieu (2000) calls ‘objectivity of the second order’, that is, the collective conventions, the shared norms and values, and the categories of perception which agents apply to the world. The argument put forward here is that, in order to understand evictions practices in their ‘totality’, it is necessary to move beyond social physics and social phenomenology by constructing, as the object of study, the relation between the two. Using Boltanski and Thevenot’s (1991) ‘economy of worth’ model, (itself a form of frame analysis), it is possible to capture an important aspect of this ‘objectivity of the second order’, via the frames through which housing professionals derive meaning from their work, providing access to an otherwise elusive aspect of qualitative enquiry. This research contributes new insights and analysis in the field of housing studies by adopting a comprehensively theoretical approach, which has not been applied to understanding evictions practices, thereby adding to existing knowledge. It also provides a detailed political sociology of why, despite the apparent contradictions, social landlords evict their tenants.