ABSTRACT
Constructionism in fact is integrally bound up with consideration of institutional and organisational constraints within a context of interpersonal interaction. This chapter considers some intersections with the agency-structure debate, by using housing management practices in two different contexts as a case study. It draws upon qualitative research methods and ethnographic data from studies in Australia and England. The chapter focuses on constructionist theory and discourse analysis to demonstrate some of the possibilities of an interpretive social science which can analyse the working of conflict and power within the social setting of contemporary housing organisations. In this context, housing research and housing policy can be viewed as text-based social practices. Research and policy texts are the medium through which housing problems and solutions are constructed, as they are in turn constructed within societal orders of discourse. One of the main strengths of a constructionist approach to management theory is to illustrate the complexity of organisational behaviour.
