ABSTRACT
This chapter charts the construction of a tenant movement identity around the values and practices of participatory democracy. It locates the third defining collective action frame of the movement in an organisational commitment to the principles of direct democracy and grass-roots decision-making and the mobilising potential of neighbourhood. At the core of this frame of identity is the potential for autonomous tenant organisations to represent collective needs, to inspire practices of democracy and participation, and to localise decision-making in the delivery of public services. Concepts of participatory or direct democracy (Pateman 1970; Held 2006) are deeply embedded in the practices of tenant participation and convey a radical critique of the bureaucratic organisation and paternal governance of social welfare services. Tenants who seek to gain more power over operational decision-making in housing management and change attitudes among housing staff have traditionally expressed these desires in terms of widening democracy. Their interest in the first participation schemes was expressed as follows:
It is the democratic right of people whose lives are so fundamentally affected by the actions of public bodies to be able to represent their feelings and to influence, if not make, decisions which affect their immediate environment.
(Craddock 1975: 20)