Governing “The Homeless” in English Homelessness Legislation: Foucauldian Governmentality and the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017

This article contributes to the growing body of work exploring governmentality theory in housing and homelessness law by engaging a Foucauldian neoliberal, governmentality framework to the recently-enacted Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. This is the first time this major piece of English homelessness legislation has been examined through a Foucauldian governmentality lens and this article therefore fills a gap in the literature. In so doing, this article locates the place of governmental activity to be scrutinized as the homeless population and contends that the Homelessness Reduction 2017 (‘HRA 17’) can be interpreted as operating according to three intersecting modes of problematization of the homeless: (1) biopolitical problematization; (2) governmental problematization; and (3) ethical problematization. Drawing on the writings of Dean (1999) , Rose (1999) and Hamann (2009) on neoliberal governmentality and building on the emerging governmentality literature in housing and homelessness law of Cowan and McDermont (2006), Cowan, Pantazis and Gilroy (2001), McKee (2009), Evans (2012) and others, this article explores the insights neoliberal governmentality provides. In so doing, this article reveals that the 2017 Act reflects a shift in neoliberal thinking on housing in constructing images of the homeless as forming a ‘risk population’, subjectified, autonomized individuals; exhorted to self-work and ethical self-fashioning as responsibilized citizens taking account of their own housing precarity. This article makes a novel and unique contribution to the scholarship in this field in arguing that the new 2017 legislation can be understood as operating according to an ordering theme of risk. This article proceeds in 4 parts. Part one introduces and unpacks the concept of neoliberal governmentality and reflects on its prescience as a tool for critical understanding of contemporary forms of political and legal governance of homeless populations in England. A second part offers a brief overview of the recently-enacted Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 and its key provisions before a third section operationalizes a neoliberal governmentality framework; locates risk as the organising rationale of the new legislation and explores the three, intersecting problematizations of the homeless at play under the 2017 Act: biopolitical, governmental and ethical. A final section explores the implications of the governmentality framework and reflects on wider lessons to be learned including for homelessness legislation in other countries outside England

Improving Housing Conditions in the Private and Social Rented Sectors: The Homes (Fit for Human Habitation) Act 2018 ‐ Fit for Habitation but Fit for Purpose?

The Homes (Fit for Human Habitation) Act 2018 became law in December 2018 and entered into force on 20 March 2019. This article examines the key provisions of this significant piece of housing legislation which has the potential to transform the lives of those renting homes in both the private and social sectors in England. The 2018 Act, through amendment to the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, introduces a new obligation on landlords to ensure their residential properties are fit for human habitation and, for the first time in this jurisdiction, endows tenants with new civil rights to directly enforce this implied covenant against failing landlords. This article identifies the key deficiencies within the current legal framework around fitness for human habitation and explores how far the 2018 Act meets these challenges; set against the febrile backdrop of an acute housing crisis and the Grenfell Tower tragedy

Reconceptualising Homelessness Legislation in England

This article has two central aims. First, it problematises the long‐held consensus that homelessness legislation in England operates according to the concept of need and, secondly, it advances an alternative reading and reconceptualisation of homelessness legislation according to the notion of risk. Through examination of the two major sources of current homelessness law, the Housing Act 1996 and the recently enacted Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, this article locates and explores how risk is operationalised, the precise conceptions of risk engaged and the implications and potentiality of this risk reconceptualisation. In so doing, it is argued that risk exhibits a stronger explanatory power of the current homelessness legislation than need and presents opportunities for how we understand local authority decision‐making and the shape of future reform

THE EFFICACY OF FEEDBACK IN THE FIRST YEAR PROGRAMME: A COMPARISON OF THE VIEWS OF STUDENTS AND STAFF

Feedback has been defined as "information about the gap between actual performance level and the reference level, which is subsequently used to alter that gap". It is now widely acknowledged that feedback forms an essential part of the learning cycle, allowing students to assess their performance and make improvements to future work. However, despite acceptance of the importance of feedback by academics, results from the recent National Student Survey (2005) have highlighted students' general dissatisfaction with the feedback they receive. The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of feedback on the first year of the Biological Sciences degree at the University of Leicester, by comparison of the perceptions of students and staff on a number of aspects of the current feedback process. Although a structured approach to giving feedback is encouraged within the School of Biological Sciences, there will be remaining differences in the way staff and students conceptualise the roles of feedback and its format. The views of students studying on the 1st and 2nd years of the Biological Sciences degree were ascertained using a questionnaire addressing various aspects of feedback including, quantity, timing, use and quality. The response rates to the questionnaire were high for both years and the views of students with a range of academic abilities were represented; statistical analysis showed the data obtained to be reliable. In addition, focus groups were used to further explore the views of 1st year students. Semi-structured discussions were led by non-teaching staff, allowing for an informal environment to encourage full participation from students with a range of academic abilities. Staff views on the feedback process were sought during semi-structured one-on-one interviews, again allowing an informal environment for discussion. The staff cohort comprised the majority of 1st year module course convenors, a group of 1st year personal tutors, representative of most departments within the School of Biological Sciences and staff from the Student Learning Centre

Did you see what I saw?: Comparing attentional synchrony during 360° video viewing in head mounted display and tablets

Advances in head mounted displays (HMDs) have increased the interest in cinematic virtual reality as an art form. However, the freedom of a viewer in 360 video presents challenges in ensuring that audiences do not inadvertently miss important events and locations. We examined whether the high level of immersion provided by HMDs encourages participants to synchronize their attention during viewing. Sixty-four participants watched the 360° documentary Clouds Over Sidra (VRSE.works, 2015) using either an HMD or via a flat screen tablet display. We used intersubject correlation (ISC) analysis to measure attentional synchrony over the course of the video and to examine whether spatial and temporal factors led to different amounts of correlation both within and between groups. We found significantly greater ISC for the HMD compared to the tablet group. This effect was greatest for scenes with a unidirectional focus and at the start of scenes. We discuss our results in terms of the visual properties and the motor affordances of HMDs versus tablets. Our results show the value of HMDs in increasing attentional synchrony and may provide producers of 360° content insight in how to encourage or discourage synchronization of viewing direction