Landlords as a Governing Class

• In Event: Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 11: Governance

Abstract

In this paper, I make a theoretical argument that through the mechanism of property ownership, landlords become part of what Domhoff (1970) and Dupuis-Deri (2016) call “the governing class.” To illustrate this theoretical contribution, I draw on interview data with 52 landlords who are among the smallest of the “small-building” landlords: those who live in the same rental properties (typically two to four units total) as their tenants. I analyze how these owners understand their relationships with state stools of governance (such as criminal background checks, community policing, eviction court, and neighborhood surveillance technologies). While some landlords embraced and enthusiastically wielded these technologies in their relationships with tenants and neighbors, others struggled to resist them. In both cases, the landlords whom I interviewed understood their access to governance tools as linked to their status as property owners. Ultimately, I argue that one of the ways people become “deputized” by the state—as members of the governing class—is through their property ownership, and the expanded rights such ownership conveys. These findings have implications for how space is governed in urban neighborhoods and beyond.

Author

• Allison Suppan Helmuth, University of North Texas