Power, Ethopolitics and Community Relations: Complexities of living in multi-owned properties

Abstract

Multi-owned properties (MOPs) continue to proliferate as governments seek to reduce urban sprawl, revitalize inner cities and meet the housing need of a growing population. Yet limited research has focused on the privatization of urban governance and liveability implications arising in these developments. The way power mechanisms are exercised in strata title communities and the resultant effects on unit residents and owners is a key issue. With owner committees playing a central role in governing and regulating common property, as well as resident conduct, the pervasive power relations found in strata titled complexes have the potential to trigger multiple strands of conflict. The way that governance plays out in MOPs is key to understanding their embedded power relations. This study explores the exercise of power in MOPs and how community is evoked as a way to govern relations. We also consider what occurs when notions of community are subverted, and the expected “lifestyle” is held hostage to ongoing conflicts and issues of exclusion.