Field Emergence in Civil Society: A Theoretical Framework and Its Application to Community-Led Housing Organisations in England

Abstract

The paper aims to develop a better understanding of the evolution and structuration of contemporary civil society fields. It applies analytical elements from field theories and closely related network governance literature within a qualitative research design to explore collective action around community-led housing (CLH) in England, a label assigned to a range of alternative housing models. We argue that collective action needs to be understood as a loose coupling of earlier and younger social movements, based on their shared awareness of and willingness to address macro-level societal problems. We further identify a gradual evolution of field governance from loose covenanting between sub-fields, development of a common project, to network activation to manage significant external funding. This process has not yet led to a unified field with stable internal governance and wide external legitimacy on the national level. However, an embryonic field structure and permeable boundaries provide CLH actors multiple hybrid identities and strategic positioning opportunities in adjacent fields. We believe that our strategic field perspective can shed light on the nature of collective action in other parts of the civil society.