Unlocking the Black Box: Analyzing Policy-Makers Narratives of Housing Policy Change in Finland

Housing policy change is typically initiated by housing policy actors. Here, housing policy change is discussed as an institutional change, with institutional constraints playing a role in the change process. At the same time, change is seen as a result of the behaviour of policy actors. The case of Finnish rental housing policy serves as an example when the process of change is analysed from the perspective of housing policy actors. The policy actors produce a narrative of exhaustion of old policy in a new political climate. At the same time, the policy actors also tell a story about how change is made through negotiations and compromises and what types of strategies they use to break institutional constraints. Furthermore, changes in the political power dynamics can help transform an idea into an agenda.