Neighbourhoods

Social mix and attachment

The debate over social mix continues, which in itself is not a bad thing. Here's something from a report on The influence of neighbourhood deprivation on people's attachment to places, published by JRF and the Chartered Institute of Housing today:

'In general, high levels of mix of various sorts do not have much of a negative effect upon attachment. Indeed, some dimensions of mix (notably tenure and education) can be good for attachment. Where policy creates new communities, this research suggests that the most beneficial form of mix to consider is a mix of educational levels.'

(Attachment is assumed to be a Good Thing). The summary points out that:

'Higher levels of social mix are not generally associated with lower levels of attachment'

and also suggests that

'it might be useful to find ways of recognising or valuing local connections when assessing applications for social housing, since this may help to strengthen existing networks.'

Indeed - noting that suggestions like this tend to get made in a tentative way, I'm gathering a little collection because I suspect/hope that there is some momentum building, and we'll gradually start whispering more loudly. Summary. Full report.

Meanwhile, yesterday we had a report from the Dept for Work and Pensions, on
Social housing and worklessness: key policy messages, coming a little while after this literature review.

I still wonder about the government's new-found purpose in addressing 'worklessness' wherever it thinks it can be hit. I was struck by this paragraph:

'It is questionable whether interventions intended to diversify the social mix in existing areas of social housing will have a substantial impact on levels of worklessness for two key reasons. First, there are various practical challenges associated with the creation of more mixed-income communities. Second, it is questionable whether the promotion of social mix will effectively address social polarisation and concentrations of worklessness in areas of social housing. Disadvantage in the labour market was far more commonly associated with personal disadvantages and roles and responsibilities that were incompatible with work, rather than anything intrinsic about where people were living. This is not to suggest that gains might not be forthcoming from the promotion of social mix, but to point to the importance of such activities being complementary to efforts to improve the incomes and support the livelihoods of existing residents of disadvantaged areas.'

What we gain from the public realm

Travelling a fair bit lately. In the last couple of days on trains I have...

...heard someone say they got a cheap ticket from London to Aberdeen, eight hours, 'I just went for the ride'

...heard someone explaining why he keeps smoking rather than endure the stressful cure. 'I like a fag first thing in the morning to clear me lungs'

...half-watched a young woman perform a 20 minute phase of what may have been a marathon meticulous make-up, including fastidious uprooting of eyebrows, the full MOT

…witnessed a clear example of a curious trend, where a couple sit apart from one another in a sparsely populated carriage, and then talk loudly across the compartment. (In terms of irritation level, it compares with insensitive use of the mobile phone, but there is a good tactic to deal with it: you simply go and sit ostentatiously next to or opposite one of them, it makes them realise they are not at home in the lounge)

...heard a tattoo-festooned and behooded young person strike up a conversation with an elderly couple, she saying it’s nice to have a chat and the lad saying 'I met my best friend on a train.'

And I just sit there like a sad blogger. But something I relish about the micro connection with others, without which we would not be able to know ourselves.

I don’t have a ball

I just had a conversation with a very experienced teacher who told me about the increasing proportion of young children she works with who have no ball skills or basic experience of climbing frames.

She asked one little boy, aged about four, does he not play ball with his dad, and the response was, I don’t have a ball. They live a few hundred yards from a large park but apparently don’t use it.

Previously:

Death to the springy chicken!

Play in the street

Of the social capital of a social capitalist

Today I had the privilege to be speaking (at a conference of the Society of Chief Librarians, no less; not an indian in sight) alongside John Field, whose excellent book on social capital is about to be published in its second edition. A privilege, but not an easy act to follow.

John spoke about social capital and I was talking about the Living Library project I've been involved in, and about community engagement. I think between us we offered a healthy serving of social policy and practice ideas from beyond the field. There seemed to be a great deal of support for the notion of a locally-grown, non-confrontational model of Living Library - a model which facilitates and legitimises conversations that would otherwise not happen, building relationships in an organic way.

When I reached for a biz card to offer to John, he laughed and said he didn't have one. The explanation being that he came originally from Northern Ireland where 'everyone knows everyone'. Maybe one doesn't need biz cards for bonding ties, and if you don't need bridging ties I guess you can do without. To my delight, our social networks overlap through our common friendship with Alison Gilchrist: I think it took us five minutes at most to discover this connection.

Researching social relations in urban environments

Yesterday to Manchester for a workshop on reseaching social relations in urban environments, I got to hear three nicely judged and matched presentations about how people relate to their neighbourhoods and how the notion of neighbourhood is constructed.

If you go to the link above you can follow through to some of the work discussed. While the meeting was mainly about methods, it's interesting to think about two points that came across from the research that was described -

From Mags Adams ('Sensory Urbanism: sensewalking as a methodological device') and Andrew Clarke ('Understanding community through mobile interviews and participatory mapping') I learn that people do not separate the physical environment from the social when they speak about their neighbourhoods. (Well, I could have told you that, but it's good to have the research to back it up).

Meanwhile from Roger Burrows (talking about 'Life in Coded Spaces?') I learned, if I have this right, that there are externally applied systems (geodemograohic systems) that are not simply objective, but in some way invasive and distort the social while describing it. (So a bit like humans really). Fascinating stuff, I left wanting more.

Milkmen: the official mention

Here's what my sister-in-law told me. She was watching BBC Breakfast this morning when the milkman called, so she went to the door to say she didn't want another pint, too much already, but I can't stop and chat cos my brother-in-law's on the telly talking about neighbourliness...

Naturally most milkmen are interested in the topic, and this one is no exception - keeps an eye on folk to make sure everything's ok - so in he comes to watch for the few minutes that I'm on, in a somewhat shapeless conversation with Wayne Hemingway following one of David Sillito's short film pieces. Then apparently just a quick question - 'does he mention milkmen in his book then?'

If you're curious about the answer, one good way to find out would be to go to this page and be enticed.

The neighbours who never speak / David Sillito 7 May 2008.

Trust and key-holding

David Sillito has some pieces on BBC Breakfast tv this week, beginning today in a couple of localities where I've done interviews myself, Pembroke Street in Devonport, and Bolton Woods in Shipley.

And if you want to find out more detail on some of the stories David's picked up - and the detail on the research he commissioned which suggested that 36% of respondents would not trust any of their neighbours with a spare set of house keys - perhaps you'd like to come along and hear him speak at this book launch.

The question about key-holding was posed hypothetically. In some research I carried out in Manchester a few years ago, reported here, we asked the direct questions: 'Do you hold a spare key for any of your neighbours? And do any of your neighbours hold your key?'

We found that in the 65-74 age band some 49% had keys held by neighbours, and 43% held keys for at least one neighbour, but the other age groups were significantly lower. The size of our sample left some of our stats a bit shakey, whereas the BBC survey had 1000 respondents and shows little variation across regions (England and Wales) or age groups.

Are we a nation of strangers? / David Sillito 6 May 2008

Suburban gaze

This image is by Christopher Campbell and comes from an exhibition of paintings about London's infamous A406 North Circular Road. To most people who have to negotiate it, the North Circular is an obstacle or a set of traps, not a road in which people live. Yet the homes were built to the high expectations of suburbia.

If you've read Edward Platt's fascinating study of the homes and inhabitants of the (not dissimilar) A40, Leadville, Campbell's images will be all the more compelling. Like Platt, Campbell takes the mundane, refuses to heat it up, and yet still creates something I'm reluctant to look away from. The exhbition is at StArt Space, Columbia Road, east London until 25 May.

Among the comments Edward Platt made from his interviews with residents, I'm occasionally reminded of this one:

It is not the noise on the road, but the noise of her neighbours that upsets her.