Thursday, 21 August 2008

Buster Keaton's 'Neighbors'

Thanks to Kit Hodge on the Neighbors Project blog for drawing attention to this Buston Keaton short I hadn't seen before. Part 2 is here.

21 Aug 2008 18:22:00 | Neighbourhood relations

The comments to this entry are closed.

NEXT POST
Do people socialise outside their own age group? As part of the Full of Life Campaign for UK Older People's Day (1 October) the Dept for Work and Pensions has published some surprisingly positive findings about intergenerational ties. Given the low level of attention paid to intergenerational relations in the cohesion agenda, it's good to see something coming out of government on this theme. Do people socialise with others outside their own age group? According to this (GB-wide) survey, 86% of people over the age of 15 do so, with more than half saying they do so often or all of the time. Half of those aged 65 or over socialise regularly with people older or younger than themselves. Where do people socialise with others outside their own age group? Mostly at family gatherings (60%), with neighbours (45%), and at work (43%). (Socialising at work? No wonder the economy's in a mess). The survey also has findings which relate to neighbourliness, and I'll post on those when I've had the chance to line them up alongside others.
PREVIOUS POST
Five per cent have no contact with neighbours A couple of points in the Full of Life survey which I mentioned the other day got me rummaging among other surveys looking for similar questions to see if there are comparable answers which tell us something. Health warning: some of these sources can only be found in press releases or newspaper articles with little or no supporting evidence (a boringly familiar complaint which applies to the Full of Life findings also). With one exception, they're all UK, GB or English sources. First, evidence about the more prominent neighbourly connections: Neighbours known well enough to say 'hello' Full of Life survey 2008 - 93% Said hello to at least one person in street in past week BBC 2008 - 89% Have good relationship with neighbours Nat Assn Estate Agents 2007 - 89% Get on well with some, most or all of neighbours Manchester neighbourliness review 2005 - 92% Speak to neighbours up to once/week General Household Survey 2000 - 81% Speak to next door or nearest neighbour at least once/week Neighbourhood Watch members 2005 - 91% Next, evidence of detachment from neighbouring: Don't know neighbour at all Lloyds TSB 2004 - 4% NAEA 2007 - 6% Don't know neighbour at all even by name Neighbourhood Watch members 2005 - 8% Have no contact with neighbours Manchester neighbourliness review 2005 - 6% Survey of English Housing 2003 - 4% No neighbours known General Household Survey 2000 - 6% Don't know people in neighbourhood Hong Kong Survey 2002 - 6% Don't know name of next door neighbour Aviva (Norwich Union) 2006 - 55% (hmm, is this a typo?) Full of Life survey 2008 - 5% Never see neighbours for a chat Health and Lifestyles Survey 1991-1992 - 5% Don't know neighbours well enough to have a chat with Bournville estate study 2003 - 3% Never talk to neighbours British Household Panel Survey 2002 - 2.5% A month without speaking to a neighbour Aviva (Norwich Union) 2006 - 12% Have never or hardly ever spoken to neighbours Halifax 2006 - 20% Speak to neighbours less than once a week General Household Survey 2000 - 19% When go out, never see someone you know well in the neighbourhood? Manchester neighbourliness review 2005 - 7% So do we think things are changing? Neighbours becoming more distant Lloyds TSB 2004 - 58% Neighbourhood becoming less friendly BBC 2008 - 22% We are becoming less neighbourly Aviva (Norwich Union) 2006 - 64% Relations with neighbours have declined over past five years Halifax 2006 - men 13% women 20% It's less neighbourly today than ten years ago Kleeneze 2000 - 79% So from all this it would be reasonable to draw three tentative conclusions: about 90% of us enjoy good relationships with our neighbours and speak to them often about 5% of us have no contact with our neighbours there's no consensus on whether neighbourliness is in decline. But here's another thought. According to one of the seminal sources in this field, single people tend to be less...

Kevin Harris

Search

My Other Accounts

Recent Comments