Dear All,
Another useful piece of evidence on social capital/comunity cohesion
from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
The link is http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/housing/2188.asp
(full report at the bottom of the webpage)
This study details the construction of neighbourhood identity, its
relationship to social class and status, and its resilience to change,
through examining three neighbourhoods within the city of Stirling.
* Neighbourhood identity was established at a very early stage of each
neighbourhood's history, and proved resilient to change. Such
identities were underpinned by social class and status – which was
sometimes based on historic male employment patterns – as well as
physical characteristics, including housing style, type and tenure.
* There was evidence of internal differentiation in each
neighbourhood, often through minute differences between households,
streets and, in the past, male occupations.
* External perceptions of a neighbourhood's identity were often
stronger and more of a caricature than those held by people who lived
there.
* Family networks, friends and neighbours were given differing degrees
of importance in people's notions of what created a sense of
community. However, their presence helped sustain a sense of community
and people's own sense of involvement within that community.
* Community was constructed through familiar, everyday social
interactions within various localised settings, which were often
enough to give people a powerful sense of attachment and belonging. In
each neighbourhood, respondents interviewed for the study suggested
notions of community were declining in response to ever-increasing
individualism.
* Many respondents saw women as playing the core role in sustaining
community, through their family and child-rearing roles in local
neighbourhoods. With greater numbers of women now working, this role
in binding communities was felt to have declined.
All my best,
Sal
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