Moving histories of class and community: identity, place and belonging in contemporary England

Abstract

White working class areas are often seen as entrenched and immobile, threatened by the arrival of 'outsiders'. This major new study of class and place since 1930 challenges accepted wisdom, demonstrating how emigration as well as shorter distance moves out of such areas can be as suffused with emotion as moving into them. Both influence people's sense of belonging to the place they live in. Using oral histories from residents of three social housing estates in Norwich, England, the book also tells stories of the appropriation of and resistance to state discoruses of community; and of ambivalent, complex and shifting class relations and identities. Material poverty has been a constant in the area, but not for all residents, and being classed as 'poor' is an identity that some actively resist. This paperback edition includes a Preface by Lynsey Hanley, author of Estates: An Intimate History, and a new Conclusion by the authors.

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