Chapter 9 The role of qualitative research in identifying residents' perspectives about social mix

Abstract

Increasing concern about rising crime rates, high levels of unemployment and the anti-social behaviour of youth gangs that are concentrated within particular regions and neighbourhoods of cities has prompted renewed interest in governments to frame policies to create socially mixed cities. Recent riots experienced on social housing estates, including in France (St Denis, Poissy, Clichy-sous-bois), Australia (Macquarie Fields, Redfern in New South Wales) and Britain (Bestwood, Nottingham) have reinvigorated public and community debate into just what makes a functional neighbourhood. The nub of the debate about dysfunctional neighbourhoods is whether part of the problem is to be found in the lack of social mix of residents, that is, the homogeneity of the neighbourhoods in aspects such as housing tenure, ethnicity and socioeconomic characteristics of residents.

Citation

Arthurson, K. (2008), "Chapter 9 The role of qualitative research in identifying residents' perspectives about social mix", Maginn, P.J., Thompson, S. and Tonts, M. (Ed.) Qualitative Housing Analysis: An International Perspective (Studies in Qualitative Methodology, Vol. 10), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 209-225. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1042-3192(08)10009-X