Neighbouring

I went to the launch of Respect in the Neighbourhood yesterday. The book is edited by Kevin Harris of the rather good Neighbourhoods blog. Two things were guaranteed at the launch seminar - that the chair introducing the seminar would have their own anecdote about neighbouring, and that there would be an academic who would challenge what we really meant by [insert concept here} and would go on to use the words discourse and reified. There was a lot of talk about the decline of the local neighbourhood as the basis for social support and the issue of anti-social behaviour.

So in that vein, the pic above shows my neighbourhood with the postman urinating against the wall opposite the flat that was pushed over by some kids a couple of weekends ago. At the moment, I can see people in the flats opposite doing the same as me, crouched over their computers. Not much sign of neighbouring there then.

And it's unlikely to change as the area's moved to virtually all the houses and flats being rented out to people who move every six months when the lease is up. This isn't necessarily such a problem for the kinds of people who live here (in their late 20s and early 30s and mostly without kids) whose friendship networks span London (and probably the world given the mix of South Africans, Australians, Poles, French and Germans in the area) but it does get to be a problem for those who can't access such mobility and are more tied to their local area for such support (for instance elderly people, children and those on very low incomes).

It's also a split you would have had in the nineteenth century. Although there was greater neighbourhood support (although this wouldn't have been much in the way of financial support) the poor were much more tied to their local area. Most of those displaced in slum clearances or to make way for railways stayed nearby (adding to overcrowding) because they needed to stay near potential jobs and to maintain their place in their local neighbourhood network of support in case of times of need. The rich meanwhile were able to access much wider networks of support and had access to wider information networks to enable them to take advantage of work or other opportunities (including, for some, globalised networks - such as those that the Surrey Docks were part of).