Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This is a qualitative data collection.

The project charted changes since 1940 in the interface between official descriptions of three Norwich council estates (North Earlham, Larkman and Marlpit) as deprived, and residents' own social and spatial identity practices.

It looked critically at the extent to which residents' social identity practices concord with the notion that the estates make up a homogeneous "community". Through analysing the conflicts between groups of residents with divergent settlement histories, including Travellers, Irish settlers, former rural labourers from Norfolk and people re-housed from central Norwich, it contributed to the unpacking of "whiteness" as an ethnic category in Britain.

Areas identified in official documents as "deprived" since the 1970s, have been the target for area-based initiatives, most recently channelling resources through the NELM (North Earlham, Larkman and Marlpit) New Deal for Communities project. Through 25 life-history interviews the researchers aimed to analyse the impact of these initiatives, and the interrelation between policy and its impact on residents' identifications and identity practices. These interviews are not straightforward verbatim transcripts but were redrafted and approved by the participants. The anonymised names used in the transcripts are consistent with those used in the published outputs of the project.

Further information can be found at the Sussex Centre for Migration Research 'Deprived White Community'? Social Action in Three Norwich Estates, 1930-2005 webpage and the ESRC 'Deprived White Community'? Social Action in Three Norwich Estates award webpage.