Housing And Young Families In East London

Originally published in 1985, Anthea Holme focuses her study on Bethnal Green in East London and Wanstead and Woodford in outer East London, the areas covered by Michael Young and Peter Willmott in their celebrated books Family and Kinship in East London and Family and Class in a London Suburb. Her aim was to discover how things had changed in the twenty-five years or so since the publication of these classic studies. She makes a four-way comparison, between then and now and between two neighbourhoods of the present, a relatively prosperous outer London suburb and a London East End district carrying its full quota of inner-city problems. The book takes as its starting point a crucial event in a family’s history – the birth of the first child. Housing may contribute to the happiness or the stress of the family at this time. The author looks at the present housing and the housing history of families who have just had their first child and discusses their satisfactions, problems and aspirations. She draws attention to the contrasts in housing – in tenure, dwelling type, condition, surroundings and in the opportunity to acquire a home in the first place – already evident twenty-five years ago. She also shows that while in many ways – in patterns of consumption, for instance – change has brought the two places together, housing has driven them further apart. Owner occupation dominant in Woodford, and council tenancy dominant in Bethnal Green, are rapidly becoming the respective symbols of the have and the have nots. Anthea Holme concludes that in the present political, economic and social climate this division can only grow wider unless or until housing is regarded as the vitally important component it is in inner-city life.

First published in 1957 ,and reprinted with a new introduction in 1986, Michael Young and Peter Willmott’s book on family and kinship in Bethnal Green in the 1950s is a classic in urban studies. A standard text in planning, housing, family studies and sociology, it predicted the failure in social terms of the great rehousing campaign which was getting under way in the 1950s. The tall flats built to replace the old ‘slum’ houses were unpopular. Social networks were broken up. The book had an immediate impact when it appeared – extracts were published in the newspapers, the sales were a record for a report of a sociological study, Government ministers quoted it. But the approach it advocated was not accepted until the late 1960s, and by then it was too late. This Routledge Revivals reissue includes the authors' introduction from the 1986 reissue, reviewing the impact of the book and its ideas thirty years on. They argue that if the lessons implicit in the book had been learned in the 1950s, London and other British cities might not have suffered the 'anomie' and violence manifested in the urban riots of the 1980s.

"A wonderfully vivid, accurately observed portrait of a way of life, whose value as a historical document increases as the East End of small factories, docks and busy streets of row houses disappears, and with it the culture of the old Bethnal Green."—Dolores Hayden, author of The Grand Domestic Revolution

What impact do poor neighbourhood conditions have on family life? Why does 'neighbourhood' matter to low income families? How important is community spirit to people living in deprived areas? Does major regeneration funding improve social conditions?Using an up-to-date account of life in East London, the authors illustrate how cities faced with neighbourhoods in decline are changing. East Enders:gives a bird's eye view of neighbourhood problems and assets;provides policy recommendations based on real life experiences;tackles topical issues such as race relations, mothers and work, urban revival and social disorder through the eyes of families;is authored by leading experts in community studies. ·[vbTab]·[vbTab]·[vbTab]·[vbTab]·[vbTab]Undergraduate and postgraduate students in social policy, sociology, anthropology, urban studies, child development, geography, housing and public administration should all read this book. Policy makers in national and local government, practitioners and community workers in towns and cities and general readers interested in the life and history of urban neighbourhoods will also find this book an invaluable source of information.CASE Studies on Poverty, Place and Policy seriesSeries Editor: John Hills, Director of CASE at the London School of Economics and Political Science.Drawing on the findings of the ESRC Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion's extensive research programme into communities, poverty and family life in Britain, this fascinating series:Provides a rich and detailed analysis of anti-poverty policy in action.Focuses on the individual and social factors that promote regeneration, recovery and renewal.For other titles in this series, please follow the series link from the main catalogue page.

Jerry White's London in the Twentieth Century, Winner of the Wolfson Prize, is a masterful account of the city’s most tumultuous century by its leading expert. In 1901 no other city matched London in size, wealth and grandeur. Yet it was also a city where poverty and disease were rife. For its inhabitants, such contradictions and diversity were the defining experience of the next century of dazzling change. In the worlds of work and popular culture, politics and crime, through war, immigration and sexual revolution, Jerry White’s richly detailed and captivating history shows how the city shaped their lives and how it in turn was shaped by them.

Reflects interest in how older people are affected by social change which is a key theme in social science that looks set to continue as more people are living for longer.

Researching Families and Communities: Social and Generational Change explores the concepts and perspectives that guide research and the methods used to explore change during the last half of the 20th century and into the new millennium. It highlights the complexities of continuities alongside change, the importance of the perspectives that shape investigation, and the need to engage with situated data.