Factors in the informal and formal social participation of inner city working class households: A study of three local authority housing estates in Central London

Abstract

The primary aim of this study was to determine the variations in the degree of informal and formal social participation of working class housewives living on council housing estates in the inner city. The investigator hoped to discover whether the housewives lead lives dominated by segmental relationships or whether they tended to share quasi-primary relations with one another and be active in kinship groups. A random sample was taken of housewives living on three council housing estates of an Inner London Borough. There was a response rate of 82% giving a total of 149 respondents. The data were collected by means of an eleven page interview schedule with six undergraduates and the investigator doing the interviewing. Most of the tabulations were done using the Cope Chat card; gamma associations and percentages were calculated. It was found that the housewives' social relations with her neighbours were not totally segmental: most shared quasi-primary relations and almost half shared a primary relation. Relatives played an important role in the housewives social participation. Social relations with friends and attendance at formal activities was of relatively minor importance. A respondent was more likely to have a high social participation rate if she were young, married with children, had gone to school as a child in the districts he now lived, and had a long length of residence on the estate. Respondents in the maisonettes tended to have a higher rate of social participation than those living in the three to six storey flats or the tower block. A high rate of social participation was shown to increase the likelihood of a positive self-report of happiness with life on the estate, a high level of satisfaction with the estate, and low rate of anomie.