Households and neighbourhoods

This chapter explores two very familiar sites, households and neighbourhoods, and discusses the importance of these sites for senses of identity and belonging. The chapter will show that there is a two-way relationship between identity and household/neighbourhood: while social identities impact on the ways that people experience households and neighbourhoods, the experiences that people have within their households and neighbourhoods also impact upon their sense of identity and belonging. These ideas will be explored through case studies that examine the ways that people ‘make homes’ and interact within neighbourhoods. Importantly, households and neighbourhoods will be explored both as places and sets of practices, that is, the practices of home-making (through which home is created and maintained) and neighbouring (the interactions between people who are neighbours and through which neighbourhoods are constituted). Through this focus on practice we can start to ask how houses are made into homes and how neighbouring relations shape the nature of different neighbourhood spaces. The chapter also reflects on the ways that global cultures, processes and relations are impacting on the sites and practices of home and neighbouring, starting at the home before expanding in scale to consider the space of the neighbourhood.