Living in the city: school friendships, diversity and the middle classes

Much of the literature on the urban middle classes describes processes of both affiliation (often to the localities) and disaffiliation (often from some of the non‐middle‐class residents). In this paper, we consider this situation from a different position, drawing on research exploring whether and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The British journal of sociology 2018-06, Vol.69 (2), p.352-371
Main Authors: Vincent, Carol, Neal, Sarah, Iqbal, Humera
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Children
Cities
Clustering
Continental Population Groups
Cultural differences
Cultural Diversity
diversity
education
Ethnic groups
Ethnicity
families
Female
Friends
Friendship
Gentrification
Humans
Interviews as Topic
London
Male
Middle Aged
Middle class
Mothers
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Parents & parenting
Schools
Social attitudes
Social Change
Social Class
Social classes
Social Environment
United Kingdom
Urban areas
Urban Population
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Summary:Much of the literature on the urban middle classes describes processes of both affiliation (often to the localities) and disaffiliation (often from some of the non‐middle‐class residents). In this paper, we consider this situation from a different position, drawing on research exploring whether and how children and adults living in diverse localities develop friendships with those different to themselves in terms of social class and ethnicity. This paper focuses on the interviews with the ethnically diverse, but predominantly white British, middle‐class parent participants, considering their attitudes towards social and cultural difference. We emphasize the importance of highlighting inequalities that arise from social class and its intersection with ethnicity in analyses of complex urban populations. The paper's contribution is, first, to examine processes of clustering amongst the white British middle‐class parents, particularly in relation to social class. Second, we contrast this process, and its moments of reflection and unease, with the more deliberate and purposeful efforts of one middle‐class, Bangladeshi‐origin mother who engages in active labour to facilitate relationships across social and ethnic difference.
ISSN:0007-1315
1468-4446
DOI:10.1111/1468-4446.12296