Murray, Barbara (2005) What are the Factors that Support Sustainable Communities? A Case Study of an Inner-City Flats Complex. Masters thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
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Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to examine an inner-city complex with a view to
finding out what are the factors that support sustainable communities. To find
out to what extent do people in a social housing complex have a sense of
agency and identify positively with the complex. These flats have just been
rejuvenated and appear to be very stable and settled. However as this is the
object of investigation and not a prior given this criterion can only be applied
in advance in a rough fashion. Some issues in particular emerge from the
literature as being crucial in establishing a basis for investigation, a sense of
place or place attachment, the social composition, the physical configuration,
the nature and type of interactions that take place there, the networks of
support/social and economic, collective mobilisation and the effects of urban
renewal on the flats. My endeavour is to further understanding of the way
individuals living in social housing construct a personal identity tied to place
and to contest alternative meanings, degradations, and the stigma of social
housing. Whether by conscious political design or institutional discrimination,
social housing represents according to Massey and Kanaiaupuni (1993,pl20),
a “key institutional mechanism for concentrating large numbers of people
within a small geographical space”, intensifying the problems of social
isolation and disadvantage. The perception of social housing in Ireland is seen
as inferior and generally negative, often stigmatising residents with pejorative
labels. In the public eye, inner-city social housing is for people going nowhere
characterized by social political and economic marginality. Yet public and
scholarly accounts that focus almost exclusively on the social pathologies
within social housing often overshadow and direct attention away from
residents efforts to create a meaningful place and community. My aim is to
examine if there is a positive side to social housing that challenges the
perception of local Authority tenants as no hopers and to see if residents in this
flat complex have a sense of themselves as agents and as members of a
community bound up with a sense of identity and place.
Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
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Keywords: | Sustainable Communities; Inner-City Flats; |
Academic Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology |
Item ID: | 5273 |
Depositing User: | IR eTheses |
Date Deposited: | 05 Aug 2014 15:58 |
URI: | https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/5273 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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