"So, you're from Brixton?" Towards a Social Psychology of Community Caroline Susannah Howarth Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Social Psychology London School of Economics and Political Science University of London December 1999 For my mother who taught me to question 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Throughout this research I have been overwhelmed by the generous support of those around me - friends, family, colleagues and students. In helping me develop and focus the ideas presented here - there are many to mention. I want to thank Sandra Jovchelovitch, one of my two supervisors, for both challenging and supporting me, as well as Marie-Claude Gervais for her invaluable suggestions, Ivana Markova for her perceptive insights, Sonia Livingstone for her help with the media sections, Roger Silverstone for his enthusiasm for 'community', Willem Doise for his useful comments on identity theories, Peter Loizos for his practical advice, Steve Bennett for his valued technical support, Vanessa Cragoe for her meticulous proof reading, Bradley Franks for his constructive criticism, the PhD community in my department for lively debates, the students I taught for asking difficult questions and, importantly, Gerard Duveen, without whom I would not have started, or completed, this thesis. Anyone familiar with the work of Rob Farr will see the influence of his supervision in my research. It was a great honour, and a constant source of inspiration, to be taught by one of the central figures of a truly social approach to social psychology. On a practical note, I am grateful to the London School of Economics and Political Science for a teaching assistantship (1996-1997), and to the Economic and Social Research Council for a research studentship (1997-1999). Without this means of support, it would not have been possible for me to do the PhD. I wish to express my sincere thanks to both RDF Television and Channel Four for giving me permission to use the programme Electric Avenue as part of my analysis. To my friends and family I owe an enormous debt of gratitude. Their patience, interest and humour kept me going through the ups and downs of research. In particular, Mirca, Sarah, Susie, and Vanessa from the department for their friendship, 'the girls' (Alexy, Ingrid and Sibylle) for keeping me sane, Lis for her superb Thai curries, my sister Sarah for her passion in similar concerns to mine, Karl for supporting me, and my mother for believing in me. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the help of many in Brixton. The staff at all the schools where most of the research was carried out impressed me with their interest and support. Most important of all are the young people who were kind enough to participate in my research. Their enthusiasm, their humour, their astute understanding, and, most of all, their noisy voices - I shall not forget. I cannot thank them enough for this. 3 ON A PERSONAL NOTE A researcher's personal history guides their professional development as much as their theories, their academic cultures and funding opportunities. Many children in this study were aware of this and asked about my own life history. Thus I have become particularly aware that the questions that this research raises are also questions about my own life. As a white child of an expatriate family, I have an ambivalent cultural identity. Issues of how others see me, where others think I 'belong', and my attachment to this culture pervade my life. The societies in which I grew up were marked with racism, stigma and conflicting social representations of different social groups. Living in colour-divided countries such as Papua New Guinea and South Africa, in particular, taught me not only about the damaging consequences of stigma, but also of strength and resilience in the face of stigma. Growing up with other children of different ethnicities, colours and religions taught me about other perspectives: how to understand them, how to learn from them, how to challenge them. Through these relationships with others, I experienced the creativity and mutual appreciation that is born from the recognition of difference. I would say that such experiences are enormously valuable, both in personal and academic terms. I believe that I can relate to the community of my research, as I have known children deeply affected by a similar conflict in representations, in both positive and negative ways. Many children suffer from this experience, while others benefit from it. My personal concern with the well-being of the young in any community has guided my academic study of this particular community. To pretend that I can speak for a community is naive and dangerous. What I can do is speak about a community, and reveal my interest therein. 4 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the social psychological significance of 'community', as it is experienced and talked about in Brixton, a culturally diverse area in South London. There are two points of entry into the social psychology of a community: (1) the negotiation of social representations of the community and (2) the co-construction of community identities. The theoretical perspective that I have developed through this research is grounded in the theory of social representations (Moscovici, 1984, 1988; Farr, 1987) and draws on other theories of representation (Hall, 1997a), community (Cohen, 995), identity and self-consciousness (Hall, 1991a; Tajfel, 1982; Mead, 1934), stigma (Goffman, 1968) and the media (Thompson, 1995). It is an ethnographic study which combines ongoing participant-observation, 7 focus groups with 44 adolescents aged between 12 and 16, 5 in-depth interviews with deputy-heads of Brixton's schools, a media analysis of a documentary set in Brixton, and follow-up discussions. These accounts are woven together to answer the principal research question: how is `community' lived in Brixton? This study shows that communities emerge as sites of struggle in the negotiation of self-identity, belonging and difference. Community identities are constructed through and against social representations of the community, particularly those in the media. Two competing representations of Brixton - 'Brixton as Diverse' and 'Brixton as Bad' — were found in the same representational field. The data illustrate the different ways in which people affirm, manipulate and contest these ambivalent social representations in order to defend their perspective on Brixton, and so either claim or reject community membership. I examine how these representations both reflect and construct the social reality of Brixton. This reveals the potential of social representations to construct, delimit and empower the living of community. The systematic analysis of social representations of community and community identities demonstrates the pressing need for a social psychology of community. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements 3 On a personal note 4 Abstract 5 Table of contents 6 List of illustrations 7 Overview 8 INTRODUCTION 1. Defining the Problem 10 PART 1. RESEARCHING COMMUNITY Introduction 19 2. Theorising Community 20 3. Accessing the Community 57 4. Identity in Whose Eyes? 94 5. Analysing Divergent Perspectives 126 Conclusion 155 PART 2. COMMUNITY IN CONTEXT Introduction 156 6. Making Sense of Brixton's Diversity 157 7. Brixton is Bad — Representation and Reality? 185 8. The Struggle for Recognition and Esteem 232 Conclusion 265 IN CONCLUSION 9. Towards a Social Psychology of Community 266 REFERENCES 283 APPENDICES Table of contents and List of illustrations 297 I. Data Analysis in Nud*ist 298 II. A Brief History of Brixton 315 III. Reflections on Earlier Research. the 1995 Brixton 'Riot' 322 6 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Photographs: Brixton 64-66 Interview guide: one-to-one 80 Interview guide: focus group 85 Illustration: 'Who am I?' exercise 86-87 Table: Core and Periphery of Social Representations 137 Diagram: 'Insiders, Neighbours and Outsiders' 145 Diagram: 'Brixton as Diverse' 162 Diagram: 'Brixton as Bad' 193 Diagram: 'Encoding/Decoding' 203 Stills: Electric Avenue 208-226 Diagram: 'People in Brixton' 235 Table: 'Central Issues for a Social Psychology of Community' 275 7 OVERVIEW OF THESIS INTRODUCTION 1. Defining the Problem 10 The absence of a social psychology of community; the research question; from the universal to the particular; structure of research and structure of the thesis; mixing theory, method and analysis. PART 1. RESEARCHING COMMUNITY Introduction 19 2. Theorising Community 20 Community psychology; the contemporary relevance of community; the need for a social psychology of community; what is a community; communities of difference; off-line and on-line communities; media representations as stigma; the theory of social representations; from collective to social; social re-presentation as a socio-cognitive process; social representations and communities; identity, stigma and community. 3. Accessing the Community 57 Validity and subjectivity; entering the field; images of Brixton; the researcher- researched relationship; the value of difference; researching community; participant-observation; triangulation; representations in different media; adolescents; inter-views; focus groups; analysing media representations; follow- up and feedback. 4. Identity in Whose Eyes? 94 Negotiating self-identity; Social Identity Theory; Self-Categorisation Theory; social groups; threatened identities; critique of Social Identity Theory; the gaze; the dialectics of self; children's developing self-reflexivity;