Neighbourhood Belonging, Social Class and Social Media—Providing Ladders to the Cloud

Citation

Matthews P (2015) Neighbourhood Belonging, Social Class and Social Media—Providing Ladders to the Cloud. Housing Studies, 30 (1), pp. 22-39. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2014.953448

Abstract
The growth of social media over the past decade has transformed how we have interacted with the World Wide Web. This paper presents data from a research project coproduced with community organisations that had created an online archive through a Facebook site of a deprived neighbourhood in Edinburgh, Scotland. Framing the data from this site in the literature on class, place, stigma and belonging, the paper presents further evidence of the ‘we-being' of working-class residence as opposed to the elective belonging of middle class people, and the stigma towards working-class neighbourhoods from wider society. The paper concludes by highlighting the benefits of social media in producing a natural discussion about neighbourhoods and residence and the importance of creating ladders to the cloud for working-class neighbourhoods.

Keywords
Social media; neighbourhood belonging; social class;neighbourhood deprivation; methods

Journal
Housing Studies: Volume 30, Issue 1