Mutual aid compacts : an evaluation of community building through a contract of mutual assistance

Sprigings, N

Abstract

This research project is an evaluation of an attempt to create "community" on a new
housing estate in a city in the north of England. In allocating the new housing the
housing association landlord introduced the idea of a Mutual Aid Compact where
successful applicants would have to demonstrate a willingness to offer help to each
other in their new environment.
The research seeks an understanding of the aspirations of the landlord, the advisors
promoting the scheme, and the residents and the actual impacts of the Mutual Aid
framework in order to evaluate success in creating community. In doing this, the
research reveals the assumptions made about community by policy makers including
the explicit assumption that community can help to tackle social exclusion.
The research, based on documentary evidence and stakeholder interviews, indicates
that many of the assumptions about place-based communities may be mistaken. Far
from being a \\a_v of countering social exclusion there is evidence from the literature
and from the research that "community" can consolidate the effects of exclusion in a
variety of ways.
Community creation also seems to be a hazardous activity for landlord and resident
alike as the promotion of community activity also promotes leadership struggles and
attempts to impose values that may be at odds with the ideals of community
imagined by the initiators. In this case, for example, one resident was subjected to
death threats, another was forced from the estate, and yet another ran the risk of
being ostracized by residents. Despite this, some practices from the project may be
more widely applicable to housing practice.

Citation

Sprigings, N. Mutual aid compacts : an evaluation of community building through a contract of mutual assistance. (Thesis). Salford : University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Oct 3, 2012
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2003