Mobilities and Neighbourhood Belonging in Cities and Suburbs

Contemporary urban and suburban dwellers seem to be constantly on the move - commuting to work and travelling for leisure as well as moving homes. Does this mean that people are rootless and lack a sense of belonging to particular places, and especially to the neighbourhoods in which they live? Or does enhanced mobility co-exist with feelings of community, belonging and being-at-home? These questions are examined in the chapters of this collection through an exciting series of neighbourhood-based case studies drawn from original research undertaken in the cities and suburbs of the UK, Europe, North America and Africa. This book discusses various forms of place belonging, gated communities, social mixing in post-regeneration neighbourhoods, transnational and forced mobility, suburban youth, and everyday social relations between 'newcomers' and 'old timers'. The chapters illustrate how neighbourhoods are made and remade through flows of people as they circulate in and out, within and around these residential locales via everyday travel and periodic residential relocation. This inter-disciplinary collection employs a range of theoretical approaches drawn from urban studies, sociology, social anthropology, geography and planning.

Paul Watt is Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies at Birkbeck, University of London, UK. He co-wrote Understanding Social Inequality (2007) with Tim Butler.

Peer Smets is Assistant Professor at VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands.