Belonging in Brixton

An Ethnography of Migrant West Indian Elders in Brixton, London

Audrey Allwood

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9783030545987
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cultural & Social Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

This volume provides a unique perspective on elderly working-class West Indian migrants in the UK, particularly examining how they negotiate their sense of belonging. Utilizing the life span gaze and including elements of oral history and narrative, this ethnography provides rich insight into the ordinary lives, migratory circumstances, social networks, and interactions with the state as residents in a sheltered housing scheme in Brixton, London. The author further compiles a variety of genealogy charts, providing a uniquely vivid scholarly analysis of the Caribbean migrant experience both in a "place" and through space and time. Ultimately, this work contemplates how communities face change whilst at once developing a local symbolic cultural site, navigating adaptation to new economic and social environments.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The Complexity of Belonging: Theoretical Perspectives
• 3. Elderhood and Black Sheltered Housing
• 4. The Experience of Migration: Planting Roots
• 5. The Elder’s Children: Family Relations and Gender Differences
• 6. Socialisation: ‘Small Garden, Bitter Weed’
• 7. Elder’s Engagement with State Support Services
• 8. Conclusion
• Back Matter