Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This collection comprises of 155 unstructured and open-ended interviews. Interviews were conducted with residents on four housing estates (n=107), with head or senior teachers in schools on each estate (n=29), and with professional and voluntary workers involved in education, housing, probation service and community work (n=19). Most of the interviews were with individuals or couples, but five were conducted as focus groups (with school children and community groups). The interviews were conducted in four housing estates in the West Midlands area. Two were located in inner city Birmingham (one working class, one middle class); two were located outside Birmingham (one working class, one middle class- Edgbaston). Some of the interviews were transcribed (n=70), some were typed, others handwritten, some were summarised as handwritten interview notes (n=85). Full details are available in the data list.

Main Topics:

The interviews attempted to discover what race relations meant to the residents of these estates and professionals working in the community in terms of attitudes and experiences. The approach takes account of ethnic relations, not by studying particular ethnic groups per se, but by studying the processes by which different groups on the estates - black and white, young and elderly, male and female, etc - construct and destroy relationships; and the influences on the processes exerted by the respective communities.

Purposive selection/case studies

Face-to-face interview

Focus group