Wellbeing, Support Networks and Expertise on the Seacroft Council Estate, Leeds, 1950s-90s

世纪后半叶见证了英国工人阶级社区在家庭、健康和福祉方面的转变。福利国家和国民保健制度的建立使人们对国家消除贫困和健康状况不佳的能力感到乐观，理事会住房以前所未有的规模建造，大大扩大了获得高质量住房的机会。这些新房子中有许多是在郊区的大型理事会地产上。然而，在接下来的几十年里，当代对这些社区的评论往往是批判性的。在20世纪50年代至60年代，人们担心郊区化破坏了“传统”的工人阶级社区网络，并在孤独的家庭主妇中造成了“郊区神经症”，从20世纪70年代开始，社会责任的崩溃使居民因害怕邻居而孤立。这些场所一再受到污名化，被认为福利水平低，难以获得社区的实际和情感支持。本项目通过与利兹西克罗夫特房地产的居民共同制作的研究来检查这些变化。西克罗夫特的小村庄在20世纪50年代大规模扩建，当时新的理事会庄园开始建设。在这个项目中，我将与居民合作，研究社交网络是如何在西克罗夫特发展、忍受和改变的。在这样做的时候，我将重新考虑二战后郊区社区的性质。我将关注复杂的身份以及对阶级、种族和性别的本土理解。我将调查社交网络如何对幸福产生积极或有害的影响，当社区内提供支持时，当它不存在时。除此之外，该项目将追踪西克罗夫特对心理健康和幸福的理解的变化，并调查专业和非专业知识在告知这些理解方面的作用。该项目将为社会历史学家开发共同制作方法。我已经在与一个妇女健康讨论小组合作，我将再组建四个小组，代表西克罗夫特庄园的广泛社会团体，其中许多团体很少有机会与大学接触。这些小组将是该项目的核心，我们将合作开发研究问题和目标，分析和解释，以及项目产出。我们将在展示我们的研究时跨越学术/非学术鸿沟，并将有机会在会议和项目研讨会上分享不同形式的专业知识。道德实践的根本反思是在这个项目的中心，我将制定新的参与者护理和自我护理的指导方针，当工作与边缘化群体的敏感话题。将有一系列的输出针对学者，西克罗夫特社区，和当地组织。我将写文章分析对心理健康，幸福和专业知识的理解和态度的转变，并调查友谊和当地支持网络在幸福中不断变化的作用。此外，我会写研究方法的文章，共同生产和道德这将是感兴趣的公共历史学家内外的大学。将与西克罗夫特社区一起并为社区制作一个主要的公共产品，并将根据项目参与者的需求和愿望与他们合作决定其形式。在整个项目中举行的创意活动将传播调查结果，并产生新的研究，收集的证词将在西约克郡档案馆的一个新的档案收藏。我将与当地社区和心理健康组织合作-Chapel FM，妇女健康事务和利兹老年人论坛-我将通过历史与政策更广泛地分享这项研究和什么工作好中心的福祉。

The second half of the twentieth century witnessed a transformation in the homes, health and wellbeing of British working-class communities. The establishment of the Welfare State and the NHS led to an optimism about the ability of the state to end poverty and ill health, and council houses were constructed on an unprecedented scale, significantly widening access to high-quality housing. Many of these new homes were on large suburban council estates. Yet, in the following decades contemporary commentary about these communities was often critical. There was a concern in the 1950s-60s that suburbanisation had destroyed 'traditional' working-class community networks and caused 'suburban neurosis' amongst lonely housewives, and, from the 1970s, that a collapse in social responsibility had isolated residents through fear of their neighbours. Such sites were repeatedly stigmatised, represented as having low levels of wellbeing and poor access to practical and emotional support from the community. This project examines these changes through co-produced research with residents of the Seacroft estate, Leeds. The small village of Seacroft was massively expanded in the 1950s when construction began on the new council estate. During this project, and in partnership with residents, I will examine how social networks developed, endured and changed in Seacroft from when the estate was first built to the 1990s. In doing so I will reconsider the nature of post-Second World War suburban communities. I will pay attention to complex identities as well as vernacular understandings of class, ethnicity and gender. I will investigate how social networks had a positive or detrimental effect on wellbeing, when support was available within the community and when it was absent. Alongside this, the project will trace changing understandings of mental health and wellbeing in Seacroft, and investigate the role of professional and lay expertise in informing these understandings. The project will develop co-production methods for social historians. I am already working with a women's health discussion group and I will form four more groups to represent a broad range of social groups on the Seacroft estate, many of which rarely have the chance to engage with the university. These groups will be at the core of the project and we will collaboratively develop research questions and aims, analysis and interpretation, and project outputs. We will cross academic/non-academic divides when presenting our research and there will be opportunities for sharing different forms of expertise at conferences and project workshops. A radical reconsideration of ethical practices is at the centre of this project and I will develop new guidelines for participant care and self-care when working on sensitive topics with marginalised groups.There will be a range of outputs aimed at academics, the Seacroft community, and local organisations. I will write articles analysing shifting understandings of and attitudes towards mental health, wellbeing and expertise, and investigating the changing role of friendship and local support networks in wellbeing. In addition, I will write research methodology articles on co-production and ethics which will be of interest to public historians inside and outside the university. A major public output will be produced with and for the Seacroft community, and the form this takes will be decided in collaboration with project participants in response to their needs and wishes. Creative events held throughout the project will disseminate findings as well as generating new research, and the testimony collected will be held in a new archive collection at the West Yorkshire Archives. I will work in partnership with local community and mental health organisations -Chapel FM, Women's Health Matters and the Leeds Older People's Forum - and I will share this research more widely through History & Policy and the What Works Well Centre for Wellbeing.