Lisa Mckenzie

LESSONS FROM RE-STUDYING ST ANNS

INTRODUCTION AND ORIENTATION

RESEARCH FOCUS

• How do people find value • Belonging and exclusion • The importance of the local neighbourhood• Mobility

THE ESTATE TODAY

WHAT HAS CHANGED 40 YEARS ON ?

STIGMATIZATION

• When you say you're from St Anns people expect you to be rough and ready’

• really…no I’m not excluded I don’t think I am…..but certain people who you talk to do I suppose exclude you a bit…..yer know like when you ring up the council and I’m talking to them and because I’m on benefits”

• “well I’m not socially excluded but people do look at me in a certain way….. with a certain idea in their mind like I’m a chav with loads of gold do you mean that”

WHO WE ARE

• “Well there you’ve got you’re middle class and we’re lower well I think we are classed as lower class low class cos we come from St Anns”

• “Well I think Irish and black mix really well they just do back in the day what was it no blacks no dogs, no Irish…. well what can I say……….”

• “Black and white people who are all living in the working class areas and experiencing being looked down on as well they find something in common”

SAFETY, COMMONALITY AND BEING ST ANNS

• “Well there you’ve got you’re middle class and we’re lower well I think we are classed as lower class low class cos we come from St Anns”

• “Well I think Irish and black mix really well they just do back in the day what was it no blacks no dogs, no Irish…. well what can I say……….”

• “Black and white people who are all living in the working class areas and experiencing being looked down on as well they find something in common”

THOUGHTS FOR THE FUTURE • ‘cos all I ever say to my daughter is all I want you to do is live.. live your life and enjoy it

what I don’t want is for her to have babies at 15…. hope she has a job and a car I want her to love life and see her earning money that’s all I want in my life to see her achieve and to be proud of who she is even if she is living in St Anns to be proud of that and to stick up for people and be proud and to be able to feel confident enough to go into Marks and Spencers on a one off and treat your family to a meal I want her to check on her neighbours to be a good person’

BEING ST ANNS IN ST ANNS

JAMAICANISATION

• Sarah ‘from the age of four my mum was with a black man so I was brought up with a black man so you know from growing up its used to cooking and seeing certain foods cooked so its not special to us BAM!! chicken and rice its not special to us dumplings and dem tings its not special its just a food’

RICE N’ PEAS AND CHICKEN

• ‘Lorraine’ ‘my auntie always went out with black guys.. I was younger and she always used to be with black guys so I used to go round there and she used to cook and the music was there so I was into it from about 10……… I like the reggae music and the Jamaican food and its like that now its still the same I liked seeing em [black people] on TV singing and that when I was young I only listen to reggae music now and every day I have to cook the food sometimes on a Sunday they want an English dinner but not very often I have to cook curries, rice, Yam, green banana I have to cook everything how much white woman can cook all dem tings’

STANZZVILLE, SV, NG3

MOBILITY AND BELONGING

CONCLUSION

• Lessons learned

• Listen to what people want to talk about

• Community/ sense of being part of something and belonging is still relevant and important

• Locality linked to identify

• Becoming mobile is extremely constrained

• Things can always get worse