I have not lived somewhere before where there’s been this thing about people look at your postcode or you say where you’re from and they judge you. And it’s quite hard. I never thought I succumb to the pressure of just saying oh yes, I live in Oxford. But sometimes I do. Because I just think stuff it why should I give you the chance to judge me, before you’ve even spoken to me? And just because of where I live. (Ella).
Living and working in an area of a city that has a relatively poor reputation is one thing. It does not, in and of itself, mean that people’s lives are affected in an overly negative way or that such perceptions have any material effects or that individuals are disadvantaged by where they live (Atkinson and Kintrea, 2001, Buck, 2001, Howarth, 2002, Smith et al 2007, Warr et al., 2007). However, participants consistently provided examples of how the reputation of the area impacted on individual and collective life chances and on their day-to-
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day experiences. This ranged from the feeling of being judged by place of residence to general attitudes about the intelligence and other personal and collective capacities of residents from the estates.
It’s rough. Crime-ridden. [short pause] I don’t know, probably they’re people who live here aren’t very intelligent. I would say that’s probably most people’s general opinion if they have got anything. (Will).
Will captures the negativity he feels others associated with the estate by suggesting it’s probably most people’s opinion if they have got anything. Another participant, Mags, cited the Chavtown website as an example of the ways in which the area is represented in some national coverage and the negative reinforcement they feel both affects the area and those who live there.
When I was at work the other day somebody was pointing out a web site, it’s something about chavs and its say well you know, I’m surprised that nobody’s nominated Blackbird Leys as the number one chav place in the whole of Britain or whatever. It’s just wall-to-wall chavs. I’ve seen the website before and I just thought, phew. So it’s that kind of, it’s not just what individual people say, it’s just constantly being re- enforced in the media. (Mags).
The ‘chav’ motif is a recurrent one that is often referred to in the interviews and the participants who mention it are clear that it is a negative and dismissive collective term for those who live on ‘estates’. This chav discourse is also directly linked to the idea that the residents of the estate are irresponsible and are victims of self-inflicted difficulties that are
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simply outcomes of their ignorance and irresponsible behaviours. Another participant was critical of how attempts by female residents to develop a business network for local women had attracted negative comments on the Oxford Mail’s website where one contributor to the website resorted to negative stereotyping to disparage this development:
We had an article about Women’s Business Network. So I was looking in the Oxford Mail and I was looking at the article on the Oxford Mail website and the comments, and the only comments, actually I must get this comment removed was somebody saying, “Women’s Business Network on Blackbird Leys. What’s that about cutting up Charlie and making it go further?” (Liz).
This experience reflects the ways in which narratives and experiences of stigmatisation associated with poverty and marginalisation can be gendered in additionally problematic ways for women (Mann and Roseneil, 1994; Skeggs, 1997, 2004; Takahashi, et al., 2002; Vincent, et al., 2010). As one participant notes:
It ties in with that, that mindset that well you know, they’re just chavs on Blackbird Leys what do you expect you know, we’re probably doing it all to ourselves aren’t’t we. I’m probably having chip butties every night, you know, my kids and whatever, you know. [laughs] (Tina).
Joking aside this reflection, that this woman feeds her children ‘chip butties every night,’ contains not only a sense of how some may see the estates and those who live there but also that in some senses the people who live in this area (along with those who live in similar areas elsewhere across the country0, bring many of their difficulties on to themselves
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and, either through ignorance, stupidity or fecklessness, somehow deserve what they get or at least do not do enough to lift themselves out of the situations they find themselves in.
I think it’s very hard living on benefits on Blackbird Leys because you’ve got a double negative coming against you there. You live on Blackbird Leys. You’re on benefits. People on benefits are seen as sort of, as part, as almost like sort of sub citizens. You live on Blackbird Leys you’re seen as almost a sub citizen. So you’ve got that and then it’s very difficult. I know I’m qualified to say. (Sara).
Here Sara illustrates how specific social experiences and social categorisation can have double (or indeed multiple) impacts on residents where being on benefits and on the estate are seen as flawed in more ways than one. The negative reputation of the area is seen by some as the most significant barrier residents of the estate face in regard to their life chances.
The reputation definitely …. I would say that probably is the main barrier that people have, and the things that come from that reputation. (Geoff).
This reputational barrier can be seen as comprising of a set of assumptions that people who do not live on the estate hold about those from the estate:
You know, that if you’re from Blackbird Leys then there can be assumptions about, oh you’re probably sitting on benefits and you’re a lazy so and so. So even if you do go for a job you might well have people stereotyping. (Jan).
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One younger participant reported how she felt that this reputation was reinforced at school when she recounted her experiences of discussions about crime and different areas of the city during class:
I remember in Geography in Year 8 we were looking at crime and Quarry had more crime than Blackbird Leys at this point. But my teacher refused to talk about Quarry because he lived in Quarry and kept talking about Blackbird Leys and how run down it was, and how the people in Blackbird Leys had a reputation of committing crime. And I said, well if you look at the people who live on Quarry compared to Blackbird Leys and that Quarry seems to have more crime, what does that say about living in Quarry rather than Blackbird Leys when it seems to have more people, but there’s less crime being committed? I think that’s an unfair judgement to make. And not all people from Blackbird Leys commit crime. I’ve, lived in Blackbird Leys and never had a break-in, never had anything stolen. Most people I know in Cowley have had their cars broken into, had all sorts of issues, and when I’ve lived up on the estate, in both Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys there’s never been an issue in my life or the people closely connected to or around me. Blackbird Leys, it’s just where, its full of black people who like to commit crime, smoke weed, people who like to drop out of school. Single parents, the lowest of the low live in Blackbird Leys why do you want to go into Blackbird Leys? Oh it’s disgusting. This, that and the other. People really have an assumption. (Iz).
For Iz the willingness by, in this case a teacher, others to ignore the available information about the crime and other indicators in other parts of the city is, in part, explained by an unwillingness to see beyond the stereotypes of the Leys, but also she attributes it to the
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fact that too many individuals (such as this teacher) never go to the Leys or meet people from it. Despite this lack of actual experience and knowledge of the estate non-residents, be they professionals or lay people, appear to be perfectly content to engage in a form of symbolic violence that has significant repercussions for residents. It also demonstrates how embedded local reputations, stereotypes and spatial mythologies can be and how they may be transmitted or at least re-emphasised through schooling and other primary socialisation experiences.
I’m not even aware of how this sort of assumption has developed, things have just gathered up. Maybe it’s the people they’ve met from Blackbird Leys. I think it’s more a case of ‘oh I wouldn’t go to Blackbird Leys. Like the people from Blackbird Leys are quite ballsy, quite loud, been known as a ghetto. It’s like, oh for goodness’ sake. And they’re seen as sort of disruptive. Not really respecting the area. I just don’t even understand where the stereotype has come from. (Susan).
The focus by outsiders on the behaviour of residents – characterised here by Susan as ‘ballsy, quite loud’ - not only invokes Hanley’s (2007) comments on how residents of estates are perceived by outsiders but also how differences in social practices and behaviours can work to stratify and define individuals. In this case how the notions of ‘taste’ (Bourdieu, 1990), social and cultural practices (Skeggs, 1997, 2004), personhood, value and class (Skeggs, 2011; Skeggs and Loveday, 2012) work to create hierarchies of social and personal value that have significant impacts on people’s lives (Lawler, 2002, 2004, 2005).
For a number of participants the impact of these stereotypes and prejudices compound further difficulties of gaining employment as, thrown into the mix of high levels of
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unemployment and insecure work, is the impact of what one participant terms a ‘postcode lottery’. Some participants felt that when applying for jobs they are not judged on their credentials, their abilities and their experience but rather their address and its reputation.
I know when I put on a CV where I live I don’t put Blackbird Leys or Greater Leys, because I know there’s a reputation. Unless I’m applying for a job really close by, like say Cowley Centre or the Retail Park. I won’t out I live on Blackbird Leys or Greater Leys, I put this specific area or the roads, like a certain close, like the close I live in. I won’t put I lived in Blackbird Leys because I know that when they look at that they’re going to think okay. She lives in Blackbird Leys, she might be that kind of person. Which is a shame because I know what kind of person they’re talking about and it’s like well if you just scroll round to grades, but even then, that’s not enough. I have to put this specific area I live in, and then put the postcode but when they’ll see I live in OX4 that’s enough because that could be Cowley, that could be Iffley, that could be anywhere. (Ella).
In addition to Ella recounting the limitations that having a Blackbird Leys address may have on employment prospects she is also keen to highlight how she understands that there are individuals on the estate that might well fit the reputational assumptions held by outsiders. Ella’s comments here reflect the ways in which residents of any given estate will themselves seek to draw distinctions between themselves and less ‘respectable’ members of the community (Skeggs, 2004; 2011; Skeggs and Loveday, 2012; Van Ejik, 2012; Vincent et. al., 2010; Warr, 2005, 2006). Ella’s comments demonstrate that while she acknowledges that there may well be some less respectable residents (who lack, for example, good educational attainment) she also maintains that employers assume that all residents of the
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area are like this and do not look beyond the address to see what actual skills and abilities individuals have.
If you’re applying for somewhere really locally then you will because it shows how close by you live, but if not you really just, you really don’t put that you live necessarily in Blackbird Leys. Just because it doesn’t have the same … it doesn’t seem to get that sort of welcoming than if you’ve you said you lived in Headington. Like it’s the same for people in Barton, you don’t put Barton unless you know they employ people from Barton, you put Headington instead. (Ella).
Ella discusses the strategy of deliberate vagueness she employs when job seeking. Adopting what might be termed a strategy of spatial coverage or deflection, of not ‘outing’ oneself as a resident of the Leys recalls Goffman’s notion of ‘passing’ as a conscious response to the experience of stigma (Goffman, 1963). Furthermore, it is not a consideration that residents of more affluent and certainly non-stigmatised areas of the city (for example, any area within the ring-road) have to make when applying for a job or stating where they live. In fact, it is often quite the reverse when being from Summertown, Headington or Jericho are locations that are often viewed with envy and as places to live.