Friendship and Diversity, 1st ed. 2018 Class, Ethnicity and Social Relationships in the City

Do people make friends with those who are culturally and socially different to themselves? Friendship and Diversity explores the social relationships of adults and children living in highly diverse localities in London. The authors examine how social class and ethnic difference affects the friendships of children in primary schools and their parents. The book draws on original and in-depth conversations 8 and 9 year olds about their classroom relationships, with parents about their own and their children?s friendships, and with teachers about supporting children?s friendships at school.  Through detailed discussions of friendships, everyday multiculture, and attitudes towards shared social space, cultural difference and social class, the authors reveal what these friendships tell us about the nature and extent of social mixing and social divisions in cities with diverse populations.

Friendship and Diversity will be of interest to students and scholarsacross a range of disciplines, including sociology, geography and psychology, as well as education practitioners. 

1. Why study friendship and diversity: Orientations and Introduction to the Study.- 2.  Encounter, conviviality and the city: new directions in theorising interaction across difference.- 3. Back at school:  research methods, design and reflexive dramaturgy.- 4. The Children’s friendships: difference, commonality and proximity.- 5. Children’s agency and adult intervention: Children’s friendships through adult eyes.- 6. Extended social and spatial encounters in primary school worlds.- 7. Antagonisms, ambivalences and association: Parents’ friendships and responses to difference in everyday life.- 8. Understanding Friendship and Diversity.

Carol Vincent is Professor of Sociology of Education, UCL Institute of Education, UK.

Sarah Neal is Professor of Sociology, University of Sheffield, UK.

Humera Iqbal is Lecturer in Psychology, UCL Institute of Education, UK.