Fire Fighters, Neighbourhoods and Social Identity: the relationship between the fire service and residents in Bristol
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- Broken windows theory
- Summary
Anti social behaviourOne issue seen as particularly problematic to British neighbourhoods in the early twenty-first century is anti social behaviour (ASB), which is often seen as a symptom of social exclusion and a lack of social capital, frequently ‘blighting’ communities beset by the other conditions of poverty and social exclusion. Rhetoric around ASB is closely linked to that around broken windows theories, again, discussed below, whereby small acts of ASB are seen as precursors to more general crime, and also of symptomatic of the moral decline of certain communities in particular and of society in general. Young people are frequently seen as the sole perpetrators of ASB, and indeed their very presence in public now constitutes an indicator of ASB in the British Crime Survey (Kershaw, Nicholas et al. 2008), however this neglects the fact that young people are also often the victims of both ASB and the restrictive practices that police it (McIntosh 2008). Although there is no one agreed definition of ASB (Prior 2009, Ramsay 2004, Home Office 2004) it is seen as including a number of different types of behaviour, some of which are also criminal, and ASB has been a priority for community safety partnerships for a number of years. The inclusion of fire authorities in community safety partnerships in 2003 transferred a degree of that responsibility to the fire service, as discussed in the next chapter, as has the inclusion of a number of fire related behaviours in definitions of ASB, including vehicle arson, making hoax calls, misuse of fireworks and attacking fire crews. As such, the FRS are not immune from debates around ASB and are themselves party to practices which both define and police it. Broken windows theoryAlthough the focus on ASB in Britain is relatively recent, and very much associated with the 1997 – 2010 New Labour government, broken windows theory has addressed similar concerns for a number of years and there are parallels between the concepts and their use. At its most reductive level, broken windows theory suggests that where a broken window is not fixed, residents will construe that the neighbourhood is not cared for. This will result in more windows being broken, resulting in physical degradation that paves the way for petty criminals to arrive, safe in the knowledge that they can go about their business unhindered by concerned residents. This set of theories has a number of different iterations (Taylor 1999) but is most famously linked to a piece in Atlantic Monthly in the early 1980s (Wilson, Kelling 1982). Key to this piece is the temporal aspect of the incivilities process, whereby informal social control decreases relative to the length of time incivilities go unaddressed. Further, these physical signs of degradation present young people and others prone to ‘delinquency’ with opportunities for further, social incivilities (Cloward, Ohlin 1960). This then has an impact on fear of crime, which again, is self perpetuating. Further, many aspects of physical decay, including burnt out houses and cars, and the presence of rubbish used to make fires or to throw at fire service personnel, have particular relevance to this research project, as does the assumption that neighbourhood degradation is the fault of residents, not a consequence of poverty, wear and tear and institutional neglect. As with a number of ideas discussed above, broken windows theory informs the context in which the FRS work and, as will be described below, also informs a number of their practices. Broken windows theory is popular amongst practitioners. It is easily understood and ‘seems’ to work. However, some of the underlying assumptions reveal rather less pleasant aspects of neighbourhood analysis, and the theory has been widely critiqued (Sampson, Raudenbush 2004, Herbert 2001). Sampson et al (2004) examine the multiple ways in which perceptions of disorder have social meanings beyond the overt, questioning whether different lifestyle choices are inherently disordered, and whether, if they are, disorder is inherently problematic. Geographers such as Jacobs famously find disorder part of the dynamism of city living (Jacobs 1961), whereas those on the left of criminology find the focus on lack of informal social control simplistic (Crawford 2006). Further, broken windows theory does not take socio-economic factors into consideration, assuming that ongoing physical degradation is the result of malice and incivility, rather than a symptom of poverty. The implication is that residents in degraded areas are somehow themselves to blame for this situation, rather than victims of a system which does not prioritise their needs (MacLeavy 2009). SummaryIn this chapter of the literature review I have looked at a number of different areas of literature, mostly pertaining to identity in its broadest terms, and again, in broad terms to place. This provides the theoretical underpinning for much of this research project. Social identity approaches provide a specific lens through which the relationship between FRS and residents will be examined, and enable potential hostility and resistance to be viewed as emanating in part from the intergroup dynamic between the two groups, and not as the result of particular flaws in the psychology of the individuals that comprise those groups. This is particularly the case given the contextual aspects of social identity approaches. As discussed, individuals take on different identities dependent on the situation, with particular facets of identity becoming salient given the context in which they occur. Place forms a major component of this context, and, as such, its development as a social construct is examined. Place takes a singularly human scale when examined in relation to the neighbourhood, and a number of debates around neighbourhood are also examined looking particularly at exclusion and anti social behaviour, which feed into cultural expectations of specific neighbourhoods and therefore also into the context in which intergroup encounters occur. Nevertheless, place is not the only context impacting on these encounters, rather, residents encounter fire services as just one of a range of public services and the FRS, as I shall discuss in the next chapter, are also a part of a policy context over which they themselves have little control. Place and neighbourhood were discussed in this chapter as contributing to residents’ identities, and also impacting on the nature and quality of intergroup encounters. However, the FRS have a number of quite specific organisational factors which also impact upon them, and it is this that forms the basis of the next chapter.
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