Fire Fighters, Neighbourhoods and Social Identity: the relationship between the fire service and residents in Bristol
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Fire Fighters, Neighbourhoods and Social Identity:the relationship between the fire serviceand residents in BristolKate MathesonA thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the University of the West of England, Bristol, for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyFaculty of Environment and TechnologyUniversity of the West of England, BristolApril 2012AcknowledgmentsThe people and organisations who have supported this project are many and varied, and, inevitably probably too many to name. Any omissions are omissions only from this formal expression, and not from my personal gratitude. Of those who can be named, my first thanks must go to Great Western Research, who, along with Avon Fire and Rescue Service funded this research. Other institutional partners included Bristol University and the University of the West of England, which has become my second home over the last four years. My particular thanks go to Rachel and Sara, supervisors of great distinction, and the other academic staff who have had input to the project: Christine, Ron, Derrick, Stuart amongst others. Like many involved at the start of this project, many of them will have moved on by the finish. I couldn’t have asked for better office mates, and there have been innumerable fortifying conversations in office, corridor and kitchen with PhD colleagues and those in the neighbouring research centres who have proffered with great kindness their superior experience and childcare hints. There are also those without whom I wouldn’t have started this project: Dr Groves at Marlborough and Veronique in Manchester who helped me find a way to ask the right questions; Nicole at Bristol who steered my through my Masters, and Rob, the ex colleague who pointed me in this direction. Thank you all. My gratitude also goes to those who have supported this research: the staff of AFRS, residents of various neighbourhoods and my focus group guinea pigs. The research could not have happened without you. Nor could it have been done without the wonderful staff of school or nursery, who have ensured childcare was one thing I didn’t need to worry about. A further debt of honour is owed to my friends, who bought me the mug I drank my first cup of research coffee from, who have supported me through academic and personal crises, and who have always been on hand to share a laugh, a tea or a bottle of wine; and to my parents, who have always helped, even if they’re not sure why. However, my particular thanks go to my husband, Nicholas, who has gone to some extreme lengths to get my attention over the last four years, and to our lovely boys. I started this research project with a toddler and baby. As I come to its end, they are now big school boys with a little brother to look after and lead astray. Although I won’t be the first to compare my thesis to my babies, my thesis is now complete. They are still my works in progress.
AbstractAlthough sporadic attacks on fire crews have long been acknowledged as an occupational hazard facing the fire service, in the mid 2000s, attacks seemed to be increasing in both prevalence and severity, accompanied by a feeling that fire safety messages were being resisted in certain communities. However, those communities were also those typified by numerous fire risk factors, potentially endangering people and property. In recognition of this growing problem, Avon Fire and Rescue Service (AFRS) and Great Western Research (GWR) established this research project at UWE to explore issues of hostility and resistance to fire safety messages, particularly in certain communities. The research is underpinned by social identity approaches, which look at the nature of the group dynamic and interaction between residents and fire fighters, positing that group membership has the potential to lead to conflict in and of itself, but especially where those groups are in proximate and appropriate contexts, such as those found in hard pressed neighbourhoods. This research project utilised qualitative methods to examine this relationship, starting with an ethnographic enquiry alongside operational fire fighters. A second study used focus groups in three neighbourhoods to examine residents’ perspectives, and a third looked at a series of interactions in community settings. Findings suggest a mutual distrust of non-group members, whereby residents resent fire fighters for their intrusion into neighbourhoods and fire fighters resent residents for requiring interventions into their community. Both parties had strong feelings about what fire fighters ought to be doing, and this fitted in with ideas of traditional roles of fire fighting and gender distinctions within communities. There are a number of implications for the FRS in this research project, including an ongoing need to address expectations both of operational fire fighters, for example through recruitment, and residents themselves who engage with fire fighters as one of a panoply of public services, rather than as the unique service provider that fire fighters consider themselves. Contents Acknowledgments 2 Abstract 3 Preface: All in a day’s work 5 Chapter One: Introduction 7 This research project 7 The structure of the thesis 8 The research context 14 Introducing Avon 14 Chapter Two: Background Literatures from Social Psychology, Human Geography and Urban Studies 16 Thematic literatures 16 Identity 17 Self Categorisation Theory 19 Stereotyping 20 Social conflict 21 Crowds 23 Theories of the crowd 24 The St Pauls Riot 26 Football and protest crowds 26 The contact hypothesis 28 Community engagement 32 Police engagement 32 Engaging communities to reduce ASB 36 Summary 38 Place 38
Place identity 39 City-Identity-Sustainability 41 Place as a social construct 43 Neighbourhoods 45 Exclusion 46 Social capital 48 Anti social behaviour 49 Broken windows theory 50 Summary 51 Chapter Three: Fire Service Literatures 53 Introducing fire fighter identity 53 Fire service/police similarities 55 Fire fighter identity 61 Sensemaking and the collapse of fire fighter identity 63 The fire service in local government 65 Modern Local Government 71 Crime prevention and community (fire) safety 71 Summary 76 Chapter Four: Methodology 78 Introduction 78 Locating the research 79 Research questions 81 Qualitative research 81 Reflexivity 83 Writing as research method 84 Analytic strategy 85 Study One: Ethnography with Avon Fire and Rescue Service 87 Negotiating Access 89 Visiting stations 91 Interviewing fire fighters 93 Identifying and recruiting the sample 99 Developing the schedule 102 Group dynamics 103 Running the focus groups 103 Study 3: Observations in the community 106 Community interventions 109 First Phase 110 Second phase 112 Chapter Five: Ethnographic Work With AFRS 115 Within AFRS 115 Data gathering and analysis 116 Research questions 116 Analysis 118 Fire fighters have a strong group identity distinct from the public 120 Social contract between fire fighters and the public 121 They ought to be held in high regard 123 What fire fighters joined to do 124 Busy stations 126 Busy areas 128 Normative distinction between busy areas and the communities in which fire fighters live 130 Opposing contract of resentment 131 Discussion 133 Summary 139 Chapter Six: Focus Group Study 141 Data gathering strategy 141 Analytic strategy 141 Research Questions 143 Themes 144 Neighbourhoods 145 Positive and negative views of the neighbourhood 146 Sense of making do 147 Interaction with other services 148 Microgeographies 150 How participants judge residents in other neighbourhoods 152 Making judgements about their own neighbourhood 153 Self esteem 155 Change over time 157 Life stage 157 Decline in respect 161 Involvement in and experience of emergencies 162 The association between fire fighters and emergencies 163 Expectations about involvement in emergencies 163 The presence of fire fighters 164 Speed and sirens 165 The size and physicality of fire fighters 166 Fire fighters as authority figures 169 Association with health and safety 170 Interfering fire fighters 170 Easy targets 171 Doing their job 172 Discussion 173 Chapter Seven: Observing Interactions 177 Introduction 177 Delivering targeted interventions 179 Community fire safety interventions 180 Home fire safety visits 184 Vignettes 186 Emergency call in Wootton 186 Upperfield community festival 189 ‘Warm calling’ in Warwick Lane 193 Summary of vignettes 195 Analysis and Discussion 196 Context 197 Physical presence 200 Intrusion 202 Summary 203 Chapter Eight: Discussion and Implications 204 Introduction 204 Bringing together the analyses 206 Suspicion of non group members 207 Traditional roles 209 Entitlement and resentment 210 Answering the research questions 211 What are the roots of hostility and resistance between fire fighters and residents? 211 How do social identity approaches explain this? 213 Are engagement mechanisms effective? 219 Implications for AFRS 224 Reflecting on the process: looking back and looking forward 226 References 231 Appendix 1: Field work contact with AFRS personnel 244 Appendix 2: Outline for Fire Fighter Interviews 246 Appendix 3: Letter to HFSV participant 247 Appendix 4: Script for Focus Groups 248 Appendix 5: Debrief sheet for neighbourhood focus groups 257 Neighbourhood research project 257 Appendix 6: AFRS community interventions 258 Appendix 7: Research Participants Briefing 260 Neighbourhood research project 260 Introduction 260 My research 260 More information 260 Appendix 8: Aide memoire for use with HFSVs 261 Appendix 9: Subordinate themes within superordinate groups 263 Download 0.87 Mb. Share with your friends:
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