Intersecting Identities: Women's Spaces of Sociality in Postcolonial London

This study will analyse the role of gender, class, ethnicity and generation in the formation of South Asian and White women's identities within informal spaces of socialising and celebration. The data will be gathered using qualitative methods of in-depth interview, participant observation and group discussions. The research subjects will be drawn from economically disadvantaged as well as affluent neighbourhoods in London. The research will address such questions as the following: 1. What role do informal networks play in the formation of women's identities? 2.; How is neighbourhood similarly or differently imagined, utilised and experienced by different groups of women in the course of routine practices of socialising? 3. What kinds of bonds, intimacies and attachments are forged, negotiated and contested in informal contexts? Conversely, what type of antagonisms, ambivalences and social divisions are played out in intimate arenas of social life? 4. What types of new British identities are produced and performed within informal spaces? The study will focus upon approximately six 'informal sites' drawn from women's networks, activities (eg reading groups) or events such as festivals. The study will contribute to better understanding of women's cultures and their relationship to changing identities in multicultural Britain. Theoretically, the study will make interdisciplinary interventions.