Belonging in Britain: black older people's experiences of a sheltered housing scheme in London

My research, entitled ‘The negotiation of belonging among long‐term West Indian migrants residing in a sheltered housing scheme in Brixton, London’, examined the intricacies of identity and placement. The Supporting People Framework governs this BME supported housing scheme within the Council's equalities ethos. My research sample of 26 women and men aged between 60 and 86 were working‐class migrants who had moved to England in the 1950s and 1960s. Influenced by Gramsci's (1990) ideas about the involvement of ordinary people in social change, and Bhabha's (1994) idea of placement, I investigated how the elders, assisted by others who acted on their behalf, negotiated their place in British society as recipients of support services, and engaged in consultation and user involvement processes. Both conflicting and supportive service provision arose. This created shifting boundaries in relation to belonging that emerged between the elders, their place of birth, their formative culture and their on‐going engagement with new experiences, other groups and the state.