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Social Participation and Identity:
Combining quantitative longitudinal
data with a qualitative investigation
of a sub-sample of the 1958 cohort
Jane Elliott (CLS), Andrew Miles (CRESC),
Sam Parsons (CLS) & Mike Savage (CRESC)
www.cresc.ac.uk
CLS is an ESRC Resource Centre based
at the Institute of Education
Aims of the presentation
1. Introduction to the project
2. The value of our project for studies of participation and identity
3. The British Birth Cohort Studies
4. The NCDS as a resource for the study of participation
5. Sampling strategy and methodology
6. Introduction to the topic guide
7. Issues arising from pilot interviews and preliminary research
Introduction to the project
OBJECTIVES
1. Provide a resource of 180 transcribed qualitative interviews from a
theoretically derived sub-sample of NCDS data.
2. Conduct longitudinal analysis of changing forms of participation and
identity, both by analysing the interviews, and through linking them
to previous waves of NCDS data.
3. Understand more about cohort members’ experiences of being in the
study
4. Understand more about individual lives from the perspective of the
individuals themselves – what the quantitative interviews may be
missing
TIMETABLE
1. November 2007 to April 2010. Interviews conducted October 2008 to
April 2009
Benefits of collecting qualitative data from NCDS
• NCDS is a leading panel study with data stretching back to 1958,
with extensive data on work histories, and educational, medical
and social variables from previous waves.
• NCDS offers excellent sampling frame from which to design the
study
• Includes information about responders and non-responders
• It allows methodological insights – improving ways of asking
questions & identifying important aspects of individuals’ lives that
we may not be covering
• Gaining a better understanding of perceptions of cohort members
• Data in a form that might be more accessible for dissemination to
cohort members (improving long term response)
The Research Team
Brings together two major ESRC core-funded research centres:1. Centre for Longitudinal Studies (IoE, University of London), with its
established profile in longitdudinal analysis and its central role in
administering NCDS
2. Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC, University of
Manchester/ Open University) with substantive interests in social and
cultural participation, and in linking qualitative and quantitative
analysis
Team members have disciplinary interests in narrative methods and
gender (Elliott), historical analyses of social mobility (Miles), skills
and education (Parsons), social stratification and inequality (Savage)
Funded by the ESRC Resources Board
Value of the project for studies of participation & identity
Social participation has become a central policy concern through interests
in ‘social capital’, where there are several competing interpretations
•
Is there evidence for the decline of social engagement? (Putnam, Bowling Alone)
•
How far does the existence of social capital allow people, including those from
disadvantaged backgrounds, to ‘get ahead’? (Coleman)
•
How far do patterns of participation and socialisation help to reproduce patterns
of inequality and elite reproduction? (Bourdieu)
•
How do people form ‘activist’ identities and how does this relate to their social
interaction and social ties? (White, Mische)
These issues have hitherto been explored nearly entirely using cross sectional data
but we need to separate out age, cohort and generational effects.
Probing recent research findings
1. There is evidence of a clear, and growing, class divide in social and cultural
participation (Hall 1999; Halpern 2005; Li et al 2008, Bennett et al 2008)
2. There is no clear overlap between formal participation and neighbourhood
participation and friendship (Li et al 2003). How can we better understand the
relationship between these domains?
3. Evidence for the significance of ‘(s)elective belonging’ in studies of middle
class neighbourhoods (Savage et al 2005), but we know little about the
historical precedents.
4. Striking age differences in participation (Scherger 2008; Bennett et al 2008)
but it is not clear if these are age, cohort, or generational effects
5. Evidence of very strong mobility effects on participation, where it is those
who are second-generation ‘service class’ are most predisposed to formal
involvements (Goldthorpe et al 1980, Li et al 2008)
6. Important recent emphasis on the role of friendship dynamics for social
support (Spencer and Pahl 2005), yet we know little about the longitudinal
aspects of these.
British Birth Cohort Studies
Fully representative samples of the British population
Based on one week’s births - approximately 17,000 babies
Followed up from birth into adulthood
Four British Birth Cohort Studies
• 1946 : National Survey of Health and Development (MRC
funded)
• 1958 : National Child Development Study
• 1970 : British Cohort Study 1970
• 2000/1: Millennium Cohort Study
1958 Birth Cohort Study
Representative sample of over 17,000 infants born in March 1958
(Perinatal Mortality Study)
Sample followed at ages 7, 11, 16, 23, 33, 42, 46 (prospective study)
Multipurpose study: family life; education; employment; skills;
housing; health; finances; citizenship
Focused bio-medical study at age 44 (MRC funded)
Approximately 12,000 individuals are still participating
Now core funded by ESRC with data collected every four years,
including interviews now being conducted at age 50.
Hypothetical life history
Exam
results
Parents’ social
class
Training and
skills
Parental
divorce
Born
1958
x
Age 7
Age 11
Age 16
Voting
behaviour
Savings
Gets married
1st Child
2nd Child
1984
1981
Age 23
1987
1991
Age 33
2000
2004
Age 42
Age 46
Mother
smoking
Job 1
Parental
interest in
school work
Free school
meals
Job 2
Job 3
Psychological
well being
Maths and reading
tests
Teachers’ assessment of
child’s behaviour
Domestic division
of labour
Union membership
Working hours
preferences
The NCDS as a resource for the study of
participation
The NCDS has asked relevant questions in previous waves, though they are
rarely a major focus, have varied significantly between waves, and have not
been analysed extensively.
- 1991 extensive battery of questions on attitudes.
- regular questions on voluntary association membership.
- regular questions on political alignments.
- social support (2000).
- neighbouring (2000).
Questions have not been asked on cultural participation; informal aspects
of social interaction and leisure; class and other kinds of identity.
% men and women participating at age 46 by
social mobility
% participating at age 46
60
men
women
40
20
0
stable service
upwardly
mobile
downwardly
mobile
stable other
% men and women participating at age 46 by
social mobility
(inc. hobbies and sports)
% participating at age 46
80
men
women
60
40
20
0
stable service
upwardly
mobile
downwardly
mobile
stable other
Sampling strategy and methodology
Sampling will be theoretically led rather than a simple
random sample
60 cohort members in three geographic regions, SE
England, NW England and Scotland (=180 interviews)
Stratified in terms of social mobility measured in terms
of social class during childhood and highest
qualifications, to produce 15 interviews with stable
working class, 15 with stable service class, 15 upwardly
mobile and 15 downwardly mobile in each region
Structure of the interview and topic guide
Interview in six sections
Neighbourhood and belonging
Social participation and leisure activities
Friendships
Life story and trajectories
Identities
Experience of the NCDS
Aim for an average of ninety minute interview
Interviews digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim
Interviews will be deposited at the UK data archive
SECTION 1: NEIGHBOURHOOD AND
BELONGING
1. We know a bit about your housing history from your survey
responses but we would like to know a little bit more about your
involvement in your current neighbourhood. Can I begin by asking
you how long you have lived here and about the reasons you came
to live here?
2. If you are asked where you are from, what would you reply? Do you
feel you belong here?
3. What things do you particularly like and dislike about living in this
area?
4. Do you think you will continue living here in the future? Under what
circumstances might you move and where to?
SECTION 2: PARTICIPATION
The survey included questions about your spare time interests and
activities but we are not sure that these questions gave you enough
scope to describe and explain what you do. We therefore want to ask
some additional questions.
5. First, could you talk me through your last week and then last weekend
in terms of how you spent your spare time?
6. Is this a typical pattern?
7. Do you belong to any organised clubs or formal associations - for
example do you attend a church or evening classes, or are you a
member of a political party, sports club or musical group?
8. (If not raised above) Do you do any voluntary or charitable work?
9. To what extent does your leisure time and social life overlap with
family life?
10. To what extent do your work and social lives overlap?
SECTION 3: FRIENDSHIPS
11. Looking at this page with the five concentric rings marked on, can you please
think of those people who are important to you, and write their names in, with
those who are most important closest to the centre (allow five minutes for
interviewee to complete this)
12. Thank you. For each person you’ve listed – in turn – could you say:
Why has that person been placed there (in a specific locations within the
5 circles)?
How would you describe your relationship to that person?
How often do you keep in touch?
What do you talk about?
How has your relationship with this person changed in importance or intensity?
SECTION 4: LIFE STORIES & TRAJECTORIES
The NCDS has collected a lot of information about your life over the
years. But we’d now like to give you more of a chance to say what
has been important in your life and to give us the main points of your
life story from your own perspective.
13. Starting with your childhood could you say a bit about
- what kind of child you were
- how you got on at school
- who had the most influence on your life
Followed by questions (14, 15, 16, 17) as prompts on other periods of the
respondent’s life, depending on how their narrative develops
18. Summing up, what would you say have been the most important events or
turning points in your life?
19. If you had to depict your life up to now by means of a diagram, which diagram would you
choose (show line diagrams sheet and ask them to mark which one with a tick), or if none of
these apply, can you draw a more representative pattern in the blank box?
SECTION 5: IDENTITIES
20. Generally speaking, could you tell me how you define yourself?
Could you describe yourself?
21. And how do you think others see you?
22. Do you think of yourself as belonging to a social class?
23. Which nationality do you think you belong to?
Stable social class but evidence of upward housing mobility
(from council estate to detached house with big garden)
Father partly skilled manual worker, cohort member self-employed electrician
…….came to the end of primary school and they put me down for a grammar school place
and I said I didn’t want it. I said if I don’t get on with them here, I’m not going to get on
with a whole school of them, so I went to the secondary modern school where me brothers had
gone to.
…………occasionally you’d get invited round for tea and, you know, our family was sort of
‘take us as we are’ really, like, you know. But other people were, you know, you did sense a
difference……………….
…………there was one lad over the road, he went to grammar school. But, you know, he lived
in a council house like we did, like, you know, but it didn’t do him any better as a job, really.
He ended up like, you know, he worked in a magistrate’s court, you know, as a court clerk,
perhaps seen to be a good job but at the end of the day not very good money, you know. And
to me being self-employed, to be honest with you, me world’s me oyster.
I don’t know what class I’d put meself in, really, but I don’t like it where people do
distinguish one from another, really……say like ‘lower’ or ‘middle’ or anything. You find
that sometimes when you get to the upper class some of them have had their brains removed,
because they’re just so far from reality, to be honest with you.
Stable social class: no upward mobility
A coalman’s daughter who works in a beach-side café serving burgers
and chips. Lived in same council estate all of her life
Working class. Working class. Coalman’s daughter and I’m
proud of it. Aye, working class…………my mother was a snob, she
was a snob, she was a Tory supporter. Aye, she was…………. my
mother had delusions of grandeur…………. “queen”, “the queen”,
that’s what he called her
…………..I’ve never had much. I’ve always had enough. You know,
work hard for what I’ve got and got what I need. And I’ve never had
the yearn to have fancies and go over the top………
Downward mobility
Father held a professional/managerial job, cohort member is a
maintenance manager (gas company)
it [the house grew up in] was in a really good area and my father had a good job,
he had a better job than I’ve got now……….
Working class or middle-class? [Sighs] Not really. There’s so much on the
radio about how the UK is class structured and perhaps we are, and there’s part of
me that’s middle-class, I read a good newspaper and I listen to Radio Four and the
World Service. That’s my middle-class………………….. now Elaine that works
with me…….her husband is a gas fitter…..they blow their money and he’ll earn
at least twice as much as me. Now I would say he’s probably middle/upper-class
but they have the money to be middle-class, that’s if you’re looking at that, and
they read The Sun…………..
Class and upward social mobility
Father was an aircraft engineer and cohort member is a teacher
I suppose as a family I considered us working class, although later when I learned the term
‘white collar’ I think actually that’s what we were [laughs], because my dad had a good
job, but I think we’ve always thought of ourselves as working class and I still do
really……….…… but I suppose if I looked at my life as you’re asking me to do now, then
probably it would be more middle class.
[where I live]……it’s quite a middle class area and I suppose subconsciously I’ve thought
of it as a step up really, because we grew up in a council house originally and then they
bought the council house, but that wasn’t a conscious decision of why I wanted to live here, I
just liked the area
……suppose when I first went to college that was a bit of a shock to me, meeting people I
didn’t know from lots of different walks of life and I did--, I have to say I did feel like I
was working class then and they were all educated people, or so I thought were more
educated than me, you know, ‘cause I kind of thought that the Open University degree
wasn’t as good as if I’d gone to the university for three years. I don’t believe that now but
at the time I did.
SECTION 6: MEMBERSHIP OF THE NCDS
Finally, we’d like to find out more about what it has been like for you
to be a member of the NCDS - whether it’s been a good and
interesting experience, how it might have been improved, whether
we’ve been asking the right types of questions, and so on.
24. Do you have any memories of being in the study as a child?
25. What have been the advantages and disadvantages of being in the
NCDS as far as you are concerned?
26. Lastly, has being part of the NCDS changed your life at all?
Being part of NCDS
There’s one thing I’m guaranteed, all of my entire life, is one birthday card.
I’ve always liked being part of it, I’ve always enjoyed being part of it because it’s
different and I’m quite proud of it really.
I think I could almost put this in as a landmark in my life.
I haven’t kidded on about anything in my life, warts and all, I’ve been honest
and I’ve said it all.
….. I think, you know, it does make you feel special in certain ways, like
really…..
I haven’t ever seen anything negative in it actually, not anything negative at
all…..I’ve always felt comfortable and I always know that if I don’t want to
answer a question I don’t have to………… I think it’s just been fascinating.
Recognising the importance of NCDS
I can remember becoming part of the NCDS, I didn’t understand it.... I think I’ve
just grown to understand it more as I’ve got older and the importance of it and how
it’s helping everybody really, that’s what I think.
Well, I think to a certain extent you’ve got to say it’s mainly for helping others,
you know. Like you say it’s no benefit to me to do it, but then again it’s no skin
off my nose not to do it, so. It’s one of those things like, you know….I don’t see a
reason [not to]……
People should take the time and know things about people really, and if it did that,
you know, we wouldn’t have half the problems that we do have really, today really,
so.
I think it’s interesting that they’re actually following all these people, right through
their life and ……they find out comparisons. Aye, I think it’s really…. that’s why
I take the bother to, aye, come. I want to be part of it because I’ve been in it all my
life.
…..oh I’ll tell them all, I’m quite proud of the fact that I’m [in the study], that they
can find out on how people’s lived and compare.
NCDS over the lifecourse
I remember……when I was about 11 doing something and doing questions, and
the thing I remember is that your favourite TV programmes and I had Sports Reel
which in England they wouldn’t have known about, you had Match of the Day,
we had Sports Reel, …… and I also put something like Panorama, I thought, ‘I’ll
show you’………
I can remember…would I be six…..and they had me hopping and you had to hop
on each leg…..and I can remember they had a paper carton for you to look
through, close one eye and I could only do it with one eye, and I remember getting
embarrassed that I couldn’t close this other eye and look…….. I tell folk about it
[now] and …… I tell them about the eyes and it’s my party piece kind of thing.
“Try this,” I’ve actually got toilet roll things out and made folk do
it…..[laughs]….So I’ve had a bit of fun with it along…..
No cons, no cons [inaudible 1:26:30], and I would probably think that in doing
it, it gives you a chance to think about yourself…………. I don’t know if it’s
deliberately done at certain stages in your life, but 50 I think’s quite a big
milestone and a bit of thinking going on
Issues arising from the pilots
1. The NCDS is itself an important agent for its members’ identities. How do we
best generalise from our sample?
2. Evidence for the value in recognising informal aspects of social participation.
Do our friendship questions mesh with the rest of our schedule?
3. How important is it to generate systematic information on weekly leisure
schedules and have a complete account of informal social life?
4. Do we need to ask more systematically about experiences of work and
employment?
5. How do we best elicit narrative on trajectory and changing forms of identity
(should we ask about key turning points? About each decade/ period of
respondent’s lives systematically? How do we best deal with recall bias?
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