Increasing geographical mobility, economic change and the rise of an individualist culture in the UK have contributed to the loosening of close ties in communities. What can communities do to cultivate the ‘background hum’ of sociability that is associated with neighbourliness?

In the study ‘Landscapes of Helping: Kindliness in Neighbourhoods and Communities‘ researched informal helping – or neighbourliness – in Hebden Bridge in order to try and understand how it can be fostered in communities. [Source: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 17 March 2015]