Once a colleague asked me to say what kinds of questions a sociologist would ask of a place like New Cross?  It struck me at the time that it was perhaps better to pose the question the other way around. What kind of questions does an area like New Cross pose to the sociologist of … More A Walk in New Cross by Les Back

Selfbuild: ‘where the first occupants arrange for the building of their own dwelling and, in various ways, participate in its production’ (Duncan and Rowe 1993: 1331) Recently, I appeared on Thinking Allowed, BBC Radio 4’s flagship social science programme, talking about my research on selfbuild in an episode focussed on the sociology of housing.  You … More What’s Sociological About Selfbuild? by Michaela Benson