Neighbours: The Work of Philip Abrams

Neighbours is a study in both sociology and social policy. First published in 1986, this book, which presents and extends the work of the distinguished sociologist Philip Abrams (d. 1981), was the first major study of neighbours in Britain since the 1960s. It made an important contribution to urban sociological theory and to understanding actual patterns of neighbouring in widely different parts of England. Neighbourhood care - help for the elderly, infirm and sick by those who live near them - is potentially a very important kind of informal social care, and the second part of the book examines by means of ten detailed case studies the potential for neighbourhood care in contemporary Britain. A central philosophical chapter suggests that pure 'goodness of heart' is rarely a motive for helping others.