Self-help and mutual aid in deprived urban neighbourhoods: Some lessons from Southampton

This paper evaluates self-help and mutual aid as tools for tackling social exclusion and promoting social cohesion in deprived urban neighbourhoods, H ighlighting the rationales for using self-help and mutual aid to combat soc ial exclusion and cohesion and then drawing upon case-study evidence from a deprived neighbourhood in Southampton to investigate their nature and exte nt as well as the barriers preventing their usage, it finds that although s elf-help and mutual aid are crucial and growing components of household wor k practices, no-earner households are unable to benefit from this work to t he same extent as employed households. Consequently, the paper proposes way s in which the barriers that prevent these households from participating in such activities can be overcome.