| Summary: | Recent UK policy rhetoric has emphasised the need for wider society to recognise their shared responsibility for the well-being and safety of young people. This thesis explores the ways in which communities can have an impact upon the welfare of local children and young people in a particular, non-deprived commuter suburb. Government policies in England and Wales have asserted that children’s well-being is ‘everybody’s business’. Similarly, political rhetoric in England about the ‘big society’ and neighbourhood based programmes in Wales have echoed this shift in responsibility for improving children’s lives from central government to local communities, although both are ambiguous about how this should be done. Drawing on primary, qualitative research, this thesis explores how communities facilitate the well-being of children in a non-deprived, modern suburban neighbourhood in South Wales. The ethnographically driven study included interviews with 35 residents and over 200 hours of observation in a variety of community settings. The findings suggest that in Newtown Common there are a number of ways in which community can be conceptualised as influencing the well-being of children and young people in its midst. These include the role of: the social and environmental hazards in the neighbourhood, in the built environment; the ensuring of children’s safety and access to facilities by community organisations and those that work in the area; and the value of local informal networks of support for children and families. The thesis concludes by reflecting on the methodological, sociological and policy implications of these messages.
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