Ordinary support and liveable lives

The Liveable Lives study was funded by JRF as part of a wider programme of work on Risk, Trust and Relationships. It was co-directed by Dr Julie Brownlie (Sociology) and Simon Anderson (then of NatCen Social Research). The research was about everyday acts and relationships of help and support that exist outside our households and closest family relationships and the role that these can play in allowing us to lead ‘liveable’ lives. It highlighted the contrast between the unremarkable, mundane form that such acts often take and the very significant difference they can make. Drawing on sociological work on emotions, narrative, reflexivity and practices, it explored the ways in which the experience of help, support and ‘kindness’ is shaped by social context, biography and relationships. It sought to untangle some of the complexity around how such acts and relationships come to happen (or not) and how they develop over time. And it asked what might make them more common or sustainable within our lives and communities.