Democratic Participation in Blackbird Leys

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an introduction to democratic participation in Blackbird Leys. It begins with an account of the political ‘prehistory’ of Blackbird Leys, examining the political development of Oxford and the surrounding area, up to the founding of the estate, in order to position the subsequent analysis in its proper context. It then moves on to provide an analysis of democratic participation in the area, drawing on a range of sources including election turnout data, official documents and reports and archival sources, as well as interviews with local residents. The chapter then extends this discussion, reaching beyond formal democratic participation to identify the ways in which the residents of the estate engage in other kinds of democratic activity, tracing a history of activism which is as forthright as it is surprising. The chapter concludes by linking some of the features of participation in the area to the theoretical frameworks explored in the next two chapters.