What is it about?
This study explores why young people often socialise in separate ethnic groups, even in shared city spaces. Using photos, interviews and focus groups with 16–18‑year‑olds in Bradford, we show how everyday routines, feelings of belonging, and past experiences shape where young people spend time and who they socialise with in everyday life.
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Photo by Joseph Mama on Unsplash
Why is it important?
This research is important because it helps explain why social separation can persist even in diverse, shared environments. By focusing on everyday routines, feelings of belonging and lived experiences, it shows how urban spaces and ordinary habits shape who spends time with whom, beyond formal policies or integration efforts.
Perspectives
I have often wondered why, in diverse cities, people from similar ethnic backgrounds tend to cluster together. The ‘Shared Spaces’ project, from which this paper emerged, offered an opportunity to explore this question more deeply. The answers were subtle. Listening to young people talk about where they feel comfortable, welcome or uneasy highlighted how social life is shaped by small, everyday decisions rather than grand ideals. Their reflections showed how routines, memories and places quietly guide who feels able to belong. I hope this research encourages greater attention to these ordinary lived experiences, and a better understanding of how environments shape everyday relationships.
Sumedh Rao
Open University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The habitual, spatial and temporal conditions of everyday youth intergroup contact in an ethnically diverse city, British Journal of Social Psychology, April 2026, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/bjso.70075.
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