West Indians in Easton: A study of their social organisation with particular reference to participation in formal and informal associations.

The present study is an empirical investigation of the social organisation of a West Indian settlement in an urban area of Britain. It is concerned, in particular, with participation in formal and informal voluntary associations within that settlement. It seeks to explain the dearth of communal associations---especially the paucity and ephemerality of political associations of a formal character---among West Indians. Its findings are used as a basis for suggesting further directions which research in this area might fruitfully take in the future. Chapter 1, briefly outlines the structure of West Indian societies and the nature of the social organisation of various groups within them. Particular emphasis is placed on the nature of political association and leadership in the Caribbean. A detailed analysis of data drawn from a sample of West Indian respondents in Easton, a Midlands city, is presented in Chapter 2. This material relates to numerous facets of the life situation of these respondents in Britain and to their previous situations in the Caribbean. Chapter 3, is concerned with an examination of those formal associations, recreational and/or non-recreational, which West Indians have established in Easton. Subsequently Chapters 4 and 5 examine the family and household organisation of the sample, and patterns of religious association among the latter. Chapter 5, explores the connections between West Indian membership and participation in various forms of religious association and the formation of other types of voluntary association. In Chapter 6, a number of points are made, based on the preceding data, which serve to describe the dynamics of West Indian activism in Easton. Particular attention is given to the nature of West Indian associational activity and to those 'explanations' of the ephemerality and paucity of West Indian formal associations mentioned earlier in the thesis. Finally, a brief Conclusion is presented, concerned with re-assessing some of the problems and intentions which are described in earlier chapters.