This book presents findings from a study undertaken in Leeds – a northern city of England – between 2011 and 2015. As a post-industrial city, the demographic, economic and household profile of Leeds is broadly similar to that of England and Wales (ONS, 2014). Across many dimensions, the characteristics of Leeds city region are typical of the national profile. According to the latest data available from the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2010, when compared with 56 other English cities, Leeds is currently middling and is ranked the 23rd most deprived (Bee, 2015: 6). In light of the broadly similar demographic profile and institutional environment within which the qualitative interviews for the study were undertaken, it was possible to draw inferences at a number of different levels about the demographic profile and lived environment of those interviewed.

All fieldwork was undertaken in one geographical location to ensure that participants were (at least in theory) exposed to the same administrative, institutional and public service settings. It was later felt that this was particularly important given the localised experiences and comparisons of public services and institutions articulated by the research participants. Invariably, there are characteristics of Leeds that are somewhat idiosyncratic to its geography, production base and population. However, this made it particularly important to isolate fieldwork to one geographical area when comparing the attitudes, behaviours and experiences of ‘poor’ and ‘rich’ citizens.

In total, 28 interviews were conducted: 15 interviews with ‘deprived’ citizens (unemployed individuals living in deprived areas below the relative poverty line) and 13 interviews with participants identified as ‘affluent’ citizens (employed individuals living in affluent areas on an income well above the national average). Employment status, area deprivation and income were used as compound selection criteria to identify individuals occupying radically different ‘citizenship spaces’ (Painter and Philo, 1995). I visited the most and least deprived Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) across Leeds and delivered leaflets to households encouraging residents to take part in the research. All areas targeted were in the top and bottom 30% of the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) according to the latest administrative data available at the time of the qualitative fieldwork. These leaflets provided preliminary information on the study as well as a contact email address and mobile phone number.