ABSTRACT
THE last chapter summarised the main findings on interaction and satisfaction with the neighbours. This chapter attempts to synthesise the conclusions of research on the neighbourhood, to reveal the structure and functions of neighbour groupings on housing estates. This approach cannot lead to a complete picture, since neighbour groupings are not in any sense self-contained social systems. The very existence of such groups, indeed, sometimes appears open to doubt; and their study is sometimes contemptuously dismissed as the collection of bric-a-brac.1 It is perhaps necessary to justify the attention given to them here.
