The Social Participation and Identity Project is based on a qualitative sub-study of 220 indepth
biographical interviews conducted as part of the age 50 sweep of the National Child
Development Study (NCDS), the UK’s pioneering birth cohort study which began in 1958. Its
substantive focus on participation reflects a particular interest in claims, and associated
policy concerns, about the decline of social engagement and cohesion in Britain over recent
years. Methodologically, it is the first project in the world to address this and a range of
related issues by conducting a systematic qualitative enquiry with members of an existing
longitudinal, quantitative cohort study, with the possibility therefore of linking biographical
narratives to structured survey data collected throughout the life course.