Neighbourhood against chains being put on little space (8)
I believe the answer is:
environs
'neighbourhood' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'against chains being put on little space' is the wordplay.
'against' becomes 'v' (versus).
'chains' becomes 'irons' (synonyms).
'being put on' says to put letters next to each other (some letters go on or after others).
'little space' becomes 'en' (in printing, a space as wide as a letter 'n').
'v'+'irons'='virons'
'virons' after 'en' is 'ENVIRONS'.
(Other definitions for environs that I've seen before include "Surrounding area" , "neighbourhood" , "What's about" , "Surroundings" , "Goes round" .)