Regeneration 2

Inqualities

The uneven distribution of economic and social opportunities

• Wealthier people, who have a higher quality of life and more opportunities, may view London as exciting and enjoy the fast pace of life

• Poorer people, with a lower quality of life, may feel economically and socially trapped by London

successful places

Often experience a spiral of growth- shown in the cumuative causation model

• Cumulative causation occurs when people move to a successful area to provide services for those already there

• This makes the area even more attractive to people and investors

Successful regions can be characterised as

• High rates of employment

• High rates of inward migration (both internal and international)

• Higher levels of income

• Low levels of multiple deprivation

Negative knock on effects of successful regions

• High property prices

• Skills shortages in urban and rural areas e.g. teachers, healthcare workers

• Congestion of roads and public transport

• Strains on services, such as healthcare and education

San Francisco- a successful place

• San Francisco is known as an international centre for commerce and innovation, particularly as a hub for the technology industry 

  • IT and digital media companies, like Twitter and Dropbox, have their headquarters there

• The multiplier effect is fuelled by its technological and transportation infrastructure, high quality of life and highly skilled workforce

• San Francisco is one of the wealthiest cities in the USA, with low unemployment levels of about 3%

spiral of decline occurs in

• Occurs after economic restructuring due to a change in economic sectors

• Urban areas due to deindustrialisation, where factories close and unemployment increases

  • Skilled, local people leave the area to find work, leaving behind the less skilled or older workers, who would be difficult to retrain

rural areas decline in the primary sector

• Young people leave the area, leaving behind an ageing population

• Decline in rural services (e.g. post offices, banks, petrol stations) due to less demand

economic restructuring and what is causes

The process in which urban economies move from an industrial economy to one based on services

A decline in

• Job opportunities

• Education

• Health

• Crime

• Services 

• The living environment

The rust belt USA

• The decline of the heavy manufacturing industry (deindustrialisation) in the USA’s Rust Belt began in the 1950s and led to higher levels of unemployment in the region:

  • Cheaper imports increased 

  • Manufacturing shifted south due to cheaper labour

  • The increased automation of industrial processes

social and economic inequalties create a need for

regeneration

High priorities for regeneration

SINK ESTATES

• Areas of low-income groups in need of greater social assistance, who have been segregated from the rest of society

• Often have high levels of crime, drugs and gang warfare

• People living in these estates get trapped in a spiral of decline

DECLINING RURAL SETTLEMENTS

• These settlements are less accessible

• High levels of deprivation in terms of access to services, such as 

  • Banks

  • Post offices

  • Leisure centres

Low priorities for regeneration

Gated communities

• Enclosed estates or buildings are often found in regenerated areas of the inner-city

• Walls, gates and controlled entrances separate the gated community from the rest of the area

• People who live in these areas tend to have higher incomes than the people living outside the gated community

• Low levels of deprivation

Commuter villages

• The majority of rural populations live in accessible rural places, which are experiencing population growth

• Accessible rural places are close to high-speed railways and motorways, encouraging commuters to locate there

How variations in the level of community engagement can be measured

• Local and national election turnout

• The number of community activities 

• The number of supported local community groups

Lived experience

The actual experience of living in a particular place or environment

Factors affecting levels of engagement and lived experience

• Age- young people may feel less attached to a place due to their many global connections via globalisation

• Gender- a stay at home parent may be more active in the local community

• Levels of deprivation- high levels= negative lived experience

• Ethnicity- different ethnic groups may feel disconnected to the place they have moved to due to cultural differences

conflicts over regeneration

Because of contrasting views on how the area should be regenerated

• A lack of political engagement and representation

• ethnic tensions

• social inquality

• a lack of economic opportunity

a lack of political engagement

• Low-income groups are less likely to vote, so politicians direct their interest to richer groups

• Regeneration is then imposed on locals by development companies, who have no lived experience of the place

ethical tensions

The minority ethnic groups are often displaced through gentrification as the area now attracts younger, wealthier people, which raises house prices

social inequality

groups with lower incomes might not be able to afford to live in the area once it has been regenerated

Top down approaches

a high investment regeneration project designed by planner, developersand large companies

Top down approaches reduce commnunity engagement

• The approaches can erase the local character of the area and degrade the sense of place felt by existing residents

• Local groups might not benefit from the regeneration scheme

• The development company might try to fit regeneration ideas from other areas into that place

evaluating a need for regeneration

• Social - ethnicity, access to education and healthcare, educational achievement, community facilities

• Economic - types of employment, unemployment, business rates, property values

• Environmental -  derelict land, closed shops, boarded-up buildings, graffiti, pollution, lack of green space, transport provision

Issues with media evidence

• However, media is subjective and may not accurately show the need for regeneration:

  • Some writers may portray a favourable image of a place to enhance a story

  • Other places may be depicted as worse than they are to add drama, which risks stigmatising an area and its locals

census data

assess the need for regeneration and identify demographics that they want to attract to the area

• can become out of date very quickly- only takes lace evey 10 years