Geography - Changing Places

Completed Booklet 1 & 2, skimming through the rest for AO1 due to time pressure

What is a place?

A location with meaning.

What 2 types of factors shape a place

Endogenous factors - the characteristics of the place itself or factors which have originated internally.

Exogenous factors - Factors that originate from outside a place and can include links to or influences from other places.

To understand place you use a subjective and objective approach via what types of data

Quantitative and Qualitative data

Quantitative data characteristics and why are these characteristics useful?

Quantitative data is Facts/information, it is…

Standardised - The same everywhere e.g. 4 windows

Measurable

Easily testable

Liable to change overtime - So it can be compared easily

The same for everyone (objective)

This type of data is useful because: It enables people to see differences in houses and which they prefer.

Quantitative data characteristics and why are these characteristics useful?

Qualitative data is our own viewpoint/perspective, it is…

Unique

True to us (personal)

Similar to the perspective of others, but not the same

Influenced by others, but not controlled by others e.g. family

Constant and changeable

This type of data is useful because: It enables people to have a sense of place, feeling of belonging and place attachment.

3 Different aspects of place

Sense of place - Subjective & emotional attachment people have to a place. Since it is subjective, this can be different when looked at from others perspectives

Locale - Acknowledges the impact/effect people have on their setting. People shape place via cultures & customs within it.

Location - Place on a map e.g. co-ordinates on a map

How can the 3 aspects of place be impacted (example)

SOP - The media

Locale - Globalisation

Location - Can’t be affected as it’s objective and quantitative.

Some examples of things that can create place meaning

People

Atmosphere

History

Climate

Media

When studying places what are the 3 theoretical approaches you use? Explain them. Do you use quantitative or qualitative data to study them?

Descriptive approach, (which looks at the Location) - The world is a set of places & each place can be studied & is distinct. This involves describing the physical aspects of an area & their characteristics. - Quantitative data is used when studying place with this approach.

Social-constructivist approach, (which looks at the Locale) - The people in a place affect its character. Events, culture & activities associated with a place also affect its character. - Quantitative and qualitative data is used when studying place with this approach.

Phenomenological approach, (which looks at the Sense of Place) - How an individual person experiences place, recognising a highly personal relationship, between place & person. - Qualitative data is used when studying place with this approach.

Example of studying a place using the social-constructivist approach

Trafalgar Square was shaped by its history of war (the battle of Trafalgar), where 4 lions were made of cannon debris from the battle. This affects the locale giving it a historical character.

What year was Winchester voted the best place to live in Hampshire and by who?

In 2016, by the Sunday Times Best Place To Live guide

Studying place using the Descriptivist approach and secondary research + Short paragraph describing Winchester using this approach

You can use google maps to get a good location of Winchester and the places nearby it.

Winchester is a historic cathedral city, in the central south of England, in the county of Hampshire. 60 miles south west of London and 14 miles from Southampton, the closest city to Winchester. Winchester is a clone town with many chain stores along its high street such as Sainsbury’s or Tesco.

Winchester clone town score, what is it and how is it measured? & what predominantly influences the score?

independently owned shops vs. the number of chain stores

New Economics Foundation (Clone Town score) ~ 11/50 (2005)

(Scale: 50 - Home Town, 0 - Clone Town)

The process of globalisation

Studying Winchester via the social constructivist approach

e.g. Religion, History, Events and the Demographic

(These all shape locale hugely)

Winchester is a very historic city as it was developed from the Roman town of Venta Belgarum, this means that lots of residents fight to keep the locale alive by preserving historic architecture. Winchester is also a relatively religious city, with the major religion here being Christianity. This started from part of its history, after Alfred the Great ruled his Christian kingdom there at around 600 AD, (this links with past connections and how they shape place) Although data from the 2011 and 2021 Census on the ONS (Office for National Statistics) website shows us that Winchester is becoming more secular as a society. roughly 63% - less than ½ are Christian.

What influences SOP? - the Phenomenological approach - What is good/bad about using a Derive (emotion map) when studying place?

Lived experience and the media affect your SOP, if you had a bad experience in a place you will most likely associate the bad experience with that place. (Memories & senses experienced in that place hugely affect your sense of place)

You can create an affective map (Derive) of a place to represent SOP

Adv.

Tells us about a person’s individual SOP

Tells us what factors created that place meaning, telling us a little bit about the place

Dis.

Place meaning is created by your SOP and is unique for everyone and so it will be different for everyone, since it’s different for everyone you won’t develop a full sense of place unless you go there yourself

There may be bias in place meaning due to emotional attachments to certain memories

What makes a place great? - The Project for Public Spaces circle (which evaluates place)

Sociability e.g. neighbourly

Uses & Activities e.g. Land-use patterns

Comfort & Image e.g. Crime level

Access & Linkages e.g. Walkable

Insider & Outsider perspectives of place, what makes someone an insider or outsider?

To be someone with an insider perspective of a place they should have a stronger relationship with that place, feel like they belong to it and identify with it. This causes strong place attachment and may make them more likely to oppose developments within their local area and lead to ‘NIMBYISM’ (Not In My Backyard)

However, some people may feel out of place (an outsider), this could be because of their gender, race, ethnicity, religion, politics, socio-economic status and sexuality

Positive experiences within a place may also make you feel like an insider, but negative experiences within a place may make you feel like an outsider

Experienced place & Media place (definitions)

Does the media portray places accurately, why / why not?

An experienced place is a place a person has spent time in, whereas media places are those that a person has only read about or seen in film.

The key point is that the reality of a place can be far different to that put across by the media. Mainly because the media tend to represent rural places as happy and healthy but urban areas are filled with crime and pollution. The countryside in the UK has been ‘idolised’ by the media for a long time. In addition, tourist boards may make a place look better than it actually is to attract people to it; an example is ‘Visit Winchester’

Near & Far places (definitions)

The term ‘near’ and ‘far’ can have multiple meanings. They could refer to the geographical distance between places OR be describing the emotional connection with a particular palace and how comfortable a person feels within that place. (Therefore a near place could be geographically near, but the emotional connection is 'far’ and similarly a far place could be geographically near but the emotional connection is ‘far’)

Personal experience, and representational exposure e.g. via the media can affect whether someone feels that a place is ‘far’ or ‘near’

Endogenous factors & Exogenous factors that can influence the character of a place + Examples from both Winchester and the Mission District

Which factors influence which?

Endo - The characteristics of the place itself or factors which have originated internally. This includes aspects such as: Location, Physical geography, Land use, Social/Economic characteristics (e.g. population size and employment rates), Cultural factors (e.g. heritage/religion), Demography (Winchester - ageing, old, white population)

Exo - The relationship of one place with other places & the external factors which affect this. The demographic (population structure), socio-economic and cultural characteristics of place are shaped by shifting flows of people, resources, money and investment. Example ‘Newcomers’ (White-British Tech Worker influx) in the Mission District

The exogenous factors of a place, shape the endogenous factors within a place

Which theoretical approach is used to study a place’s demographic, socio-economic and cultural characteristics?

The Descriptivist approach

Which theoretical approach can be used to study shifting flows of people, resources, money and investment and ideas within places?

The Social constructivist approach

Census data, why is it good when studying place and why not?

Good - Fairly accurate, as participation is mandatory. Describes the location and locale of a place.

Bad - If people are staying just for a visit, the sample may be less accurate. Furthermore, it doesn’t capture the SOP felt by individuals.

2021/11 Winchester Census Data (Done by ONS) + Analysis (Ethnicity, Religion, Age, Population, Socio-economic)

Ethnicity - 96% white (2011) - 94% white (2021)

Religion - Winchester is becoming more secular as a society. Roughly 63% (2011) to less than ½ (2021) are now Christian.

Age - Winchester clearly has an ageing population - The share of residents between 50 and 64 have increased by almost 1% between 2011 & 2021

Population - Winchester (2011-2021) 9% growth, compared to South East England (2011-2021) 7.5% growth

Socio-economic - Rise in % of privately rented properties, by over 3%. Only ½ population roughly are economically active.

(Conclusion: There is very little difference between each census, this shows us that Winchester doesn’t change very much, besides possibly religion as Winchester is becoming more secular.)

Exogenous factors that shape place - Commuters (shifting flows of people) + How it has shaped Winchester Case Study

In- commuter - Someone who commutes into a place (e.g. London → Winchester)

Out-commuter - Someone who commutes into a place (e.g. Winchester → London)

15% of the population commute

9,000 in-commute from Eastleigh and only a 1/3 of that out-commute (from Winchester) to Eastleigh

Main reason for in - commuters would be the abundance of work, they don’t live here as Winchester house prices cost roughly 14x the average salary made by people in the city. Highest house prices in Hampshire.

Main reason for out - commuters would be to go to places like London where there a jobs with higher salaries, so they can afford the high house prices in Winchester. Proven by the fact that Winchester has roughly 3x the executive wealth than the national average.

Out-commuters may have more of a place attachment as they live in that place. They may want to protect the heritage.

Commuters generally mainly affect the socio-economic aspect of place, and partly the locale.

Exogenous factors that shape place - Tourism - Winchester

Positive and Negative impacts

Advantages

• Economic benefit - Income local business derived from tourism in 2015 - (roughly) £360M, tourists also make up roughly 8% of the total workforce in Winchester

• Development occurs to accommodate and attract tourists

• More diverse society which can lead to a cultural exchange

• Revenue can be used to help maintain iconic buildings and funding local services

Disadvantages

• Congestion - Noise and air pollution

• More competition for goods & services, drives up prices

• Makes it difficult for locals to go about daily life if it is busy, possibly affecting their place attachment and SOP

Tourism affects the socio-economic, locale, demography and possibly the individual SOP

Key terms relating to clone towns

Globalisation - A process by which national economies, societies & cultures have become increasingly integrated through the global network of trade, communication, transportation and immigration e.g. Starbucks on the Winchester High-street (along with other MNCs)

Glocalization - Global brands which are fashioned to appeal to the consumer in a local market e.g. Stamford Street Co brand in Sainsbury’s

Homogenised - A place being identical to another - Increasing similarities in a place with other places regardless of their geographical location.

Placessness - Loss of uniqueness to a place

Globalisation leads to homogenised places and therefore placelessness. This leads to people loosing place attachment and possible moving.

Winchester is a clone town, why?

Globalisation

The high-street is dominated by chain stores, mainly due to the high rent prices on the high-street, this means that small businesses struggle to afford it and so globalisation widens the gap between the rich and poor.

Past connections and how they have affected Winchester, (include key dates roughly)

70AD Winchester Roman town - Brought Christianity, grid road structure that exists today (political/religious connection) International scale (Roman Empire) - Affected locale and location

871AD King Alfred the Great was crowned King of Wessex and Winchester was the capital city - Important political centre (Political) National scale - Affected mainly the locale

1840AD Winchester connected to expanding railway network - The population of Winchester grew rapidly from less than 600 in 1801 to over 13,000 in half a decade (Transport) National - Affected locale

Examples of present connections currently shaping Winchester

Tourism, Globalisation, Commuters, Locals/inhabitants

CASE STUDY: Silver Hill/Saxon Gate Regeneration - Winchester Central Regeneration Project (Timeline)

• 2003 - Winchester City Council entered into an agreement with Thornfield Properties to start development

Key players: WCC (local public body), Thornfield Properties (Global organisation)

• 2008 - international banks withdrew from Thornfield, due to the Global financial crash in 2008 and Thornfield went bust

• 2009 - Some of the original plan included: almost 300 residential units, only 35% being affordable (essentially council housing), New bus station

Original plan was scrapped due to locals protesting

Key players: Global economy & politics

• 2010 - Henderson Global bought Thornfield Properties and a new development plan with the Council and was eventually created

Key players: Henderson Global and the Council

• 2015 - Judicial Review brought upon WCC by Winchester Deserves Better prevented development, council had been said to act unlawfully

Key Players: Winchester Deserves Better (a local protest group), High Court

• Winchester City Council and Jigsaw working together with locals to create a development plan to make people happy. Numerous meetings were held to get ideas from locals about what they’d like to see in the new development

Key Players: Locals, WCC, Jigsaw

What are the other barriers to development besides Winchester’s locals?

Inflation - Price of oil and construction costs

Archaeology - Protecting and enhancing heritage

Geology - Hampshire has mostly chalk ground so water soaks into the chalk easily affecting buildings’ stability

Stakeholders - High power and High interest

CASE STUDY: The Mission District (booklet 5) Location

Place meaning of CA, SF & The Mission District

The Mission District is located in San Francisco in California.

The Mission District is a place experiencing rapid change (this is in contrast to Winchester).

CA - ‘Sunny State’, good weather, economic prosperity, diverse, place of dreams, densely populated

SF - Diverse and progressive city (The Castro District had the 1st openly gay mayor) and diverse as the districts can have distinct identities e.g. the Chinatown district

The Mission District - Latino culture (is declining now due to gentrification which is leading to their displacement), community/family

The Mission District - Endogenous factors that are shaping this place

• Street art

• Flat land [Topography] (unlike the rest of SF)

• Microclimates - warmer and sunnier than SF (shaped by exogenous factors)

• Rich cultural working class Latino heritage

• Old industrial warehouses changed for modern day use

• Conflict - protest art ‘Tax The Rich’

The Mission District - Exogenous factors that are shaping this place (in order of most to least important)

Dot . com & Social Media Boom 1995 [Shifting flows of money/investment created by TNCs] - Created many high-income white tech workers who then decided to move to the mission, causing gentrification and displacement of Latino locals

The Ellis Act 1985 (facilitates gentrification) [Ideas/government policy] - Legislation that enabled landlords to kick out tenants and raise the rent prices (no-fault evictions). This led to the poorer locals losing homes and white-tech workers to move into them as they could afford the rent and others couldn’t. The Mission has the highest rate of Ellis Act evictions in SF.

Public Investment [money/investment] - Places become more appealing to tourists or rich-tech workers so gentrification is sped up. This leads to possible identity loss for locals as the new fancy condos don’t fit with the locale and so their place attachment may also decrease.

State government - California's Tenant Protection Act of 2019 requires landlords to have a "just cause" to terminate a tenancy

These all enable shifting flows of people (white-tech worker influx) to change the demography, culture and socio-economic aspects of the Mission District (aka the endogenous factors)

The Mission District - Demographic, Socio-economic and cultural change it has experienced (change in endogenous factors), which has changed the most?

The Mission District’s endogenous factors have been shaped by the shifting flows of people (exogenous factors - generally white British tech workers) who are migrating to here.

Demographic change (not as huge as others) - Displacement of Latinos. In 2000, roughly ½ the population were Latino, by 2014 this has decreased by 10%. Gentrification has pushed the long time residents who are working class Latino people out of the Mission and the high income tech workers in.

Socio-economic change (largest change) - Income equality in the mission is the 2nd largest in the US, since 2011, roughly 2/3 of all no-fault evictions in the Mission have occurred within a few blocks of a private bus shuttle for tech company employees (decision of MNC), between 1994 & 2021 there have been roughly 5,500 no fault evictions, in 1990 the median household income was just above $37,000 and was double that in 2020 and still rising

Cultural change - Conflict between locals and others seen through the media in the ‘Mission Playground is Not for Sale’ video where the SF Park Authority enabled people to book football pitches and locals used to play whenever they wanted

The Mission District - Vision for 1979 Mission Development - Who, What, Why?

Who opposed this?

Who - Maximus Real Estate

What - 330 unit building; at market rate rent (follow pattern of house prices), paid natives to support this

Why - Money

Plaza 16 opposed this.

The Mission District - Plaza 16 - Who? What? Why?

A local protest group objecting to gentrification which was leading to displacement.

They do this because gentrification is driving out locals, and changing the locale of the place.

The Mission District - Quantitative data describing socio-economic characteristics 2008 v 2013 rented properties number & education level 1980 v 2018

Rented properties 87% - 76%

Level of education, 18% college educated - just over 1/2 college educated

The Mission District - How places may be represented in a variety of different ways - music, tourism industry, media

How accurate are they?

Places are generally represented in a more positive light by tourism industries to attract people to a place. (Not very accurate)

Music - Crime & danger - Gangsta Flea ‘People making millions’ (Accuracy declining in recent years)

Film - La Mission - Accurately represents a culture clash between locals and newcomers, similar to that in the Mission (Accurate for present)

The Mission District - How external agencies, including government, corporate bodies and community or local groups make attempts to influence or create specific place-meanings (and thereby shape the actions and behaviours of individuals, groups, businesses and institutions).

outline some of the AGENTS OF CHANGE

SF Government

SF Travel Association

SF Government investment in private areas - widened gap between rich and poor

PODER (People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights)

Plaza 16

(Majority local)

The Mission District - describe how the agents of change are affecting the Mission and creating place-meaning, were they successful?

SF government - Successful to some degree - Put halt to EA evictions and build more affordable rented properties (due to P16)

SF Travel association - Successful - 70s & 80s SF was closely linked with the phrase ‘Everybody’s Favourite City’

SF government investment in private neighbourhoods - Not Successful - Ended up attracting more tech workers, changing the locale due to more gentrification and displacement.

PODER (People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights) - Not very successful - Relatively small scale impact, as the problem is so large

P16 - Successful - Stopped Maximus Real Estate building the ‘Monster in the Mission’ and influenced government to build more affordable rented properties

Example & definition of re-imaging, what does it do?

Disassociating a place from bad pre-existing images. (E.g. in relation to poor housing, social deprivation, crime etc…). It can attract new investment, retailing, tourists and residents. It can also create new feelings and attitudes of people towards that place.

Kings Walk (essentially just new paint job)

Example & definition of rebranding, what does it do?

The ways in which a place is redeveloped & marketed so it gains a new identity. It can then attract new investment, retailing, tourists etc & makes a place desirable to live or visit.

Winchester Christmas market which attracts over 400,000 visitors annually & in 2023 it brought it £5M from visitors

Example & definition of regeneration, what does it do?

The long-term process involving redevelopment & the use of social, economic & environmental action to reverse urban decline and create sustainable communities.

The Central Winchester Regeneration Project made by Jigsaw (which includes the development of Saxon Gate)