mixed communities: do they matter and can we create them? keith kintrea department of urban studies
TRANSCRIPT
Mixed Communities:Do They Matter and Can We
Create Them?
Keith Kintrea
Department of Urban Studies
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“We should try to introduce in our modern villages and towns what was always the lovely feature of English and Welsh villages, where the doctor, the grocer, the butcher and the farm labourer all lived in the same street. I believe that it is essential for the full life of a citizen to see the living tapestry of a mixed community.”
(Aneurin Bevan, Housing Minister, 1945)
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‘A key focus of our housing and regeneration policies is the creation
of mixed communities- communities where among other things there is a mix of incomes and sufficient range, diversity, affordability and accessibility of housing within a balanced market’
(People and Place: Regeneration Policy Statement, 2006)
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Unmixed Communities: Trends1. Increasing inequalities in labour markets and
income2. A large group experiencing disadvantage3. Deepening residential segregation and
tenure polarisation4. Social housing as a welfare ‘safety net’5. A tendency for disadvantaged groups to
separate from the mainstream (the ‘socially excluded’; the ‘underclass’)
6. In poor areas- social disorganisation; poor socialisation and disorder
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New and TransferredTenants
All Adults (up to 74) in Housing AssociationHouses
All Adults (up to 74) in Scotland
Working full time or part time
33.0 38.0 58.5
Training 0.4 - -
Unemployed 32.9 8.5 4.0
Retired 18.3 14.0 13.0
At home 3.6 13.0 5.6
Student 1.7 5.9 6.8
Long term sick 9.7 17.3 7.2
Other 0.4 7.6 3.8
Source: SCORE Digest 2004-05; Census 2001
Economic Status of Housing Association Residents
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‘’Neighbourhood Effects’’
Is it worse to be poor in a poor area or one which is more socially diverse?
What is the effect of living in a poor area on an individual/household on their life-chances?
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The natural experiment
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How do area effects operate?
Social isolation e.g. away from labour markets Social networks e.g. restricted to the neighbourhood,
lack of information about opportunities Norms and expectations e.g. lack of diversity of role
models The interaction of poverty concentration with
services e.g. higher pressure/less political efficacy and therefore poorer quality services
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Proposition Mechanism Social Isolation Relatively isolated social world where
deprived people mainly associate with each other
Socially and geographically restricted social networks
The reinforcement or extension of inequalities through:
- an absence of weak ties - constraining social capital - the levelling down of aspirations - stigma, leading to external
discrimination and internal intensification of low self esteem
Shared norms and expectations
Development of shared beliefs and expectations among local residents as a consequence of isolation. Depending on political position this is also sometimes linked to the development of unconventional social norms as a response to living in poverty
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Barriers to mixed communities?(Evening Times 14th November 2006)
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Can we create them? National policy Housing development Housing management Greater permeability
Building new mixed communities Injecting mix into majority deprived
neighbourhoods
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National Policy
Improve economic prospects through jobs growth and/ or tax and benefit changes
Greater tenure neutrality/ ‘reinvention’ of social housing
Presumption in favour of social mix for all new housing developments by strengthening planning gain measures in the planning system and creative use of public funding and leverage
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Approaches to Housing Development
Building or improving social housing in already deprived areas just maintains their poor status, so instead:
Concentrate social housing ‘investment’ away from existing deprived areas
De-link subsidy from place by offering ‘portable subsidies’ instead of carrying out in-situ housing redevelopment
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Housing Management
Key is to find ways to attract more people that have other choices:
Allocations- the problem or the solution? Choice based lettings? Better estate management? ‘Wider role’?
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Increase Permeability
Increase the inward and outward permeability of deprived areas by:
Putting transport into the regeneration agenda Giving people more reason and incentive to
travel outwith their home neighbourhoods Providing services and attractions within
deprived areas which make them attractive to visit for outsiders
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So..