Rowland Atkinson

Disentangling Area Effects: Evidence from Deprived and Non-deprived Neighbourhoods

This paper focuses on the question of whether it is worse to be poor in a poor area or in an area which is more socially mixed; in short, does living in a deprived area compound the disadvantage experienced by its residents, and do area effects contribute to social exclusion? The idea of social areas having direct or mediated effects on the lives of their residents continues to interest and challenge academic and policy debates on the effect of concentrated poverty and on the creation of more mixed and, thereby, more sustainable neighbourhood forms. However, area effects remain contentious and British research evidence is scant. Following a review of the theoretical and empirical understandings of the relationship between households and neighbourhoods, the paper presents survey data from a comparative study of deprived and socially mixed neighbourhoods in Glasgow and Edinburgh. These data provide evidence that supports the area effects thesis, in particular in relation to area reputation and employment. The paper concludes that, with certain caveats, living in areas of geographically concentrated poverty creates additional problems for residents.

Fortress UK? Gated communities, the spatial revolt of the elites and time–space trajectories of segregation

Anecdotal evidence suggests that ‘gated communities’ are growing in popularity. This paper uses empirical evidence to profile the location and characteristics of gated development in England and details the relative integration of residents. The paper also attempts to think through the wider theoretical and urban policy impacts of gating. In contrast to the view that gated communities provide an extreme example of residential segregation we go further and argue that the time‐space trajectories of residents suggest a dynamic pattern of separation that goes beyond the place of residence. Gated communities appear to provide an extreme example of more common attempts by other social groups to insulate against perceived risk and unwanted encounters. Patterns of what we term time‐space trajectories of segregation can thereby be seen as closed linkages between key fields, such as work and home, which enable social distance to be maintained and perceived risks to be managed by elite social groups. We conclude that gated communities further extend contemporary segregatory tendencies in the city and that policy responses are required which curtail the creation of such havens of social withdrawal.

Padding the Bunker: Strategies of Middle-class Disaffiliation and Colonisation in the City:

Residential segregation has often been seen as a significant and intractable urban problem. Empirical analyses have focused on the clustering and social impacts of concentrated deprivation and ethnicity, while explanations of segregation have generally looked at the role of income, housing markets, and wider social and institutional discrimination. This paper attempts to build on such preoccupations by considering current urban transformations to theorise the recent middle-class colonisation of cities in the UK. Segregation is seen here not just as the concentration of an urban poor or particular ethnic groups, but also as representing an extended spatial bifurcation between the choices of the affluent to withdraw into increasingly insulated enclaves, while places of poverty contain populations away from this increasingly fearful, yet tendentiously urbanising, middle class. Using a series of case studies, a typology is developed of increasing disaffiliation as a prelude to a further debate on the feasibility of encouraging social diversity in the city.

The evidence on the impact of gentrification: new lessons for the urban renaissance?

Does gentrification help or harm residential neighbourhoods and what are the implications of this evidence for current urban policies? This paper reports on a systematic review of the English-language research literature on gentrification which attempted to identify the range of costs and benefits associated with the process. It is concluded from this that existing evidence on gentrification shows it to have been largely harmful, predominantly through household displacement and community conflict. The paper then turns to the question of whether current UK urban policy developments are likely to engender gentrification. It is argued that, on the one hand, the language of gentrification processes have been used widely in regeneration policy documents to suggest positive forces for local housing and neighbourhood change. Meanwhile, policy instruments designed to deliver an urban renaissance suggest responses to the problem of gentrification in particular regional contexts and the promotion of gentrification itself in other localities. The paper concludes that the aims of an inclusive renaissance agenda appear to have been discarded in favour of policies which pursue revitalization through gentrification and displacement.

Introduction: International Perspectives on The New Enclavism and the Rise of Gated Communities

This volume gathers together substantially revised versions of papers first presented in Glasgow, Scotland in September 2003. This event was an international meeting of academics who discussed the significance, relative problems and benefits associated with the international rise of gated communities. Gated communities (hereafter GCs) have been defined in a number of ways. These definitions tend to cluster around housing development that restricts public access, usually through the use of gates, booms, walls and fences. These residential areas may also employ security staff or CCTV systems to monitor access. In addition, GCs may include a variety of services such as shops or leisure facilities. The growth of such private spaces has provoked passionate discussion about why, where and how these developments have arisen. This volume presents an opportunity to gather together contemporary and diverse views on what is at least commonly agreed to be a radical urban form. The apparently ‘unique’ characteristics of GCs present immediate problems for an accurate definition. Should we include flats with door entry systems, tower blocks with concierge schemes or partially walled housing estates, even detached houses with their own gates? Among this confusion we suggest that the central feature of GCs is the social and legal frameworks which form the constitutional conditions under which residents subscribe to access and occupation of these developments, in combination with the physical features which make them so conspicuous. Living in a gated community means signing up to a legal framework which allows the extraction of monies to help pay for maintenance of common-buildings, common services, such as rubbish collection, and other revenue costs such as paying staff to clean or secure the neighbourhood. However, such legal frameworks can also be found in many thousands of non-gated homeowner associations in the US, and indeed in blocks of leasehold flats in England. This leads us back to the important physical aspects of these developments. Where a combination is found of these socio-legal agreements and a physical structure which includes gates and walls enclosing space otherwise expected to be publicly accessible, we can finally achieve some clarity of definition. Gated communities may

Do urban regeneration programmes improve public health and reduce health inequalities? A synthesis of the evidence from UK policy and practice (1980–2004)

Objectives: To synthesise data on the impact on health and key socioeconomic determinants of health and health inequalities reported in evaluations of national UK regeneration programmes. Data Sources: Eight electronic databases were searched from 1980 to 2004 (IBSS, COPAC, HMIC, IDOX, INSIDE, Medline, Urbadisc/Accompline, Web of Knowledge). Bibliographies of located documents and relevant web sites were searched. Experts and government departmental libraries were also contacted. Review methods: Evaluations that reported achievements drawing on data from at least two target areas of a national urban regeneration programme in the UK were included. Process evaluations and evaluations reporting only business outcomes were excluded. All methods of evaluation were included. Impact data on direct health outcomes and direct measures of socioeconomic determinants of health were narratively synthesised. Results: 19 evaluations reported impacts on health or socioeconomic determinants of health; data from 10 evaluations were synthesised. Three evaluations reported health impacts; in one evaluation three of four measures of self reported health deteriorated, typically by around 4%. Two other evaluations reported overall reductions in mortality rates. Most socioeconomic outcomes assessed showed an overall improvement after regeneration investment; however, the effect size was often similar to national trends. In addition, some evaluations reported adverse impacts. Conclusion: There is little evidence of the impact of national urban regeneration investment on socioeconomic or health outcomes. Where impacts have been assessed, these are often small and positive but adverse impacts have also occurred. Impact data from future evaluations are required to inform healthy public policy; in the meantime work to exploit and synthesise “best available” data is required.

The hidden costs of gentrification: Displacement in central London

This paper explores the process of displacement fromgentrification in three areas in central London. Taking as itsfocus the recent stress in policy documents on the need for mixedcommunities, the paper argues that extensive gentrification inthe case study areas threatens the sustainability of communitynetworks and of those services which excluded groups rely on.Drawing on disparate sources of data, the paper pieces together apicture of the scale and experience of displacement. It arguesthat there is a need to rethink the laissez faire policytoward neighbourhoods and the desirability with which many viewinfluxes of wealthy households into previously poor areas.

‘Opportunities and Despair, it’s all in there’ Practitioner Experiences and Explanations of Area Effects and Life Chances

This article looks at perceptions of the link between residential location and life chances. The idea of ‘area effects’ suggests that people’s prospects for social engagement and economic activity are related to the neighbourhood where they live. It permeates social and urban policy as well as theories of deprivation and social exclusion. However, while quantitative evidence on area effects has begun to suggest that such a link exists, there has been little evidence using qualitative data and no contrast between the social patterns of life in deprived and more socially diverse areas. In response to these concerns, this article uses data from in-depth interviews with practitioners and voluntary workers in both deprived and socially diverse neighbourhoods to throw more light on how the linkages between area of residence and life chances are understood locally. The article concludes that experiences of deprivation may be more entrenched and fatalistic in deprived areas in response to a range of perceived negative impacts of area on social action and engagement. However, this general position is also contradictory and fragmented depending on social position within the locale. The article concludes by drawing out these ideas in terms of how the experience and reproduction of poverty are theorized.

Ecology of sound: The sonic order of urban space

Sound provides an often-ignored element of our conceptualisation of the urban fabric. The power of music, sound and noise to denote place and demarcate space is used here to develop the idea of a sonic ecology. The paper attempts to map the relative order of this unseen city and to theorise its spatial and temporal patterning. The sonic ecology, a relatively persistent and chronologically ordered quality to sound in urban space, is used as a means of examining the distribution of sound and to weigh the broader social impact of these qualities. The ambient soundscape of the street is made up of a shifting aural terrain, a resonant metropolitan fabric, which may exclude or subtly guide us in our experience of the city, thus highlighting an invisible yet highly affecting and socially relevant area of urban enquiry.

Commentary: Gentrification, Segregation and the Vocabulary of Affluent Residential Choice

When I began my doctoral work, on gentrification in London, I was fuelled by a desire to measure what was largely an invisible social problem. Household displacement had barely been tackled as an issue and, as for public policy, the idea had entered neither the vocabulary or psychology, except perhaps through well-known texts on the impacts of dislocation through slum clearance, such as that by Young and Willmott (1964).The almost total influence of gentrification in many centralcity areas suggests that any displacement that could be achieved has already occurred and that this has already left many boroughs and neighbourhoods as high-income enclaves, often with a remnant scattering of public housing.