Economic and Social Inequalities
- Successful regions, such as the San Francisco Bay area, have high rates of employment, inward migration being both internal and international and low levels of multiple deprivation.
- This, alongside high property prices and skills shortages in urban and rural areas, creates a wealthy and developing region.
- However, other places face a cycle of decline where one factor exacerbates another. In places such as the Rust Belt in the USA, economic restructuring has caused increasing levels of social deprivation, worsening education, health, crime, access to services and the living environment.
- This is the case in both deindustrialised urban areas and rural settlements which were once dominated by primary economic activities such as agriculture and manufacturing.
- Regeneration is thus done to create a balance and eradicate social and economic inequalities. By regenerating an area, business opportunities arise which improve social facilities and overall quality of life and wellbeing.
- There are priorities for regeneration due to the large variations in economic and social inequalities. Gated communities, ‘sink estates’, commuter villages and declining rural settlements are high priority areas.
Engagement and Experience of a Place
- There are also variations in the level of community engagement. This is measured through local and nation election turn outs, the number of community activities and the number of developed and supported local community groups.
- If an area is said to be more deprived, it will have a weaker and poorly integrated community. This can be managed by creating social groups and encouraging members to join.
The Lived Experience and Attachment of Places Varies
- Length of residence such as student or migrant.
- Levels of Deprivation.
- These factors in turn impact on levels of engagement and community involvement.
- Conflicts can occur between different groups in communities who have contrasting views on priorities and strategies for regeneration.
- The causes to these conflicts are often complex but can be due to: the lack of political engagement and representation, ethnic tensions, inequality and lack of economic opportunity.
Evaluating the Need for Regeneration
- You can determine whether your local area requires regeneration by collecting statistical evidence on community strength, deprivation scores and the lived experience.
- Attachment of individuals can be done as a tally on whether people like living in the area along with what age group they are in, ethnicity, gender and length of residence.
- The more statistical evidence you collect, the more reliable and valid your conclusions will be. Stronger the evidence, better the conclusions and higher the mark!
- You can also use media to discover the presentation of your local area. Media can provide contrasting evidence and question whether your chosen area requires regeneration.
- It is also important to understand different representations of your area and how this can influence the need for regeneration.