3.2.3.3 Social and economic issues associated with urbanisation

Question 1

what is economic inequality?

Answer 1

A key feature of cities in Asia, Africa and S. America is the increasingly large wealth gap between rich and poor residents

Question 2

what does social segregation refer to?

Answer 2

When you pass through a city (e.g. take an over ground train for half an hour through London and you will see many different areas), you can identify which areas are more affluent and you can get a sense if a neighbourhood is improving or deteriorating. The wealthy and the poor seem to concentrate spatially- a form of social segregation

Question 3

what are the main reasons for social segregation in urban areas?

Answer 3

• Housing: Developers, builders and planners tend to build housing on plots of land with a particular market in mind. The requirements to include a proportion of ‘affordable housing’ may affect housing value in some areas. Wealthier groups can choose to pay more for houses well away from poor areas, with pleasing environments and services such as quality schools and parks. Poorer groups typically have far less choice in where to live
• Housing neighbourhoods change over time. Houses that were built for large families in Georgian and Victorian times are now too big for the average UK family. Many have been converted into flats for private rental to people on low incomes. Conversely, former poor areas are being gentrified, making them popular amongst wealthier groups. The ‘right to buy’ legislation of the 1980s transformed many council estates, as houses were bought be their occupants and improved over time
• The ethnic dimension: Ethnic groups originally came/come to the country as new immigrants (this could have been several generations ago or happening today). When they first arrive they may suffer discrimination in the job market leading to unemployment or employment in low-paid jobs. Consequently, they can only afford cheap housing and therefore they cluster in poor areas. These ethnic groupings then tend to continue into later generations

Question 4

It is possible to measure the quality of life in an area using primary data, such as

Answer 4

the quality, density and condition of housing and the nature of the physical and social environment

Question 5

It is also possible to use secondary data to assess deprivation levels. This may include poverty in terms of

Answer 5

low income, or shown by poor health or the lack of possessions, such as cars

Question 6

It is common for the poorest parts of the UK to suffer from multiple deprivation- a combination of

Answer 6

social, environmental and economic deprivation

Question 7

What is the Index of multiple deprivation?

Answer 7

a UK government qualitative study measuring deprivation at small-area level across England

Question 8

how is the index of multiple deprivation calculated?

Answer 8

37 separate indicators, organised across seven distinct domains (such as income, employment and crime) of deprivation are combined, using appropriate weights, to calculate the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2015 (IMD 2015). This is an overall measure of multiple deprivation experienced by people living in an area and is calculated for every neighbourhood, in England. Every such neighbourhood in England is ranked according to its level of deprivation relative to that of other areas

Question 9

what were the key findings of 2015 IMD?

Answer 9

• The vast majority of the most deprived areas in England were in cities, specifically in areas that have historically had large heavy industry, manufacturing and/or mining sectors, coastal towns and large parts of East London.
• The 20 most deprived local authorities in 2015 were largely the same as found for the 2010 Index, however the London Boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham and Haringey have become relatively less deprived and no longer feature in this list (gentrification is largely responsible for this)

Question 10

what is important to remember regarding the IMD?

Answer 10

these statistics are a measure of relative deprivation, not affluence, and to recognise that not every person in a highly deprived area will themselves be deprived. Likewise, there will be some deprived people living in the least deprived areas

Question 11

The term urban social exclusion refers to

Answer 11

to the problems faced by residents in areas of multiple deprivation. These people are excluded from full participation in society by their social and physical circumstances. Often, they cannot access a decent job because of poor education or obtain decent housing because of poverty. They often suffer poor health and from high levels of crime in an unattractive physical environment. In a city, inequality can cause lack of social cohesion and in extreme cases, civil unrest

Question 12

Inner city areas have traditionally been the most deprived urban neighbourhoods, why?

Answer 12

These characteristics of decline were caused by de-industrialisation in the second half of the twentieth century when unemployment became a major problem. Population loss followed and the movement of younger, more affluent and more skilled residents left behind a population who were older, less skilled and poor

Question 13

is there a pattern to urban poverty?

Answer 13

There is no clear geographical pattern to urban poverty today. It clearly exists but the image of a troubled inner core surrounded by affluent suburbs is out-dated. Some of the highest levels of urban poverty are now found in peripheral estates while many inner city areas have been transformed by regeneration. Rich and poor areas today are found across city and suburb alike

Question 14

explain the relationship between inequality and the poverty cycle

Answer 14

Inequality remains a challenge for cities in the twenty-first century. The inequalities within a city tend to exist in terms of access to job opportunities, education, housing and basic public services such as water and sanitation. In many poorer cities for example, adequate water and sanitation services are primarily channelled to wealthier neighbourhoods, while low-income neighbourhoods often depend on distant and unsafe water wells and lack any form of waste disposal. The poor also tend to live in overcrowded, informal housing lacking basic infrastructure and services. The knock-on effects of this are poorer health, higher unemployment and a lack of social mobility. The poor get stuck in a cycle of poverty from which it is hard to escape

Question 15

NOTE: There is a difference between poverty and inequality:

Answer 15

• Poverty is an absolute term, referring to a level of deprivation that does not change over time

-Inequality is a relative term referring to the differences between people, usually economic, over a geographic distribution
In reality, poverty and inequality often rise and fall together, but this is not always the case. Inequality can be high in a society without high levels of poverty due to a large difference between the top and middle of the income spectrum

Question 16

what are some general strategies to tackling poverty and inequality?

Answer 16

• Enforcing a living wage or providing an urban subsidy: In China, a government subsidy paid to urban dwellers to bring incomes up to a minimum level of equivalent to approx £450 has had extraordinary success in reducing urban poverty. The London Living Wage has also achieved notable success with over 10,000 families lifted out of working poverty since 2005

• Provision of schools:
Education may be taken for granted in many high-income countries but schooling beyond primary school level helps lift millions of people out of poverty in lower-income countries

• Greater provision of public transport:
Affordable public transport schemes improve mobility for the city poor, enabling them access to employment, education and services that could improve their lives.
Example – the Rio de Janeiro sky-high transport system, installed in 2011 provides service to 13 favelas and provide access to the main part of the city and over 10,000 people use this service daily

• ‘Fairness Commissions’:
Example - A number of British cities including Liverpool and Sheffield have established ‘Fairness Commissions’ – groups of people tasked with looking at how local areas can address inequality

Question 17

what does cultural diversity refer to?

Answer 17

the existence of a variety of cultural or ethnic groups within a society- culture can relate to nationality, race, age and traditions

Question 18

what is a key influence of cultural diversity?

Answer 18

iimmigration

Question 19

cultural diversity tends to flourish where?

Answer 19

urban areas, especially big cities- London, New York and Amsterdam have for example received migrants from all over the world , which has led to the creation of multicultural urban societies

Question 20

London is considered to be one of the most diverse countries in the world, more than ___ languages are spoken by the people of London

Answer 20

300

Question 21

what has increased movement around and so now it is common to find people from different parts of the world living in major urban areas

Answer 21

globalisation

Question 22

the term diaspora is commonly used to describe

Answer 22

a large group of people with a similar heritage or homeland who have settled elsewhere in the world - in some cities, these diasporas make up a larger proportion than the indigenous residents

Question 23

why is there greater cultural diversity in cities?

Answer 23

cultural diversity results largely from immigration and immigrants are more likely to choose to live in urban areas because:

• cities tend to offer a greater range of employment opportunities
• cities are the first point of entry for many immigrants
• cities tend to house earlier immigrants with the same ethnicity
• established cultural diversity in cities means that there are specialist shops and religious centres located there such as halal and kosher food shops, mosques and synagogues

Question 24

explain how in the UK, there have been a umber of significant migrations which have shaped the cultural diversity of our major cities

Answer 24

• large concentrations Indian ethnic minority in Greater Manchester, where labour-intensive industries such as clothing were traditionally located
• more recently, the influx of Eastern European migrants has changed the demography of many British cities- in Southampton, more than 10% of the population are now polish

Question 25

what are the benefits of cultural diversity?

Answer 25

brings many advantages such as greater exposure to different foods, music, language and religion such as Notting Hill carnival in London becoming part of the British calendar. The Indian meal chicken tikka masala has been topping UK favourite dishes for over a decade and Chinese, Thai and Mexican restaurants can be found in every major urban area in Britain

Question 26

what are some issues associated with cultural diversity?

Answer 26

• cultural diversity can place extra pressure on already stretched urban services for example:
• where language differences exist, local authorities may need to provide English lessons or bilingual literature
• schools may alter their curricular and holiday patterns to cater for different ethnic groups

Question 27

many countries have adopted a multicultural policy to protect and celebrate cultural diversity, but some argue that at an urban level, this can encourage

Answer 27

culturally and spatially distinct communities leading ‘parallel lives’ known as segregation and there is evidence of this in cities around the world:
- London has witnessed an influx of very wealthy immigrants in recent years and these have tended to cluster together- the most affluent boroughs of Mayfair and Knightsbridge are home to a multitude of millionaires from the Middle East and so the price of housing in these areas now far exceeds the reach of most, even wealthy, British people

Question 28

regarding social segregation, in some European and North American cities, different ethnic communities have become isolated from wider society as they have

Answer 28

maintained their own language and beliefs and limited their interaction with others

Question 29

in American citues, the term ____ has been used to describe an area of a city where the population is almost exclusively made up of one or more ethnic or cultural minority; as in many cities, these are often located in the poorer parts of a city which wealthier residents have left and where unemployment rates are high

Answer 29

ghetto

Question 30

These geographical patterns of ethnicity tend to be the result of self-segregation, but there are also other external factors which have encouraged ethnic minorities to live in particular areas:

Answer 30

• typically, migrants have been a source of cheap labour forcing them into areas of cheaper housing
• hostility from the major population
• movement of the majority population out of the area into which minority populations have moved- often referred to as ‘white flight’

Question 31

in spite of rising tensions between ethnic groups in the UK cities, analysis of the 2011 census data revealed

Answer 31

many large cities in the UK including Birmingham, Manchester and Bradford recorded a decrease in segregation for most ethnic groups between 2001 and 2011

Question 32

how are the negative issues of ethnic segregation tackled?

Answer 32

• a policy of interculturism has been promoted by some- this emphasises interaction and the exchange of ideas between different cultural groups. Areas of mutual interest are found and community engagement is conducted in ‘intercultural spaces’ such as libraries, schools and sports clubs
• in the UK there is legislation on anti-racism and employment rights to combat discrimination and racism.
• encouraging greater political involvement of different cultural groups can also encourage greater intergration and provide a voice for those who may feel under-represented