Changing spaces, making places

Question 1

District Six timeline

Answer 1

• District 6 was originally built in 1838 to accommodate a large influx of free black slaves that required housing.
• In the 1930s the city engineer, W.S.Lunn imagined a dramatic reconstruction that would completely transform District Six
• By the beginning of the Second World War, 1127 homes had been built, however many of the original locals could not afford the much higher rents now being charged.
• In 1950, the ‘Cape Times’ newspaper ran a series of articles attempting to save the area by portraying it in a positive light - contrary to the governments portrayal and hence its grounds for clearing it.
• On the 11th February 1966, the government declared District Six a whites only area under the Group Areas Act - grounds of ‘slum clearance’ cited for the destruction of the area.
• Removals started during 1968 and by 1982, more than 60,000 people had been relocated to the sandy, bleak Cape Flats township 25 kilometres away
  
  • A total of 150,000 people were relocated at a cost of 30 million rand
• In 1970, the government renamed the area Zonnebloem after the original Dutch farm, in an effort to attract developers who would transform it into a modern suburb
• By 1985, the area’s population was 3,500, many of whom were middle-income, Afrikaans speaking whites.
  
  • This was due to the building of Cape Technikon which accommodated students and staff and takes up 50% of the district
• Since the fall of apartheid in 1994, the South African government has recognised the older claims of former residents to the area, and pledged to support rebuilding
• From 2004, 1600 people are scheduled to return
  
  • 135 homes have returned so far, and 42 of 150 acres are left free for building

Question 2

District Six - cultural characteristics

Answer 2

• As a result of its varied mix of ethnicities, races and religions, District 6 became a multi-racial and vibrant community and a cultural location for the working class, with strong links to the carnival. District Six is remembered fondly as a place of hardship, but a tolerant and mutually supportive community that enjoyed lively entertainment.
• During the 1950s the Cape Times ran a series of articles aimed at ‘demythologising’ District Six’s reputation as a dirty, infested place full of gangs and brothels, and in the process created myths of its own that emphasized the lively, convivial and harmless nature of the area.
• The neighbourhood tended to break down racial barriers in an otherwise highly colour-conscious society.
• The neighbourhood’s vibrant atmosphere encouraged creativity among its youth, the community produced a number of skilled musicians, dancers, and artists

Question 3

District Six - political characteristics

Answer 3

• In the days prior to the first phase of the removal project, the government issued four main reasons for the removals. They stated that interracial interaction bred conflict, requiring the separation of the races.
• They deemed District Six a slum, fit only for clearance, not rehabilitation.
• They also portrayed the area as crime-ridden and dangerous; they claimed that the district was a vice den, full of immoral activities like gambling, drinking, and prostitution.
• Despite the government’s reasoning, many residents believed that the government sought the land because of its proximity to the city centre, Table Mountain, and the harbour, areas of high retail price.
• Approximately 60,000 people were removed from District Six itself, at a cost of more than 30 million rand. Two thirds of the residents were moved to the Cape Flats, however housing provision was insufficient and there were 24,000 people on the municipal waiting list by the early 1970s.
• Police became increasingly oppressive in District Six. Residents suggest that white [police officers] were always working against them…arresting them and beating them up.”

Question 4

District Six - built environment

Answer 4

• Most houses were small, some consisting of only one room housing as many as 16 people. The toilet was in the back yard and washing comprised turns in the bath tub in the kitchen
• In the 1930s the city engineer, W.S.Lunn imagined a dramatic reconstruction that would completely transform district Six and by the beginning of the Second World War, a total of 1127 homes had been built. The problem was that many of District Six’s residents were unable to afford the rents being charged for the new housing.
• Most of the built environment was demolished in the 1970s and 1980s - the only places left standing were places of worship and the newly built Cape peninsula University of Technology

Question 5

District Six - demographic characteristics

Answer 5

• Within 40 years of its creation (1900s), it was home to a lively community made up of former slaves, artisans, merchants and other immigrants, as well as many Malay people brought to South Africa by the Dutch East India Company
  
  • Home to over 10% of Cape Town’s population
• After the conclusion of the Second World War, it was made up largely of coloured residents which included a substantial number of coloured Muslims (Cape Malays)

Question 6

District Six - socio-economic characteristics

Answer 6

• 1930s - a poor area where interdependence was key for survival with families supporting each other and creating a very close community
• During apartheid, despite there being a great increase in economic prosperity, the previous closeness of the community was shattered

Question 7

District Six - physical characteristics

Answer 7

• Central location in Cape Town means it is in close proximity to the city centre, but it is also near to the Table Mountain
• Now a grassy areas of mostly wasteland with rubble
  
  • Brownfield land
• Prime property area due to location

Question 8

Brick Lane - timeline

Answer 8

• 16th century - Flemish immigrants settled in the area, bringing brick making and brewing. Brick Lane was known as ‘Brick Kiln Lane’ after the ovens in which the bricks were fired
• 17th century - French Huguenots moved into the area for housing, it became a centre for weaving, tailoring and clothing and attracted immigrants who provided semi-skilled and unskilled labour
  
  • A Huguenot chapel called La Nueve Eglise was built in 1742 on the corner of Brick Lane and Fournier Street
  • Huguenot street names still exist and residents have 25% Huguenot blood
• 19th century - Irish people (due to the Great Potato Famine) and Ashkenazi Jews (due to the assassination of the Tsar in 1881) began immigrating to the area.
  
  • In 1898 the old chapel was consecrated as the Great Spitalfields Synagogue for the increased Jewish population
  • Jewish built environment remains e.g. Beigel Shop (1855)
• 20th century - Bangladeshi families were the main immigrants, often from the Sylhet region, who sought safety after the partition of India.
  
  • The influx of Bangladeshis caused many Jews to move out of the area, and the synagogue was adapted as the Great London Mosque in 1976. In 2010 a 29m tall minaret-style tower was added
  • Brick Lane retains many curry houses and hosts London’s biggest Mela festival
• 21st century - Brick Lane has become a centre for art and fashion students, with many courses exhibiting their work in the Brick Lane area, as well as hipsters
  
  • This is gentrification rather than a wave of immigrants, and it is reflected in shops such as the Cereal Killer Cafe
  • The knowledge based economy has also taken of in Brick Lane, and it is now a popular tourist destination

Question 9

Brick Lane - sense of place

Answer 9

• Bright and vibrant road in East London

Question 10

Brick Lane - natural characteristics

Answer 10

• Runs from Swanfield Street, through Spitalfields to Whitechapel High Street
• Existed since 1550s - was a field path in open countryside well outside London (slight slope)

Question 11

Brick Lane - built characteristics

Answer 11

• Built environment began in 18th century - many buildings occupied by industry (silk weaving)
• Low and closely built buildings - mode building storeys is 4
• Large quantities of graffiti present
• Most ground floor buildings (95%) are commercial or entertainment - predominantly bars and restaurants

Question 12

Brick Lane - socio-economic characteristics

Answer 12

• Mainly independent + reasonably cheap shops (Gram Bangla, Al Badar fried chicken)
• Has become vibrant and desirable neighbourhood, leading to the influx of tourist services
  
  • Premier Inn ‘Hub’ Hotel - £21.4 million, 189 rooms
  • Cereal Killer Cafe - £4 per bowl of cereal
  • “It was a bad area, very rough, now it is marvellous” - Antonio, Beigel Bake (open 44 years)
• Development of knowledge economy in Brick Lane
  
  • Cameron announced ‘East London Tech City investment plan’ in 2010
  • Second Home offers rentable office space for start-ups eg The Hatch
  • Movement of tech companies to the area increases focus of economic activity in this area
• Lots of young students in area of Spitalfields and Banglatown
  
  • Over 50% more students than London average
  • Number of retirees is only half the London average

Question 13

Brick Lane - demographic characteristics (from 2011 census of Spitalfields and Bangaltown)

Answer 13

• Very few children
  
  • Age ranges from 0-14 each make up 5% or below of the total population
• Lots of student aged people
  
  • Almost 50% of both male and female population aged 20-34
• Diverse with high proportion of Bangladeshi
  
  • 41% Bangladeshi compared to London average of 5%
  • 27% white british compared to 47% in London and 81% in England

Question 14

Brick Lane - cultural characteristics

Answer 14

• High proportion of Muslims compared to Christians
  
  • 41.5% Muslim compared to 12.4% in London and 5% in England
    
    • Over 8 times the national average
  • Only 18.4% Christian compared to 48.4% in London and 59.4% in England
• ‘Cultural hub’ filled with many popular restaurants and bars
  
  • City Spice + Aladin Brick Lane
  • Exit Bar + 93 Feet East
• Centre of art
  
  • Lots of artistic graffiti
    
    • Banksy, Anthony Lister, Malarky, Stik
  • Art galleries
    
    • The Brick Lane Gallery
    • Gallery S O
  • Informal representations include Louisa Cook’s ‘Get Sketched In’ illustrations

Question 15

Space vs. place

Answer 15

It is difficult to define space and place, as their meaning is very subjective, but roughly:

• Space - a location which has no social connections for a human being. No value has been added to this space and no meaning has been ascribed to it. It is simply a set of coordinates.
• Place - more than just a location and can be described as a location created by human experiences. The size of this location does not matter and is unlimited. It can be a city, neighbourhood, a region or even a classroom. Creswell - ‘a meaningful segment of geographical space’.

Question 16

Sub categories of place

Answer 16

• Public space - a social space that is generally open and accessible to people
• Private space - an environment restricted in its occupancy and use - not open to all members of the public
• Personal space - the area immediately surrounding an individual
• Abstract space - a hypothetical space with equal and consistent properties - homogenous for modelling or analysis
• Concrete space - a real world environment, categorised by lived experiences
• Territoriality - how people use space to communicate ownership or occupancy of an area

Question 17

Canter’s theory of place

Answer 17

• One cannot know a space until they know
  
  • The activity associated with that place
  • The physical parameters of the place
  • The correct conception of the behaviour in the physical context

Question 18

Characteristics included in a place profile

Answer 18

• Political
• Natural
• Demographic
• Cultural
• Socio-economic
• Built environment

Question 19

Environmental determinism

Answer 19

Environmental determinism is the belief that the environment determines the patterns of human culture and societal development

• This is relate to modern geography, as many geographers consider the built environment to substantially influence human behaviour
  
  • An example often cited is Google’s HQ, which is deliberately laid out in a quirky manner with many shared spaces in order to encourage collaboration and sharing of ideas
• A more popular theory now is transactionalism, which believes that the environment and human behaviour are interactive

Question 20

How age affects perceptions of place

Answer 20

• People’s perceptions of a place change as they get older
  
  • Often a place which they associate with very positive memories leave them feeling very disappointed when they return many years later
• Disneyland Paris is an example of a popular place (275 million visitors a year) where age affects your likely perception
  
  • Children - full of exciting rides and characters
  • Parents - rides likely to be dull as they cater for a younger audience, likely to be worrying about looking after children as 11 children are lost every day in Disneyland

Question 21

How gender affects perceptions of place

Answer 21

• In different societies, the roles men and women have are reflected in the way the two groups can move around and the type of places they can use
• Yemen - huge gender gap
  
  • Came last out of 145 countries in 2015 Global Gender Gap Report with a score of 0.484 where 1 is equality and 0 is total inequality
  • 70% of men and boy in Yemen are literate compared to 29% of women and girls
  • No seats held by women in national parliament
  • Fertility rate of 4.4
  • Only 15% of professional and technical workforce in 2013 was female
  • 14% of Yemeni girls married before the age of 15 and 52% before 18
  • A man is entitled to 4 wives
  • Niqab strongly enforced on all women
  • This means women in Yemen are likely to feel
    
    • Trapped - hard to escape from marriage arranged by family
    • Angry - very few opportunities due to lack of education
    • Scared - domestic abuse common due to Sharia law, only a female guardian can report it
    • Powerless - a woman owns no property in marriage and has very few political and social rights

Question 22

How sexuality affects perception of place

Answer 22

• Saudi Arabia - LGBTQ rights are not recognised as homosexuality is seen as immoral
  
  • No protection from abuse and discrimination
  • Jail sentence + 450 lashings for meeting a man
  • Gay people likely to feel very scared and uncomfortable
• Brighton - 2,554 people in homosexual couples, 15 gay nightclubs and bars, biggest gay population in the UK and large annual pride parade

Question 23

How religion affects perceptions of place

Answer 23

• Beach: Muslim’s cover up as part of their religion, however in France there has been a recent Burkini ban as a result of recent terrorist attacks. However this doesn’t affect Christians so much as they aren’t expected to remain covered up as part of their faith. As a result Muslim’s are going to experience beaches, especially in France, differently to christians and other people who don’t necessarily wish to cover themselves.
• Middle East: In Saudi Christians have to cover up, there are no churches and christians can’t celebrate christmas and easter. Furthermore Jewish people aren’t even allowed to enter the Middle East, however in 2015 Drake (a jew) was allowed to go to Dubai, this was a big deal there and marked the start of a possible change in attitude towards other religions. This will affect many religious people’s perception of these middle eastern countries as they will likely feel excluded and unwanted.
• Raif Badawi: A journalist in the middle east who supposedly “insulted islam” on his blog. He has been sentenced to 1,000 lashings and 10 years in prison.
• Jerusalem holds an incredibly different meaning for people of different religions
  
  • Judaism - most sacred location and ancient capital of the Jewish state, home to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall
  • Christianity - site of Christ’s execution and resurrection, making it Christianity’s most holy site, home to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (believed to house a piece of the cross) and the Garden Tomb
  • Islam - site of Muhammad’s ‘night journey’ and home of Islam’s third most sacred shrine - the Dome of the Rock

Question 24

How roles affect perceptions of place - inmates and victims

Answer 24

• Inmates:
  
  • Regulation #5 - You are entitled to food, clothing, shelter and medical attention. Anything else is a privilege.
  • All privileges had to be earned
  • “Alcatraz was never no good for nobody” - Frank Weatherman, the last prisoner to leave Alcatraz.
  • Each cell in B & C block was 5 feet by 9 feet. Inmates in D block were confined to their cells 24 hours a day.
  • There were eight people murdered by inmates on Alcatraz. Five men committed suicide, and fifteen died from natural illnesses.
  • The first warden, James Johnston, enforced strict discipline and prohibited the inmates from speaking out loud
• Victims:
  
  • High number of inmates committed serious crimes such as murder.
  • There is a large number of victims as a result of the crimes committed by all the Alcatraz inmates.
  • One example is James “Whitey” Bulger, who was sentenced to life without parole as a result of the following offences:
    
    • Racketeering, murder (19 counts), conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit extortion, narcotics distribution, conspiracy to commit money laundering, extortion and shoplifting.

Question 25

How roles affect perceptions of place - guards and guards’ families

Answer 25

• Guard Staff/Wardens:
  
  • James A. Johnston of San Francisco was the first warden of Alcatraz.
  • All guards were handpicked by the warden and were highly experienced in the U.S. penitentiary system.
  • The two gun-gallery guards were to be armed with Thompson machine guns, shotguns, pistols, and gas equipment.
  • The guards in the watchtowers were to have Browning machine guns, pistols, shotguns, and gas equipment.
• Guards Family:
  
  • At any given time, there were about 300 civilians living on Alcatraz that included both women and children, who were family members of the guard staff.
  • The primary living areas for families were Building #64, three apartment buildings, one large duplex, and four large wooden houses for senior officers. Families enjoyed their own bowling alley and a small convenience store.
  • “I have nothing but happy memories from living here,” said Ernest B. Lageson, the newsboy of the island, as well as the son of an Alcatraz officer and island resident from 1943 to 1946 and is now 75 years old. “We did the same things you would do in the city.

Question 26

Twickenham Stadium

Answer 26

• The ‘space’ of Twickenham Stadium can be seen as a different ‘place’ for different people
  
  • English rugby fan - home of England, linked to notions of patriotism
  • England rugby player - a place of work
  • A match day sponsor - a vital source of match day income
  • A young child - a scary environment
• Negative viewpoint - decadent and depraved
  
  • 2016 Marriott London Sevens competition was sold out
  • Fancy dress and heavy drinking associated with the game
  • Most of the crowd did not watch the game
  • RFU struggle to fill the seats so have to sell tickets to a much younger crowd with no real interest in the game
  • Many people urinating in public, throwing away litter freely and vomiting on the pavement

Question 27

World Trade Centre - prior to 9/11

Answer 27

• World trade centre was symbol of US power and the focal point of Western Capitalism
• It was a business-like environment
  
  • Sterile
  • Smart
  • Professionally orientated
• Effect one people working/visiting there
  
  • Workers would be conscious to work hard due to the pressure from such a prestigious office
  • People would be in awe of the buildings
  • Cleaners or maintenance staff would have a strong sense of pride about the buildings

Question 28

World Trade Centre - during 9/11

Answer 28

• 16 acres of real estate changed to sacred ground in hours
• Nearly 3000 people killed and over 6000 injured; $10 billion damage to property and infrastructure
• Four passenger airlines were hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists
  
  • Two planes crashed into the North and South towers of the World Trade Centre which collapsed within 2 hours of impact
• Single deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement officers in history of the US with 343 and 72 killed respectively
• Response was a ‘war on terror’ with the USA invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban

Question 29

World Trade Centre - modern day

Answer 29

• Ground Zero - place of remembrance, a memorial for the dead
  
  • 6 acre memorial - ‘Reflecting Absence’
  • Names of victims inscribed around waterfalls, which mute the sounds of the city and promote reflection
  • Pool symbolises the loss of life and physical void left by the attacks
  • 400 sweet gum and white oak trees line the plaza to provide a space of reflection
  • Survivor tree plucked from the debris and replanted afterwards as a symbol of the enduring capacity to carry on
  • Over 23 million visitors since opening in 2011
• 9/11 museum
  
  • Houses artefacts from 9/11 including steel from the Twin Towers, wrecked emergency vehicles, pictures of the victims, 9/11 phone calls, etc.
  • Opened in 2014
  • Design resembles a partially collapsed building, mirroring the attacks
• Freedom Tower - Marcus Robinson recorded the construction
  
  • Builders were “healing a scar in the bedrock of the city”
  • 1,776 foot tall skyscraper (year of Declaration of Independence) - tallest building in the Western hemisphere
  • Named after the North Tower, bears visual resemblance to the original
  • Lots of TNCs involved
  • Base of tower designed to prevent truck bombs and street level attacks
• Effect on visitors
  
  • Likely to be more quiet and respectful
  • May make many locals sad and reflective if they knew people who died
  • People will be less tolerant of disturbances

Question 30

Globalisation definition

Answer 30

Globalisation - the increasing interconnectedness and interdependence of the world, economically, socially, politically and culturally

Question 31

Factors driving globalisation

Answer 31

1. Improvements in transport - this reduces friction of distance and leads to time-space compression. In terms of trade, containerisation has been very important - the concept of lifting containers straight off a lorry onto ships was first pioneered in 1956 by Malcolm McLean, and has since expanded and reduced transport costs and times dramatically.
2. Improvements in communications - since the introduction of the first mobile telephones in 1973, communications technology has been improving exponentially, making it much easier for people across the globe to interact online.
3. Liberalisation of trade and finance - the world has been moving toward a more connected trade and finance community. This was expanded by the death of Mao in 1976 and by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, which led to an increase in free market economies that were free to trade and invest capital. The formation of the World Trade Organisation in 1995 and the 2004 expansion of the EU have further boosted trade.
4. TNCs - a Transnational Corporation is a corporation which has the ability to organise and control operations in more than one country. The modern world is filled with TNCs like McDonalds and Nike, which globalise for a number of reasons including: fewer environmental regulations, cheaper wages, access to cheaper materials, access to different markets and tax evasion.

Question 32

Time-space compression

Answer 32

• Time-space compression is the way in which distances and time are reduced due to improvements in transport - a journey from London to Cape Town which took 10-20 days in 1914 now takes as little as 12 hours.
  
  • Marx defined it as ‘the annihilation of space by time’.
  • The friction of distance is slowly being decreased.

Question 33

Impact of globalisation and time-space compression on experiences of place

Answer 33

• For those able to manipulate time-space compression globalisation has meant an increased global sense of place as people can attach meanings to places they would previously have been unable to visit. Online global communities have also decreased attachment to specific places, meaning a sense of pace, community and belonging can occur across borders.
  
  • On the other hand, as Doreen Massey has pointed out, some are excluded from space-time compression and have become more isolated due to globalisation. For example, islanders on Pitcairn in the pacific have become more disconnected with the rest of the world as shipping has declined as a result of increases in passenger aircraft.
• The spread of TNCs can alter our sense of place, as for some, familiar brand names like Starbucks (which now has over 12,000 branches outside the USA) can provide comfort and familiarity in otherwise unknown places
  
  • On the other hand, annoyance and resentment may be created by an increase in ‘cultural homogeneity’ due to closure of local shops as a result of competition from global brands. This means people may feel a sense of dislocation or alienation from place as they feel places around the world are converging and losing their historical and local meaning
• For migrants, globalisation has opened up new places to them, and this may have a positive impact on locals who see increased cultural diversity, economic gain and progress in place - in Brick Lane Bangladeshi curry houses sit next to Eastern European bagel shops
  
  • For others, migration combined with tourism can cause dislocation, uncertainty and vulnerability as locals struggle to adapt their sense of place. This fear has caused anger and the rise of nationalistic groups like UKIP in the UK.

Question 34

Representation definition

Answer 34

Representation - any means of communication by which people tell other people about places. Representation uses signs to create and convey meaning. These signs can act as ‘texts’ that can be read and understood.

Question 35

Abstract representation definition

Answer 35

Abstract Representation - any representation of the world is an abstraction, these abstractions are not always accurate, for example an abstract representation of London could be the tube map, which does not give an accurate representation of London’s geography.

Question 36

Informal representation definition

Answer 36

Informal Representations - informal representations do not necessarily reflect the actual world, they are generally creative, stylized and selective. The ‘real world’ can be airbrushed out to preserve a particular viewpoint or political stance. They are contested since they are an individual’s slant on things, and this makes them highly subjective

• Examples of informal representations include art, tv, film, photography, literature and advertising.

Question 37

Formal representation definition

Answer 37

Formal Representation - formal representations consist of objective, usually fact based, portrayals of a place. It is very rarely presented through words, mostly statistically, and it’s crucial that the data is correct and hasn’t been selected by someone. It is data with clear locational positioning.

Question 38

Borat case study

Answer 38

Film (false information) - the film Borat negatively influenced people’s perception of Kazakhstan through both its inaccuracies and comic over exaggeration. The effect of Borat was especially large as people had little understanding of Kazakhstan in the first place, meaning that the only source that they used to understand the country was the woefully inaccurate film.

• The film premiered in 2006 and grossed $250 million in the box office.
• Sacha Cohen depicted Kazakhstan as a country of misogynistic, chauvinistic, anti semitic homophobic people.
  
  • Examples of this include the fictional ‘running of the jew’ festival
• Cohen also ridiculed national traditions, claiming that the national drink of the country was fermented horse urine rather than milk, and he created a mock Kazakh national anthem claiming that the country was the world’s leading Potassium exported (oil is actually the country’s biggest export).
• As a result the number of people whose sense of place of Kazakhstan is influenced by Borat is far larger than those who understand the country through formal representations.
• To try to combat this perception the Kazakh government hired two western PR companies as well as releasing a 9 minute promotional film and advertising Kazakhstan in 4 pages of the New York Times.
• However there first reaction was to shut down the Borat.kz website and start a lawsuit against Cohen, making people believe that the country could not take a joke and reinforcing negative perceptions in the west.
• Some benefits have come to Kazakhstan as a result of the film, the country has seen visa applications increase by 10 times.
• On the other hand, Kazakhs have felt the negative impacts of Borat being the only representation of Kazakhstan people saw with 52.4% of students at KIMEP University saying they felt they would be treated differently and worried about being laughed at after Borat.

Question 39

Soviet realism case study

Answer 39

Art (propaganda) - An extreme example of propaganda took place in the USSR, where both formal and informal representations were controlled by the state, this included artwork.

• This lead to a new type of art between 1920-60, Soviet Realism.
• The entire purpose of soviet realism was to paint the USSR in a favourable light, showing how the standard of living had increased due to their communist form of government.
• The art was filled with health and happiness, with paintings often depicting busy industrial and agricultural scenes with workers and school children.
• Painters would often depict happy and muscular peasants, working happily in factories or collectivised farms.
• The most important thing for a socialist realist artist was not artistic integrity, but adherence to party doctrine.
• Due to heavy censorship (this was the only sanctioned form of artwork in the USSR), many people’s understanding of the country were heavily influenced by these adverts of the prosperity of communism.

Question 40

Charity appeals case study

Answer 40

Charity appeals – Influence people’s understanding of a place by reinforcing stereotypes and highlighting the people who are most in need.

• An example of this can be seen in the band aid song (1984 and 2014), along with its video. Within the song were the lyrics “where nothing ever grows, no rain nor rivers flow”.
• The danger of such huge generalisations are emphasised by the organisation Radi-aid, an organisation set up to combat the inaccurate portrayal of African nations in Charity adverts.
• Radi aid attempts to combat these inaccurate portrayals by giving the ‘rusty radiator award’ to charity appeals such as Concern Worldwide’s ‘Hunger stops here’ advert that perpetuates the perception of Africa as one country rather than 54, and suggests that everyone in Africa is in poverty and at risk of starvation.
• Additionally, due to the lack of alternative formal or informal representations of Africa’s huge economic growth in recent years, people’s perceptions remain outdated and are heavily influenced by these emotive adverts.

Question 41

Issues with formal representation

Answer 41

Problems with formal representations: the main issue with formal and statistical representations is that they are often inaccurate.

• The two statistics “Malaria deaths fell by 49% in Africa between 2000 and 2013” and “Maternal mortality fell from 740 deaths per 1000 in 2000 to 500 per 1000 in 2010” can be undermined with issues with the source of the data used to create these statistics.
  
  • These figures are simply estimates; we have numbers for maternal mortality for just 16% of births and on malaria, only 15% of the deaths. For six whole African countries there is effectively no information at all.
  • Only 12 of the 49 countries in sub-Saharan Africa have held a census in the past 10 years, this means that large populations, especially informal settlements may be missing from data collection.
• Surveys are also worded differently, meaning that is difficult to reliably compare different data sets from other countries.
• Data, unsurprisingly can jump around huge amounts, HIV rates in Cambodia fell from 1.8 million to 1 million once a more reliable survey was done.

Despite these inaccuracies, people are inclined to believe these facts, leading to stilted perceptions of places even from formal representations.

Question 42

Contrasting representations of Mumbai

Answer 42

• Formal
  
  • Metropolitan population - 18.4 million
  • Growth - +9% every decade
  • Literacy rates - 90%
  • Slums - 1.1 million buildings with 5.2 million people (41% of population)
  • Fewer than 2% of population have access to private sanitary facilities
• Informal
  
  • Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire has been accused of romanticizing slums
  • The slum is riddled with vibrant colours and happy people, when in fact they are places of great hardship
  • Feel-good story that draws on people’s fascination with India

Although there is a certain amount of subjectivity informal representations, they ought to be considered more reliable due to the amount that informal representations may vary, depending on different standpoints or motives.

Question 43

Social inequality definition

Answer 43

Social inequality - the unequal distribution of factors such as income, housing, education or health across a population.

Question 44

Quality of life definition

Answer 44

Quality of life - the extent to which people’s needs and desires (social, psychological or physical) are met

• This can be seen in areas such as the treatment of people

Question 45

Standard of living definition

Answer 45

Standard of living - the ability to access services and goods, including basics such as food and water, clothes, housing and personal mobility

Question 46

Measures of inequality - income

Answer 46

• Relative poverty: earning less than 60% of median income of the country you live in
• Absolute poverty: the World Bank suggests absolute poverty can be when the income of a person is $1.25/day PPP (purchasing power parity). Below this, a person cannot afford to buy the minimum amount of food and non-food essentials.

Question 47

Measures of inequality - Gini coefficient

Answer 47

• A way of comparing how distribution of income in a society compares with a similar society in which everyone earned exactly the same amount.
  
  • Inequality is measured between 0, where everyone is equal, and 1, where all the country’s income is earned by a single person
• Can also use the Lorenz curve which shows what percentage earn what and how far below equal a country is

Question 48

Measures of inequality - housing tenure

Answer 48

• % of people who have a legal right to rent/own their property

Question 49

Measures of inequality - education

Answer 49

• % of adults who can read and write
• Also use years of schooling, which is the average number of years that each person spends in primary, secondary and university education
• Gender divide in education

Question 50

Measures of inequality - healthcare

Answer 50

• Life expectancy - average number of years a person is expected to live
• Number of doctors - the number of doctors for every 1000 people
• Premature mortality
• Cancer diagnoses

Question 51

Measures of inequality - employment

Answer 51

• Unemployment and % on benefits and % on part time / flexible contracts

Question 52

Human Development Index

Answer 52

• Summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development:
  
  • Long and healthy life
  • Being knowledgeable
  • A decent standard of living

Question 53

Deprivation definition

Answer 53

Deprivation is greater than just poverty, it refers to a general lack of opportunities and resources. It is used to assess social inequality between places through the Index of Multiple Deprivation.

Question 54

North and South divide

Answer 54

Spatial patterns of social inequality vary greatly between places. The largest difference in inequality is between the north and the south of England:

• The driving economic force of London in the south has created 700,000 top-end occupational jobs in the last 10 years compared with just under 56,000 in the north-east of England
• Many areas have fallen further and further behind London and the South East, with more than half of adults in the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber having less than £100 in savings
• This means that social mobility is profoundly different when comparing the north and south
  
  • Almost all of London’s boroughs were among the best performing 10% of local authorities for social mobility, and all were in the top 20%
  • Large swathes of North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and all of Northumberland were in the worst performing 20% of authorities for social mobility

Question 55

General inequality between Cambridge and Birmingham

Answer 55

A key example of inequality varying between places is the comparison of Cambridge and Birmingham from the 2015 index of multiple deprivation (the lower the number the more deprived, from 1-327):

• The overall score for Cambridge was 227 vs 11 for Birmingham
• Income in Cambridge was 264 vs 12 in Birmingham
• Education in Cambridge was 292 vs 59 in Birmingham
• Employment in Cambridge was 289 vs 22 in Birmingham

Question 56

LSOA inequality between Cambridge and Birmingham

Answer 56

Within the index were statistics about the LSOAs (Lower-layer Super Output Area) of each location:

• For crime, the proportion of LSOAs in the most deprived 10% was 0 for Cambridge, whereas in Birmingham it was 0.135
• For education, the proportion of LSOAs in the most deprived 10% was 0.029 for Cambridge, whereas in Birmingham it was 0.2128 which is almost 10 times higher
• For employment, the proportion of LSOAs in the most deprived 10% was 0 for Cambridge, whereas in Birmingham it was 0.3225 which makes up almost ⅓ of Birmingham

Question 57

Tertiarisation and de-tertiarisation

Answer 57

• Tertiarisation - growth of the service sector
• De-tertiarisation - the movement of service functions elsewhere e.g. call centres abroad

Question 58

Offshoring definition

Answer 58

Offshoring - industry being moved abroad, linked to NIDL

Question 59

Comparative advantage definition

Answer 59

Comparative advantage - a beneficial factor that makes activity more viable, in this case cheap labour, lax laws and access to raw materials

Question 60

De-multiplier effect definition

Answer 60

De-multiplier effect - following de-industrialisation the associated and supporting industries also go into decline and the resulting economic downturn has a further knock on impact in the community due to reduced disposable income

Question 61

Structural economic change

Answer 61

A key reason for differing patterns of social inequality is structural economic change

• According to the Fischer-Clark Sector Model, as time passes primary and secondary industries will head into decline whilst the tertiary and eventually quaternary industries will rise exponentially
  
  • This shown by the UK’s population structure which was 85% primary in 1800 and 1% primary in 2015
• Structural economic change is being driven by globalisation, as the new international division of labour facilitates the moving of primary and secondary industries to other countries where it is cheaper, whilst tertiary industries thrive in the UK
  
  • An example of this is Apple which outsources all its manufacturing to China but has its European HQ in Ireland
• Structural economic change is also affecting the remaining UK manufacturing industries
  
  • Much of the UK steel industry is facing closure as China has roughly 360m tonnes per annum of excess steelmaking capacity and so floods the market
  • Over 4,000 UK redundancies 2015-16, mainly at Tata and SSI’s Redcar site

Question 62

Deindustrialisation causing varying patterns of social inequality

Answer 62

The deindustrialisation that takes place during structural economic change causes varying patterns of social inequality

• Job losses are concentrated in certain areas, such as the North and Midlands for much of the primary and secondary industry job losses, meaning there is a North South divide in terms of inequality
• Job losses also tend to affect low income earners more severely, further increasing inequality within places
• A more specific example of this varying inequality is the comparison of Cambridge with Birmingham
  
  • Birmingham had a very strong manufacturing base, with much of its city centre and the majority of its economy geared towards manufacturing, whilst Cambridge hardly had any manufacturing, and has a historic city centre which continually attracts tourists
  • This meant that Birmingham was devastatingly affected by structural economic change whilst Cambridge was not, leading to a disparity in social equality

Question 63

Cyclical economic change and differing patterns of social inequality

Answer 63

Cyclical economic change is also responsible for varying patterns of social inequality between places

• Kandratieff’s theory states that economic change is split into waves of innovation, each of which eventually goes into decline
  
  • Every 50 years there is a growth and decline of some innovation
  • Decline leads to job losses which are spatially based, and increases in jobs tend to favour ‘core area’ like London
• The economy is divided into booms and recessions
  
  • A boom occurs when national output is rising at a rate faster than the trend rate of growth
  • A recession is a fall in the level of real national output (a period when growth is negative), leading to a contraction in employment incomes and profits. It is characterised by a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, income, etc
  • A depression is a prolonged recession, generally with a fall of 10% or more of GDP

Question 64

Varying impact of the UK’s 2008 recession

Answer 64

When the 2008 recession hit the UK, its impact on social equality varied spatially and with profession (which is linked to specific places)

• Unemployment grow March 2008-2009
  
  • Over 4% for elementary occupations and process, plant and machine operatives
  • Under 1% for professionals and around 1% for managers + senior officials
• Unemployment change Feb-Apr 2009
  
  • Just under 50% change in unemployment for Yorkshire and The Humber and the West Midlands
  • Only 20% change in unemployment for London
• Redundancy rates 2008-2009
  
  • England - 6.3%
  • Yorkshire and The Humber - 7.6%
  • East - 1.4%
• Change in workforce jobs 2008-2010
  
  • North East and North West - all changes less than 40,000 and most negative
  • London - human health and social work activities up by almost 100,000
• Birmingham data
  
  • Recession hit West Midlands manufacturing particularly badly
    
    • In November 2008, Jaguar Land Rover laid off 850 contract workers
    • GKN engineering cut 564 jobs in Birmingham and Telford branches
  • Birmingham city council
    
    • Overpsend of £14 million 2009/10
    • Council overspend and reduction in income from tax means not only employment inequality will be increased but also health and social care

Question 65

Vectors for governmental alteration of ineqaulity

Answer 65

The government can reduce, reinforce and create patterns of social inequality through spending or cuts in:

1. Infrastructure
2. Healthcare
3. Education
4. Community services

Question 66

How does spending on infrastructure decrease inequality?

Answer 66

Spending on infrastructure decreases inequality in this way:

• Spending on roads, electricity, etc
• Increases investment and new businesses emerge
• More jobs and access to higher paid jobs
• More spending in the economy so existing businesses expand and employ more people
• More tax
• More spending by the government

Question 67

UK government reducing inequality - income

Answer 67

• The UK government uses a system of progressive taxation, which helps reduce inequality and incentivises low-paid work due to limited taxes
  
  • The first £11,500 made is tax free
  • Income over £150,000 is taxed at 45%
• The government is raising the ‘national living wage’ to £9 per hour by 2020

Question 68

UK government reducing inequality - infrastructure

Answer 68

• The government is spending £55.7 billion on HS2 which will link Birmingham to London in 50 mins, attracting investment to Birmingham
• Fuel duty frozen, saving average driver £130

Question 69

UK government reducing inequality - education

Answer 69

• Pupil premium
  
  • Schools are given a pupil premium for children who qualify for free school meals (£1300) or have been in care for over a day (£1900)
  • Increasing pupil premium for disadvantaged students to £2.5 billion
• Doubling number of disadvantaged two-year-olds eligible for free nursery places
• Putting extra £390 million into the schools budget for 2015-16 to increase the per-pupil budgets of the 69 least fairly funded areas
• Cap on tuition fees increased from £3,375 in 2012 to £9,000 - the main beneficiary had been the middle class

Question 70

UK government reducing inequality - industry

Answer 70

• The ‘Northern Powerhouse’ concept was introduced by george Osborne to try and corral the North’s population of 15 million into a collective force that could rival that of London and the South East
  
  • A £400 million Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund will help small and medium businesses to start-up and grow globally

Question 71

UK government reinforcing inequality - infrastructure

Answer 71

• The Department of Transport will spend £280 per person in the North over the next 4 years compared with £1,870 per person in London (due to Crossrail)
  
  • This is six times more
• State subsidises rail travel by £5 billion a year, benefitting the rich as the top-quintile earner travels 5 times more on train the the poorest

Question 72

UK government reinforcing inequality - education

Answer 72

• Schools in the most poorly funded areas of England each receive £1.9 million less than those in the best-funded areas
• The average spend per pupil for an Inner London school is £5,900 compared to the national average of £4,300
• Interest rates on tuition fees and maintenance loans are set to rise from 4.6% to 6.1%, which will come alongside an increase in tuition fees to £9,250 for universities in England

Question 73

UK government reinforcing inequality - income

Answer 73

• The Conservatives’ welfare reforms have entrenched inequality, with Universal Credit causing a 6.4% annual increase in administration of emergency food bundles at food banks
  
  • Areas where it has been fully rolled out show referral rates of double the national average
  • The requirement to claim online takes no account of the low levels of digital literacy more likely to be found in the poorest communities

Question 74

UK government reinforcing inequality - healthcare

Answer 74

• Government cuts have meant that GPs are increasingly being banned from prescribing drugs that can be bought over the counter, however this means that the poorest patients cannot afford the 22 drugs now banned
• Cuts to podiatry services mean there are 135 avoidable diabetic amputations a week, which are mostly concentrated in disadvantaged neighbourhoods

Question 75

UK government reinforcing inequality - social care

Answer 75

• 71% of councils that provide social care expect to make cuts to frontline services due to budget cuts

Question 76

Cambridge city council reducing inequality

Answer 76

• The Council’s Living Wage campaign has succeeded in increasing the number of Cambridge employers accredited by the Living Wage Foundation to 53, including major employers such as ARU, ARM Limited and Cambridge Live
  
  • They commit to a minimum wage of £8.75 per hour compared to the national living wage of £7.50 per hour
• As part of the Council’s Fuel and Water Poverty Action Plan, between 2015 and 2017 over 165 home visits were made to residents in fuel or water poverty
  
  • Energy and water saving information was provided to nearly 17,000 residents likely to be in fuel or water poverty, and as a direct results 152 residents have taken up energy or water saving measures with annual savings of £80 to £330 per year
• Cambridge Council have paid the rent for Cambridge City Foodbank over a two year period - from April 2016 to March 2017 the foodbank provided residents in financial crisis with £30,000 in pre-payment meter energy top-ups and 55,000 kg of food with a value of £90,000
• The Citizen’s Advice Bureau (CAB) has been funded to pilot an outreach advice service at GP practices in Barnwell, East Chesterton, Arbury and Trumpington
  
  • From April 2015 to December 2016, the service supported 205 patients who are experiencing mental health issues as a result of financial issues
• 3020 free lunches were provided during the school holidays between Easter, April 2016 and half term in February 2017 at various locations around the city, including City Council and Church venues in Abbey, Arbury, Cherry Hinton, East Chesterton, Kings Hedges, Romsey and Trumpington wards
• 94 single homeless people were housed through the Council’s Single Homelessness Service (known as the Town Hall Lettings scheme) in 2016/17
• An estimated £6.3 million of Government and City Council funding was used to provide 6500 residents in Cambridge with a council tax reduction in 2016
  
  • Following the abolition of Council tax Benefit by the national government, the Council introduced its own local Council Tax Reduction scheme in April 2013 to protect as many vulnerable people as possible from reductions in council tax support and to ensure they do not have to find extra money for their Council tax at a time of other cuts in welfare benefits
• The council constructed 162 new affordable homes as part of the Council’s Affordable Housing Development Programme between April 2014 and March 2017
  
  • The City Council is also working to increase the supply of housing available at sub-market rents through the planning process, by seeking to up to 40% affordable housing to be provided by private developers
  • This has resulted in the construction of 684 affordable homes between April 2014 and March 2017 in places such as trumpington Meadows and Great Knighton
• The City Council supports benefit claimants to ensure that they receive every penny they are entitled to
  
  • During 2016/17 the council paid more than £43 million in housing benefit and council tax support to over 7,800 households in Cambridge
• Cambridge North Station was opened in May 2017 to encourage investment in East Chesterton

Question 77

Kenyan government reducing inequality - NYS

Answer 77

• National Youth Service (NYS)
  
  • 3600 youths employed by the government receive 1,650 Kshs a week through mobile banking for work done through the NYS, which includes road construction, household rubbish collection and drainage cleaning
  • They are also part of Savings and Credit Cooperatives through which they save around 350 kshs per week
  • This project has had huge successes with 96 shower block built and crime levels in some areas of Kibera dropping by 75%

Question 78

Kenyan government reducing inequality - the Railway Prohect

Answer 78

• Originated from Kenya Railways’ need to recover the railway reserve and establish a safety corridor along the railway line
• Started in 2011, the project consists of building housing, business units and social institutions for 10,000 people who will have to move from the railway reserve
• Identified eligibility through community enumerations with the KSDF and AMT
• Each household received a housing unit with no rent or down payment, as well as compensation based on the number of structures they had previously owned

Question 79

Kenyan government reducing inequality - KENSUP

Answer 79

Kenya’s Slum Upgrading Program (KENSUP)

• Joined up with UN-HABITAT and began with the building of toilet and shower blocks in Soweto East in 2002
• A more ambitious plan emerged with a budget of $13 million, with Soweto East divided into 4 zones of approximately 1000 families which were given temporary housing while their site was cleared and new housing built
• 822 houses completed by 2016 with running water, toilets, showers and electricity
• Government simply does not have enough money to rehome all 1 million people in Kibera

Question 80

Kenyan government reducing inequality - site and service schemes

Answer 80

• These work by providing new plots of land connected with basic facilities for which people apply and then build their own house on the land
• This is a cheap way of providing housing with basic facilities so that it will benefit more people than the schemes led by the government, as well as allowing people to build homes to suit their needs
• An example is a settlement called Dandora, where 6000 plots were provided in 1977

Question 81

Kenyan government reinforcing inequality - failures in schemes

Answer 81

• National Youth Service
  
  • About 1 billion shillings is suspected to have been siphoned off from the NYS, and as a result it closed in 2016
• KENSUP
  
  • The government does not have enough resources to rehome all 1 million residents of Kibera
  • Often down payments of £1000 on houses and monthly rents of up to £32 can be too expensive for residents
• Site and service schemes
  
  • Building quality can be poor if residents cannot afford quality materials
  • Dandora was located next to Nairobi’s main rubbish dump, leading to poor quality of life for the residents

Question 82

Kenyan government reinfocing inequality - neglect

Answer 82

• Aid agencies like CARE can do little for urban slums like Kibera because the government won’t let them
• They fear any permanent improvements would just affirm Kibera’s existence and cause more people to pour in from the countryside

Question 83

Kenyan government reinfocing inequality - demolitions

Answer 83

• The Kenyan government is planning to build a sizeable road through Kibera which will destroy 10 schools as well as thousands of homes, churches, clinics and graveyards
• The government started placing red marking on buildings earmarked for development without consulting residents or offering them compensation

Question 84

Reducing inequality in Medellin, Colombia

Answer 84

• Officials in Colombia’s second-largest city have inaugurated a giant, outdoor escalator for residents of one of its poorest slums
  
  • For generations, the 12,000 residents of Medellin’s poor Comuna 13, which clings to the side of a steep hillside, have had to climb up large steps which are equivalent to a 28-story building
  • Not only will this aid access for the residents, but it will also boost tourism and stimulate a multiplier effect in the local economy

Question 85

Inequality within Nairobi - environmental quality

Answer 85

• Less than 20% of people living in Nairobi’s squatter settlements have access to piped water compared to 71% for the whole of Nairobi
• 22% of people in squatter settlements have electricity compared to 55% in the city as a whole
• 1% of people in Kibera have their rubbish collected compared to 6% in the whole city
• 7.3% of people in informal settlements have a flushing toilet compared to 82% in formal settlements in Nairobi
• 49% of houses in informal settlements have a TV compared to 74.3% in formal ones
• 53% of men and 48% of women have secondary education in informal settlements compared to 70.1% of men and 62% in formal settlements

Question 86

Inequality within Nairobi - housing quality

Answer 86

• The average house in Kibera is a 12ft by 12ft shack built with mud walls, in which 8 or more people often live
• There are over 3 times the number of houses with mud floors in informal settlements than formal ones

Question 87

Inequality within Nairobi - crime rates

Answer 87

• Changaa is a cheap alcoholic brew that is over 50% proof and often made incorrectly with high levels of Methanol
• With over 50% of people unemployed, many start drinking it in the morning, leading to problems of violence, rape, etc

Question 88

How disparities within Nairobi influence inequality

Answer 88

• Income
  
  • With an average wage of 35p a day, residents in Kibera are disadvantaged as they have disproportionately low incomes and have to pay almost half for rent
• Gender
  
  • Men are more likely to receive a secondary education, giving them an unfair advantage
• Age
  
  • As people get older in the slums, they have no retirement or pension options and are unable to perform many hard manual jobs
• Health
  
  • With at least ⅕ of Kibera residents HIV positive, their chance of leading a long and happy life is diminished, and they have to pay for drugs with their already low salaries
• Personal mobility
  
  • People in the slums have much less access to or the money to afford public transport, let alone cars, making them disadvantaged
• Education
  
  • As there are much lower rates of secondary education inside informal settlements, the likelihood of those in the slums getting a job or moving away is diminished

Question 89

Cambridge social inequality measures - housing

Answer 89

• Out of 69 LSOAs in Cambridge, a large majority of them are within the top 20% most deprived neighbourhoods in country, especially those in the inner city suburbs such as Castle and Newnham
• The reasoning for this is due to high demand that in turn increases the prices of these houses and therefore makes the houses more unattainable
  
  • Cambridge 005B LSOA (Castle) is ranked 1,531 out of 32,844 LSOAs in England, amongst the 10% most deprived neighbourhoods in the country; where 1 is the most deprived
• In contrast houses are in the North East of Cambridge are generally considered the most attainable in the city
  
  • The reasoning for this is due to the geographical barriers associated with area as it fairly far away from the city centre and the quality of the housing is often deemed relatively poor
  • For example Cambridge 004B LSOA (Queen Edith’s) is ranked 27,125 out of 32,844 LSOAs in England, amongst the least 10% deprived areas in England
• In total there are 25,594 places between the two LSOAs
• The reasoning for the general high barriers in achieving houses in Cambridge is due to buoyant demand and a tight green belt around the city
• The Cambridge housing market is the second most unequal in the country outside London
• The rise in house prices is second only to London, and sometimes faster
• The average price for a home in Cambridge in 2014 was £419.000, having jumped by 20 per cent over the year, according to Nationwide Building Society
• Multiple deprivations and social exclusion disfigure the north and east of the city
  
  • Many residents live in old and damp housing, which they rent from private landlords
  • More and more residents are being forced out of the city altogether by the high costs of buying and renting.

Question 90

Cambridge social inequality measures - environmental quality

Answer 90

• There is a clear environmental inequality trend within the city, with the CBD and Inner City having high levels of living environmental deprivation, which declines gradually towards the urban-rural fringe
  
  • An example of this is that of Cambridge 007G LSOA which is within Market ward and one of 69 LSOAs in Cambridge local authority district
  • It is ranked 826 out of 32,844 LSOAs in England; where 1 is the most deprived LSOA
  • This is amongst 10% most deprived neighbourhoods in the country
• In contrast the LSOA of Cambridge 005B, found in the ward of Castle, is ranked 14,361 out of 32,844 LSOAs in England, which is a 13,535 difference between the two regions

Question 91

Cambridge social inequality measures - crime

Answer 91

• The highest rate in Cambridge is ranked 8314 out of 32,844 LSOAs in England
  
  • Market has higher rates of crime due to a high concentration of clubs and bars which are associated with night time violence, as well as high levels of bicycle theft
• The majority of Cambridge has low crime rates, but there is a pronounced north-south divide, with areas like King’s Hedges having comparatively high rates of crime

Question 92

Cambridge social inequality measures - digital divide

Answer 92

• Access to digital media and technology can also have an impact on poverty
• Public and private services are increasingly being provided online in order to reduce costs and increase service-user choice
• For example, residents are being encouraged to manage their benefits online, and many job applications are now completed online, and doctor’s appointments can be booked in advance online at some surgeries in Cambridge
• However, some residents on low incomes lack access to Internet or the skills required to access web-based services
• For example, a recent survey of City Council tenants found that 39.2% of tenants do not have access to the Internet
  
  • For those who do not access to the Internet, the most common reason given (46.3%) was that they could not afford it.

Question 93

Cambridge income inequality

Answer 93

• One can clearly see that Cambridge is not overall classified as a low-income area, with the large majority of regions featuring in the top 40% of England, using the income deprivation domain
• However there are exceptions to this claim, especially in the north east of Cambridge, such as Abbey and Chesterton
  
  • An example of this is the ward of Abbey, located off Newmarket Road, which is ranked 5,570 out of 32,844 LSOAs in England, featuring amongst the 20% top deprived areas of England, using the income deprivation domain
  • In contrast, the least deprived area of Cambridge is that of Cambridge 012E LSOA which is ranked 27,644 out of 32,844 LSOAs in England
  • In total, there are 22,074 different locations between these two areas on the Income Deprivation Domain, clearly exemplifying the presence of inequality in Cambridge
• One of the leading contributing factors for the develop of economic inequality among the city is that of the increased levels of research taken place at University of Cambridge, such as Trinity College, and Addenbrookes
• Both faculties have been at the heart of the city’s knowledge based economy and the surge in knowledge driven services which provide over 25 per cent of local employment, which in turn has encouraged high levels of migration into the city
• As early as 1970, Trinity College founded the Cambridge Science Park, now home to some 100 hi-tech companies, to take advantage of the university’s pre-eminence in science
• Cambridge is thus home to a highly privilege caste with very high and rising incomes, raising average earning figures in the city well above the national median
• However this minority of people whose wages are increasing exponentially are creating huge distortions among incomes in the city, which is the cause for the massive difference between the most and least economically deprived wards in Cambridge.

Question 94

Cambridge age inequality

Answer 94

• While many older people in Cambridge are relatively affluent, the available evidence suggests that a significant proportion of older people in the city have low incomes
  
  • For example, nearly one pensioner household in five (18%) in Cambridge is claiming Housing Benefit, while more than one in three (38%) single pensioner households in the city are claiming Housing Benefit
• Not only do large quantities of the elderly have low incomes leading to economic inequality, but also they are additionally more likely to be socially excluded and isolated, which also contributes to inequality
• National research shows that over half (51%) of all people aged 75 and over live alone
  
  • 17% of older people are in contact with family, friends and neighbours less than once a week and 11% are in contact less than once a month.

Question 95

Cambridge health inequality

Answer 95

• Generally, Cambridge has a very strong record for health as a result of Addenbrooke’s hospital
• The lowest area is King’s Hedges which is ranked 3,817 out of 32,844 LSOAs in England
  
  • This is not only due to income inequality, but also because this area is furthest away from Addenbrookes
• Newnham life expectancy is 89.5 years compared to 78.2 years in King’s Hedges
• Inequality is influenced by health as those with a lower quality of housing and lower incomes are more likely to have poor health care

Question 96

Cambridge education inequality

Answer 96

• In general, most of Cambridge is ranked within the top 30% for least deprived neighbourhoods in Cambridge
• The wards which do not follow this trend are primarily located in the North East, such as Abbey and King’s Hedges, were the schools present may not be as good as others in the city.
  
  • An example of this is that of Cambridge 006D LSOA, found within the ward 67 which is amongst the 10% most deprived neighbourhoods in the country
  • In contrast, Cambridge 007D, found in the ward of Newnham, is ranked 32,834 out of 32,844 LSOAs, a difference of 30,627 places
  • The large gap between these two regions can be attributed to the incredibly high level of education found in the ward of Newnham, especially along Grange Road where schools such as King’s College School and St John’s College School, winner of Tatler’s best preparatory school in 2012, have taught large numbers of students required skills to a high degree
  • There is evidence to suggest that poorer education attainment of children in poverty can be attributed to more limited opportunities for learning available to children in low-income households
  • Although there are a large number of job opportunities within Cambridge, this does not necessarily mean that they are all available to Cambridge residents
  • The strength of the higher education, research and development and hi-tech sectors in Cambridge means that higher than average skill levels are required to access the majority of jobs in the city

Question 97

Player definition

Answer 97

Player - an individual or organisation with an interest and/or influence in actions, decisions and operations

Question 98

Key types of player

Answer 98

• Public players
  
  • The government (local and national), but also larger governmental bodies like the EU
  • Public players can influence economic change through grants and investment (i.e. for infrastructural development)
• Private players
  
  • A wide range of different people and organisations
  • Businesses can range from TNCs to those who are self-employed
• Local communities
  
  • Those who live in an area and are interested in economic change as well as environmental and social matters
• Non-governmental organisations
  
  • Smaller local groups and larger bodies such as the National Trust
• The EU
  
  • This large public player can influence economic change by investing or divesting in a place or an activity
  • For example, the Common Agricultural Policy has a large impact on the farming community, economically, environmentally and socially
• Local government
  
  • Works on a smaller scale
  • It carries out planning and implementation for strategic planning such as education and transport infrastructure
• National government
  
  • Tries to stimulate economic growth, sustain existing employment and create new jobs
• English Heritage
  
  • Works to retain and bring life to the history of a place
  • This will have an impact on employment opportunities and the environment as areas are protected from new development

Question 99

How the EU drives economic change

Answer 99

• Originally an economic and political union created in the aftermath of WW2 to foster economic cooperation, currently 28 members
• Four key institutions work together to run the EU
  
  • The European Commission - legislation, decision making, treaties (day-to-day business)
  • The European Parliament - elected every five years, it makes Union laws
  • The Council of the European Union - ministers from EU member states meet to coordinate policies and commit their governments to actions agreed by the EU
  • The Court of Justice - rules over cases of European law
• UK contribution of around £9 billion per year (13% of EU budget, third largest contributor)
• Although it originally started as a trading bloc, the EU’s remit is spread wider to include goals of reducing regional inequality, preserving the environment, promoting human rights and investing in education
• Between 2014 and 2020, the EU has a 960 billion Euro budget
• Criticisms have been directed at its agricultural subsidies, the power it has taken from national governments, its regulations preventing the UK from signing other trade deal with economies such as China, and money wasted on excessive bureaucracy

Question 100

How the World Bank drives economic change

Answer 100

• An international financial organisation set up in 1945 with two overriding aims which it is set to achieve by 2030
  
  • End extreme poverty by decreasing the % of people living on less than $1.90 a day to no more than 3%
  • Promote shared prosperity by fostering the income growth of the bottom 40% for every country
• Provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes e.g. building transport infrastructure, dams, pipelines
• Provides financial and technical assistance (experts) with very low interest loans and grants
• Fairly US based as HQ is in Washington, however it has 10,000 employees in 120 offices worldwide

Question 101

How the IMF drives economic change

Answer 101

• Organisation of 189 countries aiming to foster monetary cooperation
• Aims - facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, poverty reduction
• Set up in 1945 with an HQ in Washington
• 3,000 employees from 148 countries
• Biggest borrowers are Portugal, Greece, Ukraine and Pakistan
• Biggest loans currently out are Mexico, Poland, Colombia and Mexico
• Money lent - $700 billion
  
  • This is taken from member states who pay a quota based on their relative size in the world economy

Question 102

How MNCs/TNCs drive economic change

Answer 102

• Multinational/transnational corporations
• Operate in multiple countries
• International division of labour - HQs (R&D) in global ‘North’ and production/manufacture in global ‘South’
• Huge income - turnovers bigger than many countries’ GDPs
• Often more powerful than small countries
• Strong hand in negotiations as they control the ‘terms of trade’
• Often footloose - able to move for comparative advantages such as lower taxes, lax environmental laws or low wages
• Walmart - 2.2 million employees and annual turnover of $500 million
• Apple’s economic output was $87 billion in 2014, exceeding Oman’s GDP by $2 billion
• Uber’s car fleet numbers 1.1 million, far higher than the US government’s fleet of just over 600,000

Question 103

Birmingham before 1950

Answer 103

• The de Bermingham family purchased a royal charter in 1166 which allowed people to hold a market
  
  • It began to grow as a result of trade and became a metal-working hub in medieval times
  • 1700s Birmingham had a population of 15,000
• Matthew Boulton, an entrepreneur and engineer, established the first factory in the world in 1761
  
  • Brought 700 workers and complete industrial process under one roof
• The Cadbury family set up their Bourneville factory and model village for workers on the southeast outskirts of the city.
• Banks, insurance and legal firms developed such as Lloyds, founded in the mid-nineteenth century.
• Birmingham lay at the heart of the national canal network
• As industry grew, so did transport - rail link to London opens in 1838.
• New engineering industries developed, such as the Austin car plant, which opened in 1906 at Longbridge.
• As the vehicle industry expanded, likewise did the number of small firms supplying the industry, many of whom grew up in and around the city - an example being the now world-renowned Dunlop Tyres, which opened in 1917 and employed 10,000 by 1950.
• Large areas of terraced housing built for workers in the man industries were squeezed into spaces between factories.
• Transport innovations such as trams, suburban railways and later buses facilitated urban expansion and the outward growth of the built area.
• During the inter-war periods, suburbs such as Northfield and Marston included some of the largest local authority housing estates in the country, for example Kingstanding.

Question 104

The demographics of Birmingham in the 1950s

Answer 104

• During the interwar years, there was continuous population growth from both natural increase within the city as well as immigration from rural areas and other parts of the British Isles such as Ireland.
• However after the Second World War, international immigration increase drastically, significantly altering the ethnicities present in the city.
• Until the 1950s Birmingham’s population was overwhelmingly white in ethnic origin and employment was dominated by males (60% of men had skilled jobs such as lathe operators)
• From the 1950s onwards there was significant international in-migration in inner city areas. Most immigrants were from the Caribbean, South Asia and the Far East.
• As a result Birmingham became a cosmopolitan city, which was reflected in the religious landscape as mosques and temples began to be built.

Question 105

Birmingham’s decline

Answer 105

• Birmingham was heavily involved in the Global Recession of the 1970s, most specifically the oil crisis of 1973, whereby oil, a key requirement for Birmingham to be successful, was used as a ‘weapon’.
• During the Arab-Israeli war, an embargo on supplies from OPEC, followed and the price of oil increased tenfold which was a catastrophe for Birmingham in particular.
• Not only did the increase of oil significantly increase costs of production in manufacturing in Birmingham, there was also increasing overseas competition from TNCs based in countries with lower production costs.
• By 1970, the British car industry was in decline as a result of foreign-based TNCS, primarily Japanese car manufacturers, making significant inroads into the British car market.
• Although overseas car manufacturers did establish factories in the UK, none were present in the West Midland, as their locations were strongly influenced by grants from the central government.
• Despite recognising Birmingham was suffering from industrial failure, their primary aim was to attract investment and create employment in regions that had greater economic problems.
• Furthermore, as a result of the comprehensive redevelopment, which was part of a slum clearance programme, many small industrial premises, which were previously based in the inner city, were demolished.
• As a result, SMEs had difficulty in finding suitable premises. The purpose built spaces funded by the local authority often charged rents that were unaffordable to start-up businesses.
• Strikes were therefore frequent within the city as it was declining during the 1970s. These strikes only further exacerbated the ongoing issues, deterring potential investors and leading to a spiral of decline.
• Consequently, unemployment rose from <1% in the 1950s-60s to 19.4% from the 1970s-1983.

Question 106

Regeneration of Birmingham

Answer 106

• Local Authority
  
  • Actively promoted the city region, attracting inward investment to bring about the construction of the National Exhibition Centre and the expansion of the adjoining Birmingham International Airport.
    
    • Both of which attract the international conference and exhibition market, which brings significant money into the region through the multiplier effect.
• National Government
  
  • The national government has implemented several schemes in order to encourage rejuvenation, such as City Challenge and the Single Regeneration Budget
    
    • Designed to help places access funding for development.
• The EU
  
  • Birmingham has secured £235 million from the EU Social Investment Fund for the period 2014-2020.
    
    • Used in projects such as improving insulation in run-down social housing and building small premises for start-up SMEs.
  • The ICC, now called the Barclaycard arena was part of an EU flagship programme
    
    • Attracts conferences internationally as well as nationally a good example of the multiplier effect.
    • Hosted 2010 World Wheelchair Basketball Championships
• The City’s Universities
  
  • There are three universities in Birmingham, a total of 50,000 students.
  • Economically, such institutions bring very significant wealth to an area.
  • They employ large numbers of people who then have income to spend.
  • This is in addition to the spending of students themselves.
  • Students provide a market for a whole host of goods and services.

Question 107

Placemaking definition

Answer 107

Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces.

• It capitalizes on a local community’s assets, inspiration and potential to create public spaces that promote people’s health, happiness and well-being
• It inspires people to collectively reimagine and reinvent public spaces at the heart of every community
• It is about making a public space a living space
• It is community-driven, visionary, adaptable, inclusive, dynamic, collaborative and sociable

As a term, ‘placemaking’ was introduced in the mid-1990s, however it has been around since the 1960s when people began designing cities for people, not just for cars and shopping centres.

*

Question 108

Chicago and placemaking

Answer 108

Chicago is a global leader in placemaking, and has championed the idea in its urban design, outlining 11 key principles which include:

• The community is the expert - people who use a public space most regularly provide the most valuable perspective and insights into how the area functions, helping to identify issues that are most important to consider in improving the space
• You can’t do it alone - good public space requires partners who contribute innovative ideas, financial or political support, and help plan activities
• Triangulate - the concept of triangulation relates to locating elements next to each other in a way that fosters activity and is highly important to placemaking
• You are never finished - around 80% of the success of any public space can be attributed to its management because the use of good places changes on a regular basis

Question 109

The power of 10+

Answer 109

The concept of the ‘power of 10+’ is central to placemaking, as it asserts that to be successful, cities of all sizes need to have at least 10 destinations where people want to be.

• What makes each destination successful is that it needs to have multiple places within it, for example a square needs at least 10 places (cafe, sitting area, etc.)
• Within each of the places, there should be at least 10 things to do

Question 110

Attributes of most great places

Answer 110

1. They are accessible and well connected to other important places in the area
2. They are comfortable and project a good image
3. They attract people to participate in activities there
4. They are sociable environments in which people want to gather and visit again and again

Question 111

The role of investment in placemaking

Answer 111

Crucial to placemaking is attracting inward investment, often in the form of foreign direct investment:

• FDI is an investment made by a company or an individual in one country in business interest in another country
• Most FDI flows from from ACs and over 60% also goes to ACs
• Although FDI flows are notoriously variable due to changes in the global economy and geopolitics, approximately $1.3 trillion is sent per annum
• Globalisation is boosting FDI, increasing FDI by 10% annually

Question 112

Birmingham’s attraction of FDI

Answer 112

Birmingham has been successful in attracting FDI:

• There were more FDI projects in Greater Birmingham than in any other region in 2014, with around 100 projects per year
• 5000 jobs have been created through FDI, over 50% in the manufacturing sector
• The biggest single investment was Jaguar Land Rover, which invested £1.5 billion in its Solihull site
• There has been substantial growth in the digital sector, which coincides with the BBC’s announcement to place its digital innovation team there
• Most investment is from the US and Germany
• Birmingham uses an organisation called Business Birmingham to attract investment, which aids businesses in planning, setting up and growing

Question 113

Key elements of rebranding

Answer 113

Rebranding is becoming increasingly common in our globalised world, as places have more competition for investment and therefore need to rebrand as their current brand is failing to attract sufficient investment. Rebranding involves three key elements:

1. Brand artefact - the physical environment, such as individual buildings, the built environment or features in a rural area such as dry stone walls or evidence of former industry such as waste tips
2. Brand essence - people’s experiences of the place
3. Brandscape - how the place positions itself in relation to other competing places

Question 114

Strategies used for rebranding

Answer 114

There are several rebranding strategies; usually a places uses a combination of them:

• Market-led - involves private investors aiming to make a profit
  
  • Typically includes property developers, builders and business owners, for example those running restaurants, wine bars or retailing
  • Gentrification is typical of this strategy such as in Islington, london or Le Marais, paris
• Top-down - involves large-scale organisations such as local authorities, especially their planning departments, development agencies and private investors such as insurance and pension fund managers
  
  • Several former dockland areas such as Salford Quays, Manchester and Inner Harbor, Baltimore are examples - Canary Wharf?
• Flagship development - large scale, one-off property projects with distinctive architecture
  
  • They act as a catalyst to attract further investment and regeneration
  • The Millenium Stadium, Cardiff and the Waterfront, Belfast are examples
• Legacy - following international sporting events which brought investment and regeneration to a place
  
  • Examples include the Olympics in Barcelona (1992) and London (2012) and the Commonwealth Games, Manchester (2002)
• Events or themes - major festivals such as those associated with the European Capital of Culture, Liverpool (2008) and Riga, Latvia (2014)
  
  • This serves as a catalyst for the cultural development and the transformation of the city
  • Consequently, the beneficial socio-economic development and impact for the chosen city are now also considered in determining the chosen cities

Question 115

Birmingham’s rebranding

Answer 115

Birmingham has rebranded to construct a different place meaning, leaving behind the image of industrial decline for a new place identity with emphasis on regeneration and striking architecture and green spaces

• Birmingham wants to move away from the planning disasters of the 60s and 70s and the ‘concrete collar’ road system which stifled the city centre and has taken decades to demolish
• An image of dreary architecture remains in the city’s psyche

Question 116

Birmingham’s ‘Big City Plan’

Answer 116

A key part of its rebranding is the Big City Plan, which aims to encourage and support Birmingham’s continuing transformation into a world class city centre:

• Launched in 2010 and covers 20 years
• The cost of the project is £10 billion
• It aims to increase the size of the city centre by 25%
• It will provide 5000 new homes and create 50,000 jobs
  
  • 1.5 million m² of floorspace will be added
• An economic boost of £2 billion to the city centre per year is expected
• Wants to be renowned as an enterprising, innovative and green city that has undergone transformational change, growing its economy and strengthening its position on the international stage

Question 117

Soft rebranding in Birmingham

Answer 117

• Birmingham has also undergone soft rebranding, with an official proliferation of the term ‘Greater Birmingham’, which has the obvious association of greatness, but also demonstrates that the city is looking more widely with a desire to include nearby people.

Question 118

Birmingham’s rebranding strategies - sport

Answer 118

• Villa Park Stadium - home of Aston Villa
• Edgbaston - regularly hosts England International T20, One Day and Test matches including the Ashes.
• Barclaycard Arena
• Birmingham will be hosting the 2022 Commonwealth Games
  
  • Biggest sporting event to be awarded to a UK city since London 2012
  • Alexander Stadium will be created, able to hold 25,000 permanently
  • Cost will be £750 million, £190 million of which is from the local council
  • 22,000 jobs will be created over the next four years
• Birmingham had hosted many international sporting events
  
  • ICC Champions Trophy
  • Rugby World Cup fixtures
  • Davis Cup tennis
  • Badminton Championships

Question 119

Birmingham’s rebranding strategies - transport

Answer 119

• Airport
  
  • £100 million to be spent on baggage handling and car parks which will double processing speed and double the number of kiosks for bag drop
• Stations
  
  • There are four major railway stations in Birmingham, and many smaller ones
  • Birmingham New Street Station
    
    • £750 million spent over 4 years
    • First point of entry - attracts tourism and investment
    • More modern and colourful after change
    • Main space 5x bigger to accommodate the 52m passengers annually
    • Retail and shopping in centre - 43 shops
  • Birmingham International Station provides effective link to the airport through SkyRail
• Motorways
  
  • Birmingham has a number of major motorways including the M5, M6 and M42

Question 120

Birmingham’s rebranding strategies - architecture

Answer 120

• Old Central Library
  
  • Brutalist architecture
  • Ugly and angular
  • Replaced
• New Library
  
  • Bright and modern

Question 121

Role of the EU in Birmingham’s rebranding

Answer 121

• £640 million investment from the European Regional Development Funding 2007-2013
  
  • £530k to Afro-Caribbean Millennium Centre - redeveloping buildings to give meaning and promoting equitable and inclusive community
  • £2m to Bordesley Centre - building up social and recreational activities for the whole community
  • £3m to Town Hall
  • £3m to Hippodrome Theatre - consolidating the arts
• Business - transforming Birmingham to modern + tertiary-centered hub
  
  • Supported business infrastructure projects
  • £30m to NEC
  • £50m to ICC - hosts over 350 events and 20,000 delegates a year
  • £6m to Innovation Birmingham - UK’s 3rd largest science park

Question 122

Role of the government in Birmingham’s rebranding

Answer 122

• The national and local government are providing funds for Birmingham 2022

Question 123

Role of Business Birmingham in Birmingham’s rebranding

Answer 123

• Has been crucial in encouraging Birmingham’s significant inward investment

Question 124

Role of GBSLEP in Birmingham’s rebranding

Answer 124

Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP)

• One of 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships set up by the Government to drive economic development in England
  
  • These are voluntary partnerships between local authorities and businesses, which help determine local economic priorities
• Established in 2011
• Board is made up of representatives from public and private sectors
• Current chair is Steve Hollis - former chairman of KPMG
• Responsible for 835,000 jobs and goods and services in the region worth £34 billion

Question 125

Role of not for profit organisations in Birmingham’s rebranding

Answer 125

• Independent organisations that do not make profits for directors, members or shareholders
• A number of social enterprises are active in Birmingham
  
  • City of Colours - responsible for kickstarting an art festival
  • SIFA Fireside - homeless shelter

Question 126

Role of community groups in Birmingham’s rebranding

Answer 126

• Run by volunteers known as a management committee
• They exist to organise activities or run services for the member of the wider community
• They are often the ‘life and soul’ of a city
• Examples include
  
  • Friends of Moseley Road Baths
  • Friends of Birmingham Archives & Heritage (FOBAH)
  • Birmingham Community Gospel Choir

Question 127

Role of charities in Birmingham’s rebranding

Answer 127

• The Canal and River Trust aid in the preservation of national waterways
  
  • Set up in 2012
  • 22,000 supporters and £3 million donations per year
  • Supports museums and attractions, as well as helping to reopen canals
  • Adopted by over 180 communities
  • Volunteers have given 140,000 days of time
• West Midlands Partnership focuses on Birmingham’s canals - more canalways than Venice
  
  • Organises volunteers to improve towpaths, organise litter sweeps and educate the public

Question 128

Role of heritage associations in Birmingham’s rebranding

Answer 128

• Active in the placemaking process if there is a distinguishing character based on the survival of past characteristics such as architecture
• Most of these are NGOs and vary in scale from national bodies (such as the National Trust) to local groups focused on a particular building or feature
• Birmingham Heritage Forum, established in 1991 by the council, organises local heritage associations
  
  • They coordinate meetings, share best practice and assist with publicity
• Notable members of the forum include
  
  • Back to Backs - created to protect terraced houses built from late C18 to early C20. Created a museum to explore houses, as well as making a 1930s sweet shop
  • Hippodrome Heritage - accumulates and archives Birmingham Hippodrome memories and memorabilia. Theatre has been open for over 115 years, has staged a broad range of events. Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, which has helped digitise archives and collect oral interviews with performers

Question 129

Role of residents associations in Birmingham’s rebranding

Answer 129

• Organisations formed by groups of people from a specific geographic community who come together to address issues within their local area and act as a voice for the community
• Most have positions that are decided by nominations and can be challenged in an annual general meeting (AGM)
• Around 25 associations in central Birmingham
• Shape the place to suit their needs, so the regeneration is successful and used by the community

Question 130

Role of social media in Birmingham’s rebranding

Answer 130

• Digital placemaking is increasingly playing a role in the evolution of places as social media becomes more integrated into people’s lives
  
  • Being used to encourage public participation and collaboration in processes such as planning and decision making about land use in local neighbourhoods
• All ages can have an input in the planning decision making processes for things like land-uses
• Power of 10+ can be shared by social media, forging a sense of community

Question 131

Creation of meaningful and authentic spaces in Birmingham - the library and station

Answer 131

• Birmingham New Street Station
  
  • Architect wanted to combat the rise of ‘clone towns’
  • Almost 24 hr use
    
    • Night entertainment as well as commutes
  • Natural light through transparent roof
  • Seven domed skylights
  • Scheme has directly created around 1000 new jobs and substantially boosted Birmingham’s economy and infrastructure
• The Library of Birmingham
  
  • Cost £189 million
  • Architect - Francine Houben
  • Won Architect’s Journal Building award 2013
• Both the Library and Station are part of Birmingham’s 2010, 20 year ‘Big city plan’ aimed at creating aiming to completely change Birmingham as a place.
  
  • The Library can be seen as an investment for the community whilst the train station’s main aim is to encourage tourism and FDI into the city by providing an impactful piece of architecture as people take their first steps into Birmingham

Question 132

Creation of meaningful and authentic spaces in Birmingham - Park Central and Paradise

Answer 132

• Park Central
  
  • 61 acre residential-led mixed use scheme
  • Will comprise 1,650 residential dwellings and 285,000 sq ft of commercial development
  • 30% mixed tenure housing stock transfer to Optima Community Association
• Paradise
  
  • Highest profile mixed-use regeneration scheme
  • Paradise will comprise 3 public squares, 10 high quality office buildings and 120,000 square feet of retail and leisure space
  • Huge infrastructure works will create high quality pedestrian linkages to all key parts of the city
  • Projected to be fully completed by 2027

Question 133

Criticisms of Birmingham’s rebranding

Answer 133

• Presents only a static view - not dynamic and can easily fail
• Plan requires big leaps, which are too adventurous to gather support
• Contest from the local community
  
  • Arguments such as
    
    • Old city centre may have neem grotty in places, but retained its character and nowadays it has become too polished
    • ‘Progress’ has only favoured the affluent
  • Birmingham does still have poor statistics
    
    • Unemployment rates among worst in the UK at around 6%
    • Infant mortality double the national average at 12/1000 born
    • High homelessness figures - around 50 in the city centre and rising at the moment
  • But the city and population is overwhelmingly behind the Big City Plan

Question 134

Success of Birmingham’s rebranding in causing population to bounce back

Answer 134

• Population has increased from 977,000 in 2001 to 1,124,000 mid-2016
• There is a predicted future increase of around 5,000 per year until 2030
• Population is also incredibly diverse and youthful

Question 135

Success of Birmingham’s rebranding as a 24 hour city

Answer 135

• Late night venues e.g. Broad Street and Brindleyplace
• 24 hour casinos such as Genting Casino
• 19 city centre 24 hour coffee shops
• 24 hour gym - Perry Barr
• 24 hour bus service
• Latest Birmingham New Street train is at 1 am
• Tram and metros finish just after midnight
• Although not as successful as London’s night tube, London is exceptional due to its primacy as a UK settlement, and as such Birmingham can be considered fairly successful

Question 136

Success of Birmingham’s rebranding in promoting mixed community use

Answer 136

• Has a very multicultural vibe and it is very open to a diverse range of communities
• Has a Chinatown, Balti Triangle and a Gay Quarter

Although the plan is ambitious, the Smart Urbanist gave it credit for focusing on multiple small ideas and projects. The rebranding of Birmingham has been successful and will continue to develop.