Neighbourhood Image, Reputation and Stigma: Implications for Policy John Flint Sheffield Hallam University Tackling Multiple Deprivation in Communities. Considering the Evidence: A Scottish Government Conference Edinburgh, 2 June 2009
Studies of Stigmatisation 1 'Every city and town in the UK has neighbourhoods which have reputations for problems such as poverty, crime, drug abuse and physical decay' (Hastings and Dean, 2000)
Studies of Stigmatisation 2 • Suttles (1972): mental geographies or urban landscapes • Residence as a means of performing identity (Savage et al. , 2005) • The poor are increasingly identified by where they live (Mc. Dowell, 2008)
Research Methods • Hillside/Primalt: NDC area in Knowsley, Merseyside. • Oxgangs in Edinburgh. • JRF study: poverty in face of poverty and poverty in face of affluence. • 60 interviews (non-representative samples). • Both relatively deprived: Hillside/Primalt more deprived but less differentiated than its surroundings.
The presence of stigmatisation In both areas stigma present: General and indefinable: "I know its definitely there. " Concrete: "People say to me where do you live and I say X and they go 'Oh my God, poor you. '" "I think it did have a bad reputation because…some seller was driving up, he said to me 'what's the area like round here, is it still full of scalleys"
But… Differentiation and its Implications • Fraser (1996): over generalisation in the literature: "People in the areas nearby, they're all the same. " "Its like you go from one bit of Oxgangs, literally you can see the first house in Green Bank: it's a different world. "
Differentiation: Explanations • Immediacy and visibility of difference • Sites of interaction • Wider urban localities
Conclusions • Differentiated image and stigma within and between neighbourhoods • Uniformity versus gradation and hierarchy • Linked in complex relationship to perceptions of neighbourhood problems, neighbourhood attachment and selfesteem • Non-spatial comparative elements: life history/peers
Policy Implications • Need for more nuanced understanding of stigma, including 'ordinariness' and 'hierarchy' • Limits of perceptions re neighbourhood problems and neighbourhood change • Limitations of 'rebranding' exercises • Difficulties of social mix (schools etc. ) • Sense of ownership equally or more important?
References Fraser, P. (1996) 'Social and spatial relationships and the ’problem’ inner city: Moss-Side in Manchester', Critical Social Policy, 16, pp. 43 - 65. Hastings, A. and Dean, J. (2000) 'Challenging Images: tackling stigma through estate regeneration', Policy and Politics, 31(2), pp. 171 -184. Mc. Dowell, L. (2008) 'Thinking Through Class and Gender in the Context of Working Class Studies', Antipode, pp. 20 -30. Savage, M. , Bagnall, G. and Longhurst, B. (2005) Globalization and belonging, London: Sage. Suttles, G. D. (1972) The Social Construction of Communities, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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