This essay will attempt to show evidence that supports the question ‘Does residential segregation shape the social life of cities and people’s sense of who they are’ by using different types of evidence, such as qualitative, which comes from interviews, focus groups, or even pictures and other artistic endeavours like murals. Whilst quantitative obtained from statistics, surveys and records. Evidence will be looked at by what has appeared over time, looking at the growth of Manchester during 1800’s, with migration of people from the country side, to the city to take up jobs of an industrial nature and how segregation kept the wealthy and workers apart and the inequalities of conditions they lived in. Then at more recent evidence showing a case study of Belfast and the history of a single street Portland Road in London and how segregation can create connections as well as disconnections in people’s lives and how this shapes peoples sense of who they are.
Firstly, what is ‘Residential Segregation’? The Oxford Dictionary of Sociology says it’s the ‘social process that results in certain individuals or social groups being kept apart with little or no interaction between them’ (Scott,J, 2014) and how this process erects social and spatial boundaries between groups,which in turn creates both connections and disconnections. Which is simply saying it is the separation of different classes, ethnicities of people into different groups, which in turn puts up social barriers and effects the distribution of the population, shaping their lives and sense of who they are.
Secondly. ‘In The condition of the working class in England’ Frederick Engels, a clerk working in 1800’s Manchester wrote in detail describing the horrors of urban industrial life in Manchester, with its uneven social geography and industrial capitalism (Engels F cited in Dixon and Hinchliffe, 2014, Pg.88, -91). Within this work he studied two different streets, one where the workers and the poor resided, within densely packed urban housing backing onto each other, none having gardens, fresh air or proper sanitation. For example, fig 3.1. (Dixon J & Hinchliffe, 2014). The poor having little or no social capital within society. Compared to the Middle Class who
resided nearby, having comfortable housing along with better facilities and fresh air. The streets were designed in such a way that although in proximity, the ‘upper/middle’ classes were segregated from the ‘abject squalor’ in which the ‘Poor’ resided. Engle’s, therefore in his writings realised that segregation and the economic changes, partly creating this, allowed great inequalities to arise in society. Evidence can be seen in the maps of Platt (Platt, (2005) Cited in Clark J and Woodward K (2014 p.91) highlighting the growth and density of population within the old town which contained most of the lower class housing, segregated from the rest. As can be seen within this example evidence is shown concerning the demographics of Manchester at the time, which in turn can affect how people live today.
Thirdly, is a case study that has been made on Belfast in Northern Ireland. In 1921 Ireland was partitioned with an independent Irish State in the south and a British Controlled Northern Ireland to the north. (Dixon J & Hinchliffe S. , 2014) This in itself caused disconnections between people within the divided country. With Northern Ireland itself being further disconnected and segregated not on industrial lines, but rather by that of religion. Statistics from the 2011 Census shows that within Belfast 48.58% of people are Catholics whilst 42.30% are shown as Protestant (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, 2011) The population within Belfast have been segregated along these lines for decades. People within Northern Ireland are less likely to live in mixed communities as happens in the rest of the UK, but live segregated in different parts of the City, this degree of separation becoming so large that people are more disconnected than connected and thus unable to understand each other. This has been exacerbated by Government with the building of walls and other barriers which were designed to make people feel safe. For example, Sean in video 3 (The Open University, 2016) says “walls stop people from interacting, that’s why they are built” This is further emphasised by murals, paintings and flags painted within each area as territorial symbols, which people of either religion know to avoid entering if they were not of that faction. This therefore disconnects people
and shapes how they think and behave, giving them a sense of Identity. This was because during the ‘Troubles’ it was natural for people of either religion to retreat into those parts of the City were they felt safe and secure from Violence. These places being their traditional heartlands. (Doherty and Poole,1997 cited in Clarke, J and Woodward K in understanding social lives bk2 pg. 100) Thus we see both segregation and integration within communities through feelings of togetherness and belonging, creating connections but also disconnections through feelings of fear and distrust. Thus shaping the social lives within that city and helping shape peoples sense of who they are and where they belong.
Fourthly, within the video of Portland Road (The Open University, 2016) shows that this Road was originally developed by speculators to attract the wealthy. However, the North End was close to the slums, piggeries and Gypsy camp and didn’t attract investment and so became multiple occupation tenements for the poor, which soon became slums. Thus, over time the social division between both ends widened creating connections due to geography but disconnections due to economic inequality. Within recent times the North end was redeveloped and became a council estate whilst the South End prospered. This can be shown (The Open University, 2016 video 3) that in 2012 The South ends average house prices were £3.5 million, the middle £2.1 million and the North End estates £340,000 with one resident stating ‘it’s because they are further away from the Council Estate’ The same video shows a deprivation map made by the local council indicating that 20% of the richest people in England live in the Road along with 5% of the poorest. A stark indication of the social and spatial boundaries within the road with one resident from the North end describes her surroundings as ‘dark dingy and microscopic’ although only a few feet away from the rich end. Disconnections have therefore stayed the same as in the past. The language used in this Video is very revealing in that it uses very descriptive and tangible words to highlight the almost physical nature of this separation. For example, ‘‘borderline’, ‘enclave’, ‘frontier land’, ‘East
and West Berlin’ are used to describe the widening divisions between ‘them’ and ‘us’. This was reinforced by the building of the traffic barrier in the 1970s which then provided a physical separation between the rich and poor., (Dixon J and Hinchliffe S, 2014) thus shaping the segregation between the two, creating differences to who people think they are.
In conclusion the nature of the process of residential segregation effects every city whether in economic, class, ethnicity or religion. It creates both connections and disconnections by creating bonds of solidarity and belonging, as well as suspicion and fear, it is shown throughout the history of our cities in classifications of people and inequality in wealth, as shown by the examples within this essay both in quantitative and qualitative evidence and thereby helps explain how different types of evidence supports the question ‘residential segregation shapes the social life of cities and peoples sense of who they are’.