TMA 04
Part 1: 'Segregation and integration shape social life in cities'. Explain how different sorts of evidence in DD102 can be used to support this claim.
This essay will bring forth different types of evidence from DD102 to support the claim that segregation and integration are both factors which shape social life within cities. Urban integration is the joining of people within social and spatial groups in an urban environment. Residential segregation refers to the separation of two or more social and spatial groups within a particular geographical area. The boundaries between these groups create relations of both connections and disconnections. (Dixon and Hinchcliffe, 2014, p.95).
The relationships between people in different communities and the way they act towards one another has a big effect on segregation in cities. Residents of one particular area tend to share a common identity and sense of belonging, this can help them to relate to each other in day-to-day situations and live as equals. On the other hand residents can also sometimes feel disconnected or divided then from people who live outside of their community, both with people who physically live further away and also those who are separated from them by class.
The growth of cities and the increase in the number of people living in the cities themselves or urbanisation also plays a part in the segregation and integration of society. Weber, (1899) cited in Dixon and Hinchcliffe, (2014, p.86) used quantitative data in the form of a table in which she demonstrated her results to give an example of urban growth in England and Wales between 1801 and 1891. In the first half of the nineteenth century the total population more than doubled to just under 18 million people. By the end of the second half of the nineteenth century this had increased by over 11 million, giving a total population of over 29 million. These changes to the density of people living in a particular area affected how these people then lived.
There are some particularly intense periods of change to the population, for example between 1821 and 1841. Between these dates the total population of cities such as Cardiff, Belfast and Birmingham increased by over forty percent (Dixon and Hinchcliffe, (2014, p. 86). During nineteenth century in Britain a mass movement from the countryside to the city meant the change from having the majority of people living in a rural setting to then having the majority living in an urban environment. This process was disruptive to peoples social connections in a number of ways. People now had to adapt to living amongst a dense amount of other people which, other than family had not been the case for many.
The type of employment that people had then also needed to change from being employed within a farm based environment to being employed in a manufacturing environment. From being in the countryside on land, growing food and working only the hours needed depending on the season to then being employed in factories where their hours of work would be long and demand based. (Dixon and Hinchcliffe, 2014, p. 87)
Engels, (1969) cited in Dixon and Hinchcliffe, (2014, p.88) described a way in which urbanisation in the nineteenth century created disconnections between people. He illustrated how class divisions shaped the human geography of the city. Engels investigated the workings of one form of economic activity- industrial capitalism, and focused on two kinds of street. In The Condition of the Working Class in England, (Engels, 1969), Engels firstly wrote about the streets where the majority of the urban poor lived. These streets were ‘generally unpaved, rough, dirty, filled with vegetable and animal refuse, without sewers or gutters’ and ‘many human beings there lived crowded into small spaces’ These people were the ones employed to work in the new factories. They were paid poorly for the work and hours they were made to do and their jobs were insecure, meaning they were easily laid off when production ceased to be as profitable.
Engels also wrote about another kind of street within urban Manchester. The thoroughfare used by middle-class commuters to get to the town centre. He announced how effectively the streets hid the urban squalor around them. ‘beyond this girdle, lives the upper and middle bourgeoisie… in remoter villas with gardens… in free, wholesome country air, fine, comfortable homes… the members of this money aristocracy can take the shortest road through the middle of all the labouring districts to their places of business without ever seeing that they are in the midst of the grimy, misery that lurks to the right and left.’ Engels, (1969) cited in Dixon and Hinchcliffe, 2014, p.91). The thoroughfares and suburbs that Engels described show difference in how the different classes of people lived and emphasise the uneven geography of the cities. This allowed the rich to insulate themselves from the poor.
Both urbanisation and industrialisation disrupted peoples lives and affected their existing connections to eachother and places. Davis, (1990) cited in Dixon and Hinchcliffe, 2014, p.96) also emphasised Engels' findings. He described Los Angeles as a city where the wealthy inhabitants of west LA can easily ignore the poverty stricken east and southern LA by using raised freeways and highways to bypass those areas.
Portland Road, London is also an excellent example of class segregation. Built by speculative developers on a stretch of wasteland in the 1850's, between what was then known as the New Ladbroke Estate and the Norland Estate. The developers built the houses on Portland Road to attract the same rich tenants that were moving to the New Ladbroke Estate. This investment paid off at the south end of the street, with 1860 census' showing that the tenants were fundholders and surgeons. However, the further north in the street you go the more dramatically the class of residents changes. There were piggeries and it was a regular occurrence for the 'family homes' to be split between families, with a family of eight living between two rooms and sharing a toilet between the occupants of the other floors. (The Open University, 2017)
In the 1929 update of Charles Booths study, the more well off people had moved on from living in Portland Road, leaving just the skilled workers rather than the wealthy in the south end of the street, and the northern end continued to become further degraded until it was replaced by social housing in the 1930's.
Another example of segregation in cities is when communities voluntarily choose to segregate themselves from others. This tends to be using race or income as a dividing criteria, and these people choose to live in gated communities. Atkinson, (2003) cited in Dixon and Hinchcliffe, (2014, p.96) noted that research of England in 2003 showed young professionals were attracted to living in this kind of community hence why there was more than 1000 of those communities and more being planned.
Residential segregation can be caused by symbolic and material barriers. In Belfast, the Protestant and Catholic residents are segregated based on sectarian differences. These residents live close to each other but remain apart. NISRA, (2014) cited in Dixon and Hinchcliffe, (2014) constructed a map to show the distribution of Catholic and Protestant residents across areas of Belfast. On the census data collected, West Belfast is inhabited mainly by Catholic residents, with less than twenty percent of residents being Protestant. The East of Belfast is completely the opposite, with less than twenty percent of residents being Catholic. Strangely the North and South of Belfast appear to be more integrated, with a mix of Catholic and Protestants living near each other. A persons religious or political views can in turn shape their sense of identity, Which will then create a sense of inclusion or exclusion. These areas still remain separate, however due to barriers.
Interface barriers signify the boundaries between the neighbouring communities, these boundaries can intensify rather than eradicate fear. Segregation can shape residents' sense of identity both visually and territorially in street art. This advertises a particular communities allegiance to Unionist or nationalist causes (Dixon and Hinchcliffe, 2014, p.103). Residents of one community tend to avoid areas associated with members of the other community. (Falah, 1996).
The Skegnoniell Glandore common purpose project was created to bring two communities together. Skegnoniell- a largely Protestant area, and Glandore- a mainly Catholic area, The idea to create social capital between the two areas can help to forge connections between the previously divided communities. Some of the ways in which they do this is by providing shared facilities like after school clubs and parent and toddler groups. Other methods such as the City Gardens project and the allotments are where people who would not normally meet can interact over common ground (The Open University, 2017).
With the current globalisation, it is more common for the term 'diaspora' to be used in relation to connections between migrant families. Diaspora can be defined as a population dispersed geographically but that share links to a common culture or heritage, whether it is real or imagined. This then helps us to understand how people can continue to be attached to a place, it also refers to personal feelings, relationships and social identities which are deeply meaningful to migrants. Whilst people remain connected to the places they have migrated from they still make new connections in the places in which they now stay (Raghuram and Erel, 2014, p.153).
Along with this, we can use another way to understand a persons simultaneous links to more than one place which we refer to as Translocalism. This focuses on the activities migrants participate in and show how the links are maintained over space. Madziva and Zontini, (2012) cited in Raghuram and Erel, (2014, p. 158) studied Zimbabwean asylum-seeking mothers who had to flee to the UK. These mothers had to abandon their children to come here. Their children were unable to join them here due to their status. The violence in Zimbabwe meant that they were not then deported, but they were not able to work in the UK either, so could not send money home for their children causing them to feel as though they failed at providing for their children both emotionally and financially.
Segregation and integration can create connections that make a society work because people know how they fit into it and have a sense of security and belonging, This cannot always work though and when connections break down between people it becomes very difficult for communities to continue in harmony. Segregation can also create disconnections in the form of feelings of fear, separation and exclusion. In conclusion it is clear that segregation and integration are both factors which shape social life within cities.
(Word count 1763)