This essay will show evidence that supports the question ‘Does residential segregation shape the social life of cities and people’s sense of who they are’, 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 is 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, taking 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 and how this process erects social and spatial boundaries between groups, which in turn creates both connections and disconnections’(Scott,J, 2014). Which simply saying 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 the city, with its uneven social geography and industrial capitalism Engels F (1845) cited in Dixon and Hinchliffe, (2014, Pg.88,91). Within this work he studied two 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. a picture of such conditions (Dixon J
Hinchliffe S, 2014 pg. 89). 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 a way that although in proximity, the ‘middle’ classes’ were segregated from seeing the ‘abject squalor’ in which the ‘Poor’ resided. Therefore, in his writings Engle’s realised that segregation and the economic changes creating this, allowed great inequalities to arise in society. Evidence in the maps of Platt (Platt, (2005) Cited in Clark J and Woodward K (2014 p.91) highlight the growth and density of population within the old town, containing most of the lower class housing segregated from the rest. As can be seen within these examples evidence is shown concerning the demographics of Manchester at the time, segregating the ‘classes’ which in turn affects how people live today.
Thirdly, a case study that has been conducted on Belfast in Northern Ireland. In 1921 Ireland was partitioned, with an independent Irish State in the south and a British Northern Ireland to the north. (Dixon J & Hinchliffe S,2014 Pg 98) This itself caused disconnections between people within the divided country. With Northern Ireland being further disconnected and segregated not on industrial lines, but rather by that of religion. For example, 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 having been segregated along these lines for decades, with People within Northern Ireland less likely to live in mixed communities as happens in the rest of the UK. In Belfast people live segregated in different parts of the City, this separation becoming so large, that people have become more disconnected than connected. 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 (2014 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 this Road was developed by speculators to attract the wealthy. However, the North End was nearer to the slums, piggeries and Gypsy camp and didn’t attract investment, instead becoming 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 and class. Within recent times the North end was redeveloped and became a council estate but never matching the prosperity of the South End. 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. One resident stating ‘it’s because they are further away from the Council Estate’ The same video shows a deprivation map 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 describing her surroundings as ‘dark, dingy and microscopic’ Whilst another resident from the South end saying {indicating with his hands} ‘That’s My Village’ {turns around} ‘That’s Theirs, I never go there’ although only a short distance from where he is pointing’. The language used in this Video is very revealing in that it uses highly descriptive and tangible words to highlight the almost substantial 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 a traffic barrier in the 1970s which therefore provided a physical separation and shaped the segregation between them. (Dixon J and Hinchliffe S, 2014). Thus 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, gender 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 of inequality in wealth, as shown by the examples within this essay both of 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’.