Neighbourhood Image, Reputation and Stigma: Implications for Policy

John Flint Sheffield Hallam University

Tackling Multiple Deprivation in Communities- Considering the Evidence:

A Scottish Government ConferenceEdinburgh, 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 (McDowell, 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 self-esteem

• 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.

McDowell, 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.