Variations in Lived Experience (Edexcel A Level Geography)

• People, who live in areas requiring regeneration, know they live in deprived, run-down areas but may not be able, or want, to do anything about it 
• This is the idea of community engagement
• There are variations in the level of community engagement, which can be measured through:
• Local and national election turnout
• The number of community activities 
• The number of supported local community groups
• If an area is more deprived, it is likely to have a weaker sense of community and less engagement

Election turnout

• It is estimated that 9.4 million eligible voters (2019) in the UK are not registered to vote
• The groups least likely to be on the electoral roll and therefore can’t vote are:
• People living in poverty
• Black people
• Young people
• People living in urban areas
• Areas that need regeneration the most, have the poorest turnout for general and local elections
• Traditionally, rural areas tend to have higher turnouts in elections than urban areas
• In the 2019 UK general elections, 67.3% of the eligible population voted
• There were large variations in turnout:
• 74% of over-65s voted, compared to 47% of 18-24 year-olds
• Younger people often have more distrust of politicians
• East Dunbartonshire (Scotland) had the highest turnout (80.3%)
• Kingston upon Hull East had the lowest turnout (49.3%)
• 68% of people employed as professionals and managers voted, whereas only 53% of manual workers voted
• Only 52% of ethnic minority groups chose to vote. This may be due to:
• People may feel a lack of belonging to a community and that they have little influence
• Possible language barriers

Electoral Characteristics for Reading & Middlesbrough

• The data shows that Middlesbrough:
• Is a substantially more deprived area than Reading
• Has a higher amount of manual workers, who will have lower incomes, compared to Reading
• Has a lower percentage of professionals and managers than Reading
• Has a lower level of community engagement based on the amount of people that voted
• This is due to the level of deprivation and the types of jobs found in the area
• The turnout for the 2022 local elections in England was 33.6%

Community groups

• People engage with their place through community action groups. These are created for many reasons:
• Voluntary committees managing local allotments, open spaces and nature reserves, village shops 
• Powerful and vocal 'NIMBY' (not in my backyard) groups protesting over planned developments, such as new housing, fracking and wind farms 
• Local charities fundraising to help vulnerable people in the local community (Meals on Wheels, transport to hospitals and friendship groups)
• Residents of an estate may form a group due to growing inequalities or social issues e.g. to reduce antisocial behaviour 
• Support for local community groups varies across the country, depending upon local engagement and the group's purpose
• A stronger community can be created by establishing social groups and encouraging members to join
• Regeneration relies on community participation at all stages

• The lived experience and attachment of places (place attachment) varies according to different factors as outlined in the diagram below

Factors affecting levels of engagement

• These factors may make a person feel excluded by a place or foster a sense of attachment to it. This impacts the levels of community engagement 
• Globalisation impacts on young people due to the wider cultural influences they experience (social media, music, food, fashion)
• Some people (e.g. young people, ethnic minority groups, and the poor) can feel that a place does not represent them, leading to a sense of exclusion and marginalisation 
• This can result in the clustering of groups e.g.
• High-income, elite professionals cluster together
• Low-income social groups, dominated by low-skilled services jobs, cluster together

• Conflicts may occur between different groups within the community, who have contrasting views on how the area should be regenerated
• This is due to their different lived experience
• Conflicts over regeneration are caused by:
• A lack of political engagement and representation 
• Low-income groups are less likely to vote, so politicians direct their interest to richer groups
• Regeneration is then imposed on locals by development companies, who have no lived experience of the place
• Ethnic tensions - The minority ethnic groups are often displaced through gentrification as the area now attracts younger, wealthier people, which raises house prices
• Social inequality - groups with lower incomes might not be able to afford to live in the area once it has been regenerated
• A lack of economic opportunity - Local businesses are threatened by regeneration due to increased competition from new companies and a rise in rental costs
• Top-down approaches to regeneration can reduce community engagement because: 
• The approaches can erase the local character of the area and degrade the sense of place felt by existing residents
• Local groups might not benefit from the regeneration scheme
• The development company might try to fit regeneration ideas from other areas into that place