Variations in Lived Experience (Edexcel A Level Geography)

Community Engagement

• 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

Variations in Lived Experience

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

• 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 within Communities

• 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