June 4th, 15:30–17:00 Room 327, Vanemuise 46 and in Teams
Professor Paul Watt (London School of Economics) will give a guest lecture at the seminar of the University of Tartu Department of Geography
on the topic of gentrification and extreme inequality in London’s housing market.
‘It's just over £1million on the market - I haven't even got a million pence’: Social inequality and social mixing at a mixed-tenure neighbourhood in London
Paul Watt is one of the most well-known researchers of the effects of gentrification.In his many articles and books, he vividly demonstrates how gentrification and social mixing policies lead to extreme inequality in urban space, how such inequality is manifested on a very small spatial scale, and how large-scale urban renovation and regeneration programs aimed at improving quality of life often significantly diminish people's well-being. Paul Watt is a scholar of Estonian descent. More about him here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/sociology/people/academic-visitors/paul-watt/paul-watt
Abstract
This paper examines social inequality and social mixing at a mixed-tenure neighbourhood in London – a former public housing estate which has undergone a radical regeneration process involving demolition and rebuilding. Regeneration involves rehousing of some tenants into newly built social housing properties, alongside extensive building of upmarket ‘luxury’ flats for sale or rent which has brought about a radically changed neighbourhood demographic involving an incoming affluent population alongside visible cultural signs of gentrification. The paper is based on survey research combined with ethnographic research involving participant observation at community events and semi-structured interviews with residents, officials and community volunteers. The paper explores perceptions and experiences of social inequality and social mixing among the two main housing groups: long-term, multiethnic working-class social tenants; and incoming middle-class private tenants and owner-occupiers living in the new high-rise market housing blocks. Perceptions of inequality were generally stark with many social tenants acutely aware that the redeveloped neighbourhood was divided between ‘rich and poor’ in which they were very much the ‘poor relations’. The two housing groups did not think much cross-tenure social mixing occurred and this perception was matched by the paucity of experiential evidence of de facto social mixing. Several socio-spatial factors help to explain why cross-tenure (and by association cross-class) social mixing is extremely limited. Many such factors relate to the physical design of the neighbourhood and blocks of flats which involves spatial segregation and separate facilities; for example, access to the gyms and swimming pool is exclusively restricted to private owners and renters. Another set of factors relate to the differential usage of public space with social tenants more likely to attend community centre and elderly person’s events, whilst the private incomers are far more likely to use the new commercial cafes which are prohibitively expensive for social tenants. In addition, the private renters have a much weaker relationship to the neighbourhood than the social tenants because they are less likely to have children and are also effectively passing through the neighbourhood as part of longer-term professional and housing careers. Another important factor relates to the very large class, wealth and income differences between the two housing groups, including the strong sense from several social tenants that their redeveloped neighbourhood was fundamentally split along both class and ethnic/racialized lines. Despite the ubiquitous policy claims which are made regarding the benefits of mixed-tenure communities, the paper highlights how their realization is far from being achieved in such a highly unequal global city such as London.
