Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
(Harvey 2005 ) by governments from the late 1970s. This was a response to the
economic stagnation of the period which was followed by the deindustrialisation
of so many western cities and the loss of many jobs and industries, with a decline
in welfare benefits and increasing competition for jobs. The election of new con-
servative governments led to the belief that government had to be reduced because
of the high debt levels incurred through expanding many public services. In addi-
tion, conservatives argued that regaining prosperity in western cities would only
occur if several approaches were followed: facilitating market-led processes to
attract innovative knowledge industries and creative people; encouraging entre-
preneurialism; developing new amenities within cities to provide a further draw;
and removing, or at least reducing, government regulation, especially the many
public planning procedures which were blamed for cutting out growth opportuni-
ties. The result was a phase of deregulation in planning and governance in general
and a belief that a new phase of competitive cities would emerge, where urban
centres would have to compete with one another to attract the limited growth op-
portunities available in the new competitive global world. Such free-enterprise and
pro-growth policies became the mantra of most politicians, including many of the
centre and left. It meant another source of decreased interest, this time by politi-
cians and decision-makers, in the increasing inequalities in societies that these
neo-liberal policies created.
These changes have led to four trends. One has been a social deterioration ,
affecting the position of the worse-off in cities, especially in the U.S.A. (Wilson
1987). This was not only the result of economic change, especially in the reduction
of the number of unskilled jobs in cities in manufacturing and transport, but was
also due to several additional social changes, such as: family breakdown, increasing
crime rates and drug use, systemic ethnic discrimination, fewer effective welfare
measures and especially a decline in the quality of education system in poor ar-
eas. The resultant increase in inequality has severe social consequences, including
a negative effective on growth, as seen in many studies (Mount 2005 ; Wilkinson
and Pickett 2009 ). A second trend is the way that the middle income groups have
seen their income reduced over the past 20 years, hollowing out the middle class .
A third trend relates to the fact that the rich are getting richer. A fourth comes from
an unemployment increase after the financial crises from 2008, especially among
the young adults. These features seem to be making people more selfish and with
individualist attitudes. Indeed many developed countries have seen reduced sup-
port for welfare policies. Figure 3.1 provides an example of this trend, showing the
changing attitudes of various age groups to welfare provision as measured in the
British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA 2013 ), which has been tracking opinions for
over 30 years. Although all age groups show a significant decline in willingness to
fund more benefits since the late 1980s, the younger age groups now have agree-
ment levels of only 20 %, with even the people over 65 years down to 40 % from
60 %. Although this is only one indicator in a single country it seems that the trends
are similar in other western countries, suggesting that populations are becoming less
collectivist and more sympathetic to contributionist values.
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