Slum clearance and relocation: a reassessment of social outcomes combining short-term and long-term perspectives

Abstract

Housing research rarely takes a long-term view of the impacts of short-term housing changes. Thus, in studies of postwar relocation, narratives of 'loss of community' and 'dislocation' have dominated the debate for decades. This paper combines a 're-study' methodology with oral histories to reexamine the experience of relocation into high-rise flats in Glasgow in the 1960s and 70s. We find that both the immediate and longer-term outcomes of relocation varied greatly; while some people failed to settle and felt a loss of social relations, many others did not. People had agency, some chose to get away from tenement life and others chose to move on subsequently as aspirations changed. Furthermore, relocation to high-rise was not always the life-defining event or moment it is often depicted to be. Outcomes from relocation are mediated by many other events and experiences, questioning its role as an explanatory paradigm in housing studies.

Towards an agenda for oral history and geography: (Re)locating emotion in family narratives of domestic abuse in 1970s East Kilbride

“…The emotional and historical landscape of relocation in post‐war Glasgow is complex. In their study on short‐ and long‐term outcomes of these relocation processes, Kearns et al (2019) note that relocation itself does not operate well as an explanatory category, nor is it useful to see it as a one‐time event. Thus, approaching it as process, shaped both by the spatial and historical context, compounded by individual agency, is more revealing of how residents actually experienced their new homes and communities.…”

‘Housing Problems … are Political Dynamite’: Housing Disputes in Glasgow c. 1971 to the Present Day

“…By 1969 Glasgow had 15,000 flats in high rise blocks (Jephcott, 1971, p. 22). This strategy of comprehensive development and relocation has had profound consequences for the city's inhabitants (Collins and Levitt, 2016;Kearns et al, 2017).This is especially the case when combined with the effects of deindustrialisation and the simultaneous 'residualisation' of council housing (Forest and Murie, 1983). As a result it was increasingly difficult for residents of the 'schemes' or the 'multis' (as high-rise in Glasgow were known) to make their voices heard on the poor housing conditions they experienced and to be taken seriously by the general public given the stigmatisation of such areas and types of housing in which they lived.…”

“…In such circumstances arguably it was difficult to meet, or more accurately prioritise, the repair bills or investment in amenities for council housing stock in the city. Unsurprisingly, high rise in Glasgow therefore became less desirable as working class aspirations changed and people wanted to live in houses, and preferably bought houses, rather than rented flats (Kearns et al, 2017). A growing aspiration for owner occupation among working-class people, encouraged by the Conservative policy which offered sitting tenants the 'right to buy', arguably aided the stigmatisation and 'residualisation' of council housing (Rogaly and Taylor, 2011;Forrest and Murie, 1983).…”

“…Those that remained witnessed a decline in the standards of their environment largely as a result of a council allocations policy which effectively further stigmatised high rise blocks and peripheral 'schemes'. Obviously the experience of individuals and their families are far more nuanced and subjective (Kearns, et al, 2017). Nevertheless, the Gorbals continued to be notorious as it had been in the 1930s, in spite of comprehensive development, and was popularly associated with gangs, violence, crime and drugs.…”

Changing places and evolving activism: communities in post-industrial Glasgow

“…Moreover, these community characteristics are never static, particularly in situations where neighbourhoods are experiencing significant change through physical regeneration (Jones and Evans, 2013) or complex processes of shifting demography and socioeconomic conditions (Bynner, 2017). Hence the individual and collective tactical choices of 4 community members are affected by their experience of neighbourhood and community change (Kearns et al, 2019). Alongside this, the 'spaces for participation' (Gaventa, 2006) are shaped by the policy and practice of local and national government, and the complex relationships between communities and local public sector bodies (Rolfe, 2018).…”