Social Deprivation: An Analysis of Intercensal Change

Abstract

The last decade has seen determined and far-reaching efforts to effect change in the urban social environment. Increasingly both central and local government have sought to reduce inequalities in housing, education, etc, within a specific spatial context. There is some conflicting evidence on, and much speculation about, the impact of such area-based policies. In this study of Hull, an appraisal is made of changes between I966 and 1971 in the spatial distribution of certain indices of social deprivation and the pattern of change is related to characteristic residential environments. CONCERN with the spatial dimensions of urban stress is by no means a recent trend (cf. Booth, I903) but in the last decade a new emphasis has been given to the dynamic aspects of the patterns. It is increasingly being recognized that the spatial structure of cities is in a continuous process of change under the impact of, but also in intimate relation with, parallel processes of social change. As Harvey (I969) points out, this relationship between process and form is extremely compli- cated, cutting across the boundaries of both geography and sociology. That it needs elaboration is emphasized by the fact that, through the Urban Programme, Community Development Pro- jects, Education Priority Areas and Housing Action Areas, the government is already engaged in resource re-allocation within a specific spatial context. This paper is concerned with one particular aspect of this complex issue. Its aims are to examine the pattern of short-term changes in the spatial distribution of social deprivation in the city of Hull and to relate such changes to specific aspects of urban structure. As initial hypotheses, three conceivable directions of change are postulated below. Status quo hypothesis This hypothesis would be validated by a situation in which there is no significant change in the pattern of concentration or dispersion of deprivation in the city. It is supported by a group of writers who have observed the stability of society and the slowness of fundamental structural change. For example, Marsh (I965) has pointed out that the proportions of the population in various socio-economic groups have hardly changed in the last 20 years. Runciman (I966) and others have demonstrated the relativity of poverty; that despite improvements in the standard of living, the characteristics of poverty remain endemic in certain sectors of society. Progressive taxation seems to have had little impact on the distribution of income and wealth (Wilmott, I973). A second line of argument in favour of the status quo is that the spatial context of change is irrelevant. In particular, Pahl (I970) and Gans (I968) suggest that place or neighbourhood has little or no role in the formulation of social structures, family and work being much more im- portant. It would follow, therefore, that a process of social change, such as the trend towards the nuclear family, has no particular spatial parallels. Other writers may be less specific, but there is a general tendency to attempt to explain spatial processes such as invasion/succession, urban blight, gentrification, etc, by reference to underlying social processes and no reciprocity in the