Image & Identity

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Lived Experience

Lived experience of a place involves the feelings and personal history of living in a certain place. Lived experience can vary hugely across people and it can impact people's engagement with a place.

National election turnout

Election turnout is a piece of evidence about a population's engagement with the national community.
In the UK:
- Low income, black and young people in urban areas are least likely to be on the electoral roll.
- Rural voters are more supportive of the Conservative and Liberal parties, and tend to have higher turnouts in elections than urban voters.
- Urban areas are more supportive of the Labour Party.
- Older people are more likely to vote than younger people.

Local election turnout

Local election turnout is a piece of evidence about a population's engagement with the local community.
Local election turnout is often very low - often below 40%.
This may be because people do not engage with local communities or it could be that people do not feel that local elections affect their lives or communities.
- This would imply that it is not a good piece of evidence of local community engagement.

Factors that influence decision to vote

Language barriers could stop immigrants from voting.
A lack of trust in all politicians could stop people from voting.
A feeling of 'why bother', especially amongst disadvantaged people, could lead them not to vote.
A lack of a sense of community or sense of belonging could stop people from voting.
Or people could be very rational. The paradox of voting says that people are very unlikely to be able to change or 'swing' an election, so it is rational not to vote.

Community group influences

There are many different types of community groups and each may be a positive or negative influence on a community:
- ‘NIMBY’ (not in my backyard) groups protest over planned developments e.g. new housing estates, fracking and wind farms. Many Blackpool residents complained about Cuadrilla's plans to extract natural gas there.
- Some community groups focus on fundraising and helping the vulnerable e.g meals on wheels, food banks or Alcoholics Anonymous.

Community group influences cont.

Some committees help to run local allotments and schools.
Residents in an estate may form a group to reduce antisocial behaviour.

Image and identity

All places have an image which they project and this shapes people’s perceptions of the place as either positive or negative.
Young people may feel they want to leave a place with a poor image and are attracted to places with positive images e.g. moving from Slough to London.
There may be more job opportunities in places with attractive images, because companies, like people are attracted there.

Attachment

Attachment is a bond between an individual and a community/place. People with different levels of attachment will view a place differently. The following factors can affect attachment:

Memories

Attachment can come with long-term association with a place, often based on memories.
People can feel attached to a place even though they no longer live there.
But people can be attached to a 'homeland' or an ideology, e.g a nation where they have never lived. This implies heritage or a sense of identity may also be important.

Length of residence

People like familiar things. So the longer they have lived somewhere, the more they may feel attached to it.
If you live somewhere longer, then you are likely to have more memories. But if all your memories are negative, then you may not feel too attached to the place.

Stage of life-cycle

Young adults may prefer to live in locations where work, shops and leisure facilities are close by. But these experiences may not be as strong as the memories created when living with family.
Older people and young families may prefer a more secluded space with open land.

Gender

Gender is perhaps not as influential in developed societies as in the past, but stereotypes about women working in the home may persist in some cultures.
Some workplaces are still dominated by one gender – mining and finance are dominated by men and nursing is dominated by women.
The perception of ‘safety’ (or lack of it) in some urban areas still impacts on gender – e.g. train carriages or dark alleys at night may be more likely to affect women and their feeling of attachment relative to men.

Ethnicity and shared culture

Places with high concentrations of particular ethnic groups may make new migrants from that location form an immediate attachment because of the familiarity and shared culture.
The character of a place may have changed to reflect the place of origin of the ethnic group e.g. ‘Chinatowns’ in cities.
Local shops, services and religious institutions may be affected by local populations. More Polish groceries have opened around Manchester and this has correlated with migration from Poland and the EU.

Studentification

Studentification describes the concentration of young adults around post-16 educational establishments in urban areas. They often live in multiple occupancy housing.
People may feel very attached or not very attached to this kind of arrangement depending on their person interests.

Image and Identity

All places have an image which they project and this shapes people’s perceptions of the place as either positive or negative.

Young people

This image can have an effect on people in the place.
Their identity may be affected if they perceive they are living in an area that has a positive or negative image.
Young people may feel they want to leave a place with a poor image and are attracted to places with positive images.