Breaking up communities? The social impact of housing demolition in the late twentieth century

破坏社区？

• 批准号: AH/J012173/1
• 负责人: Rebecca Tunstall
• 金额: $ 3.39万
• 依托单位: University of York
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2012 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FJ012173%2F1
• 关键词: Breaking; up; communities; social; impact

In several periods across the twentieth century, central government and local authorities across the UK have carried out large scale housing demolition. Homes were demolished principally to meet aims of housing policy by removing unsatisfactory homes and creating sites for new building. Waves of clearance in the 1930s, 1950s-1970s, and, arguably, in the late 1990s and 2000s, resulted in the movement of millions of households. Between 1955 and 1985, the period which this study focuses on, 1.5m homes were demolished in England and Wales, and 15% of all homes present in metropolitan areas in 1955 had been cleared by 1985. This means that population movement though slum clearance has been part of the history of a substantial minority of families, neighbourhoods and communities across the UK. There are two main interpretations of slum clearance. Firstly, from the late nineteenth century up to the 1970s: slum clearance was seen as costly process and having many drawbacks, but essential and worthwhile for the eventual society-wide, gains. Then in the late twentieth century, there was a reassessment. Clearance was increasingly seen as ineffective, expensive in money, and also costly in other terms. In particular, academic observers, practitioners and members of the affected areas argued that clearance had a huge, unrecognised social cost because it 'broke up communities'. For example, an affected resident said: "the community feeling went when we were moved out" (quoted in Jones 2010 p360).There are numerous case studies of individual and community experience of clearance and movement, produced by professional and community historians. These case studies suggest that both above interpretations are right, in some places and for some people. Some individuals and families and some whole neighbourhoods moved willingly, to much better homes and more attractive neighbourhoods. They either moved over short distances or all togther with their social networks intact, or were not concerned or even pleased to leave old networks behind. In other cases people moved unwillingly, to ambiguous or even worse new conditions, and either moved over long distances or otherwise found valued social networks disrupted. Until 2000, there was "remarkably, no general account of the incidence of slum clearance in England and Wales" (Yelling 2000 p126). There remains no authoritative account of its impact on communities or its 'social meaning': "the wider cultural and political significance of the massive transformation in working class life wrought by slum clearance and suburbanisation has barely begin to be explored" (Jones 2010a p513). This project aims to carry out a systematic review of existing evidence on slum clearance, mainly based on scattered case studies, to assess to what extent housing demolition in the late twentieth century broke up communities. It uses systematic search and review processes, to make sure well-known cases do not influence overall results too much, and to ensure that other examples are not overlooked. It aims to learn as much as possible from existing evidence about in what places, for what kinds of demolition and movement processes, and for which kinds of people and families demolition and movement did result in the disruption and loss of valued social ties, and where this was not the case. It aims to come to an overall assessment, on the balance of evidence, about whether late twenieth century housing demolition did 'break up communities'.The review will produce a report summarising evidence and a database of evidence, available through a website. The aim is to help both academic and community historians, and also to inform people working on and affected by demolition projects today. Results will be spread through conferences and a seminar involving academics, community historians, community activists and housing workers.

在整个20世纪的几个时期，英国的中央政府和地方当局进行了大规模的住房拆除。通过拆除不满意的房屋并创建新建筑的景点，主要拆除了房屋以满足住房政策的目标。在1930年代，1950年代至1970年代以及1990年代后期和2000年代的清除浪潮导致了数百万户家庭的流动。在1955年至1985年之间，这项研究重点关注的时期在英格兰和威尔士拆除了150万所房屋，1955年在1955年在大都市地区出现的所有房屋中有15％在1985年清除了。这意味着，尽管贫民窟的贫民窟清除是贫民窟的一部分，这是英国各地的家庭，社区和社区的少数人的历史的一部分。贫民窟间隙有两个主要解释。首先，从十九世纪后期到1970年代：贫民窟的清除被认为是昂贵的过程，并且有许多缺点，但对于最终的社会而言，必不可少的，值得且值得。然后在20世纪后期，进行了重新评估。清除越来越被视为无效，货币昂贵，并且在其他方​​面也很昂贵。特别是，学术观察家，从业者和受影响地区的成员认为，由于“破坏了社区”，通关的社会成本巨大，无法识别。例如，一位受影响的居民说：“当我们被搬出时，社区的感觉就消失了”（琼斯2010 P360中引用）。有许多案例研究是由专业和社区历史学家产生的个人和社区经验。这些案例研究表明，在某些地方和某些人对上述解释都是正确的。一些个人和家庭和一些社区愿意搬到更好的房屋和更具吸引力的社区。他们要么在短距离上移动，要么全部与社交网络完好无损，或者不关心甚至不愿意将旧网络抛在后面。在其他情况下，人们不情愿地转移到模棱两可甚至更糟的新情况下，要么在长距离上移动，要么以其他方式发现有价值的社交网络被破坏了。直到2000年，“没有明显的一般说明英格兰和威尔士的贫民窟清除发生率”（大喊2000 p126）。对其对社区的影响或其“社会意义”的影响仍然没有权威：“贫民窟清除和郊区化造成的工人阶级生活中大规模转变的更广泛的文化和政治意义几乎没有开始探索”（琼斯2010a 2010a P513）。该项目旨在对贫民窟清除的现有证据进行系统的审查，主要基于分散的案例研究，以评估20世纪后期的住房拆除在多大程度上破坏了社区。它使用系统的搜索和审查过程，以确保众所周知的案例不会太大影响总体结果，并确保不会忽略其他示例。它的目的是从现有的证据中尽可能多地学习有关哪些地方，哪些拆除和运动过程以及哪些人和家庭的拆除和运动确实导致了有价值的社会关系的破坏和丧失，而在哪里并非如此。它的目的是根据证据平衡进行整体评估，即二十世纪后期的住房拆除是否“分解社区”。该审查将产生一份报告，总结证据和通过网站获得的证据数据库。目的是帮助学术和社区历史学家，并告知当今受到拆除项目和影响的人们。结果将通过会议和涉及学者，社区历史学家，社区活动家和住房工人的研讨会传播。