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two - Sources of city prosperity and cohesion: the case of Glasgow and Edinburgh
- Edited by Martin Boddy, Michael Parkinson
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- Book:
- City Matters
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 19 May 2004, pp 13-32
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Summary
Although only 45 miles separate Edinburgh and Glasgow, the two largest cities in Scotland, they exhibit striking contrasts in their historic performance and social conditions. Severe deindustrialisation and decentralisation have left Glasgow with some of the most serious social and environmental problems in Britain. In recent years, however, there has been an economic turnaround, the extent and consequences of which have not been analysed in detail before. Edinburgh, on the other hand, has experienced accelerated growth over the last decade, causing tighter labour and property markets and displacement of population and jobs towards the urban edge and beyond. Congestion, high house prices and labour shortages arouse concern within the business and residential communities.
Integrative case studies of Glasgow and Edinburgh sought to explore issues of competitiveness and cohesion and to question the validity and underlying assumptions of these multifaceted concepts. Key questions that were addressed included, how important are local sources of competitiveness and cohesion in an increasingly open economy? Do social justice and economic success really go hand-in-hand in a modern economy? Is cohesion a significant source of economic prosperity, or exclusion a drag on long-term development prospects? The study involved unpacking the apparently simple concepts of competitiveness and cohesion and exploring their determinants and interrelationships through research on a variety of substantive issues. One strand of work, for example, involved identifying the main urban assets that facilitate or frustrate economic performance, including physical infrastructure, housing and social institutions. Another analysed the influence of deprived neighbourhoods, citizen participation and the labour market on social cohesion and prosperity. The study also sought to assess the strategic capacity of urban governance; that is, its ability to mobilise resources and negotiate a coherent vision for the city in the context of institutional fragmentation, micromanagement tendencies and intensified competition.
The Scottish study used a range of methods and data sources according to the questions addressed. Considerable effort went into assembling and manipulating existing public statistics to provide consistent data for comparable areas. An interim report analysed the changing economic, social and institutional structure of Central Scotland over the last two decades (Bailey et al, 1999).
seven - Dimensions of city competitiveness: Edinburgh and Glasgow in a UK context
- Edited by Iain Begg
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- Book:
- Urban Competitiveness
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 20 January 2022
- Print publication:
- 27 February 2002, pp 135-160
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Summary
Introduction
For a private firm, competitiveness is a relatively simple concept concerned with commercial performance or the ability to provide sufficient returns on capital to attract investment. For a city, competitiveness is more complex and multidimensional, not least because the various tiers and agencies of government responsible for promoting economic growth cannot neglect the implications for social welfare and the environment. The value of a firm to a city is determined not only by its current profitability and future growth prospects but also by factors such as the income it generates for residents through returns to labour, the quality of employment opportunities it offers, its impact on the physical environment and image of the city, and its contribution to the overall quality of life. A competitive city can be considered as one that can attract and retain suitable sorts of activity, defined in these economic, social and environmental terms, to meet the needs of its residents. Thus ‘competitiveness’ is not a simple technical concept, but involves trade-offs between a variety of interests.
This chapter examines the relative competitiveness of the two major Scottish cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow, focusing on economic and social dimensions and setting them within a UK context through comparisons with the major English conurbations. With a similar geographical setting on the periphery of an increasingly integrated Europe but very different histories, the Scottish cities have enjoyed contrasting economic fortunes over the past three decades. Edinburgh has been one of the most successful British cities, enjoying slow but steady growth and an international profile through its tourism, cultural and government activities. Glasgow has been an archetypal city of industrial decline. Part of the challenge is to get beyond the historic divergence to examine in more detail how they have performed in recent years. Glasgow has gained an international reputation as a city that has ‘remade’ itself into a post-industrial success story. Growth in service sector employment, a revitalised city centre and a series of one-off events have done much to change external (and internal) perceptions (Mooney and Johnstone, 1998; Pacione, 1995). As others have noted, however, reputations in regeneration are not always supported by evidence of a change in performance (Wolman et al, 1994). In addition, the aim of this chapter is to analyse the performance of each city on different dimensions.
3 - Inequalities in employment: problems of spatial divergence
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- By Ivan Turok
- Edited by Christina Pantazis, University of Bristol, David Gordon, University of Bristol
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- Book:
- Tackling Inequalities
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 05 July 2022
- Print publication:
- 12 January 2000, pp 59-86
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Summary
Introduction
Access to employment is crucial to people's ability to participate in many of the economic and social opportunities of society. Inequality in access to jobs contributes substantially to poverty and social exclusion, with debilitating effects on the morale, health, family status and even social networks of individuals and communities. Access to employment is also important for the efficient functioning of the economy. Spatial variations may create imbalances between the supply and demand for labour in different places and constrain the rate at which firms and the economy can grow. Labour shortages may be created in some places and surpluses in others.
This chapter considers some of the key dimensions of labour market inequality in Britain. It focuses on the geography of employment and unemployment and examines their incidence in relation to the issues of gender and socioeconomic status or occupation. Contradictory views exist about the current scale and distribution of unemployment. The Bank of England believes that the labour market is tight and that spatial disparities are insignificant. In contrast, the Unemployment Unit's broad measure of labour market slack is 4.7 million unemployed with wide regional variations (Bivand, 1999a). There are tentative signs of a shift in government thinking on the subject since Labour was elected. Its 1998 Budget Report observed that: “Around 11.75 per cent, or almost 4.25m, of working age people in the UK are still without work and wanting a job … the number of inactive people who say they want a job as a proportion of the adult population is higher in the UK than in any other EU country” (HM Treasury, 1998a, p 86).
This chapter will argue that unemployment is not only high but, more importantly, is unevenly distributed across the country and is particularly high in Britain's major cities. This reflects the severe decline in employment over several decades, particularly of manual jobs in manufacturing, and the lack of suitable alternative opportunities accessible to the affected communities. Current labour market disparities are important for economic and social reasons and threaten to undermine some of Labour's flagship policies, such as the New Deal. Many of the previous government's policies disregarded such disparities. There was a tendency to believe that market mechanisms would remove them through out-migration, outward commuting and upward occupational mobility. This chapter examines the extent to which this has happened in practice.