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Exploration of the relationship between gentrification and resident health
Ian Gordon and Andy Pratt
[Project number 30059]
The objective of this research is to quantify the effect that the gentrification of Greater London boroughs has on the wellbeing of local people of lower socio-economic class. The phenomenon of gentrification is defined here as the increasing representation over time of people in professional occupations in areas typically inhabited by unskilled or skilled-manual occupations. Specifically, the research seeks to explore whether the health of unskilled or skilled-manual workers is negatively affected by the decrease in their spatial concentration and their spatial displacement.
The research proposes to use ONS Longitudinal Study variables as proxies for the trends of gentrification, health and displacement; specifically to use changes in the share of residents belonging to certain socio-economic groups to define changing degrees of gentrification. Long-term illness and self-assessed health reports will be used to measure the wellbeing of different populations and variables reporting the distance of recent moves will quantify spatial displacement.
Regression analyses will be carried out on the data in order to assess
what effect changes over time in population structure and rates of dispersion
have on the wellbeing of lower income people. The results of these regressions
will then be used to create graphical illustrations of the changing health
of local populations across London. If possible, results of the regressions
for specific boroughs, or groups of boroughs if the sample size is too
small, will also be compared to data on the numbers recent planning approvals
in the area to see whether the change in the services provided to local
populations are manifest in changes in the physical environment.
The project used the following census data:
- 1981 Census data
- 1991 Census data
- 2001 Census data
This project was approved on 12 December 2006 and is supported by CeLSIUS.