TY - JOUR
T1 - The right to the unhealthy deprived city
T2 - An exploration into the impacts of state-led redevelopment projects on the determinants of mental health
AU - O'Neill, Ella
AU - Cole, Helen V.S.
AU - García-Lamarca, Melissa
AU - Anguelovski, Isabelle
AU - Gullón, Pedro
AU - Triguero-Mas, Margarita
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
PY - 2023/2
Y1 - 2023/2
N2 - Research shows mental health is impacted by poor-quality physical and social-environmental conditions. Subsequently state-led redevelopment/regeneration schemes focus on improving the physical environment, to provide better social-environmental conditions, addressing spatial and socioeconomic inequities thus improving residents' health. However, recent research suggests that redevelopment/regeneration schemes often trigger gentrification, resulting in new spatial and socioeconomic inequalities that may worsen health outcomes, including mental health, for long-term neighborhood residents. Using the right to the city and situating this within the framework of accumulation by dispossession and capitalist hegemony, this paper explores the potential mechanisms in which poor mental health outcomes may endure in neighborhoods despite the implementation of redevelopment/regeneration projects. To do so, we explored two neighborhoods in the city of Glasgow — North Glasgow and East End – and conducted a strong qualitative study based on 25 in-depth semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. The results show that postindustrial vacant and derelict land spaces and socioeconomic deprivation in North and East Glasgow are potential mechanisms contributing to the poor mental health of its residents. Where redevelopment/regeneration projects prioritize economic goals, it is often at the expense of social(health) outcomes. Instead, economic investment instigates processes of gentrification, where long-term neighborhood residents are excluded from accessing collective urban life and its (health) benefits. Moreover, these residents are continually excluded from participation in decision-making and are unable to shape the urban environment. In summary, we found a number of potential mechanisms that may contribute to enduring poor mental health outcomes despite the existence of redevelopment/regeneration projects. Projects instead have negative consequences for the determinants of mental health, reinforcing existing inequalities, disempowering original long-term neighborhood residents and only providing the “right” to the unhealthy deprived city. We define this as the impossibility to benefit from material opportunities, public spaces, goods and services and the inability to shape city transformations.
AB - Research shows mental health is impacted by poor-quality physical and social-environmental conditions. Subsequently state-led redevelopment/regeneration schemes focus on improving the physical environment, to provide better social-environmental conditions, addressing spatial and socioeconomic inequities thus improving residents' health. However, recent research suggests that redevelopment/regeneration schemes often trigger gentrification, resulting in new spatial and socioeconomic inequalities that may worsen health outcomes, including mental health, for long-term neighborhood residents. Using the right to the city and situating this within the framework of accumulation by dispossession and capitalist hegemony, this paper explores the potential mechanisms in which poor mental health outcomes may endure in neighborhoods despite the implementation of redevelopment/regeneration projects. To do so, we explored two neighborhoods in the city of Glasgow — North Glasgow and East End – and conducted a strong qualitative study based on 25 in-depth semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. The results show that postindustrial vacant and derelict land spaces and socioeconomic deprivation in North and East Glasgow are potential mechanisms contributing to the poor mental health of its residents. Where redevelopment/regeneration projects prioritize economic goals, it is often at the expense of social(health) outcomes. Instead, economic investment instigates processes of gentrification, where long-term neighborhood residents are excluded from accessing collective urban life and its (health) benefits. Moreover, these residents are continually excluded from participation in decision-making and are unable to shape the urban environment. In summary, we found a number of potential mechanisms that may contribute to enduring poor mental health outcomes despite the existence of redevelopment/regeneration projects. Projects instead have negative consequences for the determinants of mental health, reinforcing existing inequalities, disempowering original long-term neighborhood residents and only providing the “right” to the unhealthy deprived city. We define this as the impossibility to benefit from material opportunities, public spaces, goods and services and the inability to shape city transformations.
KW - Accumulation by dispossession; Capitalist hegemony; Disempowerment; Displacement; Gentrification; Mental health; Redevelopment; Right to the city
KW - Accumulation by dispossession
KW - Capitalist hegemony
KW - Disempowerment
KW - Displacement
KW - Gentrification
KW - Mental health
KW - Redevelopment
KW - Right to the city
KW - Residence Characteristics
KW - Health Status Disparities
KW - Humans
KW - Scotland/epidemiology
KW - Social Determinants of Health
KW - Mental Disorders/epidemiology
KW - Environment
KW - Qualitative Research
KW - Cities/epidemiology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85145976561&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/f3389026-051b-33e6-83f7-4851678c6846/
UR - https://portalrecerca.uab.cat/en/publications/1446a33a-9c94-4a65-b8d1-55968ef8fd45
U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115634
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115634
M3 - Article
C2 - 36621085
AN - SCOPUS:85145976561
SN - 0271-5392
VL - 318
JO - Social Science and Medicine. Part F Medical and Social Ethics
JF - Social Science and Medicine. Part F Medical and Social Ethics
M1 - 115634
ER -