Decentralisation, suburbanisation and inequality in England and Scotland after devolution
Scottish governments and think tanks over the past two decades have tended to look across the North Sea, rather than the Atlantic, for inspiration. The desire to follow the Nordic model rather than the American one on issues of social and economic inequality has become one of the defining features of Scottish politics compared to the rest of the UK. Since the Scotland Act of 1998, more and more of the powers needed to pursue a more egalitarian social vision have been devolved to the Scottish Government, enabling it to take a different course to its neighbour south of the Border, should it so choose. Given that 2018 is the twentieth anniversary of the Scotland Act, now seems like a timely moment to take stock. Can we see divergent paths emerging with regard to different dimensions of inequality relative to England?
Many aspects of inequality derive from where people live, work, grow up, go to school and retire. These spatial inequalities are sometimes referred to as a “postcode lottery” – people living in different neighbourhoods have very different life outcomes even though those neighbourhoods are in the same area of the city. Our research will seek to estimate the geographical aspects of inequality, and examine how they have been affected by changing spatial patterns of poverty. We will look at factors such as inequality in proximity to employment and essential services such as schools, environmental risks (such as air pollution), and exposure to crime. We will also seek to understand how these inequalities interact to affect life outcomes.
We will also look at patterns of migration and the changing ethnic make up of workplaces, neighbourhoods and schools to examine the impact of these changes on factors such as crime and educational performance.
We will also seek to analyse the causal drivers of crime inequalities and the ways in which patterns of poverty and inequalities overlap with and impact on patterns of crime and disorder.
Below are some of the research questions we seek to answer. These link closely with our research into Crime, Housing, Environmental and Socio-economic inequalities.