Neighbourhood identity

Abstract

From Executive Summary: This study explores the ways in which neighbourhood identity is formed over time and place, and considers the implications this may have for policies that seek to improve and enhance neighbourhoods and communities. Part of the motivation for the study was to explore why ‘regeneration policies’ often fail in their objectives and why the reputations of housing estates – ‘good’ and ‘bad’ – display a remarkable longevity and resilience to change. Hence the interest focused on how such reputations are established and understood by those within and outside of particular places, and what implications this has for the identities of neighbourhoods and the individuals who live in them. In so doing, the study concentrated on three neighbourhoods in the City of Stirling in central Scotland, namely, Raploch, Riverside and Randolph Road. Each was chosen for its distinct socio-economic profile and differing relative identity. To this end, the study also explored what it meant to individuals to ‘come fae’ (come from) each of these areas as a way of understanding issues of ‘belonging’ and ‘attachment’ to particular places.