Koch, Insa, Fransham, Mark James ORCID: 0000-0002-9284-2517, Cant, Sarah, Ebrey, Jill, Glucksberg, Luna and Savage, Mike
ORCID: 0000-0003-4563-9564
(2019)
Social polarisation at the local level: a four-town comparative study.
Working Paper (37).
International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.
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Abstract
The concept of polarisation, where the extremes of a distribution are growing and where there is a missing or shrinking ‘middle’, has attracted recent interest driven by concerns about the consequences of inequality in British society. This paper brings together evidence of economic, spatial and relational polarisation across four contrasting towns in the United Kingdom: Oldham, Margate, Oxford and Tunbridge Wells. Deploying a comparative community analysis, buttressed by quantitative framing, we demonstrate the need to recognise how local social processes vary amongst places that on the face of it display similar trends. We show how local polarisation plays out differently depending on whether it is driven ‘from above’ or ‘from below’. Across all four towns, we draw out how a ‘missing middle’ of intermediaries who might be able to play roles in cementing local relations poses a major challenge for political mobilisation in times of inequality
Item Type: | Monograph (Working Paper) |
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Official URL: | http://www.lse.ac.uk/International-Inequalities |
Additional Information: | © 2019 The Authors |
Divisions: | Law International Inequalities Institute Sociology |
Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform |
JEL classification: | R - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics > R0 - General > R00 - General P - Economic Systems > P5 - Comparative Economic Systems > P50 - General |
Date Deposited: | 25 Oct 2019 14:06 |
Last Modified: | 30 Jul 2024 11:59 |
URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/102216 |
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