Open Access
One of the single most important challenges facing Bristol and cities like it as they grow their economies is how to do development without doing gentrification. I set out from the start that I believe gentrification to be a social ill. This is not because I want communities to remain stagnant. Rather it’s because gentrification more often is driven by and is an expression of the relative powerless of some in the face of the power of others, the further exclusion of the economically marginalised from economic opportunity, and underpins growing racial and class segregation.
Bristol provides fertile ground for innovative social action from a range of groups. As such, it offers an opportunity to explore how ‘place’ can build better local economies. Kat Wall, who co-ordinates the NEON Bristol group, wrote the following report.
We spoke to 21 carefully identified and very different key change-makers, from small business, the voluntary, local council, and community activist sectors in Bristol to tease out which common factors enable – and which ones block – the success of some of the most innovative, pre-figurative attempts to systemically re-shape the local economy, Their insights are discussed in this study of the role of place in unlocking local economies. Some clear themes emerged:
