The Role of Welfare States in Making Global Cities Liveable: Reflections on London’s Experiences John Hudson w: www.york.ac.uk/spsw/hudson.html e: [email protected]
May 08, 2015
The Role of Welfare States in Making Global Cities Liveable: Reflections on London’s Experiences
John Hudson
w: www.york.ac.uk/spsw/hudson.htmle: [email protected]
Overview
• A social policy perspective
• Welfare states & wellbeing
• Global Cities, welfare & wellbeing
• Reflections on London
Background
• Comparative social policy analysis– Tremendous output, innovation
• National welfare states/regimes focus–Global dimension of social policy?–Post-national welfare regimes?
• Flaws arise from national focus
Background
• Core data sets provide state-istics
• Methodological fix for sub-national variation:– National aggregates or averages– Exclude ‘non-typical’ regions/areas– Base data on a ‘typical’ region/area
• Okay if sub-national variation matters less than cross-national variation…. does it?
Global Cities
• Castells – Network Society
– Annihilation of time and space
– Space of flows replaces space of place
• Place matters less so matters more?
– Key hubs/nodes exist within the network
– Space of flows is most intense in global cities
Global Cities
‘[they] articulate the global economy, link up the informational networks, and concentrate the world’s power […] concentrating the directional, productive, and managerial upper functions all over the planet: the control of the media; the real politics of power; and the symbolic capacity to create and diffuse messages’
Castells, The Network Society (2010)
Global Cities & Welfare
#1: How do leading world network cities influence national political debates about globalisation and welfare?
• Inevitably follows theory
– a process not a place
– creation of knowing agents
– influence composition of key national policy networks
Global Cities & Welfare
# 2: How does the context for social policies in leading world network cities differ from the national picture of the territories they reside in?
• Economically different
• Demographically different
• More like each other than their national average?
Global Cities & Welfare
# 3 - How do welfare outcomes in leading world network cities differ from the national picture of the territories they reside in?
• Sites of heightened social inequality and tension?
• Sharp end of globalisation
Global Cities & Welfare
# 4: How do welfare inputs in leading world network cities differ from the national picture of the territories they reside in?
• Magnets for economic resources…
• …magnets for public expenditure?
– Differing needs
– Heightened power
The Case of London
• Best example of a global city?
• Significant social challenges• Local-national-global interactions
• Reflect on London’s experience
Components
Jobs Unemployment rate
Income Gross Household Income per head
Health % working age potn unable to work due to disability or illness
Work-Life Balance
% working >45 hrs a week
Sectoral balance
Manufacturing share of GVA
Housing House prices to earnings ratio & owner occupation rate
Transport Average commuting time
Providing for Future Generations
% households with long term savings
Income Distribution
% population in top and bottom income deciles
Environment CO2 emissions per £ GDP
London: Low Liveability?
http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/goodgrowth/
London’s Special Context
http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/
London’s Special Context
http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/
London’s Special Context
Source: ONS
http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/ http://www.ons.gov.uk
London: Social Spending Magnet?
Source: ONS
http://www.ons.gov.uk
London: Key Social Outcomes
http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/
Income Inequality
London: Key Social OutcomesPoverty
http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/
London: Key Social OutcomesPoverty
http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/
London: Key Social OutcomesPoverty
http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/
London: Key Social Outcomes
http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/
Poverty
London: Key Social Outcomes
Mix adjusted house prices (£),
selected regions,June 2013
Wales 162,000 Northern Ireland 130,000 North East 145,000 North West 161,000 West Midlands 184,000 East 256,000 London 425,000 South East 299,000 United Kingdom 242,000
http://www.ons.gov.uk
Housing
http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/
London: Key Social OutcomesHousing
http://www.rightmove.co.uk
London: Key Social Outcomes
http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/
Income Protection
London: Key Social Outcomes
http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/
Income Protection
London: Key Social Outcomes
http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/
Education
Conclusions
• Complex interplay of global, local, national
• Governance issues are complex
• Successes exist
• But great challenges, especially housing
• Welfare services key, but welfare state?