Urban geography – an essay Q&A
The difference between demonstrating knowledge and applying knowledge
[A Q&A post before most state schools in the UK break up for the summer. Yes, I know schools in Scotland broke up weeks ago (and that the Edinburgh Fringe is about to start). But first, some extras courtesy of the Substack app …..
My previous post referred to the recent flash floods in central Texas. The US meteorologist Alan Gerard has provided more details about the event on his Substack ‘Balanced weather’, including the warnings, the emergency management locally, state-wide and at a national level (federal). The piece also includes a discussion of the proposals by the Trump administration to transfer more responsibility for emergency relief to individual states, possibly eliminating the Federal organisation FEMA. You can read the post here.
I have referred to the situation in Gaza in a number of posts in the last two years, for example here and here and here. The area is an important Place to examine the role (or lack thereof) of Global Governance and the impact of today’s Superpowers – hence it meets three key elements of the current A level Geography specifications. Today, the former British diplomat Arthur Snell has written a post detailing why people should regard the current actions of the Israeli government as genocide. You can read his post here.
Now time for the Q and A post. This is to highlight the difference between AO1 (Demonstrating knowledge) and AO2 (Applying that knowledge) in the UK examination context. The geographical context is Urban areas – an optional area of content, but a popular one.]
A reminder: for A level Geography, there are two key Assessment Objectives (AOs):
AO1: demonstrate knowledge and understanding of places, environments, concepts, processes, interactions, and change, at a variety of scales.
AO2: apply knowledge and understanding in different contexts to interpret, analyse, and evaluate geographical information and issues.
So, as on previous occasions, here are two versions of each answer.
The first is unannotated.
The second is in two formats:
(a) AO1 in italics
(b) AO2 in bold.
[Remember my self-imposed limit of 600 words for the essay question.]
‘Strategies used to manage issues caused by economic inequality in cities are usually unsuccessful.’ To what extent do you agree with this statement? (20 marks)
Economic inequality exists in all cities because cities have very large differences in wealth between areas within them and between different groups of people, such as ethnic groups. In many cities, economic inequality is a problem because of the unfairness of low-income groups having lower access to housing, services, employment and a good quality environment. Therefore, cities use strategies to try to reduce economic inequality — such as encouraging investment, regeneration and income policies — but these are hard to deliver at a city scale and may not be successful for everyone.
London has a major problem with housing supply and affordability. The average house price in London is £700,000, but the average annual salary is £44,000. This means that many Londoners struggle to afford a home. Rents are up to £2,000 per month. The London Living Wage, supported by the Mayor of London, was introduced to address these high costs. It is set at £13 an hour, higher than the national minimum wage, and 3,600 businesses in London pay it. However, this is just a voluntary scheme so does not benefit all low-pay Londoners, although about 140,000 do benefit.
Regeneration has been widely used in London as a strategy to improve housing and jobs, as well as supporting environmental improvement to land blighted by the legacy of deindustrialisation. Government investment in the London Docklands (1980s) and Olympic Park (2012), as well as private-sector investment in Canary Wharf and Kings Cross Central (2018), has regenerated large areas of the city. However, these regeneration schemes are widely criticised for leading to gentrification, i.e. the income and housing cost profile of areas rapidly increases and this prices ordinary Londoners out of the area.
Regeneration in London has often focused on private housing, rather than the affordable social housing that would reduce economic inequality. In some cases, gentrification has widened inequality not reduced it. New properties in recently regenerated Nine Elms sell for £10 million+. However, the Kings Cross Central scheme is said to have created over 20,000 jobs and Docklands created 120,000 new jobs.
In developing world cities, the scale of inequality is different. In Karachi, Pakistan, a city of 20 million people, about 70% of people work in the informal economic sector, 50% live in informal housing and 30% live in absolute poverty (less than $3.20 per day). Strategies to directly tackle inequality are often small scale and led by NGOs.
This is because the scale of the problem is beyond the financial capacity of the city or national government. The city itself has focused on indirect infrastructure strategies such as MetroBus and the People’s Bus Service to improve transport connectivity for lower-income groups. Despite these efforts, low-income people in informal housing lack electricity, reliable water supply and waste disposal.
It is important to note that, to some extent, strategies to reduce inequality are affected by external forces. The Global Financial Crisis of 2007–9 and cost of living crisis in 2022–24 caused unemployment and reduced disposable income, respectively, and this is a set-back to reducing inequality which is mostly beyond the control of city or national government.
In conclusion, strategies to reduce economic inequalities in cities are not usually unsuccessful but are often only partly successful. There is a tendency for strategies to help some people but not all people, with the people in most need often bypassed. Regeneration and living-wage strategies do help some, but usually people already in work and with some capacity to buy or rent their own home. In Karachi, strategies improve connectivity and water supply for some people but are unlikely to reach the poorest. (599 words)
‘Strategies used to manage issues caused by economic inequality in cities are usually unsuccessful.’ To what extent do you agree with this statement? (20 marks)
Economic inequality exists in all cities because cities have very large differences in wealth between areas within them and between different groups of people, such as ethnic groups. In many cities, economic inequality is a problem because of the unfairness of low-income groups having lower access to housing, services, employment and a good quality environment. Therefore, cities use strategies to try to reduce economic inequality — such as encouraging investment, regeneration and income policies — but these are hard to deliver at a city scale and may not be successful for everyone.
London has a major problem with housing supply and affordability. The average house price in London is £700,000, but the average annual salary is £44,000. This means that many Londoners struggle to afford a home. Rents are up to £2,000 per month. The London Living Wage, supported by the Mayor of London, was introduced to address these high costs. It is set at £13 an hour, higher than the national minimum wage, and 3,600 businesses in London pay it. However, this is just a voluntary scheme so does not benefit all low-pay Londoners, although about 140,000 do benefit.
Regeneration has been widely used in London as a strategy to improve housing and jobs, as well as supporting environmental improvement to land blighted by the legacy of deindustrialisation. Government investment in the London Docklands (1980s) and Olympic Park (2012), as well as private-sector investment in Canary Wharf and Kings Cross Central (2018), has regenerated large areas of the city. However, these regeneration schemes are widely criticised for leading to gentrification, i.e. the income and housing cost profile of areas rapidly increases and this prices ordinary Londoners out of the area.
Regeneration in London has often focused on private housing, rather than the affordable social housing that would reduce economic inequality. In some cases, gentrification has widened inequality not reduced it. New properties in recently regenerated Nine Elms sell for £10 million+. However, the Kings Cross Central scheme is said to have created over 20,000 jobs and Docklands created 120,000 new jobs.
In developing world cities, the scale of inequality is different. In Karachi, Pakistan, a city of 20 million people, about 70% of people work in the informal economic sector, 50% live in informal housing and 30% live in absolute poverty (less than $3.20 per day). Strategies to directly tackle inequality are often small scale and led by NGOs.
This is because the scale of the problem is beyond the financial capacity of the city or national government. The city itself has focused on indirect infrastructure strategies such as MetroBus and the People’s Bus Service to improve transport connectivity for lower-income groups. Despite these efforts, low-income people in informal housing lack electricity, reliable water supply and waste disposal.
It is important to note that, to some extent, strategies to reduce inequality are affected by external forces. The Global Financial Crisis of 2007–9 and cost of living crisis in 2022–24 caused unemployment and reduced disposable income, respectively, and this is a set-back to reducing inequality which is mostly beyond the control of city or national government.
In conclusion, strategies to reduce economic inequalities in cities are not usually unsuccessful but are often only partly successful. There is a tendency for strategies to help some people but not all people, with the people in most need often bypassed. Regeneration and living-wage strategies do help some, but usually people already in work and with some capacity to buy or rent their own home. In Karachi, strategies improve connectivity and water supply for some people but are unlikely to reach the poorest.