Lived Experiences Link to Challenges & Opportunities
- Places are dynamic and constantly changing, which can lead to new challenges or opportunities for local people and their lived experience of place
- In all changing situations, there are winners and losers
- For example, building a new place of worship may benefit some locals but may cause tension with other locals, who disapprove
- Changes to the land use of a place are often caused by competition for space, especially in urban areas, from:
- Different community groups, who want to improve their local neighbourhood
- Local governments, who identify and deliver on local priorities e.g. increasing local housing stock and regenerating town centres
- National governments, who identify national priorities e.g. in the UK the current government aims to build 300,000 new homes every year and make the UK net zero by 2050
- Transnational Corporations (TNCs), who aim to make as much profit as possible
- 85.5% of the UK’s population live in urban areas, with numbers increasing every year, resulting in the expansion of urban areas to accommodate new:
- Housing
- Services
- Retail
- Industrial and office parks
- Recreation
- Transport infrastructure
The Impacts of Changing Land Use
Changing land use | Opportunities | Challenges |
Improving transport infrastructure |
Local governments invest in transport systems, improving accessibility for people and businesses |
Local governments may displace local people through compulsory purchase orders to enable the building of new transport routes |
New housing projects |
Local governments use land to create areas of affordable housing to tackle the national housing crisis, allowing people on lower incomes to rent or buy |
The new housing might not be practical for all the needs of local people e.g. high rise tower blocks can be viewed as unattractive and unpractical for elderly people In rural areas, housing developments can interfere with the needs of local wildlife and their habitats |
Commercial developments | The creation of new retail spaces and services by entrepreneurial migrants can encourage cultural hybridisation, as well as generate higher tax revenues |
Large TNCs can afford to pay more for commercial plots of land compared to smaller, local businesses To make more profit, local governments may grant planning permission for commercial developments rather than for housing projects |
Regeneration projects |
Local and national governments invest in regenerating run-down urban and rural areas, creating new employment opportunities for local people and attracting more investment from TNCs |
Regeneration projects can lead to gentrification, attracting wealthier people to the area, which prices the locals out of the area Local people and community groups often have little control over the new developments Local people and businesses may be affected by forced relocations Tensions appear in a community between those people able to afford the redeveloped housing and the people who remain in substandard housing |
Exam Tip
Exam questions will want you to discuss the positive impacts of the UK’s increased cultural diversity and the problems in a balanced way. Focus on both types of impacts, unless the exam question specifically asks for positive or negative impacts
Impacts of Increased Cultural Diversity
Positive impacts | Negative impacts |
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