Of a time and place: Glasgow and its quality of life geographies

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews the work of the Glasgow Quality of Life Group, a limited life project (1986–1990) within the Applied Population Research Unit of the then Department of Geography and Topographic Science at the University of Glasgow. It explores the contribution of Ronan Paddison, and the wider innovations and impact of the group’s work. It argues that these innovations were methodological, strategic, and challenged the prevailing wisdom of the day that understood GB to riven by a simple north-south divide, in which the ‘north’ was perceived to be the poorer partner in every way. Although of a time and place, the work of the GQLG remains pertinent to contemporary challenges and concerns.

KEYWORDS:

• Quality of life
• poverty
• deprivation
• north-south divide
• Glasgow

Acknowledgements

John is grateful to Mark Boyle and Chris Philo for affording him the opportunity to share his thoughts on Ronan and his work, and for commenting on an earlier draft of this paper. Eugene McCann kindly reviewed the final draft. Lesley Garrick, Fiona Smith and, in particular, Robert Rogerson, provided insight into Ronan’s contribution to the work of the GQLG.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

John McKendrick is co-Director of the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit at Glasgow Caledonian University. He has extensive experience of working locally with Scottish Government, local government and the Third Sector to apply research to tackle poverty in Scotland.

Notes

1 I had the good fortune to be a postgraduate student in the then Department of Geography and Topographic Science between 1990 and 1993. It was the days before the emergence of supervisory teams and while I benefitted from the supervision of Allan Findlay, Ronan supervised my closest postgraduate colleagues (Jim McCormick and Fiona Smith). Thirty years on and I can still recall three separate one-to-one conversations in which Ronan imparted words of wisdom mid-stairwell (‘get your words in’ before turning your hand to other academic tasks – advice that has haunted me ever since; a discussion about academic ideas being cyclical; and a candid exchange in which Ronan opined that quality of life research had ‘run its course’). I was a member of the Applied Population Research Unit (of which the Glasgow Quality of Life Group was a sub-group), but not the GQLG; I joined the Department when the Director of the GQLG (Robert Rogerson) was appointed to the University of Strathclyde and the GQLG came to a natural end, as its members thereafter pursued their own interests independently.

2 Robert Rogerson (personal communication) credits Ronan with enabling the GQLG to explore further how local authorities and city councils could utilize the quality of life rankings to aid their competitive advantage, noting that one of the successes of the GQLG research was an active engagement with local councils and officials, assisting them in place marketing and developing news ways to use quality of life to engage with citizens.

3 Glasgow Action was a group that largely comprised the city’s business leaders. It sought to work with local and national public bodies (Glasgow District Council, Strathclyde Regional Council and the Scottish Development Agency) in order to realize the potential of Glasgow city centre (Boyle, 1989). It was influenced by Gordon Cullen’s (Cullen & McKinsey, 1985) The Potential of Glasgow City Centre report and was consistent with what was being promoted by the UK Government at that time, notably Action for Cities (Department of Environment and Department of Employment, 1987).

4 In 1989, a larger national opinion survey of 2225 people was administered to generate new weightings in advance of the study of District Councils. Although some differences can be discerned between 1987 and 1989, the overarching conclusion is that there is stability in public opinion (Rogerson et al., 1990a).

5 46 indicators were used in the 1989 research with District Councils (Rogerson et al., 1990a).

6 Stockton-on-Tees might be considered an exception, commissioning GQLG to produce a bespoke report despite being ranked 131 of 145 among District Councils (Rogerson et al., 1990b).