PLACES APART?

‘Places Apart?’ is the first report of CASE’s study of disadvantaged areas. The study aims to establishand explain the current direction of change in the poorest areas in the country, where social exclusionis concentrated. Are such areas recovering or getting worse ? And how are they faring relative toothers ? Is polarisation increasing or decreasing ? What causes areas to recover or decline? Why dosome recover and others not ? What are the impacts, positive and negative, of policy interventions,and what can we learn for regeneration policy ?To answer these questions we are following twelve small areas in detail, over time, using both localdata and qualitative information to understand the trajectories of the areas in relation to the cities orboroughs in which they are located, and to the national picture. The areas were selected to reflect thedistribution and characteristics of the top 3% most deprived wards in the country, using measuresbased on 1991 Census data.This report is based on fieldwork and desk research carried out during 1999/00, and sets out thebaseline position at the start of our study. We will follow the areas from this point until 2002 andhopefully until 2007.[...]