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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. Environmental injustice is said to exist when some groups, and in particular those living in more deprived communities, are unfairly or disproportionately more likely to suffer poor environmental conditions; and when one or more groups do not have adequate access to the information and decision making structures that affect their local environment. This report is a study of the reported incidence, distribution and impact of subjective environmental incivilities in Scotland, and, so addresses, the first of these two aspects of environmental injustice, environmental equity. An 'environmental incivility' is any aspect of the environment that people are capable of discerning through hearing, sight, touch or smell and about which they may be inclined to feel negatively. Examples include 'street level' incivilities such as litter and graffiti, 'infrastructural incivilities' such as overhead power lines or a landfill site, and 'goods' that may be absent such as somewhere pleasant to walk or sit.
2. The study addresses four main questions.
a) Which incivilities are regarded by people in Scotland as the biggest problems both currently and potentially?
b) Who is most likely to report incivilities?
c) Are incivilities associated with health and health behaviour?
d) Are incivilities related to the cohesion of local communities?
3. The evidence for the study was acquired by administering a module of questions to a representative sample of 1,637 adults aged 18 plus and resident in Scotland as part of the 2004 Scottish Social Attitudes survey.
4. The incivilities that were most commonly reported to be a problem were street level incivilities such as cat & dog mess, litter & rubbish, and uneven pavements, together with the absence of some goods, particularly the availability of safe places for children to play. Infrastructural incivilities such as smell from sewage or overhead power lines were much less likely to be reported as problem. People are also more likely to say that street level incivilities would be a problem if they were to exist or occur in their area.
5. Those who report that one kind of street level incivility exists or occurs in their area are also relatively likely to say that another one does too. Much the same is true of infrastructural incivilities and the absence of goods. This suggests that environmental incivilities tend to co-occur.
6. The proportion of people in different parts of Scotland who say that a particular incivility is a problem varies considerably. Those living in the most deprived parts of the country are substantially more likely to report a street level incivility or an absence of a good than are those living in less deprived areas. There is also some tendency for these kinds of incivilities to be reported more frequently by those living in urban areas. These patterns appear to constitute evidence of substantial inequity in the distribution of environmental burdens. In contrast, there is little evidence that those major pieces of infrastructure that might be regarded as an environmental incivility are systematically concentrated in particular kinds of places.
7. Those who report that street level incivilities are a problem in their area or regard the absence of goods as a problem are more likely to report that they feel anxious, more likely to say they get depressed, and more likely to consider their health to be poor for someone of their age. They are also more likely to smoke. Those who say that the availability of goods like somewhere pleasant to walk is a problem are both more likely to report not having taken a walk of a mile or more over the last year as well as being more likely to smoke. Street level incivilities and the absence of goods would appear to have an adverse psychosocial impact on health and health behaviour.
8. Those who report that street level incivilities are a problem in their area or regard the absence of goods as a problem are in general less likely to feel that they can trust other people, more likely to be resigned about the difficulties of their area, and more likely to report fear of crime. It appears that the presence of such incivilities has an adverse impact on community cohesion. However, it is not clear that their presence necessarily makes it less likely that people will take some form of political action.
9. The study suggests that environmental policy in Scotland needs to give priority to reducing the incidence of street level incivilities and the absence of goods such as lack of green spaces, both of which appear to be more important than potential infrastructural incivilities. Street level incivilities and the absence of goods appear to be associated with poor health and low community cohesion. At the same time they are very unevenly distributed, being far more likely to be experienced by those in deprived areas. An attempt to reduce such incivilities in deprived areas would help reduce inequality and could be expected to improve the health status and community cohesion of those living in such areas. The report proposes the construction of a new index of environmental quality in order to monitor progress towards this objective.
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