The Raploch: A history, people's perceptions and the likely future of a problem housing estate

Citation

Robertson D, Smyth J & McIntosh I (2008) The Raploch: A history, people's perceptions and the likely future of a problem housing estate. Architectural Heritage, 19 (1), pp. 83-97. https://doi.org/10.3366/E1350752408000095

Abstract
This article explores the experience of belonging and identity, and the social distance and separateness which has long characterised aspects of Stirling’s Raploch housing estate. Detailed historical archive work uncovered the limited social planning and architectural ambitions set for this housing estate, when compared to the earlier Riverside development. The consequences of such decision making and subsequent poor management of the estate is then articulated through a series of qualitative interviews which explore attitudes to the construction and sustaining of neighbourhood and community identities. Achieving a physical solution to Raploch's social problems has eluded a series of recent regeneration initiatives and this paper suggests that the core problem is not primarily architectural but rather one of class related discrimination and stigma which has been core to Raploch's identity since the 16th Century.

Keywords
Class; Identity; Neighbourhood; Raploch; Raploch (Stirling, Scotland); Neighborhood Raploch (Stirling, Scotland); Sociology, Urban Raploch (Stirling, Scotland); Social classes Scotland

Journal
Architectural Heritage: Volume 19, Issue 1