Abstract
This chapter goes behind aggregate spatial population distributions and models the moving decisions of individuals in London and Melbourne since the nineteenth century. Newly constructed panel data sets for the two cities are central; in both cities, most moves were short distance, a feature that remains in place today. Again, in line with the modern era, socio-economic and demographic factors affect mobility and the chapter shows some evidence that social interactions between individuals, in terms of social classes, were important contributors to the persistence of segregation patterns in London. However, the chapter also argues that, over long periods, conventional variables cannot fully explain mobility or the places where people choose to live. This suggests that more attention has to be paid to structural changes to the neighbourhood, including the development of transport networks and housing.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
International immigration was particularly important here.
- 3.
The advent of Big Data methods should make this easier for future research through, for example, the Integrated Census Microdata project (I-CeM), which has full coverage of the 1851, 1861 and 1881–1911 censuses, but, currently, individual records are not linked across time to develop a panel.
- 4.
An exception is the Anonymised Sample of Individual Records.
- 5.
The 1881 census is a key source since all unit records are available from the UK Data Archive and is a good starting point. Availability of these records has its roots in the work of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (more usually known as the Mormons) and its Genealogical Society of Utah.
- 6.
1949, 1954, 1963, 1968, 1972, 1977, 1980 are chosen, although additional intervening years are possible.
- 7.
Distances are measured from Melbourne Central in Swanston Street.
- 8.
The table excludes individuals living in 1881 in the northern zone, where results differed from the other areas. This is influenced by the fact that there is limited variation in occupational classification. Seventy percent fall into Class (iii); see Table 8.3. Estimation also included the location of the OSM’s fathers as a possible factor, using the intergenerational aspects of the data set, but no significant effect was found for this sample.
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Meen, G., Gibb, K., Leishman, C., Nygaard, C. (2016). Residential Density Revisited: Sorting and Household Mobility. In: Housing Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47271-7_8
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