Abstract
This chapter reports on the changing nature of social patterns in England, or what the author calls “social geology”, by comparing area classifications derived for 1991 and 2001. Cluster analysis methods are employed to classify output areas used for reporting the results of the 2001 Census and to show that, for the majority of areas, both their position in the social hierarchy and their geodemographic class remain unchanged over the 1990s. However, changes are apparent and patterns are discernable for certain areas that suggest some polarisation, with increases in the wealthiest and poorest groups, and with a decline in the more mixed areas of the UK.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aldenderfer, M.S. and Blashfield, R.K. (1984) Cluster Analysis, Sage, London.
Ashby, D.I. and Longley, P.A. (2005) Geocomputation, geodemographics and resource allocation for local policing, Transactions in GIS, 9: 53–72.
Byrne, D. (2005) Social Exclusion (Issues in Society), Open University Press, London.
Clapson, M. (2003) Suburban Century: Social Change and Urban Growth in England and the USA, Berg, Oxford.
Dorling, D. and Rees, P. (2003) A nation still dividing: The British census and social polarisation 1971–2001, Environment and Planning A, 35: 1287–1313.
Dorling, D., Rigby, R., Wheeler, B., Ballas, D., Thomas, B., Fahmy, E., Gordon, D. and Lupton, R. (2007) Poverty, Wealth and Place in Britain, 1968 to 2005, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York.
Everitt, B.S., Landau, S. and Leese, M. (2001) Cluster Analysis, Fourth Edition, Arnold, London.
Farr, M. and Evans, A. (2005) Identifying ‘unknown diabetics’ using geodemographics and social marketing, Interactive Marketing, 7: 47–58.
Goldberg, C. (1995) Choosing the Joys of a Simplified Life, New York Times, September 21, 1995. [Online]http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE2DC1539F932A1575AC0A963958260&fta=y (accessed 12/9/2008)
Gordon, A.D. (1999) Classification, Second Edition, Chapman and Hall, London.
Harris, R., Sleight, P. and Webber, R. (2005) Geodemographics, GIS and Neighbourhood Targeting, Wiley, Chichester.
Longley, P. (2005) Geographical Information Systems: A renaissance of geodemographics for public service delivery, Progress in Human Geography, 29: 57–63.
Norman, P., Rees, P. and Boyle, P. (2003) Achieving data compatibility over space and time: Creating consistent geographical zones, International Journal of Population Geography, 9: 365–386.
Norman, P., Simpson, L. and Sabater, A. (2008) ‘Estimating with Confidence’ and hindsight: New UK small-area population estimates for 1991, Population, Space and Place, 14: 449–472.
Orford, S., Dorling, D., Mitchell, R., Shaw, M. and Davey Smith, G. (2002) Life and death of the people of London: A historical GIS of Charles Booth’s inquiry, Health and Place, 8: 25–35.
Pinker, S. (2004) How the Mind Works, Penguin, London.
Schor, J. (1998) The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New Consumer, Basic Books, New York.
Simpson, L. (2002) Geography conversion tables: A framework for conversion of data between geographical units, International Journal of Population Geography, 8: 69–82.
Sleight, P. (2004) Targeting Customers: How to Use Geodemographic and Lifestyle Data in Your Business, World Advertising Research Centre, Henley-on-Thames.
Vickers, D. and Rees, P. (2007) Creating the National Statistics 2001 output area classification, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A, 170(2): 379–403.
Vickers, D., Rees, P. and Birkin, M. (2005) Creating the National Classification of Output Areas, Working Paper 05/2, School of Geography, University of Leeds [online] http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/wpapers/05-2.pdf.
Voas, D. and Williamson, P. (2001) The diversity of diversity: A critique of geodemographic classification, Area, 33: 63–76.
Webber, R. (2005) Classifying pupils by where they live: How well does this predict variations in their GCSE results? CASA Working Paper 99, CASA, London.
Acknowledgements
The funding for this research was provided by an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship (Award PTA-163-27-1006). Thanks must go to Graham Clarke for acting as mentor during the period of the fellowship, to Danny Dorling and Phil Rees for their comments and advice on the research and to Paul Norman for his help with joining the 1991 and 2001 datasets.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Vickers, D. (2010). England’s Changing Social Geology. In: Stillwell, J., Norman, P., Thomas, C., Surridge, P. (eds) Spatial and Social Disparities. Understanding Population Trends and Processes, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8750-8_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8750-8_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-8749-2
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-8750-8
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)