Census data: What and evaluate
Secondary data source:
The UK Census is a national survey conducted every ten years, collecting detailed information about the population’s demographics, housing, employment, education, healthcare etc. It aims to provide a comprehensive snapshot of the country’s population at a specific point in time.
- Broad and National: The data is primarily national, but it is broken down into smaller geographic areas (e.g., counties and smaller neighbourhoods), providing both broad and highly specific insights.
- **Detailed and Localized:* The data can be used to understand trends at both a national level and at the level of specific local areas, such as cities or towns.
Pros:
1. Comprehensive Data: Covers a wide range of topics (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity, housing), offering in-depth insights.
2. Reliable Benchmark: Used by governments, policymakers, and businesses to plan services, allocate resources, and make informed decisions/ see impacts of regeneration.
3. Local-Level Insights: Provides data that can be broken down to very local levels, helping regional planning and development.
4. Consistency: Conducted regularly (every 10 years), ensuring comparability of data over time. Ease as it’s online
Cons:
1. Snapshot in Time: The data reflects only a specific moment, so it may not fully capture rapid demographic or economic changes.
2. Non-response Bias: Some groups may be underrepresented if they do not respond to the census, affecting data accuracy/feel its not anonymised
3. Data Outdated Quickly: Given the 10-year cycle, census data can become outdated, especially in fast-changing urban areas.
4.
* Health data is self-described and is therefore not objective or reliably quantitative
Inferences may not be reliable.
Maps/cartography: Historical and contemporary. What and evaluate
Good to compare over time eg land-use/industrialisation.
Clear/precise.
Oversimplify/miss out some features. Hand drawn years ago which could add subjectivity.
Risks of using colour-coded (for colour blind)/tricky keys.
OS maps might not label everything
Need updating if a place is rapidly changing.
Index of mulitple deprivation: Geospatial What and evaluate
IMD: Main domains include income, employment, education and health.The IMD uses seven measures to map the most deprived areas of the UK and when displayed in a map form, can be easily read. When analysing geospatial data (data that has a location) such as the choropleth map above it is important to consider reliability. A large block of colour showing high poverty percentages, may suggest greater numbers of people living in poverty than in smaller geographical areas of the same colour which may be false. The abrupt boundaries do not reflect the actual spread of poverty. People on the edge (partly in or not)?
Photos (qualitative) new and contemporary (re-photography): Evaluate. Talk about the eg
- Use of photographs of the distant place showed that there was high
building density making the area look overcrowded (1). The
photograph showed that building quality looked poor with broken
windows and gutters perhaps indicating deprivation.
Can show what a particular area was like and compare over time if in the same area. Photoshop unlikely for old photos but may have been re-edited.
Photoshop, choosing what and what not to photograph.
AI
Text from media/tourist agencies/film and TV: Evaluate
The Hobbit increasing visitiors to New Zealand
Often small scale
The media often represents a place in a way which contrasts with our lived
experiences of it. Publicity for tourism, feature films and estate agent fliers all have
different functions and appeal to different groups of people. They have a particular
purpose in their portrayal of a place.
For example, London Docklands are
linked to the history of the docklands and older residents will still see it
as the ‘docks’, however a younger person might see it as a global
finance hub
The media has increasingly had a role to play in the mediation of space and making
of place. Television, film, art, music and social media have a powerful influence over
how a place is perceived externally. London, for instance, may be simultaneously
represented as a deprived, crime-ridden place in programmes like
Eastenders; as a friendly, warm place in films like Paddington; as a fast-paced, hi-
tech commercial hub in James Bond films and as a place for the rich and beautiful in
Made in Chelsea. The reality ismuch more complex than any individual
media suggests, but it does affect how non-Londoners perceive the city.
Artistic representation/pastiche: Evaluate
Pastiche. A piece of art which mimics that of another piece, artist or period.
Can be quite subjective. Some sensationalised. Important to look at the illustrator/reputation/compare to other things at time.
Oral sources: Interviews/reminiscences from different sub-sets
Get a deeper understanding.
Some people’s memories may be distorted/biased ( Confabulated - where they fill in knowledge gaps with potential waffle)
Interviewer effect - you could lead them into an answer.
Good to compare old/young views and or different ethnic groups.
Songs/parodies: Evaluate
Listened to a song. Lyrics mentioned X so I went out and found out that..
Songs are highly emotive and subjective. Often, can analyse multiple for a sense of collective idea (like other things).
Depends on artist/background.
Parodies of certain areas can often be comical but try to make a more accurate expression that may make a place seem worse.
“Physcogeography”: What is it, give 2 examples and evaluate
Physcogeography (the effect of the physical landscape on the emotions,
perceptions and behaviour of individuals)
Dérive maps (untargeted wandering according to attraction/repulsion of certain
city areas and mapping the resultant route)
* ‘Invisible’ places survey – map and photograph the places you’re not meant to
see alleyways, graffiti
Other stats: NHS profiles
Pros:
1. Comprehensive & Accessible Data: NHS Profiles provide a wide range of health and social care data, offering valuable insights at local, regional, and national levels.
2. Supports Evidence-Based Decision-Making: They help inform healthcare planning, policy decisions, and resource allocation, enabling targeted interventions and tracking health trends over time.
Cons:
1. Data Gaps & Quality Issues: Incomplete or outdated data can lead to inaccuracies, reducing the reliability of insights, especially for smaller or less-reported regions.
2. Over-Simplification & Generalization: The data may oversimplify complex health issues, missing nuanced factors and leading to generalizations that don’t reflect local diversity.
Questionnaires (primary qualitative/quantitative). Can be closed or open
- Use of a closed, quantitative questionnaire to find out about perception of well being in
Anfield. Google forms used to collect data on
happiness on an Anfield Facebook group representing local people
People were asked to rate their ‘happiness yesterday’ on a scale of
1 to 5 From this I could see that 67% of people rated their well-
being as being good.
Other qualitative: Texts/poems/literature
Eg Wordsworth and other Lake District poets. Common theme. Cultural insight to a particular time/evoke emotions for the reader.
Subjective.
Often both quantitative and qualitative are
Snapshot stats - places always changing.
Another name for qualitative data that is difficult to analyse
Non-trace eg engrained in memory not recorded via photos/stats.
Overall conclusion to data sources with house prices as an example.
- Overall evaluation - no data source is enough to provide a full and detailed picture of the place on its own. House price data primarily shows evidence of economic change, although other aspects might be inferred. There is a need to use different data sets to provide
insight into different elements of the place eg social and
demographic characteristics as qualitative and quantitative work best when combined as to give a broad understanding of an area
Other stats: Education/unis
Comparing level of education to show the extent of deprivation. Have socioeconomic impacts eg uni culture etc.
Using inferrences.Presence of unis does not mean guaranteed increased human capital. Debt burden?
Look at pass rates for example. Quite broad.
Word clouds
Stereotypes associated with places. Quick, broad insight.
Oversimplify and dont provide context.
Reliability?, provenance (source), objective/subjective, whether I, as the reader, have different experiences and biases when interpreting data (especially if it mentions Liverpool or Detroit in the exam).
NOPAT (nature, origin, purpose, audience, tone)
Factors to consider
Evaluate stats
Could be manipulated easily and or to gain local publicity from politicians.
Formal/informal
Types of data
