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AS: GG3		A2 GG5 assignments   A2 GG6

Residential segregation in Newcastle: Field report

Aim: To assess the link between environmental quality, house prices and levels of affluence in five selected residential areas in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Introduction

Here you need to say what this investigation is about and introduce the five areas. Each is a district within a larger Newcastle ward. Two are inner-city redevelopments, two are outer-city estates and one is late-Victorian. Two are private developments and two local authority in origin. Say where they are in the city (you could put in your location map here). Don’t go into huge detail (about half a side of A4).

Analysis

You can use any of the handouts or data or work done in class or for other assignments on Newcastle to help you write the analysis.

By now, you should have a sheet of whole group scores for environmental quality as well as your own scores (for comparison). You should also have calculated average house prices and used the selected Census data to rank the areas for indicators of affluence (use sum of ranks as an affluence index score).

1. Draw two scattergraphs:
2. Environmental quality (use totals as an index) and house prices (use average price); Environmental quality and level of affluence (use level of affluence index score).
3. Write a simple hypothesis for each scattergraph.
4. Write a comparison of the selected areas (a paragraph or two on each). Link the three factors (environmental quality, house prices and affluence) and mention others you feel are important. You need to say why an area is like it is, with the social pattern it has. You can compare the district results with the Census material for the wards.

Comment on the methods used

If you were to do this project again, in what ways might you do it differently.

This part is very important - this is probably what your exam paper will ask about - how you did your fieldwork and how it could have been improved.

• Are five residential areas enough to properly analyse the pattern?
• Is environmental quality something which is easily measured or just a matter of opinion?
• What did you think of the scoring system. Can you suggest a better method?
• The Census data is from 1991 and the house prices are mid-1990s - should we be comparing data from different dates in this way?
• Is using Census data a good way of assessing ‘affluence’? Would it have been better to choose other indicators of affluence?
• In both the environmental quality survey and the affluence assessment no attempt was made to distinguish between different categories. All were treated equally as if each was of equal importance. We could have ‘weighted’ some categories to make them count more in the final results (eg perhaps ‘quality of housing’ was three times as important as open space and levels of unemployment more important than owning/renting a house).

Conclusion

What conclusions can you draw from this work. Is there a clear link between environmental quality, house prices and levels of affluence in the five residential areas investigated?

Appendix

Attach your sheets you used to collect your data and the group results. Your ‘field report’ along with booklet four will be needed for exam revision in May!

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