People, place and identity
Paul Longley and colleagues, UCL
Geodemographics
• “Analysis of people by where they live [places]”
(Sleight, 1993:3)
• Social similarity, not locational proximity
• Surnames are integral indicators to place profiles
Person
Home
Address
Area
The achievements of neighbourhood profiling
• The specification of social similarity
• Collective consumption and locational
proximity
• Open geodemographics
• Spatial and temporal transferability
Onomap classification
Forename-Surname clustering
(based on Hanks and Tucker, 2000)
UK Electoral Roll
Mateos
Pablo
Garcia
Forenames
Juan
Rosa
Pérez
Surnames
...
Marta
Sánchez
...
Rodríguez
...
–
–
–
Several iterations until self-contained cluster is exhausted
Cluster assigned a cultural, ethnic & linguistic Onomap type
Probability of ethnicity assigned to each name
Mateos et al (2007) CASA Working Paper 116
WorldNames CEL clusters
Source: Mateos et al (2011)
Source: Cheshire and Longley (2011)
2001 Dendrogram
Courtesy: James Cheshire
12
Courtesy Bruce Winney, POBI Project (provisional)
Virtual and real identities (1)
Group C : Becoming engaged
Members of this Group often
acquire their competence in
the use of information
technology at work, since
many of them are young
people working in junior white
collar occupations in modern
offices. They are keen to
become more expert in the use of new technologies and
to use them for new applications. Many spend time
browsing the Internet but without necessarily making
many transactions. Many members of this Group work in
large cities and may be starting a life in a house that they
own, typically in one of the cheaper inner suburbs. Their
use of the Internet at work may be a practice that their
employers may be keen to control or reduce.
Virtual and real identities (2)