Geodemographic Code and the Production of Space

Abstract

In this paper, therefore, we examine one particular type of code: geodemographic classifications. These are an interesting form of code because they are an example of how code is itself instantiated, materialised, and constructed through what Dodge and Kitchin (2004; call`code/space' and`coded spaces'. According to Dodge and Kitchin (2008), code/spaces are``spaces dependent on software to function; that is the relationship is dyadic ... [w]ithout software enabled technologies the space would not be produced as intended'' (page 11). Coded space, on the other hand, is thought of as``a spatial transduction that is mediated by coded processes, but whose relationship is not dyadic'' (page 11). Our concern in this paper is with an example of the second of these: coded space. We take as our example geodemographic classifications, and examine how they are constructed in order to consider different levels at which space and code come together to produce coded space.In a sense, we deconstruct and decode geodemographic classifications as a way of uncovering the quite specific potentialities that this form of technological agency (Dodge and Kitchin, 2005) involves. We are engaged, therefore, in understanding the productive power of technology to make things happen via reiterative, transformative, or recursive practices. This is what Lash ( 2007) calls``[p]ower through the algorithm ... a society in which power is increasingly in the algorithm'' (page 71). This is manifest in situations where``codes offer modes of address öboth locating and hailing people

Welcome to ‘Pikettyville’? Mapping London’s alpha territories

“…Initially these systems classified people on the basis of the attributes of the postcode in which they lived, using a mix of census statistics for census output areas and other data sources aggregated at the more detailed level of the unit postcode . 'work' only in the sense that they identify highly nuanced socio-economic and cultural differences between different postcodes that have proven 'useful' to a wide range of commercial, public sector, and political bodies (Uprichard et al, 2009). [4] For ACORN, addresses most likely to be associated with the very wealthiest people in the UK are grouped together under the heading of 'Lavish Lifestyles', which are further differentiated into 3 sub-groups:…”

Helsinki: A software sorted city? A case study of the geodemographics industry in Finland

“…If we accept the premise that the power to classify and label places and populations has shifted from nation states to commercial institutions, it is important that we understand how the final classifications are constructed. On the contrary to our common belief, data, and especially the ways which it is used, is not neutral (see for example Uprichard et al 2009). …”

“…Finland remains a small, very homogeneous nation-state with extremely low levels of income inequality in international comparison (CIA 2012). Due to these reasons, the group descriptions and indicators that 'work' so well in the UK (see for example Burrows & Gane 2006;Parker et al 2007;Uprichard et al 2009) do not seem to hold the same explanatory power in the cultural context of Finland. These findings are in many ways no surprise, since it seems rather obvious that when a classificatory scheme developed in a country with a long history of class divisions is applied to a more egalitarian one, the end result is nowhere nearly as informative.…”

“…Commercial market researchers, who do not necessarily consider themselves as sociologists, are working on technologies that have clear sociological significance and value. In this context it is important that social scientists start to develop an understanding of how the different classifications are constructed (Uprichard et al 2009), by whose agency they are constructed, and for what original purposes (Parker 2011). By introducing and critiquing geodemographic maps of Helsinki, this article aims to provide a starting point for further analysis of these systems in a Nordic context.…”

Home/Neighbourhood/City/+

“…Using diverse empirical bases they demonstrate the complexity of sites such as home, neighbourhood, and city, as well as the interconnections between them. The first of these, by Uprichard et al (2009), reflects on the way that the intervening scales that lie between the home and the city are being mediated by the software code of neighbourhood classifications and residential search engines. As people are drawn to places constituted of characteristics and people that are seen as desirable, these new functions act as recursive loops, further reinforcing the social constitution of these spaces.…”