The value of interpreting social indicators using a visual medium: mapping social capital

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The value of interpreting social indicators using
a visual medium mapping social capital
Focusing Images for Learning Teaching an
Enriched Resource
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• Contents
• About Using this Resource
• What is a Geographical Information System?
• GIS and Social Policy in the UK
• Social Policy and GIS Mapping Social Capital
• Social Capital Some Definitions
• Mapping Social Capital
• Developing a Methodology
• Interpreting the Images
• Using Social Capital to Target Policy
• Critical evaluation of GIS in social policy
• Other resources to access

Author Dr. Martin Roche, Regional Research
Institute, University of Wolverhampton,
Wolverhampton Science Park, Glaisher Drive,
Wolverhampton, WV10 9RU T 01902 824278 E
m.j.roche_at_wlv.ac.uk F 01902 824005
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1. About Using this Resource
This resource is intended to provide lecturers
and students alike with a practical and
accessible introduction to a number of issues
which cut across the three following disciplines

• Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

• Social Policy

• Social Theory

Although chiefly descriptive, the narrative does
touch upon a number of issues around contemporary
debates in these fields and the general tone of
the discussion is pitched towards a postgraduate
audience. In particular, the presentation uses a
range of images to illustrate the following

• How GIS can be used to map social indicators

• The value of GIS in directing social policy

• A critical evaluation of the value of GIS to
  social policy

For those who wish to investigate the issues
raised here in more depth, particularly with a
view to writing their own material or using some
of the techniques outlined within the
presentation, a number of supplementary resources
are recommended at the end.
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2. What is a Geographical Information System?

• Before the main themes of this presentation are
  addressed it is necessary to firstly define what
  we mean when we talk about Geographical
  information Systems (most commonly denoted by the
  acronym GIS).
• In its most basic form, a Geographical
  Information System (GIS) involves the integration
  of two tools
• the first of these is a standard statistical
  database
• the second is a mapping package which contains
  data on spatial boundaries.

As the above map shows, combining the two creates
a GIS database which allows the mapping of
statistical data. Moreover, GIS systems can map
social indicators using a variety of spatial
scales. Most of the maps used in this resource
(including the above) map data for Postcode
Districts, these are the postal delivery zones to
which the first half of your postcode refers for
instance, in the postcode WV10 9RU, the 'WV10'
part is the postcode district.
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In more general terms, each postcode district is
a polygon, the map being created by filling each
polygon with a colour or other representation of
the data. Taking the postcode district 'WV2' as
an example (highlighted in red on this map)..
.we can zoom in to see how the polygon is
constructed. As the image below shows, the WV2
polygon is delineated by a bounding line, itself
constructed from straight-line segments between
points.
Each point (the green squares) is simply an x, y
co-ordinate defined in some appropriate
co-ordinate system (in this case, the Ordnance
Survey National Grid). Thus the polygon can be
represented in a computer database as an ordered
list of points which start and end at the same
location (the red square in the map).
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The polygon feature described by these points is
simply a polygon, which within the GIS is
identified by a simple sequential feature
identifier (in this case it is '139'). The tag
'WV2' is attached as an attribute by joining a
table of attributes to the database of
geographical features, which in turn provides a
key to enable a database join with with a mapping
tool
In the GIS database, these points are ordered and
look like this
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In recent years, the UK Government has placed
such area-based initiatives at the centre of
its strategy for tackling economic and social
deprivation. As a result of this, a range of new
action zones and area initiatives have been
introduced. The key rationale for the adoption of
a geographic focus in the implementation of
social policies is that social problems such as
deprivation are geographically concentrated i.e.,
the different dimensions of deprivation,
including unemployment, poor health, bad housing
and high crime, often co-exist in the same areas.
3. GIS and Social Policy in the UK As outlined
in the previous section, a GIS enables the
creation of visual representations of social
indicators over geographic areas. One field where
this capacity is of particular value is that of
social policy, where such images play a key part
in both pinpointing where social problems, such
as unemployment and crime, exist and also how
geographically focused policy responses to these
problems may be developed.
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The image to the right shows how levels of
deprivation can be mapped (in this case across
the city of Wolverhampton). Following the
coloured scale, it is apparent that the highest
levels of deprivation are concentrated towards
the centre of the city. Policy-makers can use
such images to target their responses to social
problems. The logic to such an approach is that,
if the problem is geograpically concentrated then
any response should also be focused upon the same
areas in order to ensure that as many people as
possible benefit from ameliorative policies.
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4. Social Policy and GIS Mapping Social
Capital Just as GIS helps policy-makers to get a
visual representation of social problem, it also
has a role to play in providing answers to these
problems. A particular example of this process is
provided by the emergence of the notion social
capital into recent political debates. Social
capital is seen as potentially having a
significant role in addressing a variety of
problems (for instance, crime and
under-employment), by harnessing the capacity
that exists within deprived communities to
utilise the social networks they already have to
find solutions to their problems, in the process
engendering what is termed community cohesion .
However, the problem with social capital is that
it is a highly conceptualised notion, not easily
quantified for the purpose of mapping. What
follows is an elaboration of one approach to
responding to this problem in the Black Country
(which as can be seen on the following slide
consists of the four metropolitan boroughs of
Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Dudley and Walsall).
This is a sub-region of the UK which over recent
decades has acute experience of many of the
social problems already discussed.
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The Black Country sub-region
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5. Social Capital Some Definitions
Before we examine the process of mapping social
capital in the Black Country, we first have to
ask ourselves the fundamental question of just
what this term refers to. The notion of social
capital has its roots in social theory.
Commentators have characterised social capital as
the variety of social forms and social structures
that can aid and benefit people in a variety of
ways, for instance social capital can

• Enable people to access opportunities e.g., in
  relation to employment

• Help communities develop community-based
  responses to common problems

• Improve peoples sense of well-being by keeping
  them in touch with others.

The types of forms and structures that enable
this are varied, some examples including

• Being able to trust people

• Taking part in a wide variety of activities
  within your community

• Socialising with a wide group of acquaintances

• Acting on behalf of others.

Just how this notion can be mapped for use in
developing social policies ius illustrated on the
following slides.
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6. Mapping Social Capital As suggested in
previous slides, social capital has been
identified within UK policy circles as an
important ingredient in the response to social
need. However, in the context of area-based
approaches to policy-making, this raises a key
question, namely, just how to map a highly
complex notion which relates to the subtlest
aspects of social interaction such as trust and
altruism, among a range of other possible social
forms.
The answer to this dilemma is inspired by
approaches adopted to measuring another
multi-faceted phenomena for application within
the policy process, namely deprivation.
Deprivation is a notion which seeks to get away
from the traditional idea that disadvantage
(material as well as social) can be illustrated
using just one social indicator, for instance
levels of unemployment. The notion of deprivation
recognizes that whilst some people and
communities may suffer from high levels of
disadvantage in one sense (for instance high
unemployment) they may in fact by relatively well
served in relation to another (for instance
access to services).
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Moreover, to get around this contradiction
policy-makers have developed measurements which
incorporate a variety of social indicators into
an aggregated single measurement of deprivation
which can be represented visually using GIS. The
following images illustrate what this looks like
using a measurement of deprivation for the city
of Wolverhampton based on four separate
indicators
These are combined to provide an overall
representation of the relative levels of
deprivation across the city.

• Unemployment

• Lack of access to a car

• Overcrowded living conditions

• Not owning own property

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7. Measuring Social Capital Developing a
Methodology The approach outlined in the
previous section provides the basis for mapping
social capital, however, as in the development of
any GIS database, the first stage in such a
process involves the collection of raw data.
This data provides the building-blocks for the
generation of images, in turn, providing the
basis for the interpretation of social phenomena.
Another factor that should be borne in mind is
that social indicators come in different forms,
the nature of which effects both how and who the
data is collected from. Some social indicators
are merely an expression of quite specific data
(for instance, whether or not an individual is
unemployed) and can be collated from existing
sources of data without engaging with the
individual. Others social indicators are
attitudinal in nature, that is, the require the
respondent to express their subjective opinion in
relation to specific social scenarios, social
capital being such an example.
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For the purpose of developing a database of
social capital for the Black Country a range of
prompts were developed which were intended to
question residents of the sub-region in relation
to how they engaged with four separate domains of
social capital e.g., trust, participation,
altruism and sociability. The prompts included
questions in relation to who people trusted (as
well as how much they trusted them), what
activities they took part in within their
communities, how and where they socialised as
well as what types of voluntary work they did.
In administering these questions to Black
Country residents, a number of possibilities were
open. For instance, respondents could be
questioned face-to-face. However, whilst this
would provide a high level of detail it was
unrealistic to think that such an approach would
provide a representative sample (i.e., one that
took into account the different social groupings)
within an area as large as the Black Country.
For this reason, an alternative approach was
adopted, namely a postal-based questionnaire
based survey methodology. This allowed a
representative cross-section of residents to be
questioned, 3325 in total .
As shown in the image above, these responses were
then inputed into an statistical database
(right) for analysis This data was then mapped
using a GIS package, the resultant images being
shown in following slides.
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8. Mapping Social Capital Interpreting the
Images In the following images, the social
indicators are mapped by postal district (except
where indicated). Positive values on each maps
scale indicates that an area has more of a
given social indicator than is typical across the
sub-region. Accordingly, negative values indicate
the reverse.
The scale of the values is of less importance
than their direction, but in general the further
from zero a value is, the 'more' or 'less' of a
given social indicator e.g, levels of trust. In
turn, the map of social capital is constructed
using the four domains and is a sum of the
(standardised) scores for each domain. The
resultant social capital index a relative
measurement that allows comparison in relation to
levels of social capital within the sub-region.
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9. Using Social Capital to Target Policy As in
the case of deprivation, the map of social
capital incorporates a number of social
indicators which had been measured through the
questionnaire survey, these being
In the case of social capital, mapping the
concept enables us to define areas where there
appears to be a deficit of the resource. In fact,
quite a distinct pattern is apparent within the
sub-region, with the highest levels of social
capital in northern districts decreasing to the
most southerly, which exhibit the lowest
levels. This pattern provides the basis for
developing spatially targeted policies to enhance
levels of social capital within the Black Country.

• Trust

• Participation

• Altruism

• Sociability.

Developing an aggregate score incorporating all
of these indicators enabled social capital to be
mapped across the Black Country. As suggested
earlier in the presentation, the value of GIS to
social policy lies in the manner in which it
enables policy-makers to target policy-led
responses were the data indicates there is a
social need.
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10. Critical evaluation of GIS in social policy
used and relates to the fact that the visual
representation of social indicators such as
deprivation can vary markedly depending upon
things like the scale that is adopted as well as
the spatial unit that is used. The two maps below
illustrate the last point well. Although both
display the same social indicator, levels of
deprivation, the use of different scales and
spatial units (Electoral districts for the second
map) gives a strikenly different impression of
both locations and levels of deprivation within
the Black Country

• Whilst the mapping of social data offers a
  valuable strategic tool within social policy, it
  also has to be accepted that there are distinct
  limits to such an approach. Commentators have
  recently begun to question the validity of
  approaches which are focused upon a geographic
  interpretation of social problems and responses,
  there being a number of reasons for this
• Firstly, there is the view that area-based
  policies may simply displace the problems they
  aim to address somewhere else, for instance,
  initiatives aimed at reducing crime may just
  displace it to somewhere else rather than
  erradicate it completely
• Another reason is that area-based policies could
  be unfair to those who live in areas which are
  not covered b them
• A third problem concerns the quality of the
  measurements of deprivation that are

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upon a structural interpretation of such
phenomena, which would have it that aspects of
society can be objectively catalogued and
measured, whilst the second, post-structural,
would have it that social reality is something
that is nebulous and inter-connected, with the
result that understanding it is more complicated
a task than simply developing measurements. In
the real world this conflict is played out in
examples such as those illustrated in this
presentation. As already suggested, despite the
problems with area-based policies, they do
provide a useful tool for the policy-makers.
However, The challenge for policy-makers is
perhaps to develop new approaches to defining
responses to need which encompass spatial
approaches which are more sensitive to the
complexity of life within communities.
Obviously, in a context where the allocation of
funds and the focusing of remedial action adopts
a spatial focus, the latter characteristic is
perhaps the most worrying, offering the potential
for the misallocation of funds and misdirection
of efforts. More generally, perhaps what these
problems illustrate is that representing social
phenomena this way is to an extent dependent upon
the arbitrary adoption of measurements and
subjective decisions which allow policy-makers to
cope with the heterogeneous nature of social
reality. However well intentioned such practice
has it also has has distinct implications for
those most in need from policy interventions. At
an even more detached level, at the root of these
debates can be seen two competing views of social
reality, the first of which is based
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12. Other Resources to Access
1. Via the World Wide WEB For a more in-depth
discussion of the theories and methodologies
discussed in this presentation read a paper
written by the presentations author by clicking
on http//radstats.org.uk/no076/robertsandroche.
htm Other web-sites that provide material and
discussion papers around the topic of social
capital http//www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/seu/inde
x.htm For a detailed account of an Australian
project that set out to measure social capital in
five separate communities in 1998, the site
entitled Measuring Social Capital in five
Communities in New South Wales can be
accessed http//www.mapl.com.au/A2.htm For
numerous accounts on how social capital has been
interpreted in the developing world through World
Bank funded initiatives, the Social Capital for
Development Homepage can be accessed
http//www.worldbank.org/poverty/scapital/
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2. Non-Web Reference Material Bourdieu, P.
(1996), 'The forms of capital', in A. H. Halsey
(ed.), Education culture, economy, and society.
Oxford Oxford University Press. Coleman, J. S.
(1988), 'Social capital in the creation of human
capital', American Journal of Sociology, 94
(supplement), Coleman, J. S. (1990), Foundations
of social theory. Cambridge MA Belnap Press.
Fernandez, R. M. Castilla, E. J. and Moore, P.
(2000), 'Social capital at work networks and
employment at a phone center', American Journal
of Sociology, 105, pp1288-1356. Fukuyama, F.
(1999), The great disruption human nature and
the reconstitution of social order. London Free
Press. Onyx, J. and Bullen, P. (2000), 'Measuring
social capital in five communities', Journal of
Applied Behavioural Science, 36, pp23-42. Portes,
A. (1999), 'Social capital its origins and
applications in modern sociology', Annual Review
of Sociology, 24, pp1-24. Putnam, R. D. (1993),
'The prosperous community social capital and
public life', American Prospect, 13, pp35-42.