Introduction Social Applications of GIS

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IntroductionSocial Applications of GIS
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Course Aims

• There are an increasing number of large complex
  digital data sets of relevance to social
  scientists.
• Academic, Governmental or Commercial.
• These data sets are often complex in derivation
  and nature and require a detailed level of
  knowledge and a high level of computing skill if
  they are to be used intelligently and
  efficiently.
• The aim of this course is to provide some of
  these skills.

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Course Aims

• This will be achieved through the next 5 days.
• The course will take the form of a combination of
  lectures and discussion plus practical sessions.
• Ask questions if unsure about any of the
  material.

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Broad Outline 5 Days

• Statistics and Social Data.
• Australian Bureau of Statistics.
• Census.
• Australian Standard Geographic Classification.
• Data Issues.
• Spatial Geography Issues.

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Broad Outline 5 Days

• CDATA.
• DCDB Valuation.
• Health.
• Law Enforcement.
• Social and Spatial Measures.
• Accessibility.

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Objectives For Today

• Statistics and Social data.
• Introduction to the wealth of social data
  available from the ABS especially the Census
• CDATA

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Urban Application Example
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Statistics

• What are statistics?
• Science of collecting and analysing numerical
  data, especially in or for large quantities.
• Inferring proportions for a whole from a
  representative sample.
• Any systematic collection or presentation of such
  facts.
• Source Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary.

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Statistics

• are not neutral
• but they are connected to politics and relations
  of power at a fundamental level.
• Indeed they have been central to the creation of
  western societies and how we govern ourselves and
  others.
• provided a way to know the population which would
  allow the population to be governed.

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Statistics

• That is, to allow the population to be intervened
  upon to alter its condition its health, wealth
  and well-being.
• In the 18th and 19th centuries were often called
  moral statistics
• something which many writers today would baulk at
  because they see measurement and enumeration as
  being value free.

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The political context

• Is important because we often see statistics as
  being politically neutral they are often seen
  as being used by politically interested people
  rather than as being integral to relations of
  power

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The discipline of statistics is the science of
state

• Modern society has not been the first to
  enumerate the population and its possessions.
• Such information has often been collected in
  administrative societies (such as China, India
  and the Mediterranean cultures).
• Such information was often collected for taxation
  purposes or perhaps to determine the number of
  citizens who could be recruited for war.

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Rise of the Modern State

• the formation of nation states (including the
  land,the people, resources, towns etc)
• there was a great deal of questioning about the
  modern state,
• its reason for existing,
• how it might continue to exist and
• for Machiavelli how the sovereign should
  maintain the state.
• enumeration within the modern state took on a
  different dimension ie enumeration of the
  population and its possessions was important
  beyond simply raising taxes or forces for war.

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Knowing the state

• To maintain and expand the wealth of the state
  and to protect it from overthrow by other states
  it was necessary to know what was contained
  within the state.

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Knowing the state

• Administrative monarchies began to create long
  lists which enumerated everything within the
  state
• houses,
• rivers,
• forests,
• fields,
• people etc.
• The sovereign collected information about the
  state 

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Knowing the state

• These measures could help determine how well the
  state was going and what was needed to improve
  the state in relation to other states.

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Regularities in the population

• collecting information about the population made
  it possible to see the population as having its
  own regularities
• Births
• Deaths
• rates of disease and
• longevity.
•  Components of population change!

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Regularities in the population

• The governmentality theorists argue that in
  understanding the population as having its own
  regularities made it possible to think in new
  ways about
• the existence of society
• how and why it existed and
• why government itself should exist.

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Eighteenth century birth of society

• Birth of society
• Government no longer made society but governed in
  the name of society.
• Enables us to see society.
• Knowing the population in order to know how to
  develop its health, wealth and well-being.

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Birth of Society

• in the eighteenth century it was advocated that
  the registration of births, deaths and marriages
  should be made routine and this occurred in the
  nineteenth century. 
• By the early nineteenth century we see a massive
  expansion in the social sciences because of this
  concern with the health, wealth and well-being of
  the population.

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Birth of Society

• Not just people but their characteristics and
  their living conditions started to be measured
  and enumerated in ever greater detail.
• For example the surveys of the poor in the
  mid-nineteenth century, studied
• where someones house was located
• what type of street it was on
• how many rooms it contained
• how many people lived in the house and
• where each individual slept.

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Social Statistics

• What are Social Statistics?
• Social statistics are measures of social
  phenomena.
• Tell us something about the condition of society.

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Social indicator

• What is a Social Indicator?
• social statistics are measures of social
  phenomena but when they are used to point to
  something else they become social indicators.
• For example
• the number of homeless people is a measure of the
  phenomena of homelessness.
• it may also serve as an indicator of the
  stability of family relationships here it is
  used to point to something else.

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Social indicator

• Has been extensive debate over the years about
  the difference between a social statistic and a
  social indicator and whether there is any real
  difference (see Moser 1978 or Maher and Burke
  1990).

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What are some social statistics?

• Census
• ABS publication lists
• Population
• Families and households
• Health
• Education
• Working life
• Income and expenditure
• Housing and
• Leisure, culture and environment

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Other Lists

• Population
• Cultural diversity
• Employment work
• Education
• Households Family
• Dwellings Housing
• Living Standards (Poverty) Leisure
• Health
• Law and Order

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How do you think social indicators might be used?

• identify social problems 
• determine the extent of a problem 
• in formulation of policies and programs to
  address the problems ie in setting targets for
  the program 
• determine the efficacy of policies and programs

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How do you think social indicators might be used?

• social indicators can provide information on the
  population before a policy is implemented
• measures can be taken throughout the
  implementation of a program to determine whether
  or not the policy is having the desired impact
• measures can be used at the end of a program to
  determine whether or not the program has had the
  desired affect

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Homelessness and family stability

• Homelessness is an indicator of unstable family
  conditions
• Policy provide increased support to families
• Social indicator decline in homelessness may
  indicate
• policies are working and
• confirms homelessness as an indicator of unstable
  family relations

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What measures would you use to indicate the
educational standards of a community?

• adult literacy (can read and write)
• number of schools in a given area
• number of people who have post-secondary
  education
• school enrolments
• Why do you think these measures are useful?
• Do you foresee any problems with the measures you
  have chosen?
• Do you think these measures are relevant to all
  societies

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Condition of Society

• Both social indicators and social statistics are
  concerned with the condition of society and
  social relationships.
• They provide a way of knowing the population
  which makes it possible to intervene in the
  population.
• They are used by state (here I mean the
  institution) and non-state agencies to formulate
  policies and plans to improve the social fabric.

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Social Statistics and Indicators - Definitions

• It is often difficult to determine what should be
  included in a particular category or definition.

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Example

• If you were investigating homelessness as a
  social problem you would need to have some
  knowledge of
• the number of homeless people
• the proportion of the population which is
  homeless
• how the incidence of homelessness has changed
  over time and
• where the problem is concentrated.

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Example

• Statistics on homelessness would provide you with
  a useful starting point for your inquiries and
  will help in the formulation of policies and
  strategies to address the problem.

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Classification

• What impact could classification have on
• Social statistics?
• Social indicators?

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Homelessness?

• Who would you include?

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Homelessness

• Someone who sleeps in a public space every night?
• Someone who sleeps on the floor at a friends
  house every night? Perhaps rotating between
  friends
• Someone who sleeps in a hostel every night?
• Someone who has a permanent roof over their head
  ie in the form of their parents home or the
  family home but feels under constant physical or
  mental threat so that they cannot relax?

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Available Statistics

• ABS see ABS web site.
• Specific reports include
• Social Indicators Australia Catalogue Number
  4101.0
• Social Atlas
• These have been produced for specific location,
  eg capital cities or
• for specifc groups, eg ethnic populations.

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LGA based Reports

• Profile of specific LGAs
• Provide social statistics and indicators.

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Social Statistics

• Break time think about these concepts for as
  Roy and HG would say
• when too much is barely enough
• Back into it after the break!!