Place Studies: A Local Place

The AQA Changing Places specification requires you to study two contrasting places: one that is local to you (your "near place") and one that is more distant or contrasting (your "far place"). This lesson focuses on methodology for studying a local place — the place near to you that you can investigate through primary data collection and direct observation. It covers research design, primary data techniques, ethical considerations, and how to integrate quantitative and qualitative approaches.

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What Counts as a "Near Place"?

The AQA specification does not prescribe a specific place — it should be somewhere you can visit, observe, and collect primary data. It could be:

• Your school or college and its immediate surroundings
• Your home neighbourhood or village
• A nearby town centre or suburban area
• A local park, market, high street, or estate

Exam Tip: The key requirement is that you can collect primary data in this place. Choose somewhere you can visit multiple times, where you can conduct surveys and interviews, and where you have genuine insider knowledge or can develop it. The examiner is assessing your ability to apply geographical concepts to a real place, not testing your knowledge of a famous location.

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Research Design: Planning Your Place Study

A systematic place study follows a clear methodological framework:

graph TD
    A[Research Question] --> B["Literature Review:<br/>What is already known?"]
    B --> C["Methodology Design:<br/>What data will I collect?"]
    C --> D[Primary Data Collection]
    C --> E[Secondary Data Collection]
    D --> F[Data Analysis]
    E --> F
    F --> G[Conclusions and Evaluation]
    G --> H[Presentation of Findings]

Formulating Research Questions

Good research questions are specific, investigable, and geographical:

Weak Question	Strong Question
"What is my local area like?"	"How do perceptions of Headingley, Leeds, differ between long-term residents and university students?"
"Has my town changed?"	"To what extent has the opening of the Trinity Leeds shopping centre (2013) changed the character and function of Briggate?"
"Is my area deprived?"	"How does lived experience of place in Burngreave, Sheffield, compare to the picture presented by the Index of Multiple Deprivation?"

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Primary Data Collection Methods

Primary data is data you collect yourself, directly from the field. For a place study, this includes both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Quantitative Primary Data

Method	What It Measures	How to Conduct It	Strengths	Limitations
Land use survey	What buildings and spaces are used for	Walk through the area, recording the function of each building/space on a base map	Objective, systematic, produces mappable data	Time-consuming; a single visit captures a snapshot, not change over time
Pedestrian count	Footfall — how busy a place is	Count pedestrians passing a fixed point in a set time period (e.g., 5 minutes, repeated at different times of day)	Quantifiable, comparable between locations and times	Does not explain why people are there; weather and events affect counts
Environmental quality survey (EQS)	Subjective assessment of environmental quality	Score criteria (litter, noise, vegetation, building condition, graffiti) on a scale (e.g., 1–5) at multiple locations	Produces numerical data that can be mapped and compared	Subjective — different surveyors may score differently
Building condition survey	Physical state of the built environment	Assess and categorise buildings by condition (good, fair, poor, derelict)	Visual, mappable, indicates investment or neglect	Subjective; exterior may not reflect interior condition
Traffic count	Volume and type of traffic	Count vehicles passing a point in a set time period, categorising by type (car, van, bus, bike, HGV)	Quantifiable, reveals transport patterns	Single time period may be unrepresentative

Qualitative Primary Data

Method	What It Captures	How to Conduct It	Strengths	Limitations
Semi-structured interviews	In-depth personal perspectives on place	Prepare a set of open-ended questions; allow the conversation to develop naturally; record (with permission)	Rich, detailed, captures personal meaning and lived experience	Time-consuming; small sample; interviewer bias may influence responses
Questionnaires	Broader sample of opinions and perceptions	Design a questionnaire with a mix of closed (Likert scale, yes/no) and open-ended questions; distribute to a sample of residents/visitors	Larger sample; quantifiable if using closed questions; relatively quick	Response rate may be low; questionnaire design can bias results; superficial compared to interviews
Photography	Visual record of place character	Photograph key features, streetscapes, signage, land use; annotate with observations	Powerful visual evidence; captures what statistics cannot	Photographer's choices shape what is represented; ethical issues with photographing people
Sketch maps	How people perceive and mentally organise a place	Ask participants to draw a map of "their area" from memory; compare what different people include and exclude	Reveals subjective place perception — what people consider important or central	Artistic ability varies; difficult to standardise; small sample
Soundscapes	The auditory character of a place	Record sounds at different locations and times; describe and categorise	Captures a dimension of place often ignored in visual/statistical analysis	Subjective interpretation; difficult to present in written form