Die Sozialraumanalyse in der Krise? Denkanstöße für eine Modernisierung der sozialgeographischen Stadtforschung

Abstract

During the past two decades the gap has broadened between research activities in the field of social area analysis on one hand and the need for urban social studies on the other hand. This is remarkable as processes like the deepening of income differences among upper and lower classes and the emergence of new lifestyle and cultural groups fundamentally have shifted the urban social landscape of the European city from a sociological as well as from a geographical perspective. We can identify three different reasons that can help us to understand and explain this inconsistence. First the traditional set of variables derived from population census reflecting more or less the social rank i.e. the household income or the grade of education is no longer sufficient to describe the complex structure of postmodern urban society. In the second place the return movement of social area analysis also reflects a significant shift in both methodical and methodological approaches. Thirdly in many cases the systems of spatial units used for factor ecology or social area analysis were not suitable enough as they did not fit to the urban fabric at all. Although in the longer term social geographers and sociologists will have to disclaim on census data precisely describing the different social spheres and backgrounds of urban society meanwhile a lot of other datasources i.e. derived from social welfare offices, employment agencies, police departments and private firms can be used. Also new techniques of data aggregation will play a key role in new approaches towards social area analysis. By using Geographical Information Systems these data can be broken down to a suitable system of statistical districts that reflects the neighbourhood concept. The particular goal of this paper is to show in detail how a revival of social area analysis could be realised.