About the data
This study of Neighbourhood Boundaries, Social Disorganisation and Social Exclusion, undertaken in 2001-2002, aimed to investigate the underlying premises of UK neighbourhood crime policies. It did this through a comparative study of:
- the responses to crime and disorder within both affluent and deprived neighbourhoods
- the extent and nature of informal means of social control utilised by their residents
- how collective efficacy is related to social capital and social cohesion
A further aim of the research was to examine the nature of social interaction relating to crime and disorder between the neighbourhoods in order to identify the extent to which such defensive or exclusive strategies may contribute to the social and spatial exclusion of deprived neighbourhoods.
Two Scottish cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow, were included in the project, with one affluent area and one deprived area chosen from each city. A mixed methodology combining quantitative and qualitative data was used:
- individual interviews were conducted with officers from community, council and housing organisations, community police officers and councillors
- focus group interviews were held with residents
- a postal survey was undertaken with residents
The results were coded into a quantitative data file for analysis.
How the data were used
Tony Coxon used this qualitative data to teach an online course on computer-aided analysis of documents and texts (see details). The dataset possessed a good deal of local colour, although a number of students were not able to identify the likely location of the sites in Edinburgh. The constituent files were reduced to text format (to keep life simple), and the class concentrated mostly on one file - that of a Community Police Officer's interview - for purposes of illustration in the lectures.
The data were used to illustrate 'bottom-up analysis' using word and word-sense lists, together with Key Word In Context (KWIC) as a means of building themes and categories for analysis. Co-occurrence frequencies were calculated between these themes (Using HAMLET II) and scaling/cluster analysis. In the second part, 'top-down' analysis used General Inquirer to define and calibrate the themes of the first part, and to analyse the semantic profiles of some files.
Students doing the course then go on to use the unanalysed files in their assessment projects.
About the author
Professor Tony Macmillan Coxon was Honorary Professorial Research Fellow, School of Social and Political Studies at the University of Edinburgh at the time of this work and is currently Honorary Professor at the University of Cardiff.
To view and download the data GO TO ESDS