Understanding the geographies of left behind places using geospatial data

Abstract

England and Wales experience entrenched regional patterns of social inequality. Recent changes in the political landscape have associated these inequalities with the label of “left behind places”. These places are united through discontent resulting from being ‘left behind’ in regional development, experiencing stagnation whilst other (often metropolitan) areas experience rapid growth (Ford & Goodwin 2014, Rodr´ıguez-Pose 2018). However, multiple metrics are used to define them, meaning the geographies of this concept continue to be unclear. ‘Left behind’ draws similarities to the process of peripheralisation, where places are divided into interdependent groups of core and periphery, with the core growing as resources and actors flow from the periphery (Leibert & Golinski 2016). Connectivity is highly influential within peripheralisation, and so this thesis analyses a selection of mechanisms that connect places in this process. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the characteristics of “left behind places. The spatial attributes of migration, transport connectivity, and social media usage have been analysed and compared to existing classifications of left behind places. Within the thesis, the extent to which left behind places are disconnected from facilities due to their transport infrastructures shall be analysed by constructing a multidimensional typology. Secondly, the connectivity of migration networks is investigated by evaluating the relationship between spatial focusing and left behind places, using the Gini Index and a novel decomposition. Finally, the suitability of social media as a dataset to connect residents to researchers is assessed, which has not previously been undertaken in this context. Linear regression is use to identify under-represented places, before semantic and sentimental textual analysis. Overall, this thesis makes a key contribution by linking several bodies of literature around the major issue of socio-economic inequality, utilising a range of geospatial methodologies that evaluate the importance of influential mechanisms in the formation of left behind places, and overall showing the varied forms that ‘left behind’ may take.