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Summary A Level Changing Places
Summary notes, Case Studies and Marked Essays from the AQA A level Changing Places topic, got me an A at A level
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Changing PlacesWhat do we mean by 'place' in geography?
In geography, a ‘place’ is seen as an identifiable location with meaning. The meaning of a place can
differ from person to person.
Summarise the three aspects of place related to the example of Glastonbury in the textbook.
The first aspect of a place is the location which can be portrayed as co-ordinates on a map. For
example, Glastonbury is located in Somerset and it’s co-ordinates are 51.1456N for Latitude and
2.7144W in Longitude. The second aspect of a place is the locale, in Glastonbury there’s many
historical attractions and a music festival. The third aspect is sense of place, this can vary between
people. In Glastonbury, people may view it as a spiritual place due to its history or a tourist town due
to the famous music festival. For others who live there they may just see it as somewhere they live
and they work.
How can we study place? Theoretical Approaches
Descriptive approach – is the idea that the world is a set of places and each place can be studied and
is distinct
Social constructionist approach – sees place as a product of a particular set of social processes
occurring at a particular time
Phenomenological approach – how an individual person experience place, recognising a highly
personal relationship between place and person
Trafalgar Square
What can you see (descriptive approach)?
In this picture, I can see Trafalgar Square in London. There are many people, presumably tourists,
around Lord Nelson’s column. The large building with pillars is the National Gallery. The Square also
has fountains and statues of lions.
Why was it built (social constructionist approach)?
The Square was built to commemorate the Battle of Trafalgar which was an important naval victory.
How do different people experience this place (phenomenological approach)?
Trafalgar Square can be seen as a famous tourist attraction due to the Gallery and the statues. For
others, they might see it as a place of work or meeting place. Others may see it as a place to hold
large-scale protests and celebrations.
,Importance of place in human lives and experiences
Outline how places can influence our identity
Localism – an affection for or emotional ownership of a particular place. Can be demonstrated in
‘nimbyism’ when people are reluctant to having their local area affected by development
Regionalism – loyalty to a distinct region with a population that shares similarities
Nationalism – loyalty and devotion to a nation, national consciousness. Patriotism can be an
examples of sense of place
Globalisation of place
Hypothesis – Cardiff is a clone town
Most towns can be categorised into three sections; Home Towns, which have large amounts of
independent businesses and are distinctive in appearance, Clone Towns which have mostly well-
known chain stores making the street look similar to many others in the country and Border Towns,
which have a mix of both. Our hypothesis states that Cardiff is a clone town. One way of
investigating this is the Clone Town Britain Survey. This investigation involved us categorising each
shop into the ‘type of shop’ and if it’s independently owned or a chain store.
We then;
found the number of types of shop and multiplied it by 5
found the number of independently owned shops and multiplied it by 50
found the number of chain shops multiplied by 5
added all these results together
divided the result by the number of shops surveyed
The lower the number, the more of a clone town the street is. We looked at 5 separate streets, this
enabled us to have a wide range of results that would reflect the different shopping areas in the
centre of Cardiff. The streets we surveyed were Queen Street, St Mary’s Street, Castle Arcade, High
Street Arcade and St David’s 2 shopping centre. We assed these streets via Google Maps and
recorded our answers online, compiling an average for each street.
Clone Town Survey Results
Home
Town
60
50
40
Clone Town Rating
30
49.35
20
34.7
23.55 25.6626666666667
10
Clone Town 12.78
7.93333333333333
0
Queen St St Mary's Castle High St St. Davids 2 Overall
Arcade Arcade
, The graphs show that the survey received a very wide range of results from different towns in
Cardiff. It shows that there is no definite answer to whether or not Cardiff is a clone town. Some
streets, such as Castle Arcade and High St Arcade had a much higher average result, this means that
these streets would be classified as a border town/home town due to the large amount of
independent businesses. On the other side of the scale, streets such as Queen St and St David’s 2
shopping centre have a very low average result meaning that they are clone towns and are
indistinguishable from other towns all around the world.
To conclude, the results show that Cardiff as a whole can be hard to categorise. Some streets
certainly meet the criteria of a clone town, whereas another street adjacent could be classed as a
home town. It’s true that some of the biggest and most popular shopping areas are very commercial
and people who only visit them would agree that Cardiff is a clone town. Therefore, the answer
would vary from person to person depending on the area they visit.
I think the method we used was good but my own research revealed that the survey was created in
2005. This could be an issue as the standard high street is likely to have changed significantly since
then. That means that today’s streets have different types of shops and would cater to different
audiences than in 2005. Another difference would be the rise in online shopping, with less people
buying from shops in person, high streets may have adapted to sell basic amenities hence having
large numbers of well known brands. This doesn’t necessarily mean that independent brands are
unsuccessful, as they might be very popular online instead. There’s also an increase of online only
shops which sell anything from clothes to food, this again impacts todays high streets as they are
substantially less important as they were in 2005. A different issue with our method would be the
use of Google Maps as we weren’t able to visit the shops in person. The images online could be
inaccurate as they were taken a while ago and many shops may have closed and new ones could
have opened. As of 2020, many businesses have been strongly impacted by COVID 19, again forcing
both independent and chain stores to close. These is another variable affecting our results.
Marked:
B
Good summary of the mini investigation. Consider why there might be such variation in results
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