ABSTRACT
Geographies of education are not new. One of the earliest attempts to highlight the spatial imbalance in education provision across the UK was by Henry Brougham during the 1820s, using a series of national surveys. Furthermore, as Bradford (1990) has outlined, it is not difficult to see the role a geography of education can have in understanding society (e.g. through housing markets), the economy (e.g. through labour markets), and polity (e.g. through political power). There have been numerous social studies during the last few decades where space and place have played an important part in understanding social inequalities and the inadequacy of policy in addressing these, particularly in relation to the notion of ‘community’ and ‘neighbourhood’. For example, in their study of working class children Jackson and Marsden (1966) place the community of Huddersfield in the UK at the centre of their analysis and understanding of the impact of education. Yet it is still the case that the geography of education is a relatively under-developed area of research (Bradford 1990; Taylor 2002). This is beginning to change, and this book is testament to that. To a large extent work in this area has been primarily interested in more contemporary sociological theories of space of, say, David Harvey and Doreen Massey. But there is much also to be gained by considering more traditional theories of space, such as accessibility, location, and mobility. It is also the case that there have been significant technological innovations in geographical analyses through the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) that are entirely appropriate in their application to the field of education. This chapter endeavours to illustrate how more traditional theories of space, alongside some of the more contemporary spatial theories, can aid our understanding of school choice and the impact of increased marketization in publicly-funded education provision. It also provides an illustration of the use of GIS in this area and in particular the use of postcode data analysis that is now commonplace throughout marketing research and ‘quantitative’ geography.
