Components of Social Change in Urban Areas

A model for components of social change which distinguishes expected or structural change from positional change is applied to census indices for physically defined urban areas in England. Census profiles are evaluated for groups of urban areas defined by positional change. The model of change used shows a widening of unemployment differentials but convergence in housing stress and car home ownership. At local level, outer city municipal estates undergo positional increases in unemployment, while diffusion of car and home ownership is apparent in middle income owner occupied inner ring towns.