Divided Spaces - Divided School: an Exploration of the Spatial Relations of Social Division

Recent actions by Labour politicians have highlighted the degree of differentiation among UK state secondary schools. This article uses data describing the characteristics of schools and the academic achievements of the children attending them to generate a typology. This is related to recent sociological discussion dealing with the increasing saliency of 'cultural capital' and the way in which families manage educational access as a way of maximizing the lifechances of their own children. The school data set is related to Census derived descriptions of catchment areas and the consequent patterns are examined in order to explore the educational dimension of 'the divided city'. The whole system of schools in space is considered as a far from equilibrium autopoetic system and the language of complexity theory is applied to it in order to see whether a description in terms of specieation and fitness landscapes illuminates our understanding.