Residential area characteristics and residential area homogeneity: further thoughts on extensions to the factorial ecology method

This brief article follows an earlier one which identified deficiencies in the descriptive power of the factorial ecology method. Attention is focused here on within-area variations through use of an Index of Qualitative Variation. Application of this index to data for Christchurch, New Zealand, along with the 'classical' factorial ecology approach, provides a more detailed description of the sociospatial environment than has hitherto been possible.