Date of Award

8-1978

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Geography

First Advisor

Dr. Eugene C. Kirchherr

Second Advisor

Dr. Eldor Quandt

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

Introduction

The decision of the British Government to publicly finance New Town building was a landmark event. The decision was, however, a result of many years of prior experimentation. These experiments ranged from trial-and-error to plans well thought out, that contained within them many philosophical goals.

The first widely accepted formulation of a New Town was that of Ebenezer Howard. The theoretical plan contained several goals that were to be developed, used, and modified by later British planners. Although Howard borrowed many goals from other "planners," he was one of the first to incorporate many identifiable goals into a single master plan. The goals include a healthy environment, separation of industrial and residential land-use, a self-sufficient city (as near as possible), the mixing of different occupational groups in "neighborhoods," and other sociological and engineering goals.

The above-mentioned goals set by Howard and other planners were adopted without scientific basis, but rather by the philosophy of the controlling interests at that time. Several papers have been written evaluating the success or failure of these goals. Rarely did the papers written on goal achievement use census material (local or national) to evaluate these goals. As a result most papers on the subject, even today, tend to be essays of evaluation. The statistical evaluations of these goals have been hampered also by the lack of small area census data; however, with information compiled in the British census of 1971, data have now become available.

The status of social class groups in Britain is traditionally based on occupations. Occupational class mixing is the most widely discussed goal in the articles of evaluation of the success and failure of New Towns. The sample census material gives easily available data by which to measure the achievement of this goal. Included in this sample census material are two post-World War II New Towns. The New Towns are Crawley and Hemel Hempstead, located peripheral to the city of London, both of which have been cited as specific examples for the success of social class mixing.

The achievement of the goal of class mixing in the New Towns will be evaluated by two methods. The first method will use the Z-score on small statistical areas within each city to assess possible concentrations of occupational groups. A second method of evaluation will compare the occupational composition of small statistical areas or sub-units of the neighborhood to the occupational composition of the city as a whole. The results derived from the two analyses should make it possible to understand the amount of class mixing the New Town has achieved.

Yet proximity of different occupational groups does not indicate the extent of social mixing (social class interaction) between the different occupational groups. The information found in the census, however, can give some insight into the success of the achievement of locational mixing which can lead to interaction that is one of the planning goals.

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Geography Commons

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