Part I: Neighbourhood Classification and the Analysis of Social Behaviour
Chapter 1: Neighbourhoods and their Classification
Chapter 2: The Precursors to Geodemographic Classification
Chapter 3: The Emergence of Contemporary Geodemographics
Chapter 4: The Wider Adoption of ¿Commercial Sociology¿
Chapter 5: Who Do They Think You Are? Capturing the Changing Face of British Society
Part II: A Geodemographic Account of Social Change
Chapter 6: The Liberal Metropolitan Elite: ¿Citizens of Nowhere¿?
Chapter 7: Municipal Overspill Estates: Educational Under-Achievement among the ¿Left Behinds¿?
Chapter 8: Minority Communities: Melting Pots or Parallel Lives?
Chapter 9: The British Countryside: Playgrounds for the Middle Classes?
Chapter 10: Coastal Communities: All Victims of Low-Cost Airline Travel?
Part III: Coda
Chapter 11: A Geodemographic Travelogue
Chapter 12: Geodemographics in the Future

Richard Webber is the originator of the geodemographic classifications, Acorn and Mosaic, and for many years managed the micro-marketing divisions of first CACI and then Experian. He has held Visiting Professorships at UCL, Kings College and, since 2016, at the University of Newcastle. He has worked with academic colleagues from across the social science to apply geodemographic forms of analysis to a wide range of research topics, many of which pertain to on-going debates in demography, geography, politics, sociology and urban studies.

This book is a detailed, empirical investigation into the question of whether academic social research can compete with the commercial sector, with its new technologies and big data, in order to classify, profile, and understand us.