Notes · GeographyUK · A-Levels

Changing Places

A compulsory human core exploring the concept of place - how the character, meaning and lived experience of places are shaped and changed. It requires the study of two contrasting places and develops the ideas of location, locale and sense of place, the endogenous and exogenous factors that shape places, and the ways places are represented and perceived.

5 sections~17 min reading time3 competenciesLevel Standard 2 · Advanced 3

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Exam profile

AO1 · Understand place concepts, categories of place, and endogenous and exogenous factorsAO2 · Apply place concepts to two contrasting places and evaluate the influence of connections and representationsAO3 · Interpret qualitative sources (media, art, texts) and quantitative place data (census, indices)

Operators:explainanalyseassessevaluateto what extentexamineinterpret

basic level

At AS-Level the focus is on describing the character of places and the main factors that shape them.

higher level

The full A-Level requires the concepts of place meaning and representation and evaluation of how places change and are perceived.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

Changing Places

The concept of place and why it matters#

StandardAQA 7037 3.2.2DfE GCE Geography - changing places

The elements of place

Fig. 1Location (where), locale (the setting of daily life) and sense of place (emotional meaning) together form a place's identity.

In geography, a distinction is drawn between space and place. Space is the abstract, measurable dimension - locations, distances and areas on a map - whereas place is space that has been given meaning by people: a location that people know, name, feel about and attach significance to. Place matters because so much of human life and identity is bound up in particular places, and because how people understand and feel about places influences their behaviour, their sense of belonging and the decisions made about those places.

The character of a place can be analysed through three related ideas. Location is where the place is - its position, which can be described objectively. Locale is the setting in which everyday social activity and relations take place - the material fabric and the routines of life. Sense of place is the subjective, emotional attachment and meaning that individuals and groups feel towards a place. Together these show that a place is far more than a point on a map: it is a lived, felt and social phenomenon.

The same place can be experienced very differently by different people, captured in the contrast between insider and outsider perspectives. An insider - someone who belongs to and knows a place from within - experiences it through familiarity, memory and belonging; an outsider - a visitor or newcomer - sees it from a distance, often through stereotypes or a superficial impression. Neither perspective is the 'true' one; recognising that a place holds multiple, sometimes conflicting meanings for different people is central to the topic.

Places are also categorised by how they are known. Near places (those we experience directly and daily) and far places (distant and known mainly indirectly); and experienced places (those we know first-hand) versus media places (those we know only through television, film, news, advertising and social media). Because so many of our impressions of places come through representation rather than direct experience, our sense of even a near place is partly constructed, which is why the way places are represented is so important.

Categories of place

Fig. 2Places are categorised by how they are known: near or far, experienced directly or known through the media.

Worked example

Insider and outsider perspectives

A seaside town is experienced very differently by a lifelong resident and by a weekend tourist. Explain this difference using the insider-outsider concept.

The insider
The lifelong resident knows the town from within - its routines, history, community and hidden problems - and feels belonging and attachment (a strong sense of place).
The outsider
The tourist sees the town from outside, through its beach, attractions and image, often shaped by advertising or reputation, without knowing its everyday reality.
The point
Both experiences are valid but partial; the town holds different meanings for insider and outsider, so its 'character' depends on who is perceiving it.

Result: The resident's insider view (belonging, everyday reality) and the tourist's outsider view (image, attractions) are different, partial meanings of the same place.

Typical mistakes

Treating place as merely a location - place is space given meaning through experience and attachment.
Assuming there is one true meaning of a place - insiders and outsiders, and different groups, experience it differently.

Active revision

Explain, using the ideas of location, locale and sense of place, why place is more than a point on a map.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for geography (Department for Education) · AQA A-level Geography 7037 specification (AQA)

Factors and agents in the development of places#

StandardAQA 7037 3.2.2DfE GCE Geography - factors shaping places

Endogenous and exogenous factors

Fig. 3A place's character is shaped by its internal (endogenous) fabric and its external (exogenous) connections, mediated by players.

The character of a place is shaped by two kinds of factor, and using this framework precisely is essential. Endogenous factors are those arising from within the place itself: its location, its physical geography (topography, altitude, drainage, soils, resources), its land use, its built environment and infrastructure, and its demographic and economic characteristics. These internal factors give a place much of its distinctive fabric and function.

Exogenous factors are the influences arising from a place's relationships and connections with other places: the flows of people (migration, commuting, tourism), money and investment, ideas and resources that link it to the wider world. A place is not an island; it is shaped by its position in networks of flows, and these external connections can be as important as its internal characteristics in determining how it develops and changes. A former fishing village transformed by tourism, or a town revived by outside investment, shows exogenous factors at work.

The interaction of endogenous and exogenous factors, over time, produces a place's changing character. A place's internal fabric (endogenous) sets what it is, but its connections (exogenous) constantly reshape it - bringing new people, money, ideas and activities, or, if the connections decline, taking them away. Deindustrialisation, for instance, often reflects a place's changing position in national and global economic flows (exogenous) acting on its industrial fabric (endogenous).

Places are also shaped by agents or players - the individuals, groups and organisations whose decisions influence them: national and local government, businesses and developers, community groups and residents, and external investors. These players have different amounts of power and different, sometimes conflicting, interests, and the character of a place reflects the outcome of their interactions - which is why understanding who shapes a place, and in whose interest, is central to analysing how and why it changes.

Worked example

Explaining a place transformation

A former industrial town loses its factories and later develops as a commuter and service town. Explain this change using endogenous and exogenous factors and players.

The endogenous base
The town's internal fabric - its factories, workforce, housing and location - was built around manufacturing (endogenous factors).
The exogenous change
A shift in national and global economic flows (exogenous) moved manufacturing elsewhere, so the factories closed; later, improved transport connections brought commuters and investment.
The role of players
Government regeneration schemes, developers and incoming residents (players) reshaped the land use and image, so the interaction of internal fabric, external flows and players changed the town's character.

Result: Changing external economic flows acting on the town's industrial fabric, mediated by regeneration players and new residents, transformed it from an industrial to a commuter-service town.

Typical mistakes

Confusing endogenous (internal) with exogenous (external) factors, or listing them without linking them to place character.
Ignoring the role of players - places are shaped by the decisions and power of different agents, not by impersonal forces alone.

Active revision

Explain how exogenous factors can transform the character of a place, using an example.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for geography (Department for Education) · AQA A-level Geography 7037 specification (AQA)

Meaning, representation and perception of place#

AdvancedAQA 7037 3.2.2DfE GCE Geography - representation of place

Experienced and media places

Fig. 4Our perception of a place comes both from direct experience and from media representation, which overlap and can conflict.

Places carry meanings, and those meanings are not fixed but are created and communicated through representation - the way a place is portrayed and understood. People form impressions of places not only from direct experience but from how places are depicted in the media, in film and television, in advertising and tourist marketing, in art, literature and photography, and in official data. Because these representations shape how people think and feel about places, and hence how they behave towards them, understanding representation is central to the topic.

Representations are always partial and constructed, made by someone for a purpose. A tourist board's image of a town emphasises its attractions and hides its problems; a news report may fix on crime or deprivation; an estate agent, an artist and a resident will each represent the same place differently. Representations can therefore create powerful place-images - a reputation or stereotype - that may diverge sharply from the lived reality, and that can influence investment, migration and policy in ways that reinforce or challenge a place's fortunes.

Geographers use two broad kinds of source to study places, and the distinction is examined. Quantitative sources are numerical and measurable - census data, employment and health statistics, indices of deprivation, house prices - and they are useful for objective comparison and for identifying patterns and change over time. Qualitative sources convey meaning and experience - photographs, film, art, literature, interviews, oral histories, graffiti, music - and they capture how a place feels and what it means to people. Each has strengths and limits, and using both gives a fuller understanding.

The analytical skill the specification develops is to interpret representations critically: to ask who made a representation, for what audience and purpose, what it emphasises and omits, and how it compares with other representations and with quantitative evidence. Comparing an official statistic with a resident's account, or a tourist image with a news story, reveals the gap between measured reality and constructed meaning - and being able to evaluate a place using a range of both quantitative and qualitative sources is a core assessment requirement.

Worked example

Reading a representation critically

A tourist brochure and a national newspaper portray the same town very differently. Explain how to interpret these representations critically.

Ask who and why
The brochure is produced by a tourist board to attract visitors, so it emphasises attractions and beauty; the newspaper may seek a story, so it may highlight problems such as crime or decline.
Note what is emphasised and omitted
Each representation selects and frames - the brochure omits deprivation, the news may omit ordinary community life - so neither is the whole truth.
Triangulate
Comparing both with quantitative data (census, deprivation indices) and with residents' own accounts reveals the gap between constructed image and lived reality, giving a fuller, critical understanding.

Result: By asking who made each representation and why, noting what is emphasised or omitted, and comparing with data and residents' views, the constructed images can be read critically against the lived reality.

Typical mistakes

Treating a representation as an objective description - it is constructed by someone for a purpose and emphasises some things while hiding others.
Dismissing qualitative sources as unreliable - they capture meaning and experience that statistics cannot.

Active revision

Explain how the representation of a place in tourist marketing may differ from the lived experience of its residents.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for geography (Department for Education) · AQA A-level Geography 7037 specification (AQA)

Relationships, connections and change over time#

AdvancedAQA 7037 3.2.2DfE GCE Geography - change over time

A place profile: economic change over time

Fig. 5Illustrative place profile: the shift from manufacturing to service employment - deindustrialisation - over sixty years.

Places are dynamic: their demographic, cultural, economic and social characteristics change over time, driven by their shifting relationships and connections with other places. Studying this change is done through a place profile - a rounded picture of a place built from a range of quantitative data (population, age structure, ethnicity, employment by sector, income, deprivation, house prices) and qualitative sources - compared across time to reveal how and why the place has changed.

Economic change is often the most powerful driver. The shift of employment from primary and secondary industry towards services (deindustrialisation and the growth of the service and knowledge economy) has transformed many places - closing factories, changing the workforce, altering incomes and reshaping the built environment. These changes reflect a place's changing position in national and global economic flows, so a local place profile is legible as the local imprint of wider processes.

Demographic and social change accompany the economic. Migration - internal and international - changes the size, age structure and cultural composition of a place; gentrification changes its social character and house prices; and these shifts can produce social inequality within a place, with prosperity and deprivation side by side. Reading a place profile means connecting these strands - showing how economic change drives demographic change, which reshapes the social character - rather than listing statistics.

The evaluative skill is to explain change causally and to weigh the roles of internal and external factors and of different players. A place's transformation is rarely the work of one cause; it results from the interaction of its endogenous fabric with exogenous flows and the decisions of players over time. Using a place profile to trace and explain change - and to judge which factors mattered most - is exactly the analytical task the specification sets, and it prepares directly for the required place studies.

Worked example

Interpreting a place profile

A place profile shows manufacturing employment falling from 42 to 8 per cent and service employment rising from 45 to 84 per cent between 1961 and 2021, alongside rising house prices and an influx of younger professionals. Explain the change.

The economic shift
The fall in manufacturing and rise in services shows deindustrialisation and the growth of the service economy, reflecting the place's changing position in national and global economic flows.
The demographic and social shift
New service and knowledge jobs attract younger professionals, changing the age and social structure; rising house prices suggest gentrification and growing desirability.
Connect the strands
The economic change drove the demographic change, which reshaped the social character and housing market - so the profile records the interaction of external economic flows with the place's fabric and incoming players over sixty years.

Result: The profile shows deindustrialisation driving an influx of younger professionals and rising prices - economic change reshaping the demographic and social character of the place.

Typical mistakes

Listing statistics from a place profile without connecting them into a causal account of change.
Attributing change to a single cause - it results from the interaction of endogenous fabric, exogenous flows and players over time.

Active revision

Explain how a place profile can be used to show and account for the changing character of a place over time.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for geography (Department for Education) · AQA A-level Geography 7037 specification (AQA)

Two place studies: local and contrasting#

AdvancedAQA 7037 3.2.2DfE GCE Geography - place studies

Rebranding and regeneration of a place

Fig. 6Players use rebranding, regeneration and reimaging to change a place's fabric and image - producing winners and losers.

The specification requires the study of two contrasting places - typically a local place, which students can investigate directly, and a distant or contrasting place known largely through sources. The purpose is to apply the concepts of the topic to real places: to build each place's profile, to analyse how its character and meaning have developed and changed, and to explain the roles of endogenous and exogenous factors, of connections and flows, and of the players and their representations.

The contrast is the point: setting a familiar local place beside a very different one - in wealth, function, culture or trajectory - sharpens the analysis by highlighting what shapes each. A prosperous, gentrifying urban neighbourhood and a declining post-industrial town, or a rural place and an inner-city area, each reveal different combinations of factors at work, and comparing them shows how the same general processes (economic change, migration, investment, representation) produce very different outcomes in different contexts.

The management of place - rebranding, regeneration and reimaging - is often a key part of a place study, because many places have been deliberately reshaped by players seeking to change their fortunes and their image. Rebranding gives a place a new identity to attract investment, residents or visitors; regeneration renews its fabric and economy; and reimaging changes how it is represented. These interventions involve players with different interests and power, and they have winners and losers, so evaluating whether they succeed - and for whom - is a central task.

The strongest place studies are analytical and evaluative, not descriptive. They use a range of quantitative and qualitative sources to build an evidenced picture; they explain change causally through the concepts of the topic; they attend to the differing experiences and representations of different groups; and they reach supported judgements - for example about how far a regeneration scheme has changed a place, and in whose interest. Applying the whole conceptual framework of the topic to two real, contrasting places is exactly what the examination and the place studies demand.

Worked example

Evaluating a regeneration scheme

A run-down district is regenerated with new housing, cultural venues and rebranding. Evaluate how far the scheme has changed the place and in whose interest.

What changed
The fabric is renewed (new housing and venues), the image is transformed by rebranding, and investment and new, wealthier residents arrive - the place's character and profile clearly change.
For whom
Incoming residents, developers and businesses benefit; but rising rents and prices (gentrification) may displace existing lower-income residents, and the new image may not reflect their community.
Reach a judgement
A balanced conclusion is that the scheme genuinely changes the place and image and benefits some, but its success for existing residents depends on whether it includes them - so 'in whose interest' is the decisive question.

Result: The regeneration transforms the place's fabric and image and benefits incomers and investors, but may displace existing residents - so its success depends on whom it is designed to serve.

Typical mistakes

Describing two places instead of comparing and explaining how the same processes produced different outcomes.
Assuming regeneration benefits everyone - it has winners and losers, and displacement can harm existing residents.

Active revision

'Regeneration changes the image of a place more than it improves the lives of its existing residents.' Assess this view using a place study.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for geography (Department for Education) · AQA A-level Geography 7037 specification (AQA)

References & sources

Sources

Department for Education

GCE AS and A level subject content for geography

AQA

AQA A-level Geography 7037 specification

Changing Places

5 sections~17 min reading time3 competenciesLevel Standard 2 · Advanced 3

Changing Places

Key points

Insider and outsider perspectives

Key points

Explaining a place transformation

Key points

Reading a representation critically

Key points

Interpreting a place profile

Key points

Evaluating a regeneration scheme

Sources

Changing Places

Key points

Insider and outsider perspectives

Key points

Explaining a place transformation

Key points

Reading a representation critically

Key points

Interpreting a place profile

Key points

Evaluating a regeneration scheme

Sources