The Predictive Postcode: The Geodemographic Classification of British Society

It is not lost on commercial organisations that where we live colours how we view ourselves and others.  That is why so many now place us into social groups on the basis of the type of postcode in which we live.  Social scientists call this practice "commercial sociology".

Richard Webber originated Acorn and Mosaic, the two most successful geodemographic classifications. Roger Burrows is a critical interdisciplinary social scientist.  Together they chart the origins of this practice and explain the challenges it poses to long-established social scientific beliefs such as:

• the role of the questionnaire in an era of "big data"
• the primacy of theory
• the relationship between qualitative and quantitative modes of understanding
• the relevance of visual clues to lay understanding.

To help readers evaluate the validity of this form of classification, the book assesses how well geodemographic categories track the emergence of new types of residential neighbourhood and subject a number of key contemporary issues to geodemographic modes of analysis.

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.

Roger Burrows is Professor of Cities at Newcastle University and also Visiting Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London. He was previously Pro-Warden for Interdisciplinary Development at Goldsmiths. He has also worked at the University of York, the University of Teesside, the University of Surrey and the University of East London.  He has published mainly on: housing and urban studies; the sociology of digital technologies; health, illness and the body; methods; and the metricization of higher education.