OxfordAQA International A-level Geography (9635): 3.4.1 Changing places – Revision Notes

These notes condense the Changing places study guide; read that first for full explanations and worked paragraphs.

They cover section 3.4.1, Changing places, of the OxfordAQA International AS and A-level Geography (9635) specification, Version 3.2, from 3.4.1.1 (the nature and importance of places) to 3.4.1.5 (place studies). The specification assesses this content in Unit 4: Human geography 2, a 1 hour 30 minute written exam; Changing places is Section A, where you answer all questions for 40 marks. When you have revised, test yourself with the practice questions, and track progress on the OxfordAQA A-level Geography checklist. Other units are on the OxfordAQA A-level Geography hub.

Key terms

Term	Definition
Space	A location without attached human meaning
Place	Space given meaning by people through experience, memory and attachment
Sense of place	The feelings, meanings and identity people attach to a place
Topophilia	Affective bond between people and place (Tuan)
Insider perspective	View of someone who lives in or belongs to a place and knows it through routine and memory
Outsider perspective	View from beyond: visitor, investor, planner or media audience
Near / far places	Places physically or emotionally close, versus distant ones
Media-experienced place	A place known only through film, news, social media or advertising
Endogenous factors	Internal factors: location, topography, physical geography, land use, built environment, infrastructure, demographic and economic characteristics
Exogenous factors	Relationships with other places
Continuity	Features of a place that persist through change
Flows	Movements of people, goods, capital and ideas between places
External forces	Influences from beyond a place, including government policies and MNC decisions
Place-meaning	The significance a place holds for a person or group
Formal representation	Official portrayals: census data, maps, statistics
Informal representation	Advertising, tourist material, film, photography, art, story, song
Lived experience	How people actually experience daily life in a place
Gentrification	Arrival of higher-income residents and businesses, raising costs and often displacing others
Geospatial data	Data tied to location, often handled in GIS

Thinkers at a glance

The specification does not name any theorists. These are optional tools for precise writing.

Who	Idea	Use in an answer	One evaluation point
Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place (1977)	Space becomes place through experience and attachment	Explaining why the same location means different things to different people	Focuses on individual feeling; says less about power and money
Edward Relph, Place and Placelessness (1976)	Degrees of insideness and outsideness; “placelessness” from standardised landscapes	Insider/outsider questions; chain-store high streets	Can romanticise “authentic” places and dismiss modern ones
John Agnew, Place and Politics (1987)	Place = location + locale + sense of place	Structuring a definition of place	A framework, not an explanation of change
Doreen Massey, “A global sense of place” (1991)	Places are open meeting points of flows, not bounded units	Exogenous factors, connections, globalisation	Can understate the weight of physical setting and inherited buildings

Illustrative place studies at a glance

Your local study must be your own locality; your teacher will confirm your centre’s places. These two show the level of detail to aim for.

Walled City of Lahore, Pakistan

• About 256 ha; population about 200,000; historic gates include Delhi, Bhati and Roshnai.
• Mughal heritage: Wazir Khan Mosque (1634 to 1641), Shahi Hammam (1635); Lahore Fort a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981.
• Partition (1947): mass migration in both directions; most Hindu and Sikh residents left for India and Muslim refugees from India settled, a sharp demographic and cultural change.
• Commercial uses crowded older buildings: before restoration the Shahi Hammam had housed a school, dispensary and municipal office, with shops built into its façades.
• Walled City of Lahore Authority (2012) conserves and promotes tourism; Shahi Guzargah pilot project 2012 to 2015 with Norwegian and US government support; Shahi Hammam restoration with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture won a UNESCO Award of Merit (2016).

Stratford, east London, UK

• In Newham; borough population 351,030 (2021 census); largest groups Bangladeshi 15.9%, White British 14.8%, White Other 14.6%.
• Victorian industry; Eastern Counties Railway works from 1847, run by the Great Eastern Railway from 1862.
• 2012 Olympics: 560-acre park, open permanently from 2014; Westfield Stratford City opened September 2011; LLDC set up 2012.
• East Village: 2,818 homes, 1,379 of them affordable; UCL and London College of Fashion campuses opened 2023.
• Contested meaning: young mothers’ housing campaign in Stratford (2013) and occupation of empty Carpenters Estate flats (September 2014).
• Inequality: a 2017 report found 36% of Newham employees in low-paid work, the highest of any London borough.

Must-know distinctions

• Space vs place. Place requires meaning; space does not.
• Insider vs outsider. Not fixed identities: the same person can be both, in different places or at different times.
• Endogenous vs exogenous. Internal characteristics vs relationships with other places. They interact.
• Continuity vs change. Strong answers identify what has stayed the same as well as what has changed.
• Formal vs informal representation. Official statistics and maps vs artistic and commercial portrayals; neither is neutral.
• Perception vs reality. A media image is evidence of how a place is represented, not proof of how it is.
• Local vs contrasting place study. Local = near your home or school, small scale; contrasting = distant and significantly different.

Data sources for place studies

The specification lists suitable sources, and both studies must use qualitative and quantitative data on the place past and present. Know one strength and one limitation of each type you use.

Source	Strength	Limitation
Census data	Comparable over time; covers the whole population	Categories and boundaries change; averages hide variation
Maps, old and new	Show change in land use and street pattern	Show form, not feelings or meanings
Geo-located and geospatial data (GIS)	Reveal spatial patterns, e.g. clusters of deprivation	Depend on who generates the data, e.g. social media users skew young
Photographs	Direct visual evidence of change	Framed and selected by the photographer
Text from varied media	Shows how a place is represented	Written for a purpose and an audience
Audio-visual media and artistic representations	Capture mood, identity and attachment	Subjective; may romanticise or stigmatise
Oral sources (interviews, reminiscences, songs)	Rich evidence of lived experience	Memory is selective; small samples may not be typical

Mini essay plan

Question type: “To what extent are the meanings of a place you have studied shaped by external agencies rather than by the people who live there?”

1. Introduction. Define place-meaning. Name your place. State a line of argument: e.g. agencies set the dominant public meaning, residents keep everyday meanings alive.
2. External agencies. Name the body, its date and its action (for example a heritage authority’s restoration, a development corporation’s branding). Explain the meaning promoted and who it is aimed at.
3. Residents’ meanings. Use oral or interview evidence on lived experience; show how identity, age or length of residence shapes meaning.
4. Contestation. A community group or campaign that challenges the official meaning.
5. Past processes. Show how historic development (industry, colonial rule, partition, migration) is built into present meanings.
6. Judgement. Weigh both sides; say which matters more for which groups, and why. Refer to your second place to test the judgement.

Quick self-test

1. Define “place” in one sentence.
2. Name two categories of place in the specification.
3. Give three endogenous factors.
4. What are exogenous factors?
5. Name two types of external force the specification lists.
6. Give one formal and one informal representation of place.
7. Which two focuses must both place studies share?
8. What must the contrasting place differ in?
9. What did Massey argue about places?
10. Give one limitation of census data for studying place.

Answers

1. Space that people have given meaning to through experience, memory and attachment.
2. Any two of: near places, far places, directly experienced places, places experienced only through the media.
3. Any three of: location, topography, physical geography, land use, built environment and infrastructure, demographic characteristics, economic characteristics.
4. Relationships with other places.
5. Government policies and the decisions of multinational corporations.
6. Formal: census data or cartography. Informal: advertising, tourist material, film, photography, art, story or song.
7. People’s lived experience past and present; changing demographic, cultural and economic characteristics.
8. Significant contrast in economic development and/or population density and/or cultural background and/or systems of political and economic organisation.
9. Places are open meeting points of flows and relations, not bounded and fixed.
10. Categories can change between censuses, and small-area totals can hide variation within the area.

Where marks are usually lost

• Defining place as “a location” with no mention of meaning or experience.
• Using a city-wide example as the local study when the question asks about a locality or neighbourhood.
• Describing change without saying how it affected people’s lived experience.
• Giving no named agency, policy or date when explaining external forces.
• Ignoring continuity: change questions reward noting what persists.
• Treating a media source as fact rather than as a representation with a purpose.
• Listing data sources without evaluating their reliability or what they leave out.
• Writing only one side in “to what extent” questions, with no supported judgement.
• Using a theorist’s name without applying the idea to the place.

Official syllabus

OxfordAQA International AS and A-level Geography (9635) specification, Version 3.2, section 3.4.1 Changing places, Unit 4: Human geography 2.