Fieldwork and research for Rebranding Places

• Environmental quality surveys- These are surveys which can

include shopping quality, street quality, landscape quality and
litter.

• “Place check” forms- At a range of predetermined locations

write down what you like and don’t like. Then you can take
pictures, video and audio recordings to back your view up.

• “Drosscape” survey- You map where there are parts of

significant decays and dereliction.

• Internet blogs and forums-These can tell you a lot about the
area with people’s views. They can be biased though with only
one person saying it or a couple with the same views.

• Online maps (e.g. Google Maps)- You can see what the area is
like with the infrastructure or amount of open space. Also
pictures can be uploaded which pictures have taken. These can
be biased as people can choose certain things to take pictures
of.

• www.geograph.org.uk – This website has pictures for the map

grid squares all of the UK. These can give you an idea of the
area but as with all pictures can be biased.

• http://upmystreet.com – This gives you the ACORN rating for

an area that you choose. However the data does not give you
figures so is open to interpretation.

• http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/ -This gives statistics

about things like housing, health and employment.
• Questionnaires- You can use questionnaires to find out people’s
views about things. It would be better to use semi-structured
questions so that you can find out the information that you
want but things can come up which you hadn’t thought of.

• Bipolar analysis- This allows you to give on a scale information

on an area like the aesthetics of an area.

• Capacity surveys- These allow you to assess the patterns of

usage for a certain facility over a set period of time.

• Census statistics- This allows you to see if more or less people

live in an area.

• Tourism statistics- You can see what sort of people come to

the area, the visitor numbers and weather it is seasonal
business or not.

• Air quality and pollution statistics-This can tell you if the air
quality is good or not and other pollution statistics.

• Looking at texts/broachers/ leaflets- Doing this allows you to

see what sort of people they are aiming the area for and what
is being marketed.

• Local websites- Looking at local websites can allow you to see

what it being done in the area.

• Local newspapers- Looking at local newspapers and their

archives can show you what problems there are and if anything
is being done to help.

• Participant observation- This is when you observe people at a

site and the actions that they do.
• Footfall survey- Here you can see the amount of people using
the area.

• Researching local events- You can see if anything goes on in the

area and if anything does what sort of things.