Social Class Lesson 3c: Location

Location

The next component of social class is location.  

Google Form here.

The Median Metro Area
Examining the largest 384 metro areas in the United States,  our area, Chicago is the 3rd most populous at 9 million people.  The median metro area is #192 - it is the 2nd largest city in Arkansas; Can you name it? Can you guess how many people are in the city? The total metropolitan area?

1.  What is the size of the median metro area in the United States?

Location and where College Grads Move

WSJ data shows where college grads are likely to move after they graduate.  Recall that only about 30% of Americans get a college degree, and out of that small group, notice where most of them move to after college.

Here is U of I and Indiana U:

 

Try Accessing the data through this link (sometimes you have to be on campus to get it to work):

Where Graduates Move After College

If the link above does not work, these might:

OFF CAMPUS ACCESS DURING PANDEMIC:

You will use the same link to access, then click the "sign in" link in the corner and use the username and password below:http://www.wsj.com/highschoolUsername:   schoolaccess@wsj.comPassword:    wsj123

ON FACEBOOK:

Accessible through this facebook link:   https://www.facebook.com/groups/486893378140308/?multi_permalinks=1004035523092755&notif_id=1532189664367938&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic

ON CAMPUS:

For full access to the WSJ when you're on campus, you need to use the following special link: www.wsj.com/highschool

• Once there, the fastest way for you (and your students) to find the article you're looking for is to click the search icon and enter the words  "grads database"

• The only result that pops up should be "Where Graduates Move After College" and you should all be able to access it. 

ORIGINAL STORY:
https://www.wsj.com/graphics/where-graduates-move-after-college/?mod=e2fb

Try to make your own conclusions about the data:

What does this data say about your life after college?

On a less personal level, what does this data say about the U.S. in general?

2.  Where do college grads tend to move?

3.  How do you think where college grads move affect social class in the U.S.?

Educational Attainment in America Map

Another source of evidence regarding social class, education and location is an interactive version of the map below.   The map was created by a geographer using existing data are from the 2011-2015 American Community Survey Table B15003, distributed by NHGIS. 

(Data preparation was completed in the R and Python programming languages, with heavy reliance on the arcpy site package via ArcGIS Pro and the sf R package. The map itself is hosted by Mapbox and designed with Mapbox GL JS and dimple.js.  Major features of the map are described here.)

4. Where do you see segregation by educational attainment? 

 This article by Business Insider highlights some conclusions about educational segregation based on the interactive version of the map above.

Home Price, location and social class

The price of a home depends on a lot more than the physical structure of the home.  From FRED, the average home price in the United States in 2019 was about $380K.  But the average home price varies considerably from state to state.  For example, West VA was the lowest with an average home price of $108K and California was one of the highest at $554K.  The average for Illinois was $202K.  

Location and home price:

City-data has census data by census track including the average home price (as well as income and other data).

Zillow has a real estate market overview.  Here is a link for the overview for each suburb (2021 averages):

Buffalo Grove ($330K)

Long Grove. ($623K)

Lincolnshire. ($501K)

Click here to see some houses for sale in Lake County, IL in 2014.  Which do you think are the most expensive?  Which are the least? When you see the actual prices, why do you think that is?

Time had a map showing the most economically segregated cities in America.  

This heat map from Trulia shows the median sales price for areas across Lake County.

5.  How do you think your home's value compares to the average home price?  (Remember from the wealth section above, the average American owns a home.)


Location and health

This research from Harvard shows that zipcode is a better predictor for health than genetic code.

And Clint Smith, Washington DC teacher explains in his slam poem the ways that location affects his students.  As you watch, make a list of the ways that location affects them:

Location is also related to mobility:

An online data tool called Opportunity Atlas finds a strong correlation between where people are raised and their chances of achieving the American dream.
Here is an NPR piece explaining it.
Here is the NY Times Upshot explaining it.
Opportunity Insights provides data about how neighborhoods shape residents' life chances.

This report from NPR's Planet Money details how where you grow up can affect your income later in life.

And here is a video and stats from CNN Money that show how where you grow up limits or benefits you.

Robert Wuthnow, sociologist at Princeton University explains in his book The Left Behind; Decline and Rage in Rural America that location has strongly affected how rural Americans feel and how they vote.  

Here is a 2018 interview with Professor Wuthnow from Vox.

From Princeton U. Press:

What is fueling rural America’s outrage toward the federal government? Why did rural Americans vote overwhelmingly for Donald Trump? And, beyond economic and demographic decline, is there a more nuanced explanation for the growing rural-urban divide? Drawing on more than a decade of research and hundreds of interviews, Robert Wuthnow brings us into America’s small towns, farms, and rural communities to paint a rich portrait of the moral order — the interactions, loyalties, obligations, and identities—underpinning this critical segment of the nation. Wuthnow demonstrates that to truly understand rural Americans’ anger, their culture must be explored more fully. Wuthnow argues that rural America’s fury stems less from specific economic concerns than from the perception that Washington is distant from and yet threatening to the social fabric of small towns. Rural dwellers are especially troubled by Washington’s seeming lack of empathy for such small-town norms as personal responsibility, frugality, cooperation, and common sense. Wuthnow also shows that while these communities may not be as discriminatory as critics claim, racism and misogyny remain embedded in rural patterns of life.