The Dictionary of Human Geography

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and Sarker, 2006). Researchers in the UK are

also fortunate to have the birthcohortstud-

ies, which follow individuals from birth; the

most recent Millennium Cohort has a clus-

tered design so that local geographies can be

researched (www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/mcs/). Another

source is through record linkage of adminis-

trative data; this is likely to become of increas-

ing importance as part of evidence-based

policywhereby data are collected and dis-

seminated on small local areas; a substan-

tial and growing example of this is the

Neighbourhood Statistics website (http://

neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/) which has,

for example, linked claimant count data to local

areas toprovide anannuallyupdated measure of

incomepoverty. The potential for such admin-

istrative data is immense but is challenging

because all sorts of bias are likely to be present.

An important recent development has been the

use of a model-based approach to the use of

records from different sources. Thus Jackson,

Best and Richardson (2008) were able to use an

overallmulti-level modelto combine detailed

individual survey data from the Millennium

Cohort Study with large-scale administrative

data from the National births register, elaborat-

ing the model to handle a range of biases.

In Britain, the UK Data Archive (http://

http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/) is the major reposi-

tory of digital social science data; while in the

USA, this role is filled by the Inter-University

Consortium for Political and Social Research

(http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/); globally such

archives are organized into the International

Federation of Data Organizations (http://

http://www.ifdo.org/). All these websites have exten-

sive search capabilities for identifying data

being sought. King (1995) has gone further

in his call that to ensure scientific integrity,

replication data sets need to be made available

that include all information necessary to

reproduce empirical results; including soft-

ware code for the particular analysis that has

been undertaken. This is now being made

manifest in the Virtual Data Centre (http://

thedata.org/). Secondary analysis of qualita-

tive data has been of less importance but its

use is growing (Heaton, 1998). kj

Suggested reading

Boslaugh (2007); Heaton (2004).

section A territorial division of a country

associated with an electoral cleavage created

when a political party mobilizes support

there based on policies with particular local

relevance. The classic sectional cleavage

occurred in the USA, where for most of

the century following the Civil War the

Democratic party mobilized majority support

in the states that had wished to secede,

against the Republican party, which granted

equality of civil rights to African-Americans

and endedslavery. rj

Suggested reading

Archer and Taylor (1981).

sectoral model A model of residential pat-

terns developed by Homer Hoyt (1895–1984:

see Hoyt, 1939) for US cities, involving the

segregation of housing of different quality and

value into separate sectors radiating from the

city centre along major routeways. Changes in

the character of a residential area within a

sector involved afilteringprocess whereby

relatively affluent residents moved towards the

urban fringe, thereby yielding their homes and

neighbourhoods to lower-status in-migrants

(cf.invasion and succession). The model –

developed for mortgage-lending applications –

was presented as an alternative to thezonal

modeland was later incorporated with it in

a multiple nuclei model(see figure for

that entry). rj

secularism Anideologyin whichreligion

and supernatural beliefs are not central to

understanding the world, both religious beli-

efs and religious institutions should not inter-

fere with the public affairs of a society,

and are segregated from matters ofgovern-

ance. It is often associated withenlighten-

mentineurope, with its turn towardsscience

and rationalism and its move away from reli-

gion and superstition. Secularism as a philoso-

phy owes its origins to George Jacob Holyoake

(1860), who introduced the idea that life

should be lived by reference to ethical prin-

ciples, and the world understood by proces-

ses of reasoning, rather than by reference

to God or gods, or other supernatural con-

cepts. From the perspective of government

and governance, secularism refers to a policy

that separates religious authority from the

state. The opposite of secularism is usually

theocracy; that is, where religion has a major

role in government.

The secularist movement is split between

those who believe that secularism leads logic-

ally to anti-religious propaganda andactiv-

ism, and those who do not. Most modern

‘Western’ societies today are thought to be

secular. Most would have near-complete free-

dom of religion. Religion does not officially

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SECULARISM