I am comparing two geographical areas of different levels of social capital in Britain. I found some database to do the comparison, but the areas are different in several terms. first, one area is from the north west of England and the other one is from midlands. the two areas are different in terms of size, population, type of economy, and service sector. my question is, do these indicators should be the same to do my comparative study. for example, should the areas be similar of population?
My view is that comparative studies should bear comparable parameters. In the case of social capital, parameters such as trust, commitment, cooperation and networking could be considered across study sites of varying characteristics.
Are you comparing the living standard (quality of life) of the two areas?
The best way to compare two areas is to live in both for at least a few months and not to merely simulate them via computing algorythms. This may seem counter-intuitive, but consider how the media distort or even ignore some place you live or have lived. Can this be because "memes" about places are being passed without enough active observers o update and correct invalid or incorrect data on those places?
This is a great question. In addition to the very helpful answers already given, there is a bit more to add.
Another way to compare geographic regions is to compare the energy of the regions. Let v be the particle velocity of the centroid of a region A, which changes over time. Let ||p1|| be the distance of a region centroid from the origin of a grid drawn on region A at time t1 and let ||p2|| be the distance of region centroid from the origin of a grid drawn on region B at time t2. Notice that the centroid of a region can be computed not only in terms of region area but also in terms of population density or economic density or urban spread. Let m be the relativistic mass of regions A and B. Mass m can be estimated in different ways. e.g., population distribution, urban density, distribution of shops, and so on. The energy E of region A is then defined by
E = mv2 = m| ||p2|| - ||p1|| |/|t2 - t1|.
The expression | ||p2|| - ||p1|| | is the absolute value of the difference between the centroid vectors.
There are several ways in comparing and contrasting two different regions. first, you might use physical, topological features as a point of reference for making thee comparison. Second, you might choose climatic conditions. Third, you may compare the two by using sociolinguistic factors such as dialectal variations or linguistic variations resulting from differences in social class.
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