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Geographical Research (geographical + research)
Selected AbstractsDOES DIVERSITY IN URBAN SPACE ENHANCE INTERGROUP CONTACT AND TOLERANCE?GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 1 2009Terje Wessel ABSTRACT. Contemporary urban theory has started to question the elevation of diversity as a panacea for enduring urban problems , segregation, prejudice and intergroup hostility. This critique coincides with an opposite tendency within classic contact theory and research. The latter tradition has developed an increasing enthusiasm for face-to-face interaction. The contact hypothesis, which presupposes established contact, has received conclusive support independent of target groups and contact settings. Research on ,lived diversity', which includes both contact and lack of contact, offers two supplementary insights. It shows, on the one hand, that boundaries are inscribed in social spaces. Physical proximity between ethnic and social groups tends to have a minor effect on interaction. Interaction, on the other hand, is not essential to attitude formation. Both subfields within contact research have confirmed that urban space may act as a catalyst for tolerant attitudes. This observation corresponds with increasing recognition of affective states, such as empathy, anxiety and group threat. Contact research has therefore, in summary, transcended the scope of the contact hypothesis. It has expanded into the realm of urban theory, which foreshadows future collaboration between the two traditions. Some key points for such exchange are suggested at the end of the article. Future research should combine an open-ended approach to casual contact with a diversified conception of diversity and a richer conception of urban space. A move in this direction would leave substantial space for geographical research. [source] GIS Methods in Time-Geographic Research: Geocomputation and Geovisualization of Human Activity PatternsGEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 4 2004Mei-Po Kwan Abstract Over the past 40 years or so, human activities and movements in space-time have attracted considerable research interest in geography. One of the earliest analytical perspectives for the analysis of human activity patterns and movements in space-time is time geography. Despite the usefulness of time geography in many areas of geographical research, there are very few studies that actually implemented its constructs as analytical methods up to the mid-1990s. With increasing availability of geo-referenced individual-level data and improvement in the geo-computational capabilities of Geographical Information Systems (GIS), it is now more feasible than ever before to operationalize and implement time-geographic constructs. This paper discusses recent applications of GIS-based geo-computation and three-dimensional (3-D) geo-visualization methods in time-geographic research. The usefulness of these methods is illustrated through examples drawn from the author's recent studies. The paper attempts to show that GIS provides an effective environment for implementing time-geographic constructs and for the future development of operational methods in time-geographic research. [source] Museum Geography: Exploring Museums, Collections and Museum Practice in the UKGEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 10 2010Hilary Geoghegan In the UK alone there are more than 2500 museums of interest to international and home audiences. Despite their prevalence and a strong museological culture in the UK and beyond, the geographic study of museums is relatively under-developed. To date there has been no systematic overview of this field either in the UK or internationally. This review article is intended as a contribution towards an emerging ,museum geography'. Beginning with an exploration of research on museums, collections and museum practice, the author then considers the recent ,spatial turn' in museum studies and discusses how geographers have variously encountered museums, collections and museum practice to date. The article then reviews the potential for the future study of museums by geographers. In so doing, the author suggests that the study of museums offers some exciting opportunities for geographical research and teaching. [source] Geographies of Architecture: The Multiple Lives of BuildingsGEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 5 2010Peter Kraftl Arguably, cultural geography began with the study of architectural forms. The first half of this article traces the geographical study of buildings as a relatively small but significant sub-field of cultural geography. It summarises three approaches that characterise this work. First, the study of everyday, vernacular buildings, found especially (but not exclusively) in North American cultural geography. Second, radical critiques of the political,economic imperatives that are built into particular architectural forms such as the skyscraper and the related interpretation of buildings as signs, symbols or referents for dominant socio-cultural discourses or moralities. Third, what can broadly (but not unproblematically) be termed non-representational or ,critical' methods that stress practice, materiality and affect. The second half of the article highlights the productive connections between these three approaches. It stresses that recent research on the geographies of architecture has adopted elements of each approach to make a number of contributions to the study of cultural geography. Two key themes are considered: movement/stasis; the politics of architectural design and practice. Consideration of these themes anticipates a conclusion with some broad suggestions for future geographical research on architecture. [source] The Place of Islam in the Geography of Religion: Trends and IntersectionsGEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 5 2007Richard Gale This article reviews recent geographical research on Islam and Muslim identities. In the wake of the events of 11 September 2001, the forms taken by public debate surrounding Muslim communities and societies have been manifold and not always edifying. In the present political climate, where public attitudes to a particular suite of issues are often as misinformed as they are deeply held, the need for academics to furnish insights born out of robust research is acute. While the responses of academics to debates coalescing around Muslim communities and identities have emanated predominantly from religious studies, sociology and anthropology, geographers, with their attention to the spatial components inherent to the articulation of social identities, are making an increasingly significant contribution to our knowledge in this field. This article reviews this contribution, focusing on four areas in which geographical research on Islam has been most pronounced: Muslim residential segregation and ,community cohesion'; the relationship between Islamic dress codes and spatial context in the articulation of Muslim gender identities; the contestation of space that has attended the architectural expression of Muslim identity in urban landscapes and the spatial politics embedded in the construction of Muslim identities at simultaneously national and transnational scales. While the predominant focus is therefore geographical, the article also establishes linkages to other writings on the spatiality of Islam where relevant to the specific themes under discussion. [source] Beyond Distribution and Proximity: Exploring the Multiple Spatialities of Environmental JusticeANTIPODE, Issue 4 2009Gordon Walker Abstract:, Over the last decade the scope of the socio-environmental concerns included within an environmental justice framing has broadened and theoretical understandings of what defines and constitutes environmental injustice have diversified. This paper argues that this substantive and theoretical pluralism has implications for geographical inquiry and analysis, meaning that multiple forms of spatiality are entering our understanding of what it is that substantiates claims of environmental injustice in different contexts. In this light the simple geographies and spatial forms evident in much "first-generation" environmental justice research are proving insufficient. Instead a richer, multidimensional understanding of the different ways in which environmental justice and space are co-constituted is needed. This argument is developed by analysing a diversity of examples of socio-environmental concerns within a framework of three different notions of justice,as distribution, recognition and procedure. Implications for the strategies of environmental justice activism for the globalisation of the environmental justice frame and for future geographical research are considered. [source] "All Gone Now": The Material, Discursive and Political Erasure of Bank and Building Society Branches in BritainANTIPODE, Issue 1 2008Shaun French Abstract:, This paper examines an apparent anomaly that lies at the heart of processes of financial exclusion within Britain. Given that the branch networks of banks and building societies have shrunk in size by about one-third since 1989, a period during which the Government has launched a wide-ranging set of policies to tackle financial exclusion, why is it that the issue of branch closure has been neutralised as a political issue? After providing evidence to show the extent of branch closure in Britain and illustrating the ways in which geographical research in particular has drawn attention to the nature of this problem, we look at the way the issue of physical access to financial services has been discursively and politically marginalised. We undertake a detailed history of public policy in the area, and the ways in which research funded by industry bodies and Government departments has been used and framed to build a pro-market, neoliberal policy programme that constructs branch closures as natural and inevitable. [source] Airfield closures and air defence reorientation in Britain during the Cold War and its immediate aftermathAREA, Issue 3 2009Ronald Blake Since the ending of the Cold War, over one-third of Britain's home military airfields have closed, leaving fewer than 50 in active flying use. An historical review of air force contraction since 1945 provides the context for this significant land-use change. Contrasting scales of abandonment at regional level suggest where the impacts of closures on the environment and society have been strongest. Spatial shifts in the key military airfield functions (combat, air support, training and aircraft supply) indicate a strategic reorientation of the nation's defences. Location and role data for 75 airfields either closed during the past 20 years or still active in 2008 are tabulated to assist future geographical research on British aviation and defence. [source] | ||||||||||