Showing papers in "The Professional Geographer in 2017"

Chinese Narratives on “One Belt, One Road” (一带一路) in Geopolitical and Imperial Contexts

Abstract: This article reviews Chinese-language writings on the ideas of a Silk Road Economic Belt and Maritime Silk Road that have proliferated in the last few years, now under the aegis of and visualized a...

Geographies on the Move: A Practical and Theoretical Approach to the Mobile Interview

Abstract: This article considers the mobile interview method's utility to geography through five strengths: the ability to (1) produce spatially grounded and place-specific data, (2) access subtler and more complex meanings of place, (3) create opportunities for flexible and collaborative conversation with participants in situ, (4) build rapport and adjust participant–researcher power dynamics, and (5) efficiently produce rich geographic data. Practical, technical, ethical, and epistemological considerations are discussed. We expand methodological exploration of disempowered individuals' experiences of home, neighborhood, and urban space. The mobile interview offers a valuable, underutilized method for geographers to better understand the coconstitutive relationship between self and place.

Land Changes Fostering Atlantic Forest Transition in Brazil: Evidence from the Paraíba Valley

Abstract: The Atlantic Forest biome has only 13 percent of its pristine vegetation cover left This article analyzes the consequences of land changes on forest cover in the Paraiba Valley, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, from 1985 to 2011 Multitemporal satellite image classifications were carried out to map eight land use and land cover classes The forest cover increased from 2,696 km2 in 1985 to 4,704 km2 in 2011, mostly over areas of degraded pastures The highest rates of afforestation were observed within protected areas around eucalyptus plantations On the other hand, deforestation processes were concentrated on areas covered by secondary forests Socioeconomic changes taking place in particular Brazilian settings, such as industrialization and agricultural modernization, allied to the Paraiba Valley's natural biophysical constraints for agricultural production, have led the region to experience a remarkable case of forest transition

Conflating Privilege and Vulnerability : A Reflexive Analysis of Emotions and Positionality in Postgraduate Fieldwork

Abstract: Grounded in a self-reflexive, intersectional analysis of positionality, we examine emotions in fieldwork through the autobiographical accounts that we gathered during our postgraduate ethnographic ...

Voice Under Scrutiny: Feminist Methods, Anticolonial Responses, and New Methodological Tools

Abstract: “Giving voice” to participants has been an important element of qualitative feminist research projects in geography. In this article, I explore scholarship that has questioned qualitative research's reliance on voice, arguing that implicit connections between voice, authenticity, and empowerment are beginning to be unpacked, particularly by scholars engaged in anticolonial work. I draw on anticolonial scholarship to build on and extend feminist debates centered on voice and participation. Feminist attention to voice must be situated within the colonial frameworks and histories of social science research. Scholarship focused on ongoing settler colonial relationships highlights methods both for cautiously proceeding with and consciously refusing incorporating voice within qualitative research. I draw on anticolonial approaches to frame research decisions, voice, and the ethical and methodological dilemmas of its use.

Periscoping as a Feminist Methodological Approach for Researching the Seemingly Hidden

Abstract: This article proposes the metaphor of the periscope to guide an innovative approach to researching topics obstructed from view or out of range of more traditional approaches. Periscoping, it suggests, combines a feminist focus on the everyday with the recognition that no space, even those intentionally obscured, can be fully contained. Drawing on research on U.S. immigration enforcement policies, the article explores how feminist geographers can think creatively about how to arrange the “prisms” and “mirrors” at their disposal to obtain an image of what was previously thought to be unknowable. It then explores potential problems inherent to a periscopic strategy alongside tools it offers to researchers.

Residential Tourism, Swimming Pools, and Water Demand in the Western Mediterranean

Abstract: Many Mediterranean areas have recently witnessed a proliferation of new urban and tourist-related features following low-density residential patterns that contrast with the traditional high-density urban typologies of Mediterranean cities. The aim of this research is to investigate the links between residential tourism and water consumption through swimming pools, which constitute one key element of the new urban landscapes in the coast of Alicante (southeastern Spain). We have digitized pools in nine municipalities of coastal Alicante and calculated the average depth and estimated water losses due to evaporation. Results show that swimming pools are widely available in tourist residential enclaves but that they tend to display different characteristics according to factors such as the history of the urbanization process and relative wealth of the different areas. We have detected a clear contrast between the large individual pools of the richer northern municipalities and the smaller individual pools and...

Comparing Measures of Accessibility to Urban Supermarkets for Transit and Auto Users

Abstract: Research on access to healthy foods often emphasizes the spatial proximity of residents to food stores like supermarkets as a way to gauge overall accessibility. Much of the literature has focused on locating the closest facility, assuming that access to one food store is sufficient. Given evidence that access to multiple healthy food stores can improve diets, however, this article examines how closest facility measures differ from cumulative opportunity accessibility measures across space in a medium-sized U.S. city. Differences in access between automobile and transit riders, using realistic travel time costs, are also considered. Results demonstrate that the two types of accessibility measures produce different accessibility geographies and that there are disparities in access for those dependent on transit. These findings indicate that researchers should carefully consider whether access to one supermarket opportunity is enough and pay special attention to the mode residents rely on to access food.

Local indicator of colocation quotient with a statistical significance test: examining spatial association of crime and facilities

Abstract: Most existing point-based colocation methods are global measures (e.g., join count statistic, cross K function, and global colocation quotient). Most recently, a local indicator such as the local colocation quotient has been proposed to capture the variability of colocation across areas. Our research advances this line of work by developing a simulation-based statistical test for the local indicator of colocation quotient (LCLQ). The study applies the indicator to examine the association of land use facilities with crime patterns. Moreover, we use the street network distance in addition to the traditional Euclidean distance in defining neighbors because human activities (including facilities and crimes) usually occur along a street network. The method is applied to analyze the colocation of three types of crimes and three categories of facilities in a city in Jiangsu Province, China. The findings demonstrate the value of the proposed method in colocation analysis of crime and facilities and, in general, c...

Economic Transition, Firm Dynamics, and Restructuring of Manufacturing Spaces in Urban China: Empirical Evidence from Nanjing

Abstract: Industrial space is widely considered a fundamental component of urban structure and has been significantly affected by the transitional process in China since the late 1970s. This study investigates the restructuring trajectories and underlying factors of manufacturing firms in Nanjing to detect intraurban dynamical trajectories and spatial patterns. The result implies that Nanjing has witnessed significant suburbanization of manufacturing with the successive exit of old firms and gradual emerging of specialized areas in the peripheral suburbs. In particular, development zones (DZs) have become major bases of new or relocated firms and consequently changed the spatial pattern from a monocentric one toward a polycentric point-axis pattern. Employing binary logistic regression and spatial lag/error models, this study has found that the triple process of marketization, globalization, and decentralization, coupled with the new-type urbanization, has significant influences on the restructuring of urban spaces...

Geographies of U.S. Police Militarization and the Role of the 1033 Program

Abstract: Concerns about police militarization have become an important public policy issue since the aggressive police response to the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, where police officers used military-style equipment to confront protestors. This event was a stark visual reminder that many U.S. police departments have used federal programs to acquire surplus military equipment, including weapons, armored vehicles, and body armor. We explore the geographies and histories of one the most important programs, called 1033, which supplies police with military equipment under the rationale of prosecuting the War on Drugs. We show that the legal blurring of the police and the military has been ongoing for decades at the national scale but this has resulted in an uneven landscape of police militarization at the county scale. We also investigate one of the most common global arguments for why police become militarized, which is the presence of Special Weapons and Tactics-style paramilitary teams, finding little suppor...

Using a Huff-Based Model to Delineate Hospital Service Areas

Abstract: Hospital service areas (HSAs) are increasingly adopted as a basic analysis unit for health care studies. The popular Dartmouth HSAs were produced more than two decades ago, and the process was far from automated. This research uses a Huff-based model automated in a geographic information systems (GIS) environment to delineate HSAs. Based on the Florida State Inpatient Database (SID) in 2011, a best-fitting distance decay function is derived from the actual travel patterns of hospitalization and then fed into the Huff model to strengthen the model's theoretical foundation in individual spatial behavior. The HSAs derived from the Huff-based model are then compared to the traditional flow-based HSAs defined by the Dartmouth method and assessed in terms of self-containment and heterogeneity of internal socioeconomic structure and urbanicity. The Huff-based model requires fewer data and is easy to implement as an automated toolkit and thus has great potential for replication in other regions to define ...

Painting Pictures of Ourselves: Researcher Subjectivity in the Practice of Feminist Reflexivity

Abstract: In this article, I argue that researchers need to carefully distinguish the concepts of subjectivity and positionality in feminist reflexive practice, as an explicit focus on researcher subjectivity has the potential to provide additional insights into the research process that go beyond a focus on relational positionality. Drawing on examples from my own research, I argue that examining one's subjectivity as a researcher opens up a consideration of emotional reactions to research; lets us reconsider the importance of feelings of (dis)affiliation and (dis)comfort in the research process; and helps us to recognize that the dreams and desires of researchers about themselves and their research participants can play an important role in the research process. Moreover, researcher subjectivity attunes us to ways in which our subjectivities shift through the research process and are intimately connected to and mediated by the process of research and our interactions with our research participants.

Introduction to Focus Section: Feminist Research and Knowledge Production in Geography

Abstract: Over the past two decades, feminist geographers have contributed in critical ways to thinking on the conduct, complications, and consequences of feminist research. The robust existing body of work is testament to the foundational import of these contributions, but the articles in this Focus Section suggest that there are still important things to argue, talk about, and reflect on with regard to the epistemological aspects of doing feminist geography. These six articles bring together real-life examples of complex issues that feminist researchers in geography face today, with the overarching aim of sparking discussions about the relationship between feminist research and knowledge production. Specifically, the articles expand key concepts facilitating reflexive processes and offer new tools for feminist researchers. This Introduction reviews the existing literature pertaining to both of these goals, and summarizes and situates the articles that follow.

Analyzing the Impacts of Urban Expansion on Green Fragmentation Using Constraint Gradient Analysis

Abstract: Many existing gradient analysis methods are arbitrary or too simple in gradient partitioning and unsuitable for cities with irregular forms. We propose an improved gradient analysis method with urban structural features as spatial constraints to properly partition an urban area into more homogeneous buffers. Taking the Wuhan metropolitan area in China as an example, we use the improved gradient partitioning method and six landscape metrics to characterize urban expansion and green space fragmentation in 1989, 2001, and 2013 and investigate the relationship between urban green fragmentation and urban expansion using correlation analysis and regression modeling. The results show that the fragmentation of built-up area in each buffer generally decreases from 1989 to 2013, but the fragmentation of green space increases. For each time point, with growing distance from urban centers, the fragmentation of built-up area increases and green space fragmentation decreases. This shows that urbanization exerts a signi...

Computer Science and Programming Courses in Geography Departments in the United States

Abstract: Geographic information systems (GIS) are fundamental information technologies. The capabilities and applications of GIS continue to rapidly expand, requiring practitioners to have new skills and competencies, especially in computer science. There is little research, however, about how best to prepare the next generation of GIScientists with adequate computer science skills. This article explores how U.S. geography departments are introducing and developing computer science and programming skills in their geography and GIS degree programs. We review the degree requirements in fifty-five geography departments and discover that forty-four of them offer some kind of GIS programming course. Of the 210 separate degree options identified, however, only 22 require one of these courses for a degree. There is little consistency or emphasis on computer science and programming skills in geography or GIS degrees, despite the immense importance of these components in geography and GIS careers. We propose future researc...

Renaming and Rebranding within U.S. and Canadian Geography Departments, 1990–2014

Abstract: Between 2000 and 2014, more than thirty geography departments adopted revised or new names, with some entirely dropping geography. Although renaming and rebranding efforts are not new to higher education, the rapid pace at which geography department names have changed raises questions about the discipline's identity and health. We examine the renaming trend within geography programs together with intended and unexpected factors as perceived by faculty. Specifically, we look at the renaming and rebranding trend within the context of four pillars offered by Pattison (1964) to define geography's principal academic domains—earth-science, man–land, area/regional studies, and spatial traditions.

The Feminist Geographer as Killjoy: Excavating Gendered Urban Power Relations

Abstract: In this article, I place Ahmed's notion of the feminist killjoy into conversation with feminist geography literature to explore possibilities and praxis in research endeavoring to illuminate uneven power relations and the moral orders that frame them. According to Ahmed, a feminist killjoy is one who exposes sexism, heterosexism, and racism, only to be criticized for disrupting happiness and social consent. Drawing on fieldwork on urban politics and development, I explore the implications—both promise and peril—of adopting feminist killjoy research subjectivities, emphasizing the important role of affect. I suggest that when feminist researchers direct killjoy research not just at mainstream institutions but also at progressive endeavors, they risk being construed as double killjoys who disrupt supposed joy and solidarity within progressive politics.

Urban Expansion Pattern and Land Use Dynamics in Dhaka, 1989–2014

Abstract: Rapid change in land use and land cover (LULC) and unplanned urban expansion in Dhaka City, Bangladesh, receives continuous attention from local policymakers and the international community. This study employed a supervised classification procedure and postclassification change detection technique to estimate major changes between different LULC classes. The study revealed that built-up area increased significantly from 1989 to 2014. The total urban growth of 81.54 percent resulted in a substantial decrease in natural vegetation cover and agricultural land. In addition, water bodies have declined consistently over the last twenty-five years. The overall accuracy of LULC change maps produced from Landsat data ranged from 89.72 percent to 92.97 percent. The results should contribute to ongoing LULC information updates while forecasting possible future LULC change and sustainable development under greater population density.

Troubling Positionality: Politics of “Studying Up” in Transnational Contexts

Abstract: Drawing on research conducted in India's software industry in Bangalore, this article explores the multiple positionalities of differently situated people in the project—state officials, software firm managers and owners, software professionals, and researcher as critic. Challenging conventional notions of positionality centered on individual scholars' negotiations of their own identities, I trace the institutional, geopolitical, and social relations within which all participants are embedded. I argue that moments of tension and uncertainty are not just symbolic of multiple positionalities of both researcher and researched but also indicate the fraught nature of information technology–led development in neoliberal India. This article thus provides a particular opportunity to trouble notions of power, positionality, reflexivity, and feminist commitment to untangling the politics of knowledge production while “studying up” in transnational contexts.

Introduction: Toward More Inclusive and Comparative Perspectives in the Histories of Geographical Knowledge

Abstract: Over the past three decades, feminist historiography of geography has begun to situate women's contribution to the production of geographical knowledge within the histories of geography, at times against the conviction of skeptical colleagues. In this Focus Section introduction, we renew Domosh's (1991a, 1991b) call for creating more inclusive feminist histories of geography by situating the three focus section articles on the careers and contributions of women in twentieth-century geographical practice and knowledge production in the United Kingdom and the United States within wider debates about diverse, unfamiliar, and previously hidden aspects of geographical knowledge production. We argue that feminist historiography of geography and feminist historical geography could benefit from continuously diversifying inclusive and comparative research perspectives, and from unlocking diverse archives, to enhance understanding of why and how some male and some female gatekeepers have been more supportive of wom...

The Effects of Spatial Scale and Aggregation on Food Access Assessment: A Case Study of Tucson, Arizona

Abstract: Adequate access to healthy food has become a social issue due to the recent Great Recession and heightened levels of unemployment. Geographers have focused their attention on how to accurately evaluate food access and how to identify and delineate food deserts; that is, low-income neighborhoods where affordable and healthy food is lacking or limited. Findings of recent food access studies are, however, dramatically inconsistent. We argue that spatial scale and the level of aggregation used in constructing food access measures could account for a major portion of the varying results. We draw on an empirical study in the Tucson, Arizona, metropolitan area, to examine how varying geographic scales and aggregation methods affect food access assessment. We also provide an analysis to show how spatial scale and aggregation practices lead to inconsistent conclusions about food access and designation of food deserts.

Mapping Meaning: Critical Cartographies for Participatory Water Management in Taita Hills, Kenya

Abstract: Participation of local people is often neglected in natural resource management, which leads to failure to understand the social aspects and historical construction of environmental problems. Participatory mapping can enhance the communication of local spatial knowledge for management processes and challenge the official maps and other spatial representations produced by state authorities and scientists. In this study, we analyze what kind of social meanings can be revealed through a multimethod participatory mapping process focusing on water resources in Taita Hills, Kenya. The participatory mapping clearly complicates the simplified image of the physical science mappings, typically depicting natural water supply, by addressing the impacts of contamination, inadequate infrastructure, poverty, distance to the sources, and restrictions in their uses on people's access to water. Moreover, this shared exercise is able to trigger discussion on issues that cannot always be localized but still contribute to pla...

Interactive Knowledge Generation in Urban Green Building Transitions

Abstract: Knowledge coproduction between practitioners and scientists offers promising opportunities for the emerging research field of the geography of sustainability transitions. Drawing on experiences from an international research project on urban green building transitions, this article explores the potentials and challenges of interactive and collaborative knowledge generation methods in understanding sustainability transitions. Our results show that ongoing engagement with local experts and practitioners through interactive World Cafe workshops and follow-up exchanges allows for a better understanding of the research context and knowledge exchange to all participants involved in the research process.

The Shape of Mobility: Measuring the Distance Decay Function of Household Mobility

Abstract: A well-known challenge to studies examining the distance of residential mobility patterns is that the estimates are often constrained to patterns only within a particular metro area or between metro areas. Thus, studies are unable to estimate the entire distance decay functional form. Using a unique data set on the distance of the most recent move for a large sample of households in twenty-three metropolitan areas in the United States over three waves, we flexibly estimate the distance decay function for the entire sample, as well as for a series of subpopulations based on key demographic information.

Social Consequences of Gated Communities: The Case of Suburban Warsaw

Abstract: This article aims to determine how three factors—the fence, the internal public space, and the type of building—affect the sense of community, as well as the perception of social divisions that gated communities generate and the need for integration between people living in and outside gated communities. Its results are based on the survey conducted in two villages, Jozefoslaw and Julianow, located in the Warsaw metropolitan region. It has been found that the existence of a physical barrier in the form of a fence affects the perception of human relationships. Research has confirmed the negative impact of fencing off on social bonds, the sense of community, and attachment to the area beyond the housing estate. The study of Jozefoslaw and Julianow, however, has proved that for the residents of suburban gated communities the key factor that can increase their sense of community is access to an internal public space. The sense of community and the attachment to the area of residence are also dependent on the ...

Food Diaries to Measure Food Access: A Case Study from Rural Cuba

Abstract: This article aims to make a contribution to current debates in the literature on food access by describing a mixed-methods approach to study the access to food in one rural community in Cuba. Each of the forty households in our study was asked to complete a detailed food diary in which they indicated what they ate and where they acquired each of the ingredients that they used for a full week. Although in Cuba the state plays a central role in organizing the distribution of food items, this method revealed a much more complex web of rural food access. By addressing alternative networks of food access and informal social relations, we aim to show how the use of food diaries, in combination with qualitative data from interviews and participant observation, can provide detailed insights in the complex processes and networks of food access.

Exploratory Spatiotemporal Analysis in Risk Communication during the MERS Outbreak in South Korea

Abstract: The 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak in South Korea gave rise to chaos caused by psychological anxiety, and it has been assumed that people shared rumors about hospital lists through social media. Sharing rumors is a common form of public perception and risk communication among individuals during an outbreak. Social media analysis offers an important window into the spatiotemporal patterns of public perception and risk communication about disease outbreaks. Such processes of socially mediated risk communication are a process of meme diffusion. This article aims to investigate the role of social media meme diffusion and its spatiotemporal patterns in public perception and risk communication. To do so, we applied analytical methods including the daily number of tweets for metropolitan cities and geovisualization with the weighted mean centers. The spatiotemporal patterns shown by Twitter users' interests in specific places, triggered by real space events, demonstrate the spatial interac...

Assessing the Potential of Low-Impact Development Techniques on Runoff and Streamflow in the Templeton Gap Watershed, Colorado

Abstract: This study examines how the impact of impervious surface in the Templeton Gap watershed (Colorado) could be reduced through the use of low-impact development (LID) strategies. LID is a sustainable stormwater approach to land management that retains runoff close to the source by preserving natural landscape features and limiting imperviousness. Our research indicates that LID techniques could reduce peak flows generated by stormwater runoff, allow city engineers to restore the stream channel to a more natural state, and improve the safety of residents and the security of property below the levee. This study developed a model of the Templeton Gap watershed and its associated stormwater infrastructure using the Stormwater Management Model (SWMM) developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Specifically designed for small urban watersheds, SWMM allows users to accurately represent stormwater runoff dynamics and project the impact of hypothetical LID features such as porous pavement, rain garde...

Feminizing the University: The Mobilities, Careers, and Contributions of Early Female Academics in the University of Cambridge, 1926–1955

Abstract: This article examines the role of early female academics at the University of Cambridge in the production and dissemination of knowledge between 1926 and 1955. A statistical comparison of women’s use of academic leave of absence with that of their male colleagues reveals that, across disciplines, women were less integrated into (inter)national knowledge networks and thus less visible in their epistemic communities than men because women focused their academic leaves more on research, rarely attended conferences, travelled overseas less often than men, and went more frequently to destinations within Europe than the United States as the new economic hegemon. Biographical case studies of these early female academics demonstrate the importance, variously, of their upper middle class background, academic excellence, and familial and non-familial patronage in developing their careers, overcoming multiple hurdles, and producing intellectual contributions of equal quality to that of their male peers. Conceptually, this article calls for the inclusion of academic travelers from other disciplines than geography into feminist histories of geographical knowledge and argues that rather than stereotyping gender differences, greater comparative research on the experiences of female and male academics is needed in order to understand the mechanisms of gender inequality within the university.