Showing papers in "The Professional Geographer in 2018"
TL;DR: This article argued that failure should be recognized as a central component of what it means to do qualitative geographical field research and that there is much value to be found in failure if it is critically examined and shared, and if there is a supportive space in which to exchange our experiences of failing in the field.
Abstract: The idea that field research is an inherently “messy” process has become widely accepted by geographers in recent years. There has thus far been little acknowledgment, however, of the role that failure plays in doing human geography. In this article we push back against this, arguing that failure should be recognized as a central component of what it means to do qualitative geographical field research. This article seeks to use failure proactively and provocatively as a powerful resource to improve research practice and outcomes, reconsidering and giving voice to it as everyday, productive, and necessary to our continual development as researchers and academics. This article argues that there is much value to be found in failure if it is critically examined and shared, and—crucially—if there is a supportive space in which to exchange our experiences of failing in the field.
81 citations
TL;DR: Place-based classifications can create long-standing influences on neighborhood fortunes as mentioned in this paper, and redlining is a classic example of these unintended effects, which can be traced back to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board's decision to use redlining.
Abstract: Place-based classifications can create long-standing influences on neighborhood fortunes. Redlining is a classic example of these unintended effects. The Federal Home Loan Bank Board developed hous...
42 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that some such methods have not always been and need not be so allied, and suggest neglected methods to revisit, new alliances to be forged with critical human geography and cultural critique, and possible paths to enliven geographical imaginations.
Abstract: Quantitative and cartographic methods are today often associated with absolute, Newtonian conceptions of space. We argue that some such methods have not always been and need not be so allied. Present geographic approaches to relational space have been largely advanced through radical political economic and feminist thought. Yet we identify quantitative and cartographic methods (taking as exemplars a range of thinkers, some of whom were most prominent in the 1960s and 1970s) that can contribute to these approaches to relational space. We suggest neglected methods to revisit, new alliances to be forged with critical human geography and cultural critique, and possible paths to enliven geographical imaginations.
39 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduced an inverted two-step floating catchment area (i2SFCA) method that is derived from an extension of the classic Huff model and used to capture the "crowdedness" for facilities.
Abstract: The popular two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method has been widely used in the literature to measure spatial accessibility of residents for a service. The 2SFCA method accounts for the ratio between the supply capacity and demand amount of the service as well as the complex spatial interaction between them. This article introduces an inverted two-step floating catchment area (i2SFCA) method that is derived from an extension of the classic Huff model and used to capture the “crowdedness” (scarcity of resource or intensity of competition) for facilities. The method is illustrated and validated by a case study of evaluating hospital inpatient services in Florida. Several possible uses of the measure are also discussed.
38 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the spatial and temporal patterns of the neighborhood crimes of aggravated assault and larceny in 297 census tracts in Miami-Dade County from 2007 to 2015.
Abstract: The combination of crime mapping and geospatial analysis methods has enabled law enforcement agencies to develop more proactive methods of targeting crime-prone neighborhoods based on spatial patterns, such as hot spots and spatial proximity to specific points of interest. In this article, we investigate the spatial and temporal patterns of the neighborhood crimes of aggravated assault and larceny in 297 census tracts in Miami–Dade County from 2007 to 2015. We use emerging hot spot analysis (EHSA) to identify the spatial patterns of emerging, persistent, continuous, and sporadic hot spots. In addition, we use geographically weighted regression to analyze the spatial clustering effects of sociodemographic variables, poverty rate, median age, and ethnic diversity. The hot spots for larceny are much more diffused than those for aggravated assaults, which exhibit clustering in the north over Liberty City and Miami Gardens and in the south near Homestead, and the ethnic heterogeneity index has a moderate and p...
38 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the experience of staying in place has been studied in the context of online residential living and it has been shown that staying in a home can be beneficial for many individuals.
Abstract: Migration research has traditionally centered on tracing movement; however, the experience of staying in place has begun to capture scholarly attention. Drawing on data from an online residential d...
38 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the intraurban geography of craft breweries in ten cities across the United States and empirically tested whether these establishments tend to cluster within cities using spatial statistical techniques.
Abstract: This article examines the intraurban geography of craft breweries in ten cities across the United States. First, through an exhaustive literature review, we outline both supply- and demand-side factors that might cause craft breweries to cluster. Second, we empirically test whether these establishments tend to cluster within cities using spatial statistical techniques. Many communities are attempting to support the establishment of more craft breweries as a way to boost tourism and economic development. The findings from this article aid in this discussion by providing insights into how craft brewers locate and the factors that could influence their location decision behavior. Our findings suggest that craft brewers do in fact cluster. There are both supply and demand factors responsible. On the supply side, the collaborative environment within the industry and the artisan nature of the industry's products allows for benefits of clustering to outweigh the costs associated with this behavior. On the demand...
35 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the place of lesbians and queer women in the big data debates through the Lesbian Herstory Archive's not "big" enough lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) organizing history data set.
Abstract: How can we recognize those whose lives and data become attached to the far-from-groundbreaking framework of “small data”? Specifically, how can marginalized people who do not have the resources to produce, self-categorize, analyze, or store “big data” claim their place in the big data debates? I examine the place of lesbians and queer women in the big data debates through the Lesbian Herstory Archive's not “big” enough lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) organizing history data set—perhaps the largest data set known to exist on LGBTQ activist history—as one such alternative. In a contribution to critical data studies, I take a queer feminist approach to the scale of big data by reading for the imbricated scales and situated knowledge of data.
29 citations
TL;DR: Geography has a long tradition of community-engaged research and teaching as discussed by the authors. But conventional institutional and departmental norms in many U.S. universities and colleges, however, often discourage such e...
Abstract: Geography has a long tradition of community-engaged research and teaching. Conventional institutional and departmental norms in many U.S. universities and colleges, however, often discourage such e...
29 citations
TL;DR: Geographers have long been associated with mapping and cartography, because the visual representation of space fits neatly into the wide-ranging discipline that engages both the physical and the so-called "so".
Abstract: Geographers have long been associated with mapping and cartography, because the visual representation of space fits neatly into the wide-ranging discipline that engages both the physical and the so...
22 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored the connections between youthification and studentification through a critical review of extant literature to show that the enactment of some pathways is associated with particular urban processes, which might foreclose certain pathways for other individuals, and identified three crucial areas of inquiry: (1) how youthification, studentification, and gentrification interact; (2) how these processes shape and are shape...
Abstract: Challenges arising from changing demographics, expensive housing, and precarious labor have prompted recent interest in the residential geographies of young adults. Yet, despite attention to young adults' diverse housing pathways, I argue that greater focus is needed on the place-based and spatial underpinnings and effects of particular housing pathways: Connections to urban processes of “youthification”—the concentration of young adults in dense neighborhoods—and “studentification”—whereby an area becomes dominated by university students—remain underdeveloped, as do linkages between these phenomena and gentrification. I explore these connections through a critical review of extant literature to show that the enactment of some pathways is associated with particular urban processes, which might foreclose certain pathways for other individuals. Finally, I identify three crucial areas of inquiry: (1) how youthification, studentification, and gentrification interact; (2) how these processes shape and are shap...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors employed three activity space measures to estimate food accessibility: route network buffer, time-weighted standard deviational ellipse (SDE), and mode-weight SDE.
Abstract: Spatial access to healthy foods has drawn growing attention regarding the relationship with people's health conditions and demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Individuals' differences and the impact of travel behaviors on food accessibility, however, are rarely studied. This study incorporates mobility, time, and transportation mode components to measure each individual's access to healthy foods. We employed three activity space measures to estimate food accessibility: route network buffer, time-weighted standard deviational ellipse (SDE), and mode-weighted SDE. Food accessibility in three activity spaces shows similar variabilities. Geographic size and spatial access to healthy foods differ significantly by income and employment for all three activity space measures. People with higher incomes and those who are currently employed are likely to have larger activity spaces and higher food accessibility. As age increases, people tend to increase their size of activity spaces (in both SDE measures...
TL;DR: In this paper, a deficiency of fully public spaces result in an increasingly complex mixture of different types of spaces of public functions, resulting in a more complex mix of different public functions.
Abstract: Intensive suburbanization, especially in postsocialist countries, and a deficiency of fully public spaces result in an increasingly complex mixture of different types of spaces of public functions....
TL;DR: In this paper, a focus issue explores and evaluates critical approaches to data, analytics, and new spatial technologies in a common forum, focusing on questions such as these: Is a radical politics possible through new data sources and analytics? What assumptions, exclusions, contradictions, and possibilities do data analytics espouse and promote? What epistemological and ontological commitments arise from data-driven science? How have these commitments shaped the knowledges produced by and through the technological systems in question? Building on earlier calls for critical studies of data (Dalton and Thatcher 2014; Dalton
Abstract: D ata, its sources, analytics, and potential effects are at the center of recent popular, industry, and scholarly debates about knowledge, policy, identity, and everyday urban life. These debates have taken place across the academy, from geography to digital humanities, data science, media studies, and beyond. Researchers in these and other social science fields are increasingly engaging with new data infrastructures (Batty 2013; Marvin, Luque-Ayala, and McFarlane 2016; Pickren 2016), representational technologies (Hochman 2014), and analytic practices (Poorthuis et al. 2016) as they emerge in private industry (Thatcher 2014), academic research (Crawford and Finn 2014), and government agencies (Taylor and Schroeder 2015). In politics and industry, these related phenomena go by a variety of buzzwords, such as big data and smart cities (Kitchin 2014c, 2016; Datta 2016), that offer tantalizing promises of future social and economic growth and stability (Lohr 2012). In more recent critical investigations, early hubristic claims of the power of these new systems of data extraction, visualization, and analysis, such as Anderson’s (2008) now nearly decade-old, infamous claim of the “end of theory,” serve as shibboleths by which scholars situate themselves to evaluate actual data practices and effects (Thatcher 2016). Both promises and critiques of this new paradigm of data involve algorithmic analysis of heterogeneous data sets within currently underexamined contexts and social relations (Kitchin 2014a). This focus issue engages with this new paradigm from a variety of geographical perspectives emphasizing radical politics and broadly critical approaches to data analytics. Engaging data in these ways opens new, promising avenues for thought about and practices that incorporate such data. In this way, the section speaks not only to work in critical data studies but also to larger conversations around the ways in which technology mediates, saturates, and sustains late capitalist modernity (Graham 2005). Research to date raises more questions than answers about the use, interpretation, and meaning of these new forms of analysis and data as well as their relationship to broader sociopolitical and economic processes (cf. Crampton 2015; Crampton, Roberts, and Poorthuis 2014; Kitchin 2014b). Researchers suggest a series of prompts that indicate an incipient approach to data studies (boyd and Crawford 2012; Barnes 2013; Burns 2015) and call for additional scholarship in the area (Kitchin 2014a; Schroeder 2014). Addressing these questions, the articles in this issue focus on questions such as these: Is a radical politics possible through new data sources and analytics? What assumptions, exclusions, contradictions, and possibilities do data analytics espouse and promote? What epistemological and ontological commitments arise from data-driven science? How have these commitments shaped the knowledges produced by and through the technological systems in question? Building on earlier calls for critical studies of data (Dalton and Thatcher 2014; Dalton, Taylor, and Thatcher 2016), this focus issue explores and evaluates critical approaches to data, analytics, and new spatial technologies in a common forum. Due to its history of engagement with the spatial constitution of knowledge and power, geography as a field has a unique opportunity to shape the growing dialogues around critical data studies. From technological redlining (Thatcher 2013; Dalton and Thatcher 2015) to humanitarianism and development (Burns forthcoming), to oft-unconsidered gendered nature of spatial information production (Stephens 2013), the spatial component of data influences what can be done and what can be known through it (Kwan 2002; Elwood 2010). In this quickly evolving body of research, scholars treat new data and analytics as partial and incomplete lenses through which we view social processes (boyd and Crawford 2012; Gabrys 2016). Such an approach emphasizes issues around epistemology, ontology, and knowledge production,
TL;DR: Zhang et al. as mentioned in this paper developed an innovative and flexible Bayesian spatial multilevel model to examine the sociospatial variations in perceived neighborhood satisfaction using a large-scale household satisfaction survey in Beijing.
Abstract: This article develops an innovative and flexible Bayesian spatial multilevel model to examine the sociospatial variations in perceived neighborhood satisfaction, using a large-scale household satisfaction survey in Beijing. In particular, we investigate the impact of a variety of housing tenure types on neighborhood satisfaction, controlling for household and individual sociodemographic attributes and geographical contextual effects. The proposed methodology offers a flexible framework for modeling spatially clustered survey data widely used in social science research by explicitly accounting for spatial dependence and heterogeneity effects. The results show that neighborhood satisfaction is influenced by individual, locational, and contextual factors. Homeowners, except those of resettlement housing, tend to be more satisfied with their neighborhood environment than renters. Moreover, the impacts of housing tenure types on satisfaction vary significantly in different neighborhood contexts and spatial loc...
TL;DR: In the last decades on the Spanish Mediterranean coastline there has been a great development of low-density urban areas, as well as a change in the sociodemographic structures, especially in t... as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: During the last decades on the Spanish Mediterranean coastline there has been a great development of low-density urban areas, as well as a change in the sociodemographic structures, especially in t...
TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper proposed that universities function as a sort of urban quasi-public good, and university campuses generate a variety of externalities that can be used by the public.
Abstract: China has witnessed unprecedented growth of its universities in recent years. Because they function as a sort of urban quasi-public good, university campuses generate a variety of externalities wit...
TL;DR: Global Madison as discussed by the authors is a mobile map designed to support teaching and learning about globalization using Madison, Wisconsin, as a situated classroom, which can be used to teach and learn about globalization.
Abstract: This article reports on the design and evaluation of Global Madison, a mobile map designed to support teaching and learning about globalization using Madison, Wisconsin, as a situated classroom. Ou...
TL;DR: In this article, emerging statistical techniques, combined with the increasing accessibility of primary social survey data, can provide policy-relevant tools for understanding how perceptions and behaviors vary geo-locally.
Abstract: Emerging statistical techniques, combined with the increasing accessibility of primary social survey data, can provide policy-relevant tools for understanding how perceptions and behaviors vary geo...
TL;DR: Using trade data submitted by United Nations member states from 1995 to 2013, this article contributed to understanding China's trade with Latin America by employing and building on the TECH score, which employed and built on the technology score.
Abstract: Using trade data submitted by United Nations member states from 1995 to 2013, this article contributes to understanding China's trade with Latin America. By employing and building on the TECH score...
TL;DR: In this article, the association between the institutional factor of union contract coverage rates among workers and the variation in income inequality across a set of sixty-four metropolitan areas of the US.
Abstract: We focus on the association between the institutional factor of union contract coverage rates among workers and the variation in income inequality across a set of sixty-four metropolitan areas of t...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate how a new retailer uses its location strategy to differentiate itself from the first mover by comparing the location patterns of two coffee chains by using a Bayesian spatial model to explore the two retailers' location patterns.
Abstract: In a competitive business environment, retailers brand themselves using unique location strategies New retailers, especially, use their location strategy to construct a different brand concept from that of the first mover Therefore, retail chains in the same industry show different location patterns This article aims to investigate how a new retailer uses its location strategy to differentiate itself from the first mover by comparing the location patterns of two coffee chains The location patterns of Starbucks Coffee (a “first mover” that employs a premium brand concept) and Ediya Coffee (a “new retail chain” that promotes an economical brand concept) are analyzed for the study We use a Bayesian spatial model to explore the two retailers' location patterns in Seoul, Korea Considerable differences are found in the spatial distribution patterns of the two coffee franchises Starbucks has formed store groupings in prime areas such as the city center based on its cluster location strategy, reflecting it
TL;DR: This article focuses specifically on the consumer users' concept of scale in this context, for Web-based maps' multiscalar views differentiate them from older maps.
Abstract: Consumer users of maps on mobile devices are producing noteworthy geographic knowledges in the contexts of their own lives that are distinct from those of professional data scientists. By leveraging the streaming nature of big data in mobile maps and zooming multiscalar views, consumer users' mobile map practices produce a popular, multiscalar form of visual geographic knowledge that is both enabled and limited by its big data assemblage and associated technologies. The first half of this article outlines the role of consumer user practices amidst spatial big data assemblages, not for volunteered geographic information or aggregate analysis but for contextual, everyday use. Consumer users and their knowledges are coconstituted through mobile map viewing and as materially limited technological practices. This article focuses specifically on the consumer users' concept of scale in this context, for Web-based maps' multiscalar views differentiate them from older maps. The second half analyzes mobile map cons...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on four steps in this process: initial community relationship forming, engaging in community service, transitioning to civic engagement, and developing a community-based research program.
Abstract: Community engagement curricula and course design can provide substantial experiences for both community members and participating students. Using a case study approach, this research focuses on four steps in this process: initial community relationship forming, engaging in community service, transitioning to civic engagement, and developing a community-based research program. Narrative examples from student course evaluations position these community-based experiences as transformative for multiple parties. Institutional structures are presented as helpful entrees to engagement for students, while noting that community relationships provide contextualized, powerful, and meaningful relationships, supporting recommendations for emerging and existing community engagement programs.
TL;DR: The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of an emerging theme within the subfield of nutritional geography the authors call the geography of malnutrition, and identify areas of research concerning malnutrition that are highly spatial but have yet to be effectively studied using geographic techniques.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of an emerging theme within the subfield of nutritional geography we call the geography of malnutrition Work relating to malnutrition is a high-priority research topic, with growing relevance to geographical concepts, but there is no overview of geographical approaches to this theme Using keyword searches in Google Scholar and Web of Science to obtain relevant publications, we identified the major foci of work within this theme: undernutrition, diseases that cause malnutrition, the nutrition transition, and critical and feminist approaches to malnutrition We review these foci, provide examples of prominent work, and identify areas of research concerning malnutrition that are highly spatial but have yet to be effectively studied using geographic techniques
TL;DR: The debate regarding geographic information systems (GIS) as tool, toolbox, or science still lingers in geography departments and among geographers as mentioned in this paper, and analysis of geographic information is a vital co...
Abstract: The debate regarding geographic information systems (GIS) as tool, toolbox, or science still lingers in geography departments and among geographers. Analysis of geographic information is a vital co...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed new knowledge of agriculture clearing sizes, spatial patterns, and relationships with roads in seven case study sites comprising 7,529 km2 using very high spatial resolution satellite imagery, plus clearings for agriculture, settlements and logging.
Abstract: Road building in Congo Basin forests has increased due to expansion of commercial logging, with potential to expose intact forests to greater establishment of agriculture. We developed new knowledge of agriculture clearing sizes, spatial patterns, and relationships with roads in seven case study sites comprising 7,529 km2. Using very high spatial resolution satellite imagery, we mapped roads and rivers, plus clearings for agriculture, settlements, and logging. Mapped clearings (N = 1,781) ranged in size from 0.008 ha to more than 300 ha; most were smallholder agriculture, with 64 percent ≤ 1 ha. Statistical tests of spatial pattern confirmed that agriculture occurred in an inhomogeneous-aggregated pattern, suggesting interactions with other landscape elements. Proximity analyses showed that 76 percent of clearings were within 1 km of a road or river. Thirty-five percent of agriculture clearings were within 1 km of main public roads built before 1990, compared to 17 percent for logging roads built after 20...
TL;DR: The authors discuss ways in which students can prepare for the changing directions of the academy as they participate in a community geography research training program, and contextualize lessons learned from creating community-based research experiences.
Abstract: As we train the next generation of scholars, we should be cognizant that the academy is increasingly being asked to justify its value to broader society. We discuss ways in which students can prepare for the changing directions of the academy as they participate in a community geography research training program. Our results reveal the impacts of our program, contextualize lessons learned from creating community-based research experiences, and provide data to support a framework for other scholars to develop community-based research training programs.
TL;DR: In the past decade, the women's employment rate has increased in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states as a result of improved female educational attainment and the expansion of the local market as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In the past decade, the women's employment rate has increased in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states as a result of improved female educational attainment and the expansion of the local market ec...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors paid attention to co-offenders' geographic background when examining cooffender groups and found that little attention has been paid to the geographic background of cooffenders.
Abstract: Co-offending refers to illegal activities that are committed by multiple parties together. Little attention has been paid to co-offenders' geographic background when examining co-offender groups. T...