Showing papers in "Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers in 1997"

Evaluating Qualitative Research in Social Geography: Establishing ‘Rigour’ in Interview Analysis

Abstract: A review of 31 empirical and eighteen substantive papers by qualitative social geographers mainly using in-depth interviews reveals little explicit reference to the principle(s) adopted to enhance ‘rigour’ and to ensure meaningful inference. Given the modest explicit discussion of evaluative criteria in these papers, a scheme from evaluation research itself is critically reviewed. A set of evaluation questions derived from this review and their application to an empirical piece of qualitative work frame an argument for a general set of criteria rather than rigid rules for assessing qualitative work. Such criteria can serve as anchor points for qualitative evaluation.

The ordinary city

Abstract: As debates on globalization have progressed from an earlier phase in which commentators saw the intensification of world-scale flows and processes as the negation of local identities and autonomies, the city has been ‘rediscovered’ as the powerhouse of the globalized economy. Against the view that questions, for example, the continued specificity of the urban in an era increasingly mediated by locationally liberating, advanced telecommunications and rapid transport networks, some strands of urban research assert that cities are becoming more important as the key creative, control and cultural centres within globalizing economic, cultural and social dynamics. Building on these strands, this paper evaluates the assets that cities and metropolitan regions provide in an era of globalization. It attempts to develop an alternative perspective on the city based on the idea that contemporary urban life is founded on the heterogeneity of economic, social, cultural and institutional assets, and concludes by using this perspective to develop implications for urban policy and the quest for social and territorial justice.

The imagineering of resistance: Pollok Free State and the practice of postmodern politics

Abstract: The conflict over the construction of the M77 motorway in Glasgow, Scotland, is an example of a subculture of resistance which has emerged within Britain over the past fifteen years. The paper focuses upon the actions of Glasgow Earth First!, with whom the author has participated, and on the role of Pollok Free State ‐ an ecological encampment located in the projected path of the motorway. Such resistance is characteristic of a postmodern political practice. It is heterogeneous, symbolic and extensively media-ted. It eschews the capture of state power but is a lived, immediate resistance, the experience of which may be transmitted over space and time.

The Making of a Regulatory Crisis: Restructuring New York City's Water Supply

Abstract: Much practically orientated environmental research is marked by a polarity between functionalist abstraction and ahistorical normative discourse. This paper seeks to bridge the divide between theoretical and empirical research through a case study of New York City's water supply. Current processes of socio-economic restructuring are leading to negative environmental consequences obscured by a failure to extend analysis beyond limited temporal, spatial or sectoral scales. Insights from regulationist theory show that a combination of fiscal, political and other developments are bringing about a wide-ranging reformulation of existing patterns of environmental regulation and service provision in the city. The power of the state is being radically diminished in relation to the power of capital and a plethora of different interest groups. A relatively simple centralized model of environmental regulation is being transformed into a complex decentralized pattern involving the emergence of new approaches to urban governance. Further research is needed on the contradictions between capitalist accumulation and environmental regulation at different spatial scales in order to link New York's changing role within the global economy to the declining political legitimacy and fiscal capability of the state to play an extensive role in environmental management.

Living lives in different ways? Deprivation, marginalisation and changing lifestyles in rural England

Abstract: In this paper, we summarize the findings of an extensive study of rural lifestyles in England carried out in the early 1990s. We address the notion that there are problematic features of rural life which are often characterized as 'deprivation'. In discussing both familiar research questions about externally defined problems and equally important questions about the different experiences of rural life, we suggest that research should move away from being reliant solely on normative criteria and move towards an approach which also encompasses the differences of experience of the changing material and cultural conditions of rural life. Accordingly, the main findings of the rural lifestyles research programme are discussed at least in part within a framework which responds to the different voices and reflections of the rural people concerned.

Rationalization and Conservation: Ecology and the Management of Nature in the United Kingdom

Abstract: Nature conservation in the UK comprises not only a response to the perceived impacts of rationalization on nature but is itself a dimension of that process of rationalization. The paper describes the development of conservation institutions and ideologies in the UK and considers the ways in which ecology (and particularly ideas of nature as equilibrium) have provided the intellectual framework for conservation. Ecology underpinned the establishment of government conservation institutions, provided intellectual strategies for classifying and objectifying nature, and provided the knowledge base for the control and management of nature. The paper discusses the implications of non-equilibrial ideas in ecology for ideas and practice in conservation and the implications of responses to them in the form of re-rationalization.

Stretching the Limits: Environmental Compensation, Habitat Creation and Sustainable Development

Abstract: The rationales for ecological and landscape engineering are becoming absorbed within economistic interpretations of sustainable development grounded in maintaining ‘environmental capital’ These interpretations incorporate the possibility of compensating for the adverse impacts of development with environmental benefits of equivalent worth, thus maintaining the ‘stock’ Habitat creation is an important form of this ‘environmental compensation’ This paper explores the conflicts surrounding environmental compensation as sustainable development is translated into policy and practice in the British planning system The extent to which environment damage can be meaningfully compensated raises difficult questions of environmental values and technical expertise Analysis at two levels – national planning policy and the negotiation of compensatory habitat creation for a specific development scheme – indicates that the pursuit of environmental compensation through present planning processes can serve to accommodate development interests Furthermore, claims about the manageability of environmental impacts help legitimize particular patterns of economic growth

The Imperial Subject: Geography and Travel in the Work of Mary Kingsley and Halford Mackinder

Abstract: How do places shape and interact with subjectivity? By exploring how a change of location had implications for the way the effects of imperialism were registered, this paper shows how imperialism shaped subjectivity both at home and abroad. It takes the travels and mountain climbing of Mary Kingsley and Halford Mackinder as case studies for a consideration of gender as an effect and as a part of these processes.

The Production of British Geography

Abstract: This paper is a sociological study of British geography in the mid-1990s. Drawing upon interviews with 40 academic geographers, it considers themes of competition and regulation, and disciplinary and patriarchal power. The interview transcripts inform an account of a complex set of (partial and uneven) transitions in the political, cultural and moral economy within which geography is reproduced.

Planning for sea-level rise on the south coast of England: advising the decision makers

Abstract: Sea-level rise and its possible implications for shoreline management are explored in a case study of the south coast of England. Scientific understanding of the significance of likely physical changes for local environments is discussed. Appropriate management reactions are identified from an analysis of available policy options. Results illustrate how scientific information may be translated by geographers from global to local scales and made accessible for policy-makers, environmental managers and public discussion. Local factors are more important than commonly perceived, not only in terms of understanding impacts upon physical systems but also in formulating mitigating policies that are politically and socially acceptable.

Contested Regulatory Practice and the Implementation of Food Policy: Exploring the Local and National Interface

Abstract: There is growing geographical interest in the nature of the ‘real’ regulation of the food system. The food ‘scares’ of the late 1980s in the UK encouraged new legislation relating to food hygiene and safety. Its local implementation created tensions which were exacerbated by the legislative consequences of the Single European Market. In response, national-level regulatory adjustments followed, which introduced new codes of practice and techniques of hazard analysis for implementation at the local level. The result was a consolidation of a system of food regulation that can be applied differentially across the ‘tiers’ of retailing. This paper explores the regulatory contentions of the early 1990s in the food policy arena and the nature of food regulation at the local level. It advances our understanding of the ‘construction’ of food quality and safety within the UK. Moreover, we argue that its depiction of the dialectical response between policy formulation and implementation confirms the need for local, as well as national level, exploration of the nature of the contemporary state.

Managing Water Quality in Agricultural Catchments

Abstract: Until recently, pollution control in rural drainage basins of the UK consisted solely of water treatment at the point of abstraction. However, prevention of agricultural pollution at source is now a realistic option given the possibility of financing the necessary changes in land use through modification of the Common Agricultural Policy. This paper uses a nutrient export coefficient model to examine the cost of land-use change in relation to improvement of water quality. Catchment-wide schemes and local protection measures are considered. Modelling results underline the need for integrated management of entire drainage basins. A wide range of benefits may accrue from land-use change, including enhanced habitats for wildlife as well as better drinking water.

The electoral geography of recession: Local economic conditions, public perceptions and the economic vote in the 1992 British general election

Abstract: Recent debates in the analysis of electoral behaviour indicate the importance of local economic conditions in accounting for the geography of the vote. Where local economies are strong and strengthening, support for the government is high; where local economies are weak, government support is low. However, research has been hampered by a lack of appropriate data on local economic conditions. In this paper, some newly available estimates of local economic conditions and of voters' perceptions of their regional economies are employed to provide insights into how local economic context affected voter choice at the 1992 British general election. A three-stage analysis reveals the importance of voters' evaluations of their regional economy: these evaluations were not reducible to voters' evaluations of the national economy or of their own domestic situations; they were shaped by economic conditions in particular places. But distinct regional variations in British voting persist, even when we control for local economic conditions. The housing slump stood out as an important factor in influencing voters' perceptions, although voters experiencing mortgage difficulties in 1992 did not appear to change their vote as a result. Labour gained support in seats which were badly affected by negative equity.

A Geomorphological Approach to the Ecological Management of Rivers in the Kruger National Park: The Case of the Sabie River

Abstract: The management of river systems in conservation areas in South Africa is problematic: a policy for the provision of water for conservation is still evolving and many rivers (being bedrock-controlled and with highly variable flows) do not conform to established alluvial river theory. A framework is developed for predicting changes in river state under different (natural and controlled) flow regimes. The approach involves river classification at ecologically relevant scales, conceptual modelling, process monitoring and mathematical modelling. The ecological relevance of the approach is demonstrated and the results form an appropriate base from which conservationists can negotiate with other water users.

Space, Time and Sustainability in the Hadejia‐Jama'are Wetlands and the Komodugu Yobe Basin, Nigeria

Abstract: Debates about sustainability still take insufficient account of the significance of space and time. In this paper, their significance is demonstrated empirically through an account of the complex environmental and socio-economic impacts of dam construction on flood-plain wetlands in the Hadejia-Jama'are river basin in Nigeria. Socio-economic data from a rapid rural appraisal exercise and household questionnaire survey (data on patterns of production in the flood plain and patterns of mobility) are appraised in the context of patterns of environmental change and of inundation (analysis of riparian vegetation and time-series aerial photographs). The paper concludes that sustainable river basin development requires more attention to be paid to the perspectives derived from different scales of analysis. This calls for appropriate institutions allowing communication at the interface between village-level producer and river basin manager.

Property and Propriety: Jewish Landlords in Early Twentieth-Century Toronto

Abstract: Drawing on literatures on the social construction of place and identity, and on the changing nature of urban property ownership, this paper examines Jewish immigrants to Toronto as housing landlords, situating their activities in the context of wider changes in the city's housing market and of their needs to raise capital, achieve status and foster group identity. Using archival and newspaper evidence to reconstruct the behaviour of individual landlords, it is argued that ownership of inner-city property fulfilled numerous functions, especially related to other aspects of business proprietorship, but that it also accentuated the geographical concentration of poorer Jews, with critical implications for their relations with non-Jews.

Reshaping Environments: Agriculture and Water Interactions and the Creation of Vulnerability

Abstract: With reference to empirical evidence from the Caribbean and Brazil, the paper assesses how environmental vulnerability is being created through different types of agricultural intensification and abandonment. Critical to understanding this reshaping of environments is the social management of agriculture and water. The results suggest the need for new models of agro-water relations which incorporate internal and external market influences on food production and resource management. External demands for the quality of food products, over and above the environmental or labour conditions in which they are produced, tend to devalue environments and exacerbate vulnerability. These processes lead to new patterns of environmental uneven development whereby regions rapidly intensify or deintensify their agricultures and their use and availability of water.

Envisioning Future Landscapes in the Environmentally Sensitive Areas of Scotland

Abstract: Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) designated under EC Structure Regulation 797/85 now cover 1.4 million ha of the Scottish countryside and are likely to make a substantial contribution to the regulation of landscape change. Visual changes to landscapes with (policy on) and without (policy off) the ESA programme in two Scottish ESA areas, Breadalbane and the Machair, are predicted through impact-assessment procedures and computer manipulation of photographic images. The methodological requirements for such predictions are outlined and substantial differences in landscape characteristics under policy on/off scenarios are revealed. Such approaches to landscape change are an essential foundation for the development of environmental cost-benefit analyses and will contribute to public consultation processes.