Researching female sex work: reflections on geographical exclusion, critical methodologies and 'useful' knowledge

Summary Against the backdrop of ongoing debates about the nature of 'critical' geography, this paper considers the importance of intensive, action-oriented and conversational research methodologies in providing a 'Voice' to excluded populations. The distinct contribution of such methods to the understanding of exclusion is illustrated with reference to research on female prostitution, drawing on the author's own experiences as well as those of feminist researchers in health and the social sciences. However, the paper concludes by comparing the emancipatory potential of such qualitative methods with more quantitative approaches, arguing that no one method can be prioritized in the search for 'useful' know.     

Qualitative GIS and the visualization of narrative activity space data

Qualitative activity space data, i.e. qualitative data associated with the routine locations and activities of individuals, are recognized as increasingly useful by researchers in the social and health sciences for investigating the influence of environment on human behavior. However, there has been little research on techniques for exploring qualitative activity space data. This research illustrates the theoretical principles of combining qualitative and quantitative data and methodologies within the context of geographic information systems (GIS), using visualization as the means of inquiry. Through the use of a prototype implementation of a visualization system for qualitative activity space data and its application in a case study of urban youth we show how these theoretical methodological principles are realized in applied research. The visualization system uses a variety of visual variables to simultaneously depict multiple qualitative and quantitative attributes of individuals' activity spaces. The visualization is applied to explore the activity spaces of a sample of urban youth participating in a study on the geographic and social contexts of adolescent substance use. Examples demonstrate how the visualization can be used to explore individual activity spaces to generate hypotheses, investigate statistical outliers, and explore activity space patterns among subject subgroups.     

Identifying Stakeholder Groups in Natural Resource Management: Comparing Quantitative and Qualitative Social Network Approaches

Abstract

This study compares the efficiency of two analytic approaches—qualitative and quantitative—to social network analysis for identifying stakeholder groups. Social network data were collected from 23 water and agriculture stakeholders in Arizona, USA, and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Analysis of the sample in the original order of data collection found qualitative analysis was more efficient, in that it yielded a stable result—the identification of four stakeholder groups—within 16 interviews. In contrast, the quantitative analysis did not produce a stable result after 23 interviews. Repeated analyses with randomized order and reverse order samples found qualitative approaches yielded more stable results, took about the same number of interviews to yield results, and produced slightly fewer stakeholder groups compared to quantitative approaches. Our findings suggest that, in resource-constrained projects, qualitative social network analysis for identifying stakeholder groups can provide an efficient alternative to conventional quantitative social network analysis.     

社会感知视角下的若干人文地理学基本问题再思考

近年来,不同类型大数据在地理研究中得到了越来越多的重视,许多学者基于手机、社交媒体、出租车等数据开展了大量实证研究。社会感知概念刻画了地理空间大数据基于大量人的行为时空模式获取地理环境特征的的技术手段,该手段有助于重新审视地理学研究中的一些基本问题,因而本文选择了空间分布和空间交互这两个基本地理概念以及定性方法和定量方法这两个人文地理基本研究方法展开讨论。大数据从微观个体和宏观群体两个层面同时感知空间分布和空间交互,可以定量分析其中的距离以及尺度效应。进而,由于小样本访谈人群和场所是定性研究的基础,而大数据可以通过定量方法识别特定人群和场所并进行刻画,因此,社会感知手段为集成定性和定量研究方法,构建混合地理学奠定了基础。     

多维邻近性对区域创新合作网络形成的影响——基于江浙沪医学科研机构的实证

本文以Web of Science数据库的合著论文信息为基础构建江浙沪区域医学科研机构合作网络,采用计量分析与半结构化访谈相结合的方式从宏观和微观层面考察多维邻近性（地理邻近性、制度邻近性、社会邻近性、认知邻近性和文化邻近性）对该区域医学领域创新合作网络形成的影响,并进一步讨论了地理邻近性和非地理邻近性之间的交互效应（替代效应或互补效应）。综合定量与定性分析结果,研究发现：① 地理邻近性、制度邻近性、社会邻近性和认知邻近性对该区域医学创新合作网络的形成有促进作用,而文化邻近性的作用不显著;② 地理邻近性与制度邻近性之间存在替代效应;③ 地理邻近性与社会邻近性、认知邻近性之间均存在互补效应;④ 地理邻近性与文化邻近性之间不存在显著的交互效应。     

Bridging the Qualitative–Quantitative Divide in Transport Geography∗

Recent viewpoints concerning the state of research in transport geography have touched on the issue of insularity and the need to bridge the divide between the largely spatial–analytical or quantitative research in transport geography and the critical or qualitative research prevalent in urban, economic, and most other subfields of human geography. Transport geography has been criticized by some for being a quiet corner of our discipline that has lost its centrality largely because it remains within the analytical framework of the 1960s. This article explores these sentiments by reexamining recent transport-oriented research in highly cited geography journals to assess the degree to which the qualitative–quantitative divide exists within transport geography and between transport and other subfield in human geography, as well as to explore issues of productivity and centrality of transport-oriented research in geography. Results indicate that geographical research involving transport topics is much more prevalent and reflects a wider range of epistemological and methodological approaches than is frequently assumed. Nevertheless, there is still a considerable divide between “mainstream” transport geography and other human geographical research that necessitates much more interaction between transport and other subfields and greater incorporation of alternative research approaches within the mainstream of transport geography. To that end, we propose a preliminary critical transport geography research agenda that is open to a variety of methodological approaches, including quantitative analysis.     

Maps,Numbers, Text,and Context: Mixing Methods in Feminist Political Ecology*

Feminist post-structuralist theory, feminist empiricism, and field practice can all contribute to insights on the value of quantitative and qualitative methods in feminist geographical research. A political ecology study of gendered interests in a social forestry program in the Dominican Republic illustrates the methodological dilemmas and potentials of feminist research on environmental change. The study combined qualitative and quantitative data collection and analytical techniques. Examples from the case study address three methodological questions in feminist geography: (1) Should identity or affinity be the basis for situating ourselves and the subjects of our research? (2) How can we reconcile multiple subjectivities and quantitative methods in the quest for objectivity? and (3) Can we combine traditional positivist methods with participatory mapping and oral histories? The paper draws on theoretical literature as well as field experience to answer these questions.     

代表性人口空间分布数据集的精度评价——以2010年广东省为例

以人口密度差异显著的广东省为研究区,比较Worldpop、GPW v4和2种中国公里网格人口分布数据集的空间分布一致性,并以第六次全国人口普查数据为真值,按人口密度分为高、中、低3组,从误差的数值分布和空间分布两方面定量评价4种数据集的精度,最后讨论估算误差的可能来源及数据适用性。结果表明,4种网格人口数据集中Worldpop整体精度最高,且在人口密集区的精度也是最高;GPW v4在低人口密度和中人口密度区域精度略高于Worldpop,但对镇街内人口分布细节刻画不够详细;2种中国公里网格人口分布数据集精度较前两者低,主要受空间化方法和模型变量的选择所限制。Worldpop适合用于人口密度中等及人口密度高区域的精细化研究,GPW v4适合用于长时序、最小研究单元大于镇街的研究,第一种中国公里网格人口分布数据集适合用于需要考虑镇街内人口分布和空间异质性的研究,第二种中国公里网格人口分布数据集适用于需要考虑人口分布细节和空间格局变化的长时序研究。     

Climate and causation in the Swedish Iron Age: learning from the present to understand the past

The paper reassesses the role of climate as a factor shaping changes in settlement and landscape in the Swedish Iron Age (500 BC–AD 1050). Two reasons motivate this re-evaluation. First, high-resolution data based on climate proxies from the natural sciences are now increasingly available. Second, the climate-related social sciences have yielded conceptual and theoretical developments regarding vulnerability and adaptability in the present and recent past, creating new ways to analyse the effects of climatic vs. societal factors on societies in the more distant past. Recent research in this field is evaluated and the explicitly climate deterministic standpoint of many recent natural science texts is criticized. Learning from recent approaches to climate change in the social sciences is crucial for understanding society–climate relationships in the past. The paper concludes that we are not yet in a position to fully evaluate the role of the new evidence of abrupt climate change in 850 BC, at the beginning of the Iron Age. Regarding the crisis in the mid-first millennium AD, however, new climate data indicate that a dust veil in AD 536–537 might have aggravated the economic and societal crisis known from previous research.     

Cartographic Visualization: An Assessment and Epistemological Review*

This article examines the concept of cartographic visualization. The value of cartographic visualization as an essential component in the study of geographic phenomena is discussed. Ontological and epistemological perspectives are addressed, with examinations of positivist, realist, postmodern, feminist, and anarchist approaches to visualization. Critiques of cartographic visualization from social theorists and quantitative positivists are presented. The author asserts that cartographic visualization is not restricted to any one particular epistemological framework but may combine methods of knowledge production. For comprehensive analysis of spatial data, cartographic visualization must be included along with other qualitative and quantitative analysis.     

西方国家社区依恋研究

文章对西方国家的“社区依恋”研究进行了回顾总结,首先将社区依恋和地方依恋2个概念进行了对比,之后分为线性发展模型、系统模型和多因素模型等3个发展阶段介绍了社区依恋的研究阶段,并总结了社区依恋的研究方法和影响因素。研究方法主要有以深度访谈、话语分析和图形法等为主的质性研究方法和以问卷调查、测量量表和统计分析为主的量性研究方法,亦有将两者相结合的综合研究方法;影响因素则主要集中在3个方面：人口统计学因素、社会因素和物质环境因素。最后指出,中国的社区依恋研究应充分考虑中国国情,探索适合自身的理论与方法,综合质性与量性研究方法,针对中国丰富多样的社区类型和具有中国特色的影响因素展开研究,为中国相关政策的制定提供依据。     

空间数据挖掘的地理案例推理方法及试验

从空间数据挖掘的角度谈地理案例推理方法,认为地理案例推理是面向问题的一种空间数据挖掘方法。针对这一思想进行了基于地理案例的空间数据挖掘具体算法介绍。首先在明确地理案例具体定义的基础上,给出了面向问题的空间数据挖掘地理案例界定和组织方法;其次,鉴于地理空间的自然地带性和区域分异性规律的影响,深入探讨了地理案例自身或其间所可能存在的相互依赖和相互制约关系,并给出了采用粗糙集方法进行地理案例内蕴空间关系的定量挖掘方法;第三,针对地理案例表达时考虑的空间特征和空间关系的不同,给出了三种状况下的空间相似性计算模型;最后,以土地利用这一典型的地学现象为例,给出具体实例,一方面进行土地利用问题的定量分析与推测;另一方面,通过实例展示地理案例推理方法在地学问题求解以及空间数据定量分析上的特点和优势。     

The Coproduction of Peri‐Urban Space

Expanding beyond narrow approaches of understanding postapartheid space, this research analyzes the social relations contributing to land use patterns and livelihood decisions as manifestations of the coproduction of space. Drawing on a detailed livelihood and land‐change analysis case study of Polokwane, South Africa, it is argued that combinations of social processes across scales contribute to the production of peri‐urban South Africa and offer an uncommon mixed‐methods approach by combining qualitative ethnographic interviews, quantitative survey data, and land‐cover change detection. The peri‐urban interface is coproduced as individuals participate in multiple livelihood activities (wage labor, businesses, social programs) and changing land use patterns (residential, urban, mixed use) through negotiations at multiple scales—from macrolevel economic policy to local labor regimes.     

社会科学和公共政策的空间化和GIS的应用

近年来社会科学的发展出现三大潮流,即“科学化”(强调借用自然科学的计量分析方法和模型)、“空间化”(关注社会经济现象的空间变化和相互作用) 和“应用化”(侧重于政策性规划性强的实用课题)。空间化的社会科学,尤其是应用研究离不开地理信息系统(GIS) 方法的应用,因为GIS 在整合、分析各种数据尤其是空间数据方面有独特优势。本文举例演示GIS 在相关领域(如经济学、语言历史、社会学特别是犯罪学、公共卫生和规划)的广泛应用。选取的案例来源于笔者多年研究的经验,包括美国联邦政府多家研究机构(NSF、NIH、NIJ) 资助的多项研究成果,旨在说明GIS在社会科学和公共政策研究中的应用价值。     

适应自然灾害的研究方法进展

自然灾害损失虽然不可避免, 但可通过调整人类活动规避或减轻风险, 实现人类社会与自然灾害共存的协调适应。本文基于适应自然灾害研究发展的历程, 综述了现有适应性研究中的定性和定量研究方法。前者主要集中在对多尺度的适应主体综合分析、底层家庭或群体适应以及顶层的政策适应等方面;而后者主要集中在生态系统适应、民众或区域适应对策优选及适应能力评估等方面。基于数理模型或者实地观测实验的定量评估以及多指标、多标准的综合评估方法是适应自然灾害定量研究的主流。研究表明:①适应自然灾害研究有向综合性和精细化方向发展的趋势, 一些系统综合分析方法以及本地乡土的适应自然灾害逐渐引起重视。②目前适应自然灾害研究方法上存在自上而下与自下而上两种研究途径, 而探索这两种途径有效结合的多尺度综合研究方法是适应自然灾害研究的关键。     

A review of historical reconstruction methods of land use/land cover

Understanding long-term human-environment interactions requires historical reconstruction of past land-use and land-cover changes. Most reconstructions have been based primarily on consistently available and relatively standardized information from historical sources. Based on available data sources and a retrospective research, in this paper we review the approaches and methods of the digital reconstruction and analyze their advantages and possible constraints in the following aspects: (1) Historical documents contain qualitative or semi-quantitative information about past land use, which also usually include land-cover data, but preparation of archival documents is very time-consuming. (2) Historical maps and pictures offer visual and spatial quantitative land-cover information. (3) Natural archive has significant advantages as a method for reconstructing past vegetation and has its unique possibilities especially when historical records are missing or lacking, but it has great limits of rebuilding certain land-cover types. (4) Historical reconstruction models have been gradually developed from empirical models to mechanistic ones. The method does not only reconstruct the quantity of land use/cover in historical periods, but it also reproduces the spatial distribution. Yet there are still few historical land-cover datasets with high spatial resolution. (5) Reconstruction method based on multiple-source data and multidisciplinary research could build historical land-cover from multiple perspectives, complement the missing data, verify reconstruction results and thus improve reconstruction accuracy. However, there are challenges that make the method still in the exploratory stage. This method can be a long-term development goal for the historical land-cover reconstruction. Researchers should focus on rebuilding historical land-cover dataset with high spatial resolution by developing new models so that the study results could be effectively applied in simulations of climatic and ecological effects.     

行为地理学研究的方法论问题

行为地理学研究正成为人文地理学的一大热点。时代呼唤具有中国特色的行为地理学研究理论与方法。文章探讨行为地理学研究中的方法论问题,强调微观个体行为与整体社会的结合、短期行为与长期行为的结合、主观能动性与客观制约的结合、定量研究与质性分析的结合等,并试图提出一个行为研究的整体性框架。     

土地利用/覆被历史重建方法(英文)

Understanding long-term human-environment interactions requires historical reconstruction of past land-use and land-cover changes. Most reconstructions have been based primarily on consistently available and relatively standardized information from historical sources. Based on available data sources and a retrospective research, in this paper we review the approaches and methods of the digital reconstruction and analyze their advantages and possible constraints in the following aspects:(1) Historical documents contain qualitative or semi-quantitative information about past land use, which also usually include land-cover data, but preparation of archival documents is very time-consuming.(2) Historical maps and pictures offer visual and spatial quantitative land-cover information.(3) Natural archive has significant advantages as a method for reconstructing past vegetation and has its unique possibilities especially when historical records are missing or lacking, but it has great limits of rebuilding certain land-cover types.(4) Historical reconstruction models have been gradually developed from empirical models to mechanistic ones. The method does not only reconstruct the quantity of land use/cover in historical periods, but it also reproduces the spatial distribution. Yet there are still few historical land-cover datasets with high spatial resolution.(5) Reconstruction method based on multiple-source data and multidisciplinary research could build historical land-cover from multiple perspectives, complement the missing data, verify reconstruction results and thus improve reconstruction accuracy. However, there are challenges that make the method still in the exploratory stage. This method can be a long-term development goal for the historical land-cover reconstruction. Researchers should focus on rebuilding historical land-cover dataset with high spatial resolution by developing new models so that the study results could be effectively applied in simulations of climatic and ecological effects.