Constructing a Social Justice Tour: Pedagogy,Race, and Student Learning through Geography

This article describes a high-impact learning project that combines geography, history, and ethnic studies. It describes the construction of the course, student outcomes, and the final and publicly presented collaborative project: the Social Justice Tour of Corvallis. Based on work in a small largely white town, this project presents a reproducible model for student learning and actively engaging with questions of race and geography.     

Defining Appalachia: Public Policy and Regional Dynamics in Appalachia's Low-income Counties, 1965-2000

Abstract

The extant literature on place location learning resolves in varying degrees that place location knowledge (PLK) is deficient in the United States and abroad. This is particularly true for younger school-attending age groups. This study has three main aims: to investigate the validity of that claim in regard to secondary-level students in Dublin by testing their PLK; to assess what characteristics of tested place locations render some sites more visible in students' eyes than others; and to investigate statistically what traits of the respondents shape their PLK. The implications of these findings on geographic education and future research are also discussed.     

Regional Urbanization,Spatial Justice,and Place

Revisiting work such as Edward Soja's Postmetropolis reminds us of the importance of a geographical perspective, as well as a thoroughly process oriented and dynamic consideration of the urban. Soja's work emphasizes multi-scalar processes that work to produce urbanization, and the complex, fragmented, and unequal spaces that result. Attention to spatial process and justice is essential, but is incomplete without consideration and real attention to the material and geographically embedded experiences of place that manifest urbanization in everyday life.     

Positionality and Active Learning: Confronting Privilege in Field-Exercise Design

Abstract

University instructors are increasingly drawing on active learning exercises to engender critical thinking skills among students. In this article, we introduce the design and implementation of an active learning exercise about mobility and transportation that we assigned in an introductory human geography class at the University of Georgia. The students' responses and the survey instrument we used to assess the effectiveness of the exercise revealed disappointing results and caused us to think carefully about the role of positionality in designing active learning exercises. In this article, we argue that we need to understand privilege—particularly class privilege—in order to design effective assignments.     

中、日都市旅游街区书法景观空间分异及其文化认同比较研究

以中国和日本两国都市旅游街区的商店招牌为研究对象,以北京琉璃厂、东京浅草寺作为传统旅游街区,以北京王府井、东京新宿作为更新型旅游街区,以南京新街口、东京银座作为都市现代商贸旅游街区,设计了特定的书法景观指数从不同空间尺度探讨了两国书法景观空间分异特征及文化认同的异同。结果表明：全球化背景下中、日两国对书法文化仍然存在的较强文化认同,书法景观作为一种文化符号,标识了城市内部象征空间的形成,表征着全球化背景下的社会与文化过程。虽然两国文字、民俗和书法传统的差异性导致两国在书法艺术的认同角度和形式上的差异,但两国书法景观在整体上具有城市空间分异规律和文化认同的一致性：在全球化的背景下,现代旅游街区的书法景观较之传统旅游街区已经弱化;书法景观在不同类型业态之间的差异则揭示了这种空间分异的形成机制。     

新时代背景下基于文化自信的文化传承与空间治理——“文化传承与空间治理”专栏解读

近年来由西方主导的文化在向全球扩散的过程中逐渐暴露出一系列问题,导致对西方化的全球化能否达到全球整合目标的质疑不断出现,“各美其美”“美美与共”的多样文化并存的观点受到关注。在新时代发展背景下,需要树立对于中国本土文化的自信,从地理学的研究视角来透视全球化格局的空间治理,回答中国文化的地方性如何传承、如何把握地方性知识的核心等命题。通过继承、创新和发扬中国文化,提高空间治理、地方融合的有效性。因此,地理学关于空间治理的研究,应更多关注本土和“地方”文化。本专栏旨在系统探讨空间治理中的文化传承以及文化（历史性、地方性、乡村性）因素对空间治理的影响,涉及地域文化信仰空间、传统城市空间、乡村社区空间、乡村性、地方文化、精英实践以及身体实践等多尺度、多领域的治理问题,主要围绕历史地理、乡村性以及地方性实践三个层面的空间治理展开,并对基于文化自信的空间治理研究进行了展望,认为文化治理中的地理问题和空间治理中的地方文化研究应该予以进一步深化。     

Popular Culture,Geopolitics, and Identity

Abstract

This study aims to theoretically investigate the notion of critical thinking for a more just understanding of self and “others” in global geographical learning. It focuses on the kinds of injustice in the world which are driven by our relationships with “others.” By drawing on the literature of critical education, philosophy of education, and geography education, this study reveals how universal notions of criticality tend to easily undermine those perceived as global others and may highlight, in deficit mode, their perceived differences. Instead, the study presents the imperative of deconstructive thinking for a more just world. The article concludes by proposing a teaching strategy for alternative criticality which strives for justice in school geography.     

Understanding the 24-Hour City: Engagement,Positionality, and the Coproduction of Knowledge

This article explores the production of geographic knowledge arising through civic engagement, using the example of a research course in Pittsburgh's South Side Flats neighborhood. Although civic engagement is a persistent feature in geography research and education, recent papers note that the term civic engagement conceals diverse practices and goals and that the outcomes of engagement are usually uncertain. In this article, I argue that attention must be paid to the positionality of stakeholder groups at all stages of the engagement process and that there are necessary limits to how participatory the coproduction of knowledge can be during a civic engagement course.     

Spatial Thinking Concepts in Early Grade-Level Geography Standards

ABSTRACT

Research in the cognition and learning sciences has demonstrated that the human brain contains basic structures whose functions are to perform a variety of specific spatial reasoning tasks and that children are capable of learning basic spatial concepts at an early age. There has been a call from within geography to recognize research on spatial cognition in a meaningful way in primary school curriculum. This article utilizes the spatial thinking taxonomy proposed by Gersmehl and Gersmehl (2006) to examine to the extent to which spatial thinking concepts are being practiced in U.S. schools. The National Geography Standards and forty-nine state social studies or geography standards are examined. Using standards as a measure of geography content, it is concluded that while some of spatial thinking concepts appear often in curriculum, others are largely absent. Designing geography standards that address the findings of spatial cognition research may serve as a means of improving geography instruction.     

Looking back and moving forward: Health geography in Aotearoa and beyond

Health geography in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) has had a major impact on international sub‐disciplinary debates. It is timely to celebrate our domestic health geography achievements and alert ourselves to the challenges ahead. This reflection article provides a brief overview of Aotearoa NZ's maturing health geography community and includes the reflections of a panel discussion held during the bi‐annual NZ Geographical Society conference in 2016. We argue that the eclectism of health geography in NZ and beyond is both the sub‐discipline's major strength and challenge.     

Telegraph Messenger Boys: Crossing the Borders between History of Technology and Human Geography

Abstract

Historians of telegraphy have traditionally focused on the system-builders who invented wire communications technologies and incorporated them into profit-making enterprises. Geographers of communications have traditionally traced the changes that the telegraph network wrought on the rank-size of cities and the speed of business. Both have ignored the history of the telegraph messenger boys and the “lived geography” of the telegraph network. This article summarizes a study of telegraph messengers as both active components of technological systems and laboring agents within produced urban spaces, bringing together the fields of both history of technology and human geography.

     

区域一体化研究综述：尺度、联系与边界

区域一体化是当今世界最具活力的经济现象之一,它是一个多维度的空间现象,也是一个多学科参与的科学问题。地理学独特的尺度、联系和边界视角对于理解区域一体化是如何改变世界经济格局及其对国家和区域发展的影响有重要意义。文章梳理了区域一体化理论和发展,以尺度、联系和边界的分析视角重新审视了快速发展的区域一体化进程,阐述了区域一体化的网络化特征和多维联系,重新定义了区域一体化中的多重边界,并从“全球―地方”联系的角度对区域一体化进程下有关区域和地方发展的研究进行了综述。区域一体化的实践表现出越来越多的网络特征,形成了以国家权力和关系为导向,涵盖多维度邻近的立体网络空间;区域一体化的边界效应重塑了全球经济格局,同时传统的领土边界依然重要;区域一体化的制度安排深刻影响了一国边境地区的发展和经济地理格局。最后,针对区域一体化,从尺度建构、内部联系、边界效应和多元分析框架等角度指出了亟待学界解决的一些问题,并展望了未来的研究趋势。     

The Impact of Paper Versus Digital Map Technology on Students' Spatial Thinking Skill Acquisition

This study investigates whether spatial learning outcomes differ with respect to different instructional media. Spatial thinking skills were tested pre- and postlesson implementation via the spatial thinking ability test as eighth grade students participated in either paper-based or digital map-based instruction. Students' attitudes toward geography, past travel experience, and demographic variables such as gender, were also examined to search for differences in spatial thinking skill development. Results of the study reveal that both paper and digital media aid in developing and improving spatial thinking skill acquisition among students.     

社会文化地理知识生产的表征与非表征维度

采用文献归纳和理论思辨法,对社会文化地理知识生产的表征和非表征表达、关系转换及权力政治等内容进行了系统分析。研究认为,表征的本质是作为替代品指代实物符号化的实践,非表征是动态性隐蔽对象显性化的实践。表征与非表征是社会文化地理知识生产的重要维度,两者具有同构性和互补性;出于差异化的逻辑抽象方式,两者又存在较大的表达区分。表征主要是对特殊意义"知识节点"的关注,具有共享性、社会性、说明性和稳定性;非表征主要是对非稳定性流动知识、活力性知识和关联性知识的关注,具有经验性和情境性、具身性和体验性、结构性和交互性;表征与非表征不仅具有内在关联性,也存在转换的必要性,这是人们积极应对社会文化地理知识认识论危机的一种可能方案,也是人们更加精确认识地理知识生产的前提和基础;随着后现代地理学语境的兴起,以及人们对话语、身份等要素的关注,社会文化地理知识生产的表征与非表征方式受到了权力政治因素的影响,这使表征和非表征实践具有了表达协商的意蕴,这一研究发现将创新并拓展对表征和非表征的传统理解。未来研究应多聚焦在表征和非表征的内涵解读、内容和方法呈现层面,这既有利于丰富社会文化地理知识生产的表达方式,也有利于...     

Telegraph Messenger Boys: Crossing the Borders between History of Technology and Human Geography*

Historians of telegraphy have traditionally focused on the system‐builders who invented wire communications technologies and incorporated them into profit‐making enterprises. Geographers of communications have traditionally traced the changes that the telegraph network wrought on the rank‐size of cities and the speed of business. Both have ignored the history of the telegraph messenger boys and the “lived geography” of the telegraph network. This article summarizes a study of telegraph messengers as both active components of technological systems and laboring agents within produced urban spaces, bringing together the fields of both history of technology and human geography.     

西方教育地理学研究评述与本土反思

近20 a来,西方教育地理学受马克思主义地理学以及社会文化地理学思想的影响,重新审视教育空间与社会结构的关联,从多维度进一步认识教育空间建构过程中的政治经济与社会文化机制。对西方教育地理学的产生和发展演变进行分析,并尝试从政治经济和社会文化两大视角,总结和归纳当前西方教育地理学研究的主要成果和内容。教育地理学是一门新兴而又发展迅猛的人文地理学分支,但该学科的理论和实证发展尚处于以西方为主导的阶段,强势的西方话语体系还未充分涉及和理解非西方国家背景下的教育现象。当前是非西方国家建构自身教育地理学理论特色,并与西方教育地理学研究展开理论和实践对话的重要机遇和窗口。中国拥有世界规模最大的教育群体,当前社会经济发展的转型和人口结构的改变也进一步塑造了教育空间的多样性和特殊性。总之,加深教育与空间关系的研究,增强教育地理学研究的中西对话,构建中国化的教育地理学研究体系,使教育空间成为考察中国社会经济转型的重要视角,是中国教育地理学研究未来应努力的方向。