GATEKEEPERS AND KEYMASTERS: DYNAMIC RELATIONSHIPS OF ACCESS IN GEOGRAPHICAL FIELDWORK*

ABSTRACT. This article contributes to a recent and growing body of literature exploring the nature of fieldwork in human geography. Specifically, we critically examine the role of gatekeepers in providing access to “the field,” based on existing conceptualizations of gatekeepers in the literature and on our own experiences with gatekeepers. We argue that the concept of gatekeepers has been oversimplified, in that relationships between researchers and gatekeepers are often assumed to be unidirectional—with gatekeepers controlling or providing access by researchers—and predominantly static in form and time. Although we accept the necessity and advantages of working through gatekeepers, our experiences suggest that relationships with them are highly complex and evolve over time, with sometimes unexpected implications for research. In gathering and analyzing data, researchers become gatekeepers themselves, what we are calling “keymasters.” Reconceptualizing the gatekeeper‐researcher relationship will contribute to ongoing efforts to more fully understand field‐workers as undertaking a practice inherently political, personal, and linked to the production of knowledge.     

Trump's America or the People's America? A View from the Periphery

My overarching argument in this article is that the United States is no different than any other country in the world in that its population has elected good leaders and bad. As in other places, global and national neoliberal economic reforms have affected the U.S. economy, hallowing out the manufacturing sector, shrinking government and social safety nets, and fostering income inequality. This has left various U.S. publics struggling to make ends meet and vulnerable to demagoguery. Although the country prides itself on the strength of its institutions, institutions are no more than social contracts that need to be assiduously maintained by civil society. Although there is a strong “ivory tower” tradition in U.S. academe, the republic needs scholars—acting as public intellectuals—to fully participate in civic debates if it is to have a sufficiently robust civil society that maintains and defends its democracy and institutions. This article is divided into three sections. First, I briefly review the Trump administration's proposals for international development and diplomacy, giving particular attention to these issues in the African context. Second, I present an argument for why the United States needs public intellectuals now more than ever. Third, I share some concrete advice on how geographers might better connect with various publics.     

MAPS AND METAPHORS

It has been argued that the confusion surrounding the term map in the expression, mental map, renders the expression meaningless. The confusion can be removed if we consider two sources of misunderstanding. First, there is a failure to appreciate the complex, double role that the map plays in our analogical thinking, and second, there is a failure to distinguish between the map as metaphor and the map as analogy.     

国际区域经济韧性研究进展——基于演化论的理论分析框架介绍①

区域韧性在中国已成为新兴研究热点,然而国内学者依然将韧性研究局限于均衡论的认识论范畴内。本文首先通过回顾国际最新研究动态从认识论层面辨析均衡论和演化论这两种韧性认知视角的本质区别,由此介绍西方经济韧性的演化论转向。然后从宏观和微观角度阐述演化论视角下区域韧性的形成机制,介绍相关定量测度方法;在此基础上形成系统的西方最新有关研究经济韧性的理论分析框架。未来研究应该在演化论视角基础上强化演化经济地理、创新地理(区域知识网络)和区域韧性这三个研究分支的联系,还应该加强产业历史演化过程的案例研究,并利用专利数据等开放数据源构建产业空间基础数据库。     

Intimate Distance: The Unconscious Dimensions of the Rapport Between Researcher and Researched

To explore how psychoanalysis might contribute to the methodology of human geography, this article returns to Freud's experiences of psycho-logical analysis before he develops psychoanalysis as a distinct understanding of the mind, identity formation, and subjectivity. Going back over the early history of psychoanalysis, Freud's psychoanalysis can be seen as an attempt to solve a set of problems inherent in late nineteenth-century psycho-logical analysis. Thus, it is possible to cast his methodological solutions in a new light. In particular, this article explores the problems associated with the unconscious rapport that developed in the therapeutic use of hypnotism in the cure of hysterical symptoms, for both doctor and patient. Freud's techniques can be seen as a way to produce an appropriate detachment—or intimate distance—between himself and his clients. This intimate distance is instructive. As a corrective to certain trajectories within human geography, this article identifies five methodological propositions that might inform future research.     

居住—就业平衡与城市通勤——以上海普陀区为例

居住—就业平衡一直是城市规划界关注的热点之一。国内外规划学界对于能否解决居住—就业平衡问题以及是否有必要解决有着争论。通过对上海市普陀区居民进行随机抽样调查,得出上海市普陀区居民的通勤物理距离、时间距离和费用距离都在加大以及居住—就业匹配失衡情况较严重等结论。这种失衡加剧的可能原因是级差地租、市场经济下的政策和高房价,同时在市场机制下人们的选择较为复杂,通过规划实现居住和就业的就地平衡较为困难。因此,现阶段的重点仍应放在大力发展公共交通、提高公共交通的吸引力上,同时减少高峰时段私家车和非必要公务用车的使用,中远期应探索更好的解决方案。     

Bringing the other into political ecology: Reflecting on preoccupations in a research field

For all its vitality political ecology often appears to be a project in which work by Anglo‐Americans in particular, if it is not privileged, certainly predominates. This trend reflects wider language and intellectual tendencies in human geography and the social sciences that distort the development of the field by downplaying or obscuring the contributions of many non‐Anglo‐Americans and by naturalizing Anglo‐American assumptions at the heart of research. The latter in turn determine what constitutes ‘good’ work – even as there is no single definition of political ecology. Arguing against this tendency, this paper draws on postcolonial thinking to emphasize the need to reassess and reorient the field as ‘other’ political ecologies are feasible and desirable.     

A Long Way to Go: Collective Paths to Racial Justice in Geography

Despite decades of recognition and worry about diversity, our discipline remains persistently white. That is, it is dominated by white bodies and it continues to conform to norms, practices, and ideologies of whiteness. This is a loss. At best, it limits the possibilities and impact of our work as geographers. At worst, it perpetuates harmful exclusions in our discipline: its working environments, its institutions, and its knowledge production. This remains deeply concerning for many geographers, and there has been important research, commentary, and institutional activity over the years. Yet, research shows us that little meaningful progress has been made. We know that mentoring is one vital part of the journey toward change. As such, we reflect here on our experience developing a research collective built on a transformative mentoring practice. We outline the key challenges, strategies, and tentative successes of the collective in supporting women of color undergraduate, graduate, and faculty geographers, arguing that such feminist formations are a vital part of the path to intellectual racial justice in our field. Key Words: diversity, feminist geography, higher education, mentoring, race.     

Gender vs. Sex Differences: Factors Affecting Performance in Geographic Education

Abstract

Much has been written about sex differences in learning, but less attention has been paid to the impacts of gender—which is socially constructed—on learning geography. This article investigates whether differences in gender influence performance on a standardized test of geography knowledge. Undergraduate students in two large clases completed a standardized inventory of gender differences and then completed a standardized test of geography knowledge. The results of our analysis of the correlation between gender traits and geographic learning resulted in somewhat unexpected results, as well as a set of complex questions for further research on learning styles in geographic education.     

Research Associates and the Production of Knowledge in the Field

This article introduces an important, but overlooked, actor—the research associate—into methodological discussions about the production of knowledge. We use the term research associate (rather than assistant) to encompass the individuals on whom researchers rely while conducting fieldwork. We seek to avoid the unidirectional hierarchy and power dynamics between researchers and associates, which place the researcher as expert and knowledge producer while obscuring the diversity of roles conducted by field associates. Therefore, throughout this article we examine and destabilize power dynamics and hierarchies and widen the range of what is considered research assistance in the coproduction of knowledge. We also highlight the ways in which geopolitics are written into encounters with ourselves and research associates, encounters that render and reveal the complexities of vulnerability and bodily risk in fieldwork. The goals of this article are threefold: to (1) introduce the influential role of research associates during the production and dissemination of knowledge, (2) situate the work of research associates in both fieldwork and methodological literature, and (3) problematize the invisibility of research associates in academic publications and discuss possible alternatives to how authorship is credited.     

Insurgent participation: consensus and contestation in planning the redevelopment of Berlin-Tempelhof airport

Despite decades of debate, participatory planning continues to be contested. More recently, research has revealed a relationship between participation and neoliberalism, in which participation works as a post-political tool—a means to depoliticize planning and legitimize neoliberal policy-making. This article argues that such accounts lack attention to the opportunities for opposing neoliberal planning that may be inherent within participatory processes. In order to further an understanding of the workings of resistance within planning, it suggests the notion of insurgent participation—a mode of contentious intervention in participatory approaches. It develops this concept through the analysis of various participatory approaches launched to regenerate the former airport Berlin-Tempelhof. A critical reading of participation in Tempelhof reveals a contradictory process. Although participatory methods worked to mobilize support for predefined agendas, their insurgent participation also allowed participants to criticize and shape the possibilities of engagement, challenge planning approaches and envision alternatives to capitalist imperatives.     

Will It Play in Peoria?

The election of Donald Trump as the president of the United States has provided a final chance for geographers to intellectually engage with the public. Geographers should do this through our niche—the clear understanding of the importance of location—and connect the local with the global. In doing so, it is our responsibility to make the case to the public, without diluting the academic rigor. Although there are many challenges in such a venture outside academe, especially given geography's lack of recognition among the U.S. public, it is our civic duty to engage via public intellectualism.     

近40年来的中国人口地理学——一个跨学科研究领域的进展①

本文对20世纪80年代以来中国人口地理学的发展进行了全面综述。尽管近年来中国人口地理学在地理学科领域给人留下的是萧条、甚至被边缘化的印象,但从跨学科的角度看,该学科还是取得了巨大进展。人口地理学者在复兴中国的人口学研究中发挥了不可或缺的作用,并在这一跨学科研究领域中占据了重要地位。人口地理学者从地理学的视角出发,在人口迁移流动、城镇化、人口分布、人口与资源和环境之间的关系、老龄化、婚姻模式和移民犯罪等众多人口问题的研究上作出了重要贡献,尤其是在人口迁移流动研究和人口城镇化若干问题的研究中占据着领先地位。中国人口地理学者自20世纪80年代以来与社会科学领域学者间的交流互动不断增加,在促进学科发展的同时,也出现了一种逐渐偏离主流人文地理学的倾向;今后,中国人口地理学应更多地回归地理学领域,在人口学和人文地理学两个领域间寻求健康、平衡的定位,以促进其在跨学科领域中获得进一步发展。     

中国大都市区高新技术产业分叉过程及动力机制——以武汉生物产业为例

以演化经济地理学为理论基础,综合经济地理学、产业经济学等相关研究成果,认为中国高新技术产业的形成与发展是本地要素与全球力量、历史条件与现实努力、技术创新与制度变革共同作用的结果,并构建了基于多尺度、多要素的中国高新技术产业分叉动力机制分析框架。同时,以武汉市作为案例区,通过梳理武汉市生物产业形成和演化历程,总结影响其生物产业发展的要素和作用形式。研究发现：生物产业与本地光电子产业之间的技术联系、高校和研究所、以及企业本身仅仅是决定生物产业在武汉市形成的一部分因素,地方政府、跨国公司和留学归国人员等主体也是促成生物产业“生根发芽”的重要主体,它们在武汉生物产业发展的各个阶段,作用程度是不同的。这一点是区别于欧美发达国家以技术为核心的产业分叉研究的,也在一定程度上反映出中国目前的高新技术产业发展仍然停留在“量的扩张”阶段,与欧美发达国家以“质的提升”为主的发展本质有所不同。     

“Finding their way”: the negotiation of the city by low-skilled service sector migrant workers in Dublin

The city has become the context for a dialectical relationship not only between the global and the local but also between migrants and the host society. Whilst there is considerable work on migrant integration, integration is rarely examined from the perspective of the workplace, or from a geographic perspective, which problematizes the spatiality of migrant workers’ experiences. This article studies migrant workers in low-skilled jobs, with a focus on Temporary Service Sector Providers in catering, cleaning, and security, in order to understand how they negotiate their position in the city and are active agents of this negotiation. The study, based upon a survey of 60 migrants complemented by 20 in-depth interviews, questions how integration should be understood: in particular it suggests that—in some respects—integration may be difficult for all low-wage precarious workers, whether migrants or not. The study also highlights how migrant workers retain agency—the capacity to act, to make decisions, and appropriate certain places—even in challenging circumstances.     

基于文献计量的新世纪中国自然地理学国际影响力分析

以美国科学情报机构、科学引文索引数据库(SCI-E)为数据源,通过文献计量方法从总发文趋势、文章引用率、一流学术机构、核心作者分布、发文热门期刊以及关键词等方面,对中国自然地理学在国际学术界的发展情况、学术地位以及面临的问题与挑战进行分析。结果显示：新世纪中国自然地理学在国际领域发展迅速,在自然地理学领域能够发挥特长并贡献力量,在学术界占有一席之地。文献成果方面,至2016年底,中国在自然地理学权威机构的发文量占比达18.96%,位居世界第二。高质量文章占有率增长十余个百分点,文献累计被引量从0次跃升至2万余次,研究成果逐渐受到国际学术界认可。研究力量上,研究机构数量(排名第八)与学者数量(第四)均位居世界前列且发展趋势良好,中国自然地理学在其发展过程中,于多方面表现出了质和量的突破;从国际形势看来,中国自然地理学者通过多年不断努力,能够紧跟研究潮流,把握研究热点方向,但在理论创新及全球环境问题的研究等方面,仍有一定的提升空间。     

Does hydrological connectivity improve modelling of coarse sediment delivery in upland environments?

Modelling the delivery of landslide-generated sediment to channel networks is challenging due to uncertainty in the magnitude–frequency distribution of failures connected to the channel network. Here, we investigate a simplified treatment of hydrological connectivity as a means for improving identification of coarse sediment delivery to upland rivers. Sediment generation from hillslopes and channel banks and its delivery to the channel network are modelled based on a modified form of SHALSTAB coupled to a network index version of TOPMODEL. The network index treatment has two important hydrological effects: (a) it only allows saturated areas to connect to the hydrological network when there is full saturation along the associated flow path; and (2) overland flow associated with unconnected but saturated zones is assumed to remain within the catchment and to contribute to a reduction in the catchment-averaged saturation deficit. We use this hydrological treatment to restrict sediment delivery to situations where there is surface hydrological connection (i.e. saturation) along the complete flow path that connects failure areas to the drainage network. This represents an extreme restriction on the possibility of connected failure as it does not allow for failed material to connect if failures are associated with partial saturation or where delivery involves runout across areas where hydrological connection is not maintained. The impact of this restriction is assessed by comparing model predictions with field mapping of connected failures and data from continuously recording coarse sediment sensors, for two storm events. The hydrological connection requirement restricted connected failures to zones closer to the drainage network and resulted in a better level of agreement with the field mapped failures. Simulations suggested that in the study catchment the majority of sediment inputs occur from hydrologically-connected areas close to the channel network during moderate sized rainstorms that occur relatively frequently.     

Urban Underclass: The Wayward Travels of a Chaotic Concept

This commentary critically engages with arguments made by Loïc Wacquant in his book Urban Outcasts on the nature of public discourse regarding concentrated urban poverty in the United States. In particular, it elaborates a critical reading of the international circulation of social-scientific analyses of urban poverty—in particular the concept of the "urban underclass"—which rose to prominence through research on Chicago neighborhoods. This concept has subsequently influenced scholarly and public policy approaches to characterizing and combating entrenched urban poverty and long-term unemployment in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. I challenge the appropriateness of the concept as well as the direction of public policymaking that has downplayed, if not ignored, questions of job availability and job quality in urban areas.     

Everyday Ecologies: Cities,Nature, and leaching Urban Ecology

Abstract

Conventional geographical approaches to the city tend to place the study of urban form and urban space squarely within the political-economic and cultural branches of geography. Geographic pedagogy has tended to assume, therefore, that nature is absent from the city or exists only as a backdrop or stage on which urban economic and cultural activities take place. In contrast, there has been a recent groundswell of interest—originating in places as diverse as environmental activism, environmental history, landscape architecture, and environmental education—in reinterpreting the city as a space intimately connected with nature. This article examines the possibilities for integrating this rethinking of the relationship between city and nature into undergraduate education. Specifically, it outlines the rationale, objectives, and design of a course on urban ecology and examines the benefits and challenges of doing urban ecology as part of geographic education.     

Toward an Integrative Framework for Environmental Justice Research: A Synthesis and Extension of the Literature

Over three decades, environmental justice scholarship has examined justice movements through diverse perspectives shaped by their research traditions and disciplinary boundaries. This article distills three themes of justice from these research traditions in order to propose a four-dimensional environmental justice model. The proposed model includes four justice-seeking strategies—cultural justice, material justice, processual justice, and political justice—that movement groups adopt to mobilize their claims. I apply this model to the study of an environmental movement in Land Between the Rivers, Kentucky. Research findings from the case study concludes that movement strategies are plural and changeable and that justice is best conceived as a repertoire of justice-seeking strategies that are influenced by political alliances, economic preconditions, and cultural contexts.