Chinese Junior High School Students' Perceptions of Geographic Fieldwork: A Case Study

After nearly ten years of implementation of the first junior high school geography standards, Chinese geography educators have been increasingly incorporating fieldwork into their geography teaching. This study examined student perceptions of fieldwork from an international perspective by reviewing student fieldwork reports and administering a questionnaire to 337 junior high school students aged approximately fifteen years. The results demonstrate that the students' perceptions of fieldwork were primarily positive and that they found field experience to be interesting. Fieldwork provided the students with deepened understanding of issues, cognitive and affective benefits, transferable skills and knowledge, social skills, demonstration, and memorable experience. In addition, some factors for improving geographic fieldwork were identified.     

县域旅游规划中居民旅游感知研究--以安徽庐江县为例

社区居民是推动地方旅游业发展的重要力量。国外旅游规划中一直非常重视社区参与,而我国旅游规划仍重在资源导向、市场导向及形象导向,忽视了居民感知调查与分析。由于县域旅游发展中所涉及到的居民利益问题尤为复杂,编制旅游发展规划时更应充分考虑与尊重当地居民的旅游发展意愿。文章以安徽庐江县为例,构建了县域居民旅游感知因素研究框架,通过问卷调查探讨了居民旅游感知分析对县域旅游发展规划的作用及意义,旨在提出一种新的规划思路,丰富旅游规划的理论与方法。     

古村落旅游地居民旅游感知分析——以黟县西递为例

该文通过对黟县西递古村落旅游地的实地问卷、访谈调查以及运用SPSS软件进行数理统计，从旅游的经济、社会－文化、环境影响等角度分析了古村落旅游地居民的旅游感知及其差异，并探讨有关居民旅游感知的影响因素。     

A gender analysis of quality of life in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

While many community initiatives have attempted to assess the nature and determinants of their citizens’ quality of life (QOL), these initiatives have produced little about whether the key determinants of life quality differ by gender. Using both quantitative and qualitative data from a recent QOL research project in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, this study explores whether factors that predict poor QOL are similar for women and men. The study also examines whether the nature of these gender differences varies across low, medium and high socio-economic status locales. Results showed that men and women were very similar in: (1) their QOL ratings, (2) reports of deterioration in neighborhood QOL, and (3) rating particular aspects of their neighborhood. Few gender differences were also found when analyzing data referring to place characteristics and social cohesion. Multivariate analysis revealed further similarities: (1) being divorced/widowed was a significant predictor of poor QOL, and (2) a negative view of community security issues was associated with deterioration in perceived neighborhood quality of life. For women, however, other variables were important predictors of QOL: being middle aged, being single, and having a poor opinion of the overall quality of their neighborhood. Qualitative analysis revealed that while men and women shared concern about general areas such as safety and neighborhood supports, their perceptions of the details around these issues differed. The multi-method results suggest that urban policy actions should include a gendered discussion of common QOL issues.     

基于旅游影响感知的丽江古城居民类型划分

快速的旅游发展对旅游地居民产生了一定的影响。利用实证研究和统计分析的方法，作者对世界遗产地丽江古城居民就旅游影响的感知与态度进行了实地调查，采用快速聚类法将旅游地居民被调查居民被分为一定程度的憎恨者、积极的支持者和谨慎的支持者三种类型。居民中年长者、本地出生者多为一定程度的憎恨者；与旅游联系少、对旅游业依赖小的居民多为一定程度的憎恨者和谨慎的支持者；而在职的、与旅游业联系紧密、依赖大的居民多为积极的支持者。     

Mental models of sea-level change: A mixed methods analysis on the Severn Estuary,UK

Global average sea levels are expected to rise by up to a metre by the end of the century. This long-term rise will combine with shorter-term changes in sea level (e.g. high tides, storm surges) to increase risks of flooding and erosion in vulnerable coastal areas. As communities become increasingly exposed to these risks, understanding their beliefs and responses becomes more important. While studies have explored public responses to climate change, less research has focused on perceptions of the specific risks associated with sea-level change. This paper presents the results of a mental models study that addressed this knowledge gap by exploring expert and public perceptions of sea-level change on the Severn Estuary, a threatened coastal environment in the southwest of the United Kingdom. A model was developed from the literature and expert interviews (N = 11), and compared with public perceptions elicited via interviews (N = 20) and a quantitative survey (N = 359). Whilst we find a high degree of consistency between expert and public understandings, there are important differences that have implications for how sea level risks are interpreted and for what are perceived as appropriate mitigation and adaptation practices. We also find a number of potential barriers to engaging with the issue: individuals express low concern about sea-level change in relation to other matters; they feel detached from the issue, seeing it as something that will happen in future to other people; and many perceive that neither the causes of nor responses to sea-level change are their responsibility. We point to areas upon which future risk communications should therefore concentrate.     

Objectives,ownership and engagement in Lao PDR’s REDD+ policy landscape

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) is envisioned as a performance-based incentive to influence forest use behavior and governance towards the preservation and management of forests. In relatively forest-rich Lao PDR, the policy space that REDD+ planners are attempting to navigate is populated by enduring political and economic interests that affect the country’s forest estate. A further layer to the problem of REDD+ planning is the tension between often expert-driven, externally proposed solutions; national ownership over interventions; and the extent of political will to take action to reform currently unsustainable patterns of forest and forest land exploitation. This paper draws from a series of semi-structured interviews conducted in 2013–2014, to develop a political and institutional analysis of the limitations to the effectiveness of REDD+ in steering towards a lower forest-derived emissions trajectory in Lao PDR. While internationally-driven projects follow long-standing national objectives to varying degrees, it remains unclear how REDD+ can target main drivers of deforestation in the absence of a more politically engaged and nationally-owned planning process, that also challenges the prevailing logic of avoiding these drivers. Despite the importance of improving domestic ownership over REDD+, this would arguably be of limited impact unless oriented towards transformational change that would seek to overcome political and economic barriers to avoided deforestation. Stronger ownership could be developed via more mutually driven REDD+ planning, while tackling main drivers of deforestation necessitates as a starting point the engagement of powerful actors that have so far been absent from REDD+ debate.     

Ambivalence in the Woods: Baltimore Resident Perceptions of Local Forest Patches

Abstract

Wild urban forests may elicit positive and negative emotions, both at a community level and within an individual. This paper examines resident perceptions and use of local forest patches in Baltimore, Maryland across four case study neighborhoods selected for differences in homeownership and forest patch management. Semi-structured interview data reveal residents’ strongly ambivalent attitudes toward urban wilderness across all study sites with only nuanced differences in perceptions based on homeownership and management regime. Baltimore residents living adjacent to forest patches were found to experience some of the restorative benefits associated with immersion in wild nature, even when they do not actually enter the woods. Positive experiences were balanced by negative emotions resulting from the perception that urban wilderness is chaotic and unpredictable. These ambivalent feelings may influence the benefits derived from these urban green spaces, as well as local residents’ desires for their future structure and function as social-ecological spaces.     

Narratives and water: A bibliometric review

Social and environmental sciences have shown that narratives have significant impact on human behaviour. Understanding water narratives can therefore help policy-makers understand and regulate public behaviour. We carry out a bibliometric analysis of water narratives, which gives us a broad overview of the types of work, collaborations and key insights. We couple this with a smaller qualitative review, which enabled us to construct a typology that captures the range of themes found in the literature. Narratives might be classified along an axis of expert and local knowledge and an axis of time – retrospective and prospective. We also show that narratives are a useful tool for legitimation and mobilization, and a form of “System 1” heuristic. Given that so many water challenges are tied to human activities, an understanding of water narratives and the link to behavioural change would be a useful part of future research agendas.