A Prospective on Zelinsky's Hypothesis of the Mobility Transition

Wilbur Zelinsky's 1971 paper in Geographical Review entitled the “Hypothesis of the Mobility Transition” was both forward‐looking and offered innovative ideas regarding human geographic mobility. One of the most interesting aspects of the paper was a set of predictions for mobility in a “future superadvanced society”. Many of these predictions have now come to pass, including a general decline in international and internal migration and residential change, the increasing regulation of migration ‐ especially internally, and the possibility that the widespread adoption of information and communication technologies has impacted human geographic mobility. Hence, this essay looks at the mobility transition not as an obsolete frame of reference but as a prescient, pliable, and adaptable framework which not only informs the study of human geographic mobility today but also, perhaps, even into the future.     

Exploring Chile: Identities and Their Relation with the Environment through the Film Football Stories

Cinema can be considered a useful tool for understanding different geographic concepts, showing physical and human factors and the interactions between them. Andres Wood's film Football Stories explores the Chilean territory allowing the observation of the differences between the north and south of the country. Geographic components such as landscapes, architectures, the impact of anthropogenic activities, social inequalities, ways of life, and city and countryside differences are analyzed, as well as the importance of location, the spatial environment, and cinematic narration. The study of geography through films could contribute to understanding of our world and to spatial knowledge.     

Using Web Maps to Analyze the Construction of Global Scale Cognitive Maps

Game-based Web sites and applications are changing the ways in which students learn the world map. In this study, a Web map-based digital learning tool was used as a study aid for a university-level geography course in order to examine the way in which global scale cognitive maps are constructed. A network analysis revealed that clicks were negatively correlated with familiarity, but were positively correlated with area. More significantly, well-known countries did not act as central nodes within network-based mental models, but served a more complex mediating role in structuring the space between subregions.     

In search of meaningful assessment in the university curriculum: the case for culturally relevant pedagogy

ABSTRACT

The poor performance of Pacific students at university is a concern for every level of society. Conventional models of teaching, learning and assessment have overlooked the cultural background of students, yet the effects of this oversight have been disastrous, alienating and disempowering. Studies of and developments in education in the Pacific and elsewhere offer opportunities to rethink the methods of teaching, learning and assessment of Pacific students in ways that are congruent with their home culture. Informed by the principle of so’a lau pule (the Samoan concept of consensus through consultation and conversation) and ethnographic research methods, this study describes an attempt to rethink ways of teaching, learning and assessing student performance in a third-year course on Resource Conservation and Management in the School of Geography, Earth Science and Environment at the University of the South Pacific. Introduced in 2007, the Student Innovative Contribution to Knowledge (SICK) allows students to participate in key decisions concerning teaching, learning and assessment. SICK is grounded in the principles of inclusiveness and participation. It takes account of the skills and abilities of Pacific students and is aligned with the philosophical basis of Pacific cultures. One hundred and fifty-eight students took part in this study over a 5-year period. Analysis was based on students’ written reviews of the semester’s work, in-depth conversation with individual students and the end-of-the-course evaluation. The findings show that, while students embrace the need for non-conventional forms of teaching, learning and assessment, the most frequently cited responses for non-participation are poor time management and varying perceptions of what is considered an innovative assessment. This study shows that understanding the cultural background of students is critical to creating culturally inclusive learning environments.     

The Geography of Malnutrition

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of an emerging theme within the subfield of nutritional geography we call the geography of malnutrition. Work relating to malnutrition is a high-priority research topic, with growing relevance to geographical concepts, but there is no overview of geographical approaches to this theme. Using keyword searches in Google Scholar and Web of Science to obtain relevant publications, we identified the major foci of work within this theme: undernutrition, diseases that cause malnutrition, the nutrition transition, and critical and feminist approaches to malnutrition. We review these foci, provide examples of prominent work, and identify areas of research concerning malnutrition that are highly spatial but have yet to be effectively studied using geographic techniques.     

“走出去”的地理学——从人文地理学视角看中非合作研究

中非合作正在成为国际政治和经济舞台上的重要事件。本文选用Endnote和Antconc等信息提取软件对国内外知名文献库中收录的有关中非合作的文章进行了梳理。以“中非合作”作为模糊关键词,对Web of Science、Taylor & Francis、Elsevier和中国知网四大数据库进行搜索,得到相关中外文文献共计623篇。分析发现,中外学者对中非合作议题的关注多集中于政治学和经济学的学科分析框架之下,其他学科视角相对缺乏。从人文地理学视角来看,尽管也有部分经济地理和政治地理学者对该话题进行了探讨,但并未完全脱离政治学和经济学的分析框架,且数量较少、未能体系化。因此,本文从与中非合作最为紧密的政治地理、旅游地理以及社会文化地理等三个方向提出了未来可能成为中非合作研究热点话题的基本研究框架。鉴此,随着国家“一带一路”倡议的逐步实施,期望未来能有更多人文地理学者投入到中非合作研究中,积极发挥中国地理学“走出国门”的大国智力责任和担当,为中非合作研究与实践作出自己的贡献。     

变化背景下的当代中国自然地理学——2017全国自然地理学大会述评

面对变化中的全球环境以及变化中的学科热点,以“变化背景下自然地理学新发展与新挑战”为主题的第一届全国自然地理学大会于2017年11月20-22日在南京召开。聚焦地理学与可持续发展、自然地理要素与过程集成、空间数据挖掘与系统决策等当代自然地理学研究的前沿内容,通过学科前沿理论的凝练,引导自然地理过程研究的继续深化;依托理论与方法创新;在典型流域、区域实现了自然地理过程的初步集成,切实服务于人地耦合视角下的可持续社会决策。深化自然地理学分支学科的过程研究、推进综合自然地理学的发展、提升陆地表层系统观测和模拟水平,将有助于进一步巩固自然地理学在地理科学学科体系中的基础学科地位,为满足国家重大战略需求和全球可持续发展作出重要的学科贡献。     

土壤地理学的进展与展望

作为土壤学和地理学学科的分支,土壤地理学是地球表层系统科学的重要组成部分,其核心研究内容是土壤的时空变化。土壤地理学研究对象从传统的土体向地球表层系统视角下的关键带转变,研究方法上全面走向数字化。本文综述了近20年来土壤地理学分支学科包括土壤发生、土壤形态、土壤分类、土壤调查与数字土壤制图等领域的研究进展,指出其发展趋势为：基础理论研究不断拓展、调查技术正经历变革、时空演变从过程观测走向模拟,同时探讨了土壤地理学的未来发展契机与面临的挑战。     

The progress of human geography in China under the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China

This paper analyzes the role of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) in advancing human geography in China by focusing on five key research areas: land use, urban systems and urban agglomeration, economic globalization, climate change and social and cultural geographies. All NSFC-funded human geography programs related to these five topics from 1986 to 2017 comprise the sample for analysis, and the research topics, content, teams, and peer-reviewed journal publications supported by these programs are investigated. Specifically, this paper analyzes the NSFC’s promotion of the expansion of research topics in response to national developmental needs and the shifting frontiers of human geography research internationally, its enhancement of interdisciplinary research, and its contributions to the assembly of specialized research teams. The paper also reports important progress in Chinese human geography over the past 30 years through the institutional lens of the NSFC, revealing major characteristics and trends in the discipline. The paper concludes by calling for further collaboration between the research community and the NSFC for the development of a locally suitable and globally influential Chinese human geography.     

Random encounters in probabilistic time geography

Probabilistic time geography considers the encounter of moving agents to be random; therefore, a quantitative time geography analysis must consider the actual encounter probability. The existing algorithm of encounter probability is oriented over a discrete space and is sensitive to the unit definition of a virtual grid; thus, it is not suitable for continuous space. For this reason, a new method is presented in this paper for the encounter of two moving agents in continuous space. When the encounters are less than a specified distance threshold apart, an encounter event occurs based on the probability of the product, which is calculated by their respective probability density functions over their respective potential location areas. This probability provides a quantitative basis for predicting the likelihood of two agents meeting, as well as the location of this meeting point. Finally, the validity of the proposed model is verified by an experiment, which uses tracking data to calculate the encounter probabilities of three zebras and analyse the distribution characteristics of these probabilities over time and space.