Maiensäss – Swiss Alpine summer farms – an element of cultural heritage between conservation and further development: a qualitative case study

Farm buildings that have become redundant due to agricultural change often find themselves in an area of conflict between conservation and further development. The Swiss Maiensäss, Alpine farms traditionally used at the intermediate altitude from spring to fall, are a prominent example of such a landscape element. The qualitative case study on which this paper is based focuses on different users’ perceptions of the Maiensäss and their development. Our results show that the Maiensäss are a particularly lively element in Swiss cultural heritage. These small farms are often reused and thus have to satisfy the needs of different resident and non‐resident users. Users attribute a multitude of meanings to the Maiensäss referring to both their present and past functions. For non‐residents the Maiensäss are mainly a symbol of shared roots and national identity which should be protected, whereas for residents they stand stands for the continuity of their local culture and creative possibilities. The main challenge regarding the management of redundant farm buildings seems to be to strike a balance between conservation and creative reuse. The recently introduced building regulations for these farms allow some scope for creative innovation and appear to be well accepted by users. This successful regulation measure might serve as a precursor for managing the development of other traditional landscapes.     

参与式摄影在西方人文地理学中的应用和启示

参与式摄影在近十年来受到西方人文地理学研究的关注。这种研究方法要求被研究者在给定的主题下主动拍摄照片或视频,以具象化其日常生活和活动路径,从而展现其动态的、身体化的、非表征化的行为过程。这一方法不仅能促使研究者和被研究者之间的有效沟通,还能唤起被研究者的情感和记忆,从而促进调研的开展。本研究通过对西方人文地理学研究中相关文献的梳理,对参与式摄影的主要类型、步骤及其在西方人文地理学研究中的应用范围、优势和局限性等进行了介绍,并梳理了参与式摄影在西方人文地理学研究中的应用价值和意义。在此基础上,本研究指出国内未来研究可应用参与式摄影方法的三个方向:(1)边缘群体和少数族群的地方感及其对地方意义的建构;(2)日常生活和微观空间地理研究;(3)社会现象和生活环境的变化对人们地方认同的影响。     

GIS Methods in Time-Geographic Research: Geocomputation and Geovisualization of Human Activity Patterns

Over the past 40 years or so, human activities and movements in space‐time have attracted considerable research interest in geography. One of the earliest analytical perspectives for the analysis of human activity patterns and movements in space‐time is time geography. Despite the usefulness of time geography in many areas of geographical research, there are very few studies that actually implemented its constructs as analytical methods up to the mid‐1990s. With increasing availability of geo‐referenced individual‐level data and improvement in the geo‐computational capabilities of Geographical Information Systems (GIS), it is now more feasible than ever before to operationalize and implement time‐geographic constructs. This paper discusses recent applications of GIS‐based geo‐computation and three‐dimensional (3‐D) geo‐visualization methods in time‐geographic research. The usefulness of these methods is illustrated through examples drawn from the author's recent studies. The paper attempts to show that GIS provides an effective environment for implementing time‐geographic constructs and for the future development of operational methods in time‐geographic research.     

‘Innovation is a dirty word’: contesting innovation in the creative industries

Innovation is a term that is used and defined in many different ways. This holds for innovation in general, but particularly for innovation in the creative industries. In cultural policy and in academic literature, the creative industries are often addressed in the relation to their innovative capacities, yet a shared conceptualisation of innovation in this sector is lacking. This paper seeks to develop a conceptualisation of innovation in the creative industries based on 43 interviews with creative workers about their views and practices. Results indicate that creative workers articulate numerous views on innovation, with three main approaches: innovation as something completely new, innovation as a contribution to society and innovation as a continuous recombination of new and existing elements, with the latter being most prevalent in the creative industries and considered a central (by-product of the) process of creative production that is highly contextual to specific localities and fields.     

‘…to exercise in all loyalty,discretion and conscience’: on insider research and the World Heritage Convention

While research on the World Heritage Convention has expanded tremendously in the last decade, little attention has been directed towards the research published by a handful of what can be characterised as insider researchers. Within this context, ‘insider researchers’ refers to individuals working at or on behalf of the core international institutions implementing the World Heritage Convention, such as the World Heritage Centre, and thus conduct research on a system they are part of. Coding articles published in international peer-reviewed journals, this article explores the themes and topics tackled in these articles and addresses the strengths and weaknesses of insider research within the World Heritage context.     

Diagnosis versus Dialogue: Oral Testimony and the Study of Pediatric Pain

Abstract: Through the perspectives of the children, this essayexamines the communication between pediatric pain patients andtheir doctors. Based upon the oral history responses of thirty-twopatients with chronic pain present for evaluation at the PediatricPain Clinic at UCLA, oral testimony was employed to uncovera wide range of topics related to a child's experience withpain such as family dynamics, how and when pain became a life-changingfactor, coping strategies, and external sources that contributeto the child's understanding of pain. Most important, childrenwere encouraged to explain what it was like to be in pain, notonly to describe symptoms but also to share their dreams andhopes, their fears and uncertainties—as well as the placeof pain in their world.     

Children's experiences of participating in research: emotional moments together?

This paper reflects upon emotional moments in research with children and young people. In particular, we seek to contribute to the now-extensive literature on emotions in social scientific research practice by: (i) attempting to acknowledge the often-overlooked emotions experienced by children and young people whilst participating in research; (ii) highlighting the complex, multiperspectival nature of emotions in research. We suggest that these complexities can, simultaneously be problematic and an opportunity to celebrate the achievement of doing research together.     

Topic Modeling and Text Analysis for Qualitative Policy Research

This paper contributes to a critical methodological discussion that has direct ramifications for policy studies: how computational methods can be concretely incorporated into existing processes of textual analysis and interpretation without compromising scientific integrity. We focus on the computational method of topic modeling and investigate how it interacts with two larger families of qualitative methods: content and classification methods characterized by interest in words as communication units and discourse and representation methods characterized by interest in the meaning of communicative acts. Based on analysis of recent academic publications that have used topic modeling for textual analysis, our findings show that different mixed‐method research designs are appropriate when combining topic modeling with the two groups of methods. Our main concluding argument is that topic modeling enables scholars to apply policy theories and concepts to much larger sets of data. That said, the use of computational methods requires genuine understanding of these techniques to obtain substantially meaningful results. We encourage policy scholars to reflect carefully on methodological issues, and offer a simple heuristic to help identify and address critical points when designing a study using topic modeling.     

Transformative learning in community college human geography: a mixed methods study

ABSTRACT

The study explores the extent to which transformative learning occurs using quantitative and qualitative methods in a human geography course (N = 35) and explores student affect in relation to the learning environment. We used the eight-scale Transformative Learning Environments Survey (TLES) instrument for the quantitative analysis and an aligned analysis of student reflective work to capture the “voice” of the student as a qualitative approach that provided a rounded perspective of transformative learning. The TLES proved reliable where the sub-scale Alpha reliability ranged from 0.71 to 0.93 and a separate affect scale of Satisfaction was 0.95. The standardized regression coefficient between Satisfaction and the sub-scale of Student-Acting demonstrated the strongest positive association (0.27), followed closely by Disorienting Dilemma-Environment (0.24). The qualitative results supported the quantitative associations in most cases, but not all. The qualitative aspect to this present study offers a deeper look – beyond just statistical outcomes – using students’ own voices to explain their perspectives related to transformative learning.     

近20年来中国学界的原子弹轰炸及其相关问题研究

80年代以来,我国学术界对原子弹轰炸及其相关问题的研究呈现出十分活跃的局面,并取得了可喜的成果。研究主要集中在美国使用原子弹的原因和动机、原子弹轰炸的历史作用、原子弹轰炸的后果和影响、原子弹轰炸的正当性问题以及关于日本败降的决定因素等问题上。