Challenges and Opportunities in Cross-cultural Geographic Inquiry

While qualitative fieldwork in cross-cultural settings is central to human geography, there has been limited focus in the literature on the expectations and skills required to succeed as a field researcher in this area. Some practical advice is available for researchers who are new to cross-cultural fieldwork (e.g. graduate students, junior faculty members) and for advisers preparing young academics for such endeavours; however, themes are often treated individually rather than as a collective whole. This paper provides suggestions for novice field researchers by drawing on the experiences of four female graduate students engaged in qualitative geographic research. It identifies some major issues that influence the feasibility and efficacy of cross-cultural fieldwork, and provides practical suggestions to help prospective researchers plan for and implement field-based research projects in these contexts.     

Book Review

Book reviewed:
Terry Marsden, Andrew Flynn and Michelle Harrison, Consuming interests. The social provision of foods     

'I must get out': the geographies of domestic violence

The geographies of domestic violence are envisaged in this paper as a series of enlarging, though restricted spaces. Although the social construction of home is as a place of safety and support, in reality it can be a place of violence, where women are spatially restricted either to the home itself, or to its immediate environs. Women who break free and seek safety in a women's refuge, or who move to a new home in a different place, continue to live spatially restricted lives, in the fear that their former partner may trace them.     

An Exploration of Peer-to-Peer Teaching and Learning at Postgraduate Level: The Experience of Two Student-Led NVivo Workshops

This paper explores peer-to-peer teaching and learning at a postgraduate level using the example of two NVivo workshops run by geography postgraduate students. The workshops took place in March and May 2011 and feedback was collected from all attendees in both sessions. This paper aims to provide a practical guide to organizing and facilitating such an informal workshop on the NVivo software for postgraduate students based on the outcomes of the two workshops. Hints and tips for others considering running similar events are provided based on the feedback received following the sessions and reflections on the organizers experiences.     

Qualitative Methods for the Study of Policy Diffusion: Challenges and Available Solutions

This article deals with the question whether and how processes of policy diffusion can be examined with qualitative methods. More specifically, how can qualitative methods address the “twin challenge of interdependence,” namely the challenge to identify diffusion, on the one hand, and the challenge to discriminate between mechanisms of diffusion, on the other? I argue, first, that there are three distinct qualitative techniques that can be used, namely cross‐case analysis (often based on systematic case selection), within‐case process tracing, and counterfactual reasoning. I demonstrate how these techniques can be adapted to the study of policy diffusion. Second, a combination of these methods is the best practice, since they are largely complementary in terms of the twin challenge of diffusion. The discussion draws on numerous illustrations from recent qualitative policy diffusion studies. The article closes with some suggestions for further methodological development in the study of policy diffusion, including the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods.     

Causal Assessment in Small‐N Policy Studies

The identification of cause‐and‐effect relationships plays an indispensable role in policy research, both for applied problem solving and for building theories of policy processes. Historical process tracing has emerged as a promising method for revealing causal mechanisms at a level of precision unattainable through statistical techniques. Yet historical analyses often produce dauntingly complex causal explanations, with numerous factors emerging as necessary but insufficient causes of an outcome. This article describes an approach that renders complex causal narratives more analytically tractable by establishing measurement criteria for ranking the relative importance of component causes. By focusing on subjectively useful measurement attributes, the approach is well suited to the policy sciences' unique combination of explicitly normative aspirations and a commitment to the systematic assessment of causal claims.     

Evaluating Qualitative Research in Social Geography: Establishing 'Rigour' in Interview Analysis

A review of 31 empirical and eighteen substantive papers by qualitative social geographers mainly using in-depth interviews reveals little explicit reference to the principle(s) adopted to enhance 'rigour' and to ensure meaningful inference. Given the modest explicit discussion of evaluative criteria in these papers, a scheme from evaluation research itself is critically reviewed. A set of evaluation questions derived from this review and their application to an empirical piece of qualitative work frame an argument for a general set of criteria rather than rigid rules for assessing qualitative work. Such criteria can serve as anchor points for qualitative evaluation.     

Research design and methods of data collection and analysis: researching students' conceptions in a multiple‐method case study

Three techniques were used in a multiple‐method case study to explore students' conceptions of geography within a qualitative framework, employing aspects of phenomenology, ethnography and grounded theory. The context of the research is briefly outlined, and then the methodological framework and nature of the data yielded are discussed in more detail. Aspects of analytical procedures are considered as are strengths and weaknesses of the research design, with an emphasis on triangulation and arriving at valid and reliable interpretations relating to the complex area of students' conceptions. A summative checklist relating to multiple‐method design in similar contexts is provided.     

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。     

我国旅游流研究进展与展望

旅游流研究是旅游地理学研究的核心问题之一,为了总结我国旅游流研究成果,找出我国旅前流研究的不足并指出未来的研究方向,本文对1987-2010年我国旅游流文献进行了梳理。我国旅游流研究历程可以划分为起步、成长和发展三个阶段,可划分为时间分布特征、空间结构特征、时空演化特征、影响因素、驱动机制和规模预测等六类研究主题,但我国旅游流研究也存在六方面的不足,特别是要深入挖掘研究内容,创新研究方法,以推动我国旅游流研究更进一步发展。     

‘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.