A mythical place: A conversation on the earthly aspects of myth

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 515-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maja Essebo
Keyword(s):  
Human Geography ◽  
Geographical Research ◽  
Everyday Practices

The concept of myth is far from foreign to geographical research, yet its definition and use has been both varied and assumed, leaving much of its potential geographically unexplored. Myths – naturalised stories which reflect ideology, alleviate anxiety, and guide everyday practices – instil place with meaning. Following the tradition within human geography of engaging with issues intersecting perception and place, this paper suggests that to further develop the concept of myth in and through human geography may help advance central disciplinary themes centring on issues of naturalisation and transformation of societal beliefs and, by extension, place.

scholarly journals A Critical and Extensive Review of the Historical Rise and the Contemporary Resurgence of Interest in Positivism in Geography

2021 ◽  
pp. 47-58
Author(s):  
Ekuase Innocent Omobude
Keyword(s):  
Good Alternative ◽  
Human Geography ◽  
Urban Land Use ◽  
Ethnic Segregation ◽  
Alternative Mode ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Geographical Research ◽  
Logical Sequence ◽  
Journey To Work ◽  
Subsequent Rise

The positivist methods of explaining geographical phenomena enjoyed prominence and revolutionized the methods of geographical research up to the 1950s where the criticisms were largely that the methods cannot account for any role in human geography and the subsequent rise of humanism as an alternative mode of explanation. These critiques and the introduction of many concepts in humanism inadvertently slowed down the progress in seeking for acceptable scientific methods to explain human experiences in geographical research. These criticisms in the 1980s and 90s reduced the popularity and application of the quantitative methodologies which were powerful research techniques in human geography. Geography by its nature is a dual discipline with one half on physical and the other on human geography. Human geographers have used quantitative methodologies to study a multitude of topics including demographics, migration, housing and settlement patterns and ethnic segregation. Human activities like migration, journey to work, retail capital patronage, have adopted some element of scientific laws and models have been focused on transportation, migration, settlement development, innovation diffusion, population growth and distribution, urban land use etc. The shortcomings of the philosophy of humanism have not provided a good alternative in explaining geographical phenomenon and has over time become the gains of the positivist school of thought. The resurgence in the interest in positivism as a tool for explanation of geographical phenomena bores down from the fact that the humanistic methods is laced with subjectivity, the language of discourse is abstract and difficult to comprehend while the logical sequence of the positivist methods make the approach real and achievable.

scholarly journals Magic at the margins: towards a magical realist human geography

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Laws
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Magical Realism ◽  
Mental Distress ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Human Geography ◽  
Research Writing ◽  
Geographical Research ◽  
Mental Health Difficulties ◽  
The Rich

The purpose of this article is to put forward the case for a magically realist human geography, drawing on geographical research into the lives and lifeworlds of people with long-term and disabling mental health difficulties. In the article, I move between extracts from my own ethnographic research with mental health service users and survivors and the equally unusual stories of the literary genre, magical realism, in which I find a framework for addressing what I understand as a narrative paucity in much of mainstream research writing about mental distress. The article reflects upon the strange and sometimes magical qualities of illness and recovery in the context of individuals living with severe and enduring mental health problems and how traditional constructions of ‘evidence’ variously exclude or overlook such experiences. The contributions of the article are both to explore how ‘magic’ might encapsulate certain aspects of living with mental distress and – developing ongoing discussions in the sub-discipline around geographies of enchantment, magic and spirituality – to consider how a magical realist framework for geographical research might do justice to the rich, marvellous and irreducible experiences of everyday life, which are often excluded from conventional evidence bases.

scholarly journals What kind of theory for what kind of human geography?

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Wai-chung Yeung
Keyword(s):  
Human Geography ◽  
Uneven Development ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Spatial Change ◽  
Geographical Analysis ◽  
Geographical Research ◽  
Epistemological Position

While upholding the analytical relevance of a better distinction of mechanism from process in the geographical analysis of uneven development, the five commentators of my forum paper have raised some critical epistemological issues that provoke three points of clarification in this response. First, I argue for an epistemological position that views theory not only as abstract devices but more importantly as explanation of social–spatial change. I elaborate further on the importance of causal mechanism in such an explanatory kind of theory. Second, I discuss the relevance and usefulness of mid-range theories in geographical research. Finally, this response ends with a return to the bigger picture of the kind of human geography that might benefit from mechanism-based theorizing.

scholarly journals Geographical investigations in the management of the svalbard environment

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 51-57
Author(s):  
Wiesław Ziaja
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Human Geography ◽  
Research Activity ◽  
Nature Protection ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Geographical Research

Abstract The paper concerns specific features of exploration, geographical recognition, exploitation of natural resources, and economy of the archipelago. Development of the Svalbard system of nature protection areas and its impact on the environment and human activity is shown. Both the natural environment and Norwegian national interests are perfectly protected in Svalbard. Classical physico-geographical research was lost in significance to biological investigations (or to environmental science in the aspect of biotic components). Research activity in the human geography of Svalbard has mostly declined.

scholarly journals An everyday geography: spatial diversity of the everyday life

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Research Direction ◽  
Spatial Diversity ◽  
Geographical Research ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
The World ◽  
Soviet Space ◽  
Post Soviet Space

Formulation of the problem. Development of new geographical research direction in post-Soviet space is caused by the necessity to understand spatial diversity of everyday life and to solve related issues at the local level. In many cases the diversity of everyday life affects not only the living conditions, but also shapes behavior, practices and habits of the local population. If in humanitarian sciences everyday life is actively studied, in geography this topic is still overlooked. Previous spatial studies of everyday life show that research results are actually relevant and lead to the emergence of a new research direction – an everyday geography. The purpose of the article: based on the analysis of the world discourse and the results of own studies of the spatial diversity of everyday life, to reveal possible ways of formation and development of a new geographical research direction in post-Soviet space – everyday geography. There is no universally accepted methodology for the study of geography of everyday life, but experience shows that both traditional geographical and specific methods from social sciences, representational and non-representational methods can be successfully applied. Results. The world geography gives much more attention to the studies of the spatial diversity of everyday life in comparison with post-Soviet countries, and as a result emotional, affective, animated geographies are developed, as well as geography of fear, geography of trauma, etc. Everyday life refers to ordinary, mundane activities, experiences, behavior, and interaction with the environment. Everydayness is considered as a temporal (daily, monthly, annual) cross-section of living (personal, communal, societal) environment within a particular territory. Everyday life is practiced as a socio-cultural world, where particular person exists just like other people, interacting with them and non-human objects, influencing them, changing them, and simultaneously is affected and changed by them. Everydayness shapes daily life – the constant processes of ‘everydaying’ human activities in the form of communication with the environment, learning the traditions and consolidation of behavior rules, ‘mastering’ a lifestyle, tools to achieve goals, etc. However, everyday life is constantly disturbed by innovations, appearance of the unusual, deviation from stereotypes, traditions and the formation of new rules. Unusual for a certain period participates in the process of ‘everydaying’ and then becoming everyday, mundane, taken-for-granted, extends the scope of everyday life. The everyday geography explores particular reactions of people in particular spatial conditions. Everydayness is everywhere, and researchers study everyday spaces, everyday practices, everyday mobilities, everyday conflicts and resistance, even everyday geopolitics and, more broadly, everyday life and everyday geographies. However, everyday life is not perceived as a unity. It consists of many typical but not necessarily interrelated activities, each of them is taken for granted by participants (work, family life, leisure, etc.), but spatially diverse. The studies of the spatial diversity of everyday life focuses mainly on the investigation of everyday spaces within which everyday life occurs, everyday practices – the routine activities we do every day without thinking about it, and a number of everyday events. Geographers can explore the diversity of everyday life in several ways: using spatial-temporal, art-geographical, everyday-tourist approaches. So far, individual studies of the spatial diversity of everyday life will inevitably transformed into the broad band of post-Soviet geography – the everyday geography. Scientific novelty and practical significance. Focusing of geographers on the everyday life gives a deeper understanding of the tendencies and consequences of various social and cultural processes, the state of the contemporary destabilized environment. The paper deals with the discourse on spatial diversity of everyday life and conceptualization of emotional, affective, non-representational, animative, everyday and other geographies. Particular attention is paid to the key concepts of the everyday life geographies – everyday spaces, practices and events. Prospective directions of the further studies of the everydayness (including spatial-temporal, art-geographical, everyday-tourist approaches), as well as the practical importance of everyday life spatial diversity researches for territorial management are discussed.

scholarly journals Sociological methods in human-geographic researches: features of application

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Human Geography ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Survey Analysis ◽  
Subject Field ◽  
Geographical Research ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Branched Structure

Human geography, which is an integral branch of contemporary geographical science, relies on a broad methodological basis, using both the general geographical methodological apparatus and the methodological apparatus of related and related sciences. However, taking into account the specifics of the object-subject field of human geography, it is necessary to improve the methodological apparatus, going beyond the use of methods inherent only in geographical science. The anthropogenic factor becomes dominant in all negative changes in the interaction of the “society-human-nature” system. There is a need to replenish the methodological apparatus of human geography through the use of methods of related sciences, in particular, sociology. Sociological methods operate with large amounts of data and can be applied at various stages of socio-geographical research: at the stage of collecting information, its processing and interpretation. Among Ukrainian scientists, human geographers, for now, the use of sociological methods of collecting and processing information is more ignored, unlike foreign scientists. The use of traditional socio-geographical methods and ignoring the methods of related sciences indicate the need for a thorough review of the methodological and methodological foundations of socio-geographical research. This is required by the complexity of the global processes of socio-economic development of modern civilization as a single global socio-geographic system of the planet. At the stage of collecting socio-geographical information, it is important to use sociological methods of collecting information that are indispensable for the study of those features of geographical systems that are not covered by official statistics, as well as for the study of factors of processes and phenomena at the individual and group levels. Sociological research methods have a branched structure, in which they are distinguished as general scientific and special sociological research methods. Sociological methods of data collection can be used in socio-geographical studies, the choice of which depends on the type of goals, objectives, features of the object of study, the material capabilities of the researcher and the capabilities of the toolkit. Sociological methods for collecting information are divided into 5 main classes: survey, analysis of documents, experiment, observation and testing.

scholarly journals Lebenswelt, Leiblichkeit und Resonanz: Eine raumphänomenologisch-rekonstruktive Perspektive auf Geographien der Alltäglichkeit

2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Dörfler ◽  
Eberhard Rothfuß
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Place ◽  
Human Geography ◽  
Refugee Camps ◽  
Alfred Schutz ◽  
Life World ◽  
Geographical Research ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Alfred Schütz ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract. This article aims to explore the potential of Alfred Schütz' sociological phenomenology for spatial phenomena and its integration into human geography. Although the influence and productivity of phenomenology in general could contribute significantly to shed light on spatial phenomena of the life-world, such as a progressive sense of place (Massey, 1993), transnationalities (Pries, 2001), socio-spatial atmospheres (Hasse, 2017), “home” and encounters (Seamon, 1979, 2014), enforced life(s) in refugee camps and others, it has never become a major strand of contemporary (German speaking) human geography. According to Hasse (2017) phenomenology has even remained almost absent in geographical research. In contrast to this proposition, the analytically endorsed and empirically examined theorems of phenomenology have recently been challenged by “post-phenomenology” and “non-representational theory”. These approaches raise – though both argumentatively and empirically unproven – their voice against pretended limitations of “classical” phenomenology in arguing with “imagined” limits of meaning and understanding. Irrespective of these developments, we would like to refer to the analytical and methodological stringency of approaches that arise from the rich tradition of phenomenology and emphasize their still largely untapped potential for human geography by suggesting a “Leib”-based approach rooted in reconstructive methodologies to analyse the various spatial phenomena of the life-world.

Divergent Memories of Tumen Shan-shui

2019 ◽  
pp. 229-10.33526/EJKS.20191901.229
Author(s):  
Xiaoxuan Lu
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Research Study ◽  
States Of Mind ◽  
Geographical Research ◽  
River Region ◽  
Production Techniques ◽  
Landscape Research ◽  
Border Areas ◽  
The Creation

Focusing on the interplay between memory and place, this article examines the rationale behind the use of axonometric drawings (axons) in a geographical research study of the Tumen/Tuman River region encompassing the borders shared by China, Russia and North Korea. The concepts of “memory of place” and “place of memory” guide the structure of this project and the flow of this article. “Memory of place” emphasises the lived experience of our physical senses, and helps determine the great potential of visual methodologies in the fields of geographical and landscape research and study. Drawn up using the graphic production techniques of abstracting, foregrounding, highlighting and juxtaposing, axons avail themselves of and inform both realist and idealist states of mind. In contrast, “place of memory” references a particular type of materiality and helps us understand Tumen Shan-shui as a library of memories that reveals a profusion of contested aesthetic, cultural and political meanings. Axons serve to tell narratives revealing desires, actions and undertakings that have shaped and continue to shape the substance of the memory sites in question including infrastructure, architecture and signage. Initially adopted by the author as a medium for recording and communicating due to security restrictions imposed in the border areas in question, the creation of axons generated new insights on methods of documentation in landscape research, and the places and landscapes themselves.

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