Aden Morton-Ferguson

3rd Year International Development Student at the University of Guelph

[kmgeog2260]

During this course we have looked at various aspects of human geographic research. In this write up I will address three things I know for certain about human geographical research, three things I am still confused by, three things I know about myself as a geographic researcher, and lastly three things I still need to work on as a geographical researcher.

The first thing I know for certain now about human geographical research is that although it does consist of mostly qualitative methods, there is still very many different styles and methods of collecting data and conducting research. Prior to this class I had seen qualitative and quantitative as very black and white, quantitative being solely numerical and qualitative being solely thoughts and ideas. Qualitative research is complex, and not only does it look at tangible aspects of humans and human interaction but also discourses, identities and most importantly place when it comes to human geographic research (Hay, 2005, Chapter 1). It also has a well-developed range of techniques such as ones we have looked at and ones I have used in my blogs. These include observational studies, interviews, case studies, oral histories, focus groups, literature reviews and many more.

Another thing I now know for certain is that human geographic research requires the consideration of ethics and self-reflection. There is a moral imperative to this research where the concern of welfare, respect for persons and justice needs to be incorporated (Hooykaas, Week 3, 2021). These ethical issues arise because of the social nature of human geographic research, in any of the methods listed above you are collecting and interpreting social information (Hay, 2005, Chapter 2), therefore ethical issues can arise before, during or after the research process. I know and understand now the importance of this.

Lastly, human geographic research requires a deep and well documented analysis to ensure rigour and the best possible answer/outcome to your research question. While conducting qualitative research it is not always the case like in quantitative research where the numbers speak for themselves, therefore we must ensure rigour, meaning we need to establish a high level of trustworthiness to our work. To ensure rigour, it requires careful research design and thoughtful planning which will ultimately create trustworthy and dependable research (Hay, 2005, Chapter 6). As the researcher I learned the importance of careful and well thought out design through the digital storytelling project.

The first thing I am still confused by in human geographical research is making informed choices about research design and development. I understand that there are many different styles and methods to geographic research, but I am still unsure of which is the best to use and when. Another thing I am still confused by is after the data has been collected how to filter which responses to use and which information is the best information. In other words, I am still confused on what happens next in research. Lastly, I am still unsure of how to critically assess the strengths of the sources to evaluate how much information is enough. I think that with time and more practice these aspects of human geographical research will make more sense to me.

As a human geographic researcher, I know for certain that I understand the importance of ethics in a research project. I was able to develop this skill throughout the blog posts and the storytelling assignment. Going forward if I were to conduct a research project, I would like to use collaborative research methods, which involves getting input from both insiders and outsiders of the problem being studied (Hay, 2005, Chapter 3). I think that coming from an outsider position in research has some major downfalls and effects to the research being done and raises ethical issues between the researcher and the participants.

This brings me to my next point, that I know for certain that I have and will bring with me an invisible backpack that comes from a place of privilege. To be critically reflexive is a process of self-conscious scrutiny as a research throughout the entirety of the project (Hay, 2005, Chapter 2). Being a white woman raised in Canada, I need to remind myself of the privilege that I come from before, during and after the research process. I will need to ask myself how and why I am doing whatever research I am involved in as well as constantly be looking at the social relations being enacted and influenced by the research I will conduct.

Lastly, I know that using the technique of coding while organizing my research is a good tool for me to use. Prior to this course while trying to find information from literature online I found it very hard to organize information and my thoughts. The knowledge of hierarchical vs. flat, and inductive vs. deductive coding, (Hay, 2005, Chapter 18), going forward will help me organize information and come to a better answer to my research questions.

Areas that I have learned about myself as a geographical researcher that I need more time developing are creating a grounded theory, removing myself from the research and writing/ presenting my qualitative research. Creating a grounded theory is an inductive method where the purpose is to generate information on the most important themes up front to gain a solid understanding of the topic, then looking at the specifics to help answer the research question (Hay , 2005, Chapter 18). I as a research tend to jump into my question too quickly and then end up with a lot of information and time spend in topics that don’t relate to my question. As a researcher I also find it difficult to remove myself from the research write up. Third person and nominalization create more formal research but often I try to add my own thoughts and ideas when they are not needed (Hooykaas, Week 9, 2021). Lastly, while putting my research together to present it I need time to develop better ways of presenting my work. I need to balance the use of objective and subjective knowledge, learn to write in a third-person narrative and reflect my positionality (Hay, 2005, Chapter 19).

Sources:

Hooykaas. (2021) Course Notes for GEOG2260- Applied Human Geography

Hay, I. (2005). Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography(4th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780199010912/cfi/0!/4/[email protected]:0.242

[amfgeog2260]

Hi Kaya!

I’m not sure how you did it but your big artistic titles for this blog caught my eye and got me reading, and I am glad I was able to read your thoughts and knowledge from your final blog post!

I agree with a lot of what you found certain and uncertain now that we have almost reached the finish line of the course, and wanted to respond because you mentioned some really important things! I really appreciated your commentary on the breadth of human geographic research methods, and we can’t necessarily place qualitative and quantitative methods in their own boxes. Rather, there is a continuum of methods and knowledge that is required to be an effective researcher in the field, which is something I am sure we are all still learning throughout the course, and life! 

You also mentioned the importance of ethics and reflection in this field, which resonated with me also. I have found an increased sense of confidence or even self-awareness through this exercise of reflecting and sharing knowledge through blogs during the semester. I don’t know how you felt about it, but to be so open, reflective and engaged with classmates remotely about the course and our learning seems uncomfortable at first. I am now really glad I was engaged and took part in the multiple discussions that I did, because it offered me skills and knowledge about myself and others that I would not have ordinarily had. Were you comfortable with the idea of blogging and being reflective on a forum like this at the beginning of the semester? And what have you noticed about yourself in the process of blogging and discussing?

Your comments about working on creating a grounded theory is also really important, and I know that you definitely are not the only one who needs to work on those skills. We are all still early in the research game and our enhanced skills will come as we continue to learn, engage, and research!

Thanks again for sharing your post, I really enjoyed engaging through this blog throughout the semester and hope you had a similar experience! All the best in the future!

Aden

[awgeog2260]

Reflecting on Geography 2260 - Applied Human Geography

These things I know for certain about human geography research:

Firstly, I know for certain what kind of research is considered qualitative geography research. Qualitative research is diverse, has been maturing in recent years, and has strong methods to understand people and place relationships (Hay, I., 2016, p.3). Qualitative research is meant to understand human environments and human experiences (Hay, I., 2016, p.5). An example of methods used in qualitative methods versus quantitative methods is that qualitative research would include in-depth interviews, while quantitative techniques more likely would include questionnaires (Hay, I., 2016, p.5). 

Secondly, something I learned from this class is what research requires an ethics clearance, and what goes into ensuring research participants are respected. Complying with ethics requirements from an institution is a way to ensure the researcher is respecting everyone involved in the project (Hay, I., 2016, p.57). Formal ethics requirements ensures that cultural and ethical contexts are being considered before the project commences (Hay, I., 2016, p.57). If your research involves you interviewing participants, you need an ethics approval. An ethics clearance also helps the researcher get funding, increase their legitimacy, and get published. 

Thirdly, I know for certain that human geography research requires us to be critically reflexive throughout the research process. This is something we have talked about a lot in this course. Reflexivity requires the researcher to be self-conscious and constantly scrutinize their position in the research process to ensure the data is unbiased and that the research is ethical (Hay, I., 2016, p.34). Critical reflexivity is a difficult process because people are not used to analyzing their engagement in their work and I also know that not many researcher’s write about their research process in their work (Hay, I., 2016, p.34). This being said, asking ourselves self-critical questions during research, and keeping a journal to log this process, is key to providing ethical, justifiable research.

These things I am still confused by:

I am still confused by how to write-up research findings. I find it difficult to determine categories that need to be discussed and figuring out what is salient information. We learned how to write up research findings in chapter 19 (Hay, I., 2016, p.392-416), but I still need practice in how to identify what information is the best to use in a research paper. This is something I struggled with in the Digital Storytelling Assignment. There were so many options of things to include, it was difficult to determine what was the most solid. This is a skill I continue to develop throughout my time as an undergrad student.

Secondly, I know that ethical considerations are crucial for a justified, respectful research project, but I am sometimes confused by what is and what is not ethical. In the case study we reviewed with Agafia, when I first watched the video I thought the researchers did their duty of ensuring the research was ethical, but after more consideration, I found it difficult to justify some of their actions. So, what kind of research is and is not ethical is something I am still thinking about.

Lastly, I am still confused about how to formulate a good research question that fills a gap in research literature. In the textbook chapter, Writing a Compelling Research Proposal (Hay, I., 2016, p.95-116), we learned how to write a research proposal, but I am still wondering how to find a topic that has not yet been discovered, and how to convince people that your research topic should be investigated. 

These things I know for certain about me as a human geographic researcher:

I know that my strengths are in historical research, which involves systematic collection and objective evaluation of data. This is the only type of qualitative research that I have had experience with in undergrad.  

I also know that I tend to get distracted and overwhelmed when I am met with too much information. The tips to manage data we learned in Week 5 helped me to figure out how to organize some data for the digital storytelling assignment. Specifically, using highlighters and notes tools help me to stay organized. Coding was something that helped me figure out the focus for the digital storying telling assignment and what information to focus on in the literature.

Lastly, I know that I am more interested in qualitative human geography research than quantitative. I am interested in current events and I like thinking critically. Researching in-depth human relationships to different things interests me more than numerical data.

These three areas I need to spend time developing/learning in order to feel more confident in my skills:

I need to spend more time working with data in different ways, spend time analyzing data by coding more, and writing it all up. I feel as though the storytelling assignment helped me to work with data more by reviewing a lot of literature and going back to it throughout several months, which is something I have never done before for an assignment. I want to develop these skills of going back to research and thinking critically about my position as well as the validity of sources throughout a lengthy period of time. 

Secondly, I would like to gain experience doing basic fieldwork to feel more confident in my research abilities. I have always done secondary research at my desk, which can be limiting. I would like to develop some skills in conducting my own research outside of historical based research methods, and try out some of my own data collection.

Lastly, I need to spend some time on developing my interviewing skills. I now know about the three main types of interviewing, structured, unstructured and semi-structured interviews (Hay, I., 2016, p.150-158). I would like to specifically learn more about how to conduct semi-structured interviews, which are interviews that have some sort of structure but also allow for some free flowing conversation (Hay, I. year p.150). This I think would come with practice as well as thinking critically about what kind of interviews are at play when listening to interviews in podcasts or other media.

Resources: 

Hay, I. (2016). Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography. Toronto. Oxford University Press.

[amfgeog2260]

Hi Alanna!

Congratulations on your final post of the semester! Your reflection on your knowledge throughout the semester is clear from your post this week. I think it is a really important skill to be able to think of, and describe our areas of strength and our areas of confusion especially in a topic as big as human geography. I would be interested to hear what you thought of this blog post, but I found it difficult to look back through the semester and be honest with myself in terms of what I was strong at and what I needed work on. You seem to have a very good grasp on your strengths, knowledge, confusion, and areas of need, which is an important skill outside of this class as well.  

I completely agree with your commentary on having a difficult time actually writing-up research findings. This was a point of confusion for me too, as I find it interesting and engaging to actually find the information through research, and then I get overwhelmed or somewhat less motivated when it comes time to actually describe, outline, or analyze the things that were found. I agree it is a really important skill, and like most things, continually practicing it is probably the most beneficial way to further my understanding or appreciation for this side of the research process. 

I also found your discussion about your interest in gaining basic field work skills to further your research toolkit and understanding really interesting too. It is definitely an interesting year to try and get practice doing field work, considering our inability to be physically present with other researchers, or gather information from a group of people, or generally do research that isn’t online. Especially with a topic as socially interactive as human geography, it seems strange to have to gain our research skills solely online for this year. 

Thank you again for sharing your final blog post with all of us, I enjoyed reading it and found myself agreeing with a lot of your discussion! I hope you had an enjoyable semester, and wish you all the best for the rest of this course and this coming summer! 

Aden

[awgeog2260]

Hi Aden,

Thank you for your response and your kind words! To answer your first question, I do find these types of reflection questions difficult, and this blog prompt was no exception. I resonate with what you said about it being difficult to think critically about your own learning, and what your strengths and weaknesses are/were. I always find it difficult to talk about myself with an academic lens. I think this may be because it is not super often that we as students get asked these questions. I find it easier to talk about what I do know than explore areas that I am still confused about. Do you keep a journal or do any kind of reflection about a course on your own time? I agree that reflecting on a course, and even reflecting on the areas that we think we need to dive deeper into to have a holistic understanding of the topic, is crucial for continuous learning and growing as geographers.

In reference to writing up research data, I think this is a common area of difficulty with qualitative research. As chapter 17: Writing Qualitative Geographies, Constructing Geographical Knowledge discusses, a problem with qualitative data is that there are no pre-described categories that the data is supposed to fall into, and there are many interpretations that can be taken for types of data such as interviews (Hay, I., 2016, p.333-355). This being said, I enjoy qualitative research because of these diverse elements and the ability to interpret things in different ways, because it allows us to get a deeper understanding of humanity.

I agree, it is disappointing that we’re unable to participate in field research at this time. I do feel lucky to still be able to have access to a plethora of data on the internet, and to still be able to do a course like this online, and hopefully we will be able to do some field research in the near future.

Thanks Aden!

[amfgeog2260]

Hi Alanna, 

Absolutely I agree! I feel like this semester is both easier and harder to reflect on the semester and courses. We have a lot more time alone to think with our own thoughts throughout the year which is really different and interesting, but it doesn’t ever allow us to sit down and discuss things that we find difficult or intriguing as a group or in a class room!

As to your question, I have not taken up a journal yet, and haven’t done a whole lot of reflective writing about the course on my own time, as with you, I find it hard to be fully reflective and analyze myself through an academic lens. Having said that, I do see some value in doing that, and maybe not even academically but just trying to be reflective and present in journalling/writing about life in general. Maybe this summer I will try and do that a few times!

Thank you for the response and the suggestion, stay well!

Aden

[awgeog2260]

Reflecting on Geography 2260 - Applied Human Geography

These things I know for certain about human geography research:

Firstly, I know for certain what kind of research is considered qualitative geography research. Qualitative research is diverse, has been maturing in recent years, and has strong methods to understand people and place relationships (Hay, I., 2016, p.3). Qualitative research is meant to understand human environments and human experiences (Hay, I., 2016, p.5). An example of methods used in qualitative methods versus quantitative methods is that qualitative research would include in-depth interviews, while quantitative techniques more likely would include questionnaires (Hay, I., 2016, p.5). 

Secondly, something I learned from this class is what research requires an ethics clearance, and what goes into ensuring research participants are respected. Complying with ethics requirements from an institution is a way to ensure the researcher is respecting everyone involved in the project (Hay, I., 2016, p.57). Formal ethics requirements ensures that cultural and ethical contexts are being considered before the project commences (Hay, I., 2016, p.57). If your research involves you interviewing participants, you need an ethics approval. An ethics clearance also helps the researcher get funding, increase their legitimacy, and get published. 

Thirdly, I know for certain that human geography research requires us to be critically reflexive throughout the research process. This is something we have talked about a lot in this course. Reflexivity requires the researcher to be self-conscious and constantly scrutinize their position in the research process to ensure the data is unbiased and that the research is ethical (Hay, I., 2016, p.34). Critical reflexivity is a difficult process because people are not used to analyzing their engagement in their work and I also know that not many researcher’s write about their research process in their work (Hay, I., 2016, p.34). This being said, asking ourselves self-critical questions during research, and keeping a journal to log this process, is key to providing ethical, justifiable research.

These things I am still confused by:

I am still confused by how to write-up research findings. I find it difficult to determine categories that need to be discussed and figuring out what is salient information. We learned how to write up research findings in chapter 19 (Hay, I., 2016, p.392-416), but I still need practice in how to identify what information is the best to use in a research paper. This is something I struggled with in the Digital Storytelling Assignment. There were so many options of things to include, it was difficult to determine what was the most solid. This is a skill I continue to develop throughout my time as an undergrad student.

Secondly, I know that ethical considerations are crucial for a justified, respectful research project, but I am sometimes confused by what is and what is not ethical. In the case study we reviewed with Agafia, when I first watched the video I thought the researchers did their duty of ensuring the research was ethical, but after more consideration, I found it difficult to justify some of their actions. So, what kind of research is and is not ethical is something I am still thinking about.

Lastly, I am still confused about how to formulate a good research question that fills a gap in research literature. In the textbook chapter, Writing a Compelling Research Proposal (Hay, I., 2016, p.95-116), we learned how to write a research proposal, but I am still wondering how to find a topic that has not yet been discovered, and how to convince people that your research topic should be investigated. 

These things I know for certain about me as a human geographic researcher:

I know that my strengths are in historical research, which involves systematic collection and objective evaluation of data. This is the only type of qualitative research that I have had experience with in undergrad.  

I also know that I tend to get distracted and overwhelmed when I am met with too much information. The tips to manage data we learned in Week 5 helped me to figure out how to organize some data for the digital storytelling assignment. Specifically, using highlighters and notes tools help me to stay organized. Coding was something that helped me figure out the focus for the digital storying telling assignment and what information to focus on in the literature.

Lastly, I know that I am more interested in qualitative human geography research than quantitative. I am interested in current events and I like thinking critically. Researching in-depth human relationships to different things interests me more than numerical data.

These three areas I need to spend time developing/learning in order to feel more confident in my skills:

I need to spend more time working with data in different ways, spend time analyzing data by coding more, and writing it all up. I feel as though the storytelling assignment helped me to work with data more by reviewing a lot of literature and going back to it throughout several months, which is something I have never done before for an assignment. I want to develop these skills of going back to research and thinking critically about my position as well as the validity of sources throughout a lengthy period of time. 

Secondly, I would like to gain experience doing basic fieldwork to feel more confident in my research abilities. I have always done secondary research at my desk, which can be limiting. I would like to develop some skills in conducting my own research outside of historical based research methods, and try out some of my own data collection.

Lastly, I need to spend some time on developing my interviewing skills. I now know about the three main types of interviewing, structured, unstructured and semi-structured interviews (Hay, I., 2016, p.150-158). I would like to specifically learn more about how to conduct semi-structured interviews, which are interviews that have some sort of structure but also allow for some free flowing conversation (Hay, I. year p.150). This I think would come with practice as well as thinking critically about what kind of interviews are at play when listening to interviews in podcasts or other media.

Resources: 

Hay, I. (2016). Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography. Toronto. Oxford University Press.

[amfgeog2260]

Hi Alanna!

Congratulations on your final post of the semester! Your reflection on your knowledge throughout the semester is clear from your post this week. I think it is a really important skill to be able to think of, and describe our areas of strength and our areas of confusion especially in a topic as big as human geography. I would be interested to hear what you thought of this blog post, but I found it difficult to look back through the semester and be honest with myself in terms of what I was strong at and what I needed work on. You seem to have a very good grasp on your strengths, knowledge, confusion, and areas of need, which is an important skill outside of this class as well.  

I completely agree with your commentary on having a difficult time actually writing-up research findings. This was a point of confusion for me too, as I find it interesting and engaging to actually find the information through research, and then I get overwhelmed or somewhat less motivated when it comes time to actually describe, outline, or analyze the things that were found. I agree it is a really important skill, and like most things, continually practicing it is probably the most beneficial way to further my understanding or appreciation for this side of the research process. 

I also found your discussion about your interest in gaining basic field work skills to further your research toolkit and understanding really interesting too. It is definitely an interesting year to try and get practice doing field work, considering our inability to be physically present with other researchers, or gather information from a group of people, or generally do research that isn’t online. Especially with a topic as socially interactive as human geography, it seems strange to have to gain our research skills solely online for this year. 

Thank you again for sharing your final blog post with all of us, I enjoyed reading it and found myself agreeing with a lot of your discussion! I hope you had an enjoyable semester, and wish you all the best for the rest of this course and this coming summer! 

Aden

[amfgeog2260]

A Glimpse of the Semester...

Everyone always says how fast semesters go once they get going, and it's true once again! It is crazy to think that we are already writing our final blog posts for this class, and it feels like last week that I was creating my first Tumblr account and following all of my classmates who I did not know anything about. I am not sure whether it is the format, the class, or the layout of our discussions but it feels as if this semester has had some of the most engaging and interesting discussions while I have been at university. I find it difficult to take a whole semester of readings, course content, assignments, and discussions with peers, and pack it into a relatively small blog post… but I am going to do my best! 

3 Things I Know About Human Geographic Research

1. The first thing I can say I know about human geography, is more broadly what it is, and how qualitative methods of human geography are used in human geography. The first chapter of the textbook does a really good job at outlining from the beginning what it is, and how its complexity and open-endedness can be used. What I mean by that is exactly what the textbook says, that qualitative methods in human geography are concerned with “elucidating human environments and human experiences” (Hay 2016, p. 5). Fundamentally, all of the analysis, research, interpretation, and methods employed by qualitative human geographic investigators circles back to the goal of answering questions related to social structures and or individual experiences (Hay 2016, p. 5). At the beginning of the course, this idea of tackling both structural macro questions/issues along with individual experience or micro issues was hard for me to conceptualize. At this point I have a better understanding of the goal of qualitative research, human geography, and the methods employed to find answers about social and human behaviour. 

2. I mentioned the breadth of human geography in my first point, which leads me to the second thing I know about human geography. I know now how much is captured in the term human geography, or human geographic research. Not only was the idea of human geography not clear to me, but the ideas and sub-topics of human geography were not either. From the textbook readings, weekly course content, and our newest Digital Storytelling Project, some of the most prominent subtopics of human geography have become more clear to me. We have all taken a different approach and topic in our group projects; from social, cultural, economic, political, health, environment, and the list goes on (Hooykaas 2021). These are only a few subtopics, and the important thing I realize now is that human geography is everywhere we look, and it matters in order to find answers and ask more questions about the world we live in! 

3. Since the topic of human geography is so broad and all-encompassing, I now know how important and diverse the use of research, knowledge, and analysis can be in the real-world with the help of human geography. The specific example from this course that allowed me to value knowledge, analysis, reflection and research most was the way we can use it to break down social barriers of knowledge. Using cross-cultural research methods, ethics, and relationships, we can impact more inclusive research methods and break down previously colonial ways of understanding knowledge (Hay 2016, p. 45). Specifically from chapter 4, we gained an appreciation and understanding of the way colonial values and power shaped our understanding of the validity of knowledge (Hay 2016, p. 76). Using different, and equally valuable knowledge like feminist and indigenous approaches to research in geography can not only further our research in human geography, but can keep strong subjectivity and equal value in different kinds of knowledge, from people, cultures and places around the world (Hay 2016, p. 85). 

3 Things I Am Confused By

1. I am still confused by concepts about Foucaldian Discourse Analysis in chapter 14. This might be too narrow of a topic to take for this blog, but the idea of discourse analysis still does not seem to make complete sense to me. I understand Gordon Waitt explains it as an “interpretive approach in geography… used to make sense of the world within particular social and temporal contexts” (Hay 2016, p. 288). This still teams like too large of a definition, or unspecific an explanation to make sense to me, or make me understand that it is in fact important and integral to the way we see the social structures we live in. 

2. The second thing I am confused by still is in that discussion about the broad topic of human geography. I know it relates to most, if not every thing in our social and physical lives, but when is it not human geography? That may seem unclear as a question, but it seems confusing to me to try and place human geography within a boundary. Every topic or research method has parameters in which it focuses, but this seems like such a broad idea that I am not sure I can wrap my head around what is and what isn’t human geography, if it actually relates to everything. 

3. The last thing that is considerably still confusing to me is the idea of universal objectivity and situated knowledges. We read about these topics in chapter 19, and I still am having a hard time understanding them individually and how they exist together. Situated knowledges is explained in the text as one of the most useful approaches to “contest universalist forms of knowledge” (Hay 2016, p. 400). This idea however, still gives me a hard time to fully understand it.

3 Things I Know About Myself as Human Geographic Researcher

1. I can’t assume that I am a human geographic researcher now, and that my road to learning, analyzing, research, reflecting, and creating is done just because this course is coming to an end. I can however, distinguish the very few things I know about myself so far, as a human geographic researcher. The first is that I know I won’t place inherent value on a specific type of research or knowledge. I mentioned it earlier briefly, but I feel that the impacts from assuming a type of knowledge or method of research is “correct” compared to another is problematic, and has the power to perpetuate age old colonial values. I know I will use the skills I have learned and will continue to learn, to provide reflection and knowledge of my own, while never discounting or taking for granted the knowledge of others. 

2. Secondly, I know I am a people person. I have known this for a while, but specific to human geographic research, I will always feel more confident and comfortable having discussion, reflection, or doing research in groups, or with others rather than alone. I found that although it was a lot of fun too, this blog post forum made this class a lot more enjoyable and gave me an environment to discuss and reflect with others! This comment goes along with now knowing the power of critical reflexivity in research and discussions, and to not discount the value of discussion with peer researchers, interviewees, or during the research process. 

3. The final thing I have learned about myself as a human geographic researcher is my interest in qualitative methods of human geography, over quantitative ones. Although I understand the importance of having both, I much prefer the use and methods in qualitative research rather than quantitative. This ties into my interest in group work and working with people, instead of numbers. Asking questions, making inquiries, participants in research, and listening to the stories of people (Hay 2016, p. 117-120) is what I find most interesting and appealing about this type of research method.                                                                                                                                                              

3 Things I Need To Spend Time On 

1. Having expressed my interest for qualitative methods of human geographic research, I need to start focusing and learning more about quantitative methods. I think its important to have a wholistic view and understanding of human geography, and I can’t do that if I isolate myself from an entire side of geographic research. I understand that this textbook is aimed directly at qualitative methods, however, there are lessons from quantitative research that can be used in qualitative research as well. Organizing, analyzing, coding, and surveys all can be used (as seen in chapter 18) as a means of communicating and interpreting qualitative research (Hay 2016, p. 373). Yet, these are different skills than interviewing, listening, or reflecting on the very typical qualitative methods of research. I need to spend time on the things that don’t come to me as easily, or interest me as much, to give myself a general confidence in human geographic research. 

2. The second area of human geography I need to more fully appreciate and understand is the value in historical perspectives and accounts and research. I find myself interested in human geographic research now, and interested in the future of social structures and individuals. Historical geography and reflecting on the past seemed boring or unproductive to me. I discredited the research that can be done contemporarily, based on the history of social identities, and not just solely focusing on the research that has yet to be done or discovered. This specific need relates to chapter 11, when Roche discusses historical research and “archival sources” (Hay 2016, p. 226). Michael Roche even discusses interest he has had in the past “30 years of being a historical geographer (Hay 2016, p. 225). There is something here I have yet to find interest in, but again, in order to further my skills and my full research potential, this is a crucial part of human geography I need to spend more time on.

3. Lastly, I find myself rushing to get answers or skipping ahead to find the ultimate “research findings” when I am reading, or even trying to do research of my own. I need to work on my patience as a researcher, and not be so set on finding a single concluding answer in research. Instead, I need to assume that the process of research and analysis is the answer, and that the answers will appear sometimes in the wait or in the depths of research. Finding definitive answers is exciting, but especially in a field as broad and open as human geography, I need to build my ability to reflect on and analyze answers that come from the research process. 

I hope this small amount of information has given you all a glimpse into my perceptions of the course, and my own learning along with it. I truly did not know the importance of human geography, qualitative research, or its actual application in the real world. I have really enjoyed being a part of this class and sharing blogs with one another every week! I hope you all have had a similarly educational, interesting, and engaging semester in this blog forum. All the best to everyone this summer!

References 

Hay, I. (2016). Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography. Fourth ed., Oxford.

Hooykaas, A. (2021). https://courselink.uoguelph.ca/d2l/le/content/668082/viewContent/2730478/View

[angeog2260]

Toronto Maple Leafs Trade Rumours: Are They Valid?

Article quick link:

https://thehockeywriters.com/maple-leafs-barabanov-scott-andersen-marleau-trade/

The article that I have chosen to demonstrate for this blog post regards trade rumours within the hockey industry, more specifically the Toronto Maple Leafs. This is an article written by The Old Prof. After further research, he was a professor at the University of Alberta, with two degrees. He does not suggest where he finds the information, but he does mention that these are possible rumours and rumours within the sporting industry are extremely common. After engaging and learning about the research process and all of the ethical considerations, I can realize what should have been done to ensure a proper and valid article. Instead of collecting his information from (most likely) other news sources, he could have conducted an interview with people directly involved with the Leafs or the sporting industry as “interviews are an excellent method of gaining access to information about events, opinions, and experiences” (Hay, 2016). This was also not validated or verified simply because the information stated is not accurate and has not occurred. Subjectivity involves the insertion of personal opinions and characteristics into research practices (Hooykaas, 2021). Within this article, we need to consider the subjectivity placed as well as the biases of opinions that are inserted in this article. This website is not intended for educational purposes and is used for the general public to use lightly and read with caution.

References:

Hay, I. (2016). Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography. Fourth ed., Oxford.

Hooykaas, A. (2021). Week 2: Philosophy, Power, Politics and Research Design. CourseLink.

https://courselink.uoguelph.ca/d2l/le/content/668082/viewContent/2673139/View

The Old Prof. (2021). Maple Leafs News & Rumours? Scott, Anderson, Marleau & Coming Trade? The Hockey Writers.

https://thehockeywriters.com/maple-leafs-barabanov-scott-andersen-marleau-trade/

[amfgeog2260]

Hi Amy, 

This is a very unique article to choose, and I love that you decided to focus on this topic for this weeks blog! I find it interesting that we can really use the courses content and research methods in most of what we read and research, as you have shown with your article of choice. I also thought it was a very necessary addition that you discussed the importance of subjectivity, and the potential for this article to not necessarily be all what it seems. There are tons of sources out there, especially when it comes to such a big professional hockey market like Toronto, so it is an important caution to be aware of the potential validity concerns. 

Although the Albertan Professor means well and I am sure knows quite a bit about his writing topic, it still is an important caution to bring up. 

After reading the article, did you find it more or less valid as useful information, based on what we learned this week?

Thanks for sharing this unique post!

[amfgeog2260]

Mapping Racial Injustice

Article in ‘The Conversation’

For this week's blog post I came across an online article published by ‘The Conversation’ journal on February 23rd, 2021 (link to the article: https://theconversation.com/how-black-cartographers-put-racism-on-the-map-of-america-155081). The article discusses the importance of cartography, which is the use, creation, and analyzation of maps. The article explains how useful cartography has been in the history of racial injustice, as a means by which to “put racism on the map of America” (Alderman and Inwood 2021). I have mentioned this in previous blogs, but I found a similar, more recent article for our digital storytelling project which mapped the global protests in response to the murder of George Floyd. This article caught my attention because it uses physical and social geography in the same way as the more recent article, but addresses and visually shows the impact of race related injustice across the United States. The article and maps also give visual weight to the specific states and regions which perpetuated more racial injustices throughout history, which we can draw similarities to the same states today. 

Key Message

There is a strong and noteworthy message here. Although this is not an easy topic to talk about or write about, this article explains the power of mapping social injustice, especially in the history of the United States. The article explains the ways and uses of mapping and cartography over the course of history in America, to better understand, reflect on, and keep account of nationwide racial injustice. The article provides examples of cartography’s use from the late 1800s to examples like mapping police brutality through cartography more recently in 2014 (Alderman and Inwood 2021). Which outlines very clearly for the reader, that racially motivated injustices and inequities are continually perpetuated even almost a century after they were first mapped out. 

The Articles Sources

Because of the historic value with which this article was written, a lot of their sources would have been primary sources or historical, geography related resources. Specifically, the article used a primary source published in 1919 by the “National Association for the Advancement of Colored People”. The primary resource shows a map of the United States of America, and mapped out is all of the lynchings which occurred in a decade long span from 1909 to 1918 (Alderman and Inwood 2021). The second cartograph from the same primary resource shows a similar map of America but for a thirty-year period between 1889 and 1918 (Alderman and Inwood 2021). The other notable primary source you can see below this paragraph; civil rights activist Bayard Rustin in 1963 using maps to organize a march on Washington. The article explains that this is another way/reason for maps to be used to create politically disruptive movements for social change (Alderman and Inwood 2021). This is another parallel to my more recent example related to maps of global protests for anti-racism movements and solidarity for George Floyd. 

Expectations and Responsibilities of the Consumer

I think one of the most important parts of this article is the impact that it could have, either for awareness, education, and/or the future of social justice policy in the United States. We also have a responsibility as a consumer to take any source or article we see and properly evaluate it and reflect on it. The textbook and this week's content discusses the importance of conducting participatory action research (PAR) which can create positive results associated with co-learning and collective action (Hay 2016, p. 352). This is the type of resource where we all have a responsibility to acknowledge the social injustices, inequities and structurally systemic issues that still impact an underrepresented minority of people. The text also mentions the important process of transformative reflexivity, in which the researcher and the audience or in the case of the textbook, person being researched to reflect on issues and “negotiate meanings of information generated together” (Hay 2016, p. 355). The text also talks about the technique of mapping to further our research and understanding of a topic. For reasons related to our social geographic topic in our final project, to the racial injustices seen in the United States and Canada over the past year, this seemed to be a prominent and important piece of writing to reflect on, and hopefully discuss further. 

References

Alderman H., D., & Inwood FJ., J. (2021, February 23). How black cartographers put racism on the map of America. Retrieved March 26, 2021, from https://theconversation.com/how-black-cartographers-put-racism-on-the-map-of-america-155081

https://www.loc.gov/static/classroom-materials/naacp-a-century-in-the-fight-for-freedom/documents/lynching.pdf

Hay, I. (2016). Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography. Fourth ed., Oxford.

[angeog2260]

Coding In Rural Geography

Rural Geography as a Focus

My group's focus is Rural Geography for the Digital Storytelling Project. Coding articles not only helps with organization, but it also allows for a better understanding of the research conducted. Coding qualitative material can help with data reduction, organization and the creation of searching aids, as well as analysis (Hay, 2016). The first source I used is the Impact of Industrialization on Environment and Sustainable Solutions- Reflections from a South Indian Region from the IOP Conference Series (Earth and Environmental Science), finalized by Rasmi Patnaik. The second source I used was an informative article on the Environmental Impacts of Industrialization from EcoMENA, finalized by Emily Folk. These sources relate to Rural Geography as the rural environments are typically where resource peripheries are located. We also must consider the inequality of urbanization and industrialization and how the locations outside often feel the physical impacts, such as air pollution, water contamination, destruction of habitats and ecosystems etc.

My Codes

Planning and development are highlighted in blue, impacts to the ecosystem and the physical environment are highlighted in green, pollution/waste/emissions are highlighted in pink while factory and industry are highlighted in yellow. I used the preview app on Mac to complete these.

Types of Coding

With my coding process, I would say that I took an inductive coding approach. Before conducting the research between these two sources, I did have a general idea of what I wanted to do, but I never set a definitive coding system of what codes specifically I was looking for. As I was reading through the articles I decided on my codes and what seemed to be the main focus. I used a hierarchical coding frame which allows me to organize codes based on how they relate to one another (Hooykaas, 2021). As all of my codes have some sort of significance for the other, I thought that this was my best approach to take. This coding frame allows me to organize my codes based on organizational structure (Hooykaas, 2021).

Applying to my Digital Storytelling Project on Rural Geography

I think that coding is helpful for research in order to focus on key themes and narrow the large papers down. Sometimes those large research articles can be overwhelming and it is hard to know where to start, but this technique is beneficial for organization. Since rural geography is such a broad topic, this also helps with the understanding and interpretation of the topic.

References

Folk, E. (2018). Environmental Impacts of Industrialization. https://www.ecomena.org/environmental-impacts-of-industrialization/

Hooykaas, A. (2021). Week 8: Coding. https://courselink.uoguelph.ca/d2l/le/content/668082/viewContent/2730478/View

Hay, I. (2016). Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography. Fourth ed., Oxford.

Patnaik, R. (2018). Impact of Industrialization on Environment and Sustainable Solutions - Reflections from a South Indian Region. IOP Conference Series. Earth and Environmental Science, 120(1), 12016–. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/120/1/012016

[amfgeog2260]

Hi Amy!

Looks like an effective and precise coding approach you’ve taken! I liked your explanations for your uses of codes, framing, and types of coding for your information, I found those same tools useful. 

I found it interesting to see the photos you added as well, to see not only your process for coding, but how you found it most useful in the actual research. I took an inductive approach as well, and found it made more sense to me than predefining codes to be identified. I always find even if I know something prior to reading the source, there seems to be always a lot more information and themes that emerge once I am reading it or finished reading it. This approach also allows you to not be concerned about having as much bias, by looking for specific predefined codes prior to your analysis of the data! I also thought your choice of codes were very accurate considering the sources you were analyzing. In terms of your hierarchical approach, you mentioned the codes have some significance to one another throughout the list, and I was wondering did you apply certain importance to some of the codes than others or did you weight them all similarly? 

Great work Amy, hopefully this is a new skill we can all use to further our understanding and unpacking of all the information that comes with finding sources and research. I look forward to reading more of your blogs as the semester progresses!

[amfgeog2260]

Coding Through Time: Social Geography

Coded Sources

The two articles I decided to code and analyze were ones I have been using to gain a better understanding of the current perspectives and definitions of social geography. The first article is a news article by Aljazeera which provides a spatial analysis map of all the anti-racism protests of solidarity around the world, after the murder of George Floyd (Haddad 2020). Although our group’s project has the ultimate goal of answering the question: “What is Social Geography?”, my specific portion of the project is to focus on and identify the present/contemporary perspectives, changing definitions, and understanding of social geography in today’s world. This article provides a really important, and very current look at how topics of social injustice, racism, inequality, social movements, beliefs, and justice play a role, and shape our current understanding of what social geography is, and how it will inevitably change. 

The second source I decided to code is a peer-reviewed journal article that focuses on the intersectional inequalities which have been exacerbated and highlighted during the global pandemic of COVID-19 (Ho and Maddrell 2021). This is another very current look at what social geography means, and how specifically the COVID-19 pandemic has changed, and elevated our understanding or knowledge of weak social systems to reduce social, gender, and racial inequality. 

Type of Coding & Framing of Codes

Although both articles have topics and discussions about similar issues that would have been fairly easy to detect a set of codes to follow prior to analyzing the documents, I decided on an inductive coding approach instead. This way, I avoid any bias of searching for a predetermined set of codes, and I can analyze the articles for what they are and allow the important codes to be highlighted and evaluated as I am going through them (Hooykaas 2021). Especially with issues relating to intersectionality, racial and social inequality, and the COVID-19 pandemic, I did not want to miss out on potentially new and useful codes by pre-determining a set of codes in the deductive coding approach. I chose to weigh each code equally, therefore using the flat coding frame (Hooykaas 2021). The reason for this is similar to the last, I felt that all of the codes I was using was equally applicable, relevant, impactful, and rigorous as the others, and I did not feel it would be as useful to me to map them out in hierarchy of importance, but rather use all of them as individually important elements of a larger coding framework. 

Codes

CODES: World, Justice, Intersectional, Cultural, Inequality, Race

As I said previously, both of these articles were focused directly on current wide-spread social inequalities, and both articles varied in how focused or broad they were. The first article I looked at was specifically discussing the inequality of George Floyd, and the wide cross-cultural and international response to it. Whereas the second article took a more macro view of the intersectional burdens that COVID-19 has had on underrepresented populations around the world. Both equally important topics, discussing similar issues from micro and macro perspectives. I finished my analysis with six codes, which I think pertain to both articles well. Although the example photo I preview below in my blog shows little use of the word “world”, I felt it was an important code to add to my set of data because of the goal and general arguments of the separate articles. COVID-19 has impacted the globe, and thus increased the impacts of intersectional burdens faced by underrepresented, minority, and under resourced populations and communities around the world, and the mapping of solidarity protests in support of justice for George Floyd and anti-racism movements happened all over the globe. The article specifically mentions and lists over 100 cities in varying countries around the world who all protested in their communities and cities after the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. 

Digital Storytelling Project

We are also dealing with a lot of information, data, and writing throughout the course of this project. The coding resources we used in this week's blog is useful to provide a concise and accurate identification of themes, topics, and subjects which can be used in our digital stories, or to help inform them. I find this type of data analysis and management tool allows me to not be as distracted or lost in the large amount of writing and resources we are referencing back to. It allows me to look back on either inductive or deductive codes to stay on top of the ultimate goal, while allowing me to continue engaging more deeply with new information. My group members and I each have divided up the timeline of social geography based on historical periods (historical perspectives, contemporary perspectives, future perspectives) and this resource allows each of us to focus on our portion/timeframe of the project by extracting data and information from all of our references to provide more robust information and general themes on that one period in history or the future. Themes that emerge from the use of these codes allowed me to make connections between the articles about larger social geographic issues and topics, which will become useful in my continued research, and eventual creation of the final digital story. 

References 

Source #1: Online Article

Haddad, M. (2020, June 07). Mapping anti-racism solidarity protests around the world. Retrieved February 13, 2021, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/6/7/mapping-anti-racism-solidarity-protests-around-the-world

Source #2: Peer-Reviewed Source

Ho, E. L.-E., & Maddrell, A. (2021). Intolerable intersectional burdens: a COVID-19 research agenda for social and cultural geographies. Social & Cultural Geography, 22(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2020.1837215

Hooykaas, A. (2021). Week 8: Coding.

[rhgeog2260]

GEGO*2260 HELPED ME REDISCOVER MY PASSION

I began in Geography with little to no idea of what I wanted to do with my future. I knew I loved natural systems, biology, history, etc., but I did not have an idea of what I wanted to pursue.

Thanks to the digital storytelling project, I have begun to hone in on where I would like to be post-grad. My subject, historical geography, reminded me how interested I am in the past. It made me remember that all through middle school I had goals to be an archaeologist. Upon further reflection, I noted I also wanted to work with animals - therefore, my current plan is to pursue a masters in paleontology!

I have always found prehistoric creatures extremely fascinating. After taking both evolution and vertebrate biology through the University of Guelph, I know I get excited by these weird creatures, whether they be from the Cambrian, Devonian, Triassic, etc.! I love digging up Earth's past, and look forward to this future of mine.

I have researched several masters programs all around the world, with the most promising one for me being in Edinburgh! I have a passion for travel, so doing this program abroad would be one of my goals.

Thanks to this course, and in particular our digital storytelling project, I have been able to reflect inward and rediscover my passion. These past few online semesters have been mentally challenging, and it can be easy to lose focus of the end goal. But when your courses help you plan ahead, you get to see some light at the end of the tunnel! Our university lives are certainly different from those who studied geography before us, but I'm sure this will only make us better!

[amfgeog2260]

Hey Robin, 

That is amazing!! This blog post caught my attention because of how clearly passionate and excited you are about this subject. I find it so interesting how we all eventually come to finding an interest that we want to pursue, and no doubt you have found yours. 

It seems as if all of your interests collided into one and you have found something truly amazing to look forward to. I have found especially in the year we have had so far it is really easy to get down and assume things will never move past, and one thing I find super helpful is having things down the road to be continuously excited about. This is one of those things, and I really hope that it ends up working out for you. Same goes with your comments about going abroad to study, what better time to go explore the things you love then after we have been inside and cooped up for so long!

I think more and more we get caught up in a forward thinking mindset with technology and travel and social issues, and I feel like sometimes the past gets left behind as an afterthought. I used to think that the future was more important, but throughout school and experiences I have learned there is a lot of value in the past and finding out more about then, can help us learn more about now! Your interest is basically that on a way bigger scale and I think there is a lot of value in young people being interested in that field. 

Overall this blog post got me thinking about future opportunities in general, and your excitement about your passion has got me more excited! Thanks for sharing your experiences and realizations through this class, and I really hope you are able to look back on your blog post when you are studying in Edinburgh! 

Aden

[amfgeog2260]

Making Valuable Knowledge Through Power

This course has already taught me a lot and I never expected to have the opportunity to just add comments and analysis on anything I wanted, but it's an interesting and open ended way to frame this week's blog. It will be really interesting to read the responses of others because we have such freedom to write that I look forward to seeing the similarities and differences in what we all find interesting and useful so far in the course. 

We talked about the ideas of power relationships in research and the ethics of research when there is a specific imbalance in the privilege and power in a working relationship (Hay 2016). I find these concepts useful because they apply to a lot more than just research. I wanted to read and write more about it specifically, to figure out why I find it intriguing, and why it is even useful to learn about, or reflect on.

Richie, in conversation with Stan in Chapter 3, talks about the social and cultural transmission of knowledge, and how we frame our understanding of the creation and growth of cross-cultural knowledge (Howitt and Stevens, p. 60). I talked about this briefly in a past blog post, but I mentioned the idea of how Western knowledge is seen as “correct”. In the textbook Richie is alluding this kind of power relationship in some sense related to knowledge. The Western way of thinking or creating knowledge is not any more “correct” than that of another culture, or an Indigenous community's creation and transmission of knowledge. It is the power, and oftentimes colonial power, that pushes ideas of knowledge to the forefront, which make them the most popular, and therefore in socio-cultural contexts, more “correct”. This is totally invalid, to box up knowledge as a commodity and pretend one is more valuable or correct than another. It is multiple different cultures, traditions, experiences, beliefs, and backgrounds that creates a consensus of knowledge. As Richie says, it is in interpreting, listening, and opening our ideas to other forms of knowledge, when we reach the “most important realizations about our work” (Howitt and Stevens 2016, p. 60). 

I find it really difficult to explain or put into words, but I suppose it is somewhat of a continued cycle of power and knowledge. As colonial power promotes and forces knowledge on a society, community, or country, it naturally becomes seen as more “correct”. Yet, once it is the most popular framework for knowledge, it gets used to perpetuate the interests of those who benefit from that “type” of knowledge. On the international scale of this issue, more developed nations in the global north make international decisions which are based in self-interest, which continuously increase power, resources, and decision making leverage to perpetuate that nation’s self-interest. 

The conclusion I have come up with is that although the idea of power, knowledge, and ethics is relatively small in the topic of research, those ideas individually are foundational at the international level. Power and knowledge is a part of every decision, relationship, election, international organization, aid and development project. We use this course to talk about these topics in the micro lens of research, but on a larger scale, these exact same issues are at play, and I would argue that concepts of power and knowledge at the international level are issues that we have never, and maybe will never, be able to regulate or account for fully. This very well might not be right, or even a valid way to see things in this context. I would love to further the discussion with all of you and see how you perceive these issues and how you compartmentalize them separately from research issues, to global issues. Thanks for reading and I look forward to seeing what interests all of you this week!

Howitt, R., & Stevens, S. (2016). Cross-Cultural Research: Ethics, Method, and Relationships. In Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography (4th ed.). S.l.: OXFORD UNIV PRESS.

"File:Whose Knowledge? logo.svg" by Anasuyas is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

[aatgeog2260]

5 Minute Interview!

Who Would I Interview?

If I had five minutes to interview a key thinker in the field of economic geography I would interview Naomi Klein. She is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker who is known for analyzing politics and for her critiques on globalization and capitalism. Naomi Klein has written numerous books but the one that I have read is called This Changes Everything. In this book, she describes how the economic system and the planetary system are at war, and the only way to save ourselves from climate change is to drastically change our world and the way we live. I would be so excited to meet with her and interview her because she offers a fresh and authentic perspective on climate change, related to economics and politics. Rather than beating around the bush or sugar-coating issues, she will tell it as it is which is what the world needs at this point. 

What I truly find fascinating about Naomi Klein, is that she used to not know anything about climate change. She was an ordinary person, not a scientist or environmentalist, and she even denied that climate change existed simply because she was scared of it. It is truly inspiring that one day she just decided to stop thinking it was somebody else’s job to take care of it, and that she needed to get involved.  

Interview Questions

To help find the answer to “What is Economic Geography?” I would ask Naomi Klein the following questions:

1. What made you realize you had to start involving yourself in the issue of climate change?

This is a primary question that is easy to answer, with the purpose of easing the participant into the topic of discussion. I would hope to learn a little bit more about her story as well. 

2. How is the economic system linked to climate change? Have these always been linked? 

The idea of this question is to see if we can make connections across sub-disciplines of geography. The first part will give information on its relation to environmental geography, and the second part will extend into historical geography while keeping a light shined on economic geography.

3. Do you think that certain places are more or less responsible for environmental impacts depending on their economic system? How?

This is more about geography on the map, in order to understand how a place can influence power. This will also allow comparison and contrast on economic systems at play. 

4. Your book This Changes Everything states that “It’s not about carbon: it’s about capitalism”. Seven years later, and we are still entangled in the capitalist system. Do you think we will ever get out? 

This question is meant to touch on the political geography aspect and encourages thoughts about what this topic may have in hold for the future. 

5. Is there anything else that you would like to mention? 

This exit question provides the opportunity for the participant to share anything more they wish to include. It is beneficial to the researcher as a lot of rich information usually comes in this last question.

Overview 

I decided on the first question as an engagement question, something that is not difficult to answer, in order to make the participant comfortable with the discussion. This is important in qualitative research so there is no intimidation or dominance over the participant, but to build a good first impression and positive rapport between the researcher and participant (Hay, 2016). The exploration questions are meant to expand on the topic and get into more details. The ones that I thought of are to specifically include other sub-disciplines in geography that I think are directly related to economic geography, which is environmental, historical, and political. This would provide a deeper understanding of the field of economic geography rather than staying on the surface. I made sure to ask these in a way that Naomi Klein is familiar with, in other words, drawing upon concepts I’ve noticed in her book so that it is not scary or unknown. If a participant feels unworthy or unfit to answer the questions asked, it can greatly influence their answers (Hay, 2016). Finally, the last question is simply if the participant wants to add any information that wasn’t discussed already. This could be anything, but it is important to show that their voice matters and we care about what the participant has to say. 

References

Hay, I. (2016). Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography. Fourth ed., Oxford.

Hooykaas, A. (2021). Week 6: Data Collection - Interviews, Oral Histories, Focus Groups.

Klein, N. (2015). This Changes Everything. London: Penguin Books.

[amfgeog2260]

Hi April, 

That is an awesome figure of environmentalism and politics to interview if you had the chance. I would be just as interested as you would be interviewing someone with such an interesting perspective and personal history. 

I really appreciated your questions too, starting with a non-threatening, opening primary question to allow her to feel comfortable and get engaged in the interview is really effective (Hay 2016). Although you only have 5 minutes, I think starting with a question that Klein can be interested in answering, and also allows her an opportunity to be proud of her work, and appreciate your goal in the interview, will make the next 5 minutes more engaging and effective for your own research. I also appreciate the simplicity yet rigour of your final question. You could have filled question 5 with another very deep/complex question, but I liked the openness of the final question. It is a nice way to exit the interview (Hay 2016), and who knows, you might get some insightful answer about something you never thought to even ask! 

I don’t have to many suggestions or reasons why your questions should be any different than what they currently are. If I had to provide some feedback I would try and add a couple more questions that are framed more like question 4 you wrote. Some of the other questions could more easily answered in her writing/research from the past. It might be more useful for your own research and engagement to ask her things that she has not openly shared about her insights into climate change, experiences, or the current economic system we live in. You have the amazingly insightful Naomi Klein in a one on one interview format for 5 minutes, try and ask her things that she doesn’t normally need to answer, or things that you personally have always wanted to know! Like I said before though, your questions were all insightful and robust, but those are some simple suggestions. 

Lastly, I read her book This Changes Everything recently for another class and it was as you said, a really interesting perspective, and reasoning for her initial involvement in climate crisis activism. I liked how her writing was story-based, and did not just berate the reader with statistics and information about anti-capitalist systems. Rather, she uses her own experiences, and quotes/experiences of others to help paint a picture about climate change, and the way capitalism and Western economic systems exacerbate our need to extract resources. 

I really appreciated your post, and fully agree with your interest in someone like Naomi Klein. I look forward to discussing and engaging more with your posts throughout the remainder of the semester, thank you again for sharing! 

Aden

Hay, I. (2016). Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography. Fourth ed., Oxford.

[amfgeog2260]

Space and Place: Social Geography in 5 Minutes

Interviewee: Yi-Fu Tuan 

In 1977, Yi-Fu Tuan wrote a book called Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. This was an insightful look at how humans become attached to homes, neighbourhoods, and nations. The book also reflects on the human experience as it relates to space and place, and Tuan speaks as though place is security and space is freedom (University of Minnesota Press 2011). Yi-Fu Tuan is considered one of the most influential thinkers in the field of humanist and social geography. He was born in 1930, and not only would it be incredibly informative to interview him briefly to learn about his research and writing, but to interview someone who has been around for so long would give me insight into the history of social geography looks like, and how it has evolved over his academic career. Here are some questions I would ask Yi-Fu if I was given the opportunity: 

1. How different is your definition of “place” and “space” now, then when you released your book in 1977?

I hope to gain some information about how the actual definition of social geography has changed over time, from someone who reflected on what it means in a book over 40 years ago. 

2. Through continued exponential growth from globalization and technological advancements, are people less attached/appreciative of a sense of place in 2021?

I am curious to get insight into the impact that technology, globalization, and a world of increased movement has had on the individual's sense of place and space. I wonder if it has become a phenomenon that is less “appreciated” or thought of as important in a world where travel is easily accessible. 

3. How has perspectives of gender, race, social location, and culture played a role in contemporary perspectives of social geography?

Social geography is changing, and the definition of it is starting to incorporate more about sense of place as it relates to socio-cultural inequalities and injustices such as gender, race, and religion. I am interested in Yi-Fu Tuan’s answer as he has seen the shift in history of what we consider important when studying social issues, and in this case geography. 

4. What would argue is the most important thing about researching and reflecting on social geography?

From someone as knowledgeable and influential in this field of study, I would like to know what he considers the most important thing through his years of research, writing, study, and teaching. 

5. Do you think the future of social geographic research will create a more united and equitable international community? Why?

Our digital story group has decided to frame our social geography topic as a timeline. We have broken up each portion of our digital story and research into past, present, and future perspectives of social geography. Since social geography is such a broad topic, we did not want to necessarily narrow it down too much, so we have divided it by time frame, from the origins and first definitions, thinkers of social geography, to what it means to us today and current research, and ending with where social geography might be headed in the future!

All of these questions encapsulate some part of that story, and to have the opportunity to talk with someone who has been a large part of the existence and growth of social geography, would be hugely beneficial to our research, perspectives, and understanding the trends that social geography has taken over time. Apart from rigorous and dependable questions, as the textbook explains, it is important to me that I am asking questions relevant and reflective to someone as well-versed in social geography as Yi-Fu Tuan (Hay 2016, p. 126). On the other hand, it is also important that the answers and information I get from the interview are helpful in my group and I construct a meaningful and robust storyline of social geography. 

The 5-minute window we have to interview is no doubt short, which increases the importance of meaningful, thoughtful, rigorous, and useful questions about the history, research, perspectives, and nuances related to social geography. 

I would love to hear what you think about my questions, and my choice of interviewee. Is there something missing that would make my question/framework more robust and useful? I also look forward to reading your posts and seeing which thinkers you all have decided to focus on!

References

University of Minnesota Press. (2011, August 24). Space and Place. Retrieved February 27, 2021, from https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/space-and-place

Hay, Iain. Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography. Fourth ed., Oxford, 2016

Tuan, Y. (1977). Space and place : the perspective of experience. University of Minnesota Press.

[jmageo2260-deactivated20210621]

Protecting Wildlife In Africa

If I was a researcher with limitless resources, the possibilities in terms of research are endless. However, I would most likely shift the focus of my research on wildlife conservation. I have always been an avid animal lover and it is more critical today than ever to protect wildlife and keep our ecosystem in balance. The natural habitat of animals is being destroyed, and this contributes to the distinction of many species. Many have been lost due to deforestation, climate change and pollution. With more public and political involvement, restoration and preservation are possible.

With Wildlife observation, we need to understand how animals interact within their ecosystem and how they are affected by anthropogenic effects such as hunting and destruction of habitat. Since I have unlimited resources, I would first affiliate myself with an organization that has already gathered significant research, such as the International Rhino Foundation, Big Cats Initiative and Elephant Voices. 

We would continue to engage in qualitative and observational research methods through field study. Studying the animal’s behaviour  “provides valuable knowledge about their natural behavior and life histories, their complex cognitive and social experiences, and the nature of the threats they face” (Fultz & Pruetz, 2013). We will also continue quantitative research through the use of cameras, remote sensing satellites and GPS. Unfortunately, wildlife tracking is an essential part of conservation to keep track of and observe animal movement, population demographics and even poaching. In my research project the attaching or implantation of devices will be minimized. Statistical modeling can reduce the numbers required.  

Studying in the wild has some challenges as there are many variables that can interfere and cannot be controlled. The behaviour of the animals are unpredictable as well as the weather and environment.

With animal research, ethics are of the utmost importance. A researcher must ensure that the information gained justifies the disturbance to the animals and the population of natives around it.  Both animals and the environment have moral value, and neither must be harmed. The interaction of the research with the native population must also be taken into consideration. This brings us to our “Invisible Backpack”. We are visiting this beautiful country full of white privilege, we are not lacking in food, water or clothes, and are interacting with people from poor socio-economic backgrounds. We have to make the effort to be aware of our view and step away from our position of privilege. Habitat loss, when a research team sets up an area as a field site, although necessary, needs to be minimized. 

We all love and appreciate wildlife. They enrich the lives of everyone around the world and provide therapeutic benefits. Everyone wants to experience wildlife and nature from time to time and breathe a little fresh air. But wildlife is not just a source of enjoyment. Wildlife and their habitat play a vital role in ecological processes and are essential to life itself. It is of the utmost importance that we work to protect our wildlife. “The functioning of the biosphere, and hence the maintenance and enhancement of human life, depends on countless interactions among plants, animals and microorganisms” (Canadian Wildlife Federation).

My question is, would any of you consider volunteering in Africa with Wildlife Conservation Program?

Here is one 

https://www.goeco.org/area/volunteer-in-africa/kenya/masai-mara-lion-and-wildlife-conservation

Gruen, L., Fultz, A., & Pruetz, J. (2013, April 01). Ethical Issues in African Great Ape Field Studies. Retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/ilarjournal/article/54/1/24/670008

Canadian Wildlife Federation (n.d).  Retrieved from https://www.hww.ca/en/issues-and-topics/benefits-of-wildlife.html

[amfgeog2260]

Hey Jordan, 

I thought your blog, your topic and your proposed tactics of research were thoughtful and unique in this weeks post, great work! It was enjoyable to read about something this important and this different. Often there seems to be a focus on human issues and directly human research topics, but I appreciated your commentary on ecosystems acting as one and the crucial need for humans to protect wildlife not only for the benefit of animals and environment, but for the benefit and existence of humans. 

I also really liked how focused your project is, and although it is only proposed, I read it as if it was really happening. Your mention of specific animal tracking technology, and your hopeful partnerships with wildlife focused organizations all added to how passionate and informed you are on this subject already. I agree with your reflective approach of not only outlining more obvious ethical concerns related to wildlife, but the considerations related to privilege as a researcher working in Africa.  

Lastly, I think most research projects can take note of your comment about ensuring that “the information gained justifies the disturbance to the animals and the population”. That is a really important yet simple practice in research that I think a lot of people can use that to assess how viable and or acceptable their research. The textbook talks about the Western practice of research and how we need to shift our research methods to not assuming that the Western view of knowledge and information is “correct”. There are multiple ways to understand knowledge and it is increasingly important that we see all knowledge as useful and important, and to continue to break down the colonial walls that Western knowledge has imposed on much of the world (Hay 2016). 

I look forward to reading more of your blogs, analysis, and reflections throughout the semester, and I really enjoyed being able to read this weeks post!

[amfgeog2260]

Change From Within: Research Project

I thought about this week's blog prompt for a long time, and it was difficult to choose one specific research area or an “ultimate research project” considering the wide range of freedom we had. When I first read the prompt for this week I thought it would be fairly easy to think of something interesting to me, hopefully beneficial to a group, and unique in the grand scheme of research; but it took me a long time to narrow my focus to a single issue. I think it might be so difficult because when the hypothetical situation of having limitless resources as a researcher is brought up, I immediately want to fix every problem and every under researched area, but of course that is not realistic and not the ultimate goal of this blog. 

Proposed Research

I have decided to focus my research project in Canada, specifically on the many Indigenous communities who still face environmental, resource, and social inequity. Although slowly gaining more attention, I decided to research this area because it is still a relatively low researched subject, and it has the potential to be beneficial to communities across Canada. Indigenous communities across Canada (especially in the North) still lack basic resources to be healthy, happy, and maintain a general quality of life on par with most other Canadians. From the physical/geographical infrastructure providing resources like potable water and food, to public and easy access to quality education and healthcare. Using empowering Indigenous qualitative research methods, through conversations, interactions, and interviews; I would like to gather stories, knowledge, perspectives, and information about the most effective tools of change to increase equality and resources to Canada’s Northern Indigenous communities. 

Research Techniques and Ethical Considerations

I want to use this research as an opportunity to promote empowering methodologies, to approach the research not with the intent of extracting information, but rather creating a long-term dialogical relationship (Hay 2016, p. 85). Hay (2016) talks a lot about the perpetuated imperial and Western way of conducting research which can be threatening and harmful especially to Indigenous communities. It is important to me that it be very clear that this is not research “on” any particular Indigenous community or group, but my goal is to provide a framework to do research “for” and “with” Indigenous communities, by listening to their community-identified priorities (Hay 2016, p. 82). Although I am fairly inexperienced in the correct way to approach research like this, I like the idea of being a researcher through stories and providing a platform through which Indigenous communities and individual community members can express their opinions, knowledge, and experiences. This model is similar to that of earlier weeks, like the stories from the Kiribati islands community, or the stories and experiences shared by Agafia in the Taiga forest. To provide other Canadians and the government with the slightest view into the day to day world of Indigenous communities in Canada. I don’t expect this to be a ground breaking or immediately influential project, but I can see some benefit in un-cut and real information straight from those who are most under resourced and neglected. In terms of ethics, it is important to me that every person in every community is comfortable with the research being done. It is also important in terms of ethics to ensure that this research would actually benefit their communities, and to use their knowledge to approach the research in a way that would benefit and empower Canadian Indigenous communities. 

Why this project?

I also thought to myself (as I am sure many of you did) that there are so many other issues environmentally and socially that the world faces, it seems odd to focus on something in Canada. I would argue that for Canada, as one of the most powerful countries in the world, to be in a better position to make actionable change in other parts of the world, we first need to address the systemic inequalities faced by many communities within our own borders. This research is so important to break down the years and years of perpetuated colonial barriers imposed by Western ideology and geo-political power. To be a stronger, more influential, and more effective provider of international aid, research, and development, we need to fix the broken socio-cultural and environmental infrastructure at home.

This is a very rough and hypothetical research proposal, and a single blog post doesn’t do justice the amount of actual time, energy, and resources that this project would take to be effective and thoughtful. Let me know what you think of it, and if you could add, takeaway, or change the project in any way, what would it be?

Hay, I. (2016). Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography. Toronto. Oxford University Press.

[amfgeog2260]

Movie Recommendation

Hey everyone, 

I wanted to recommend the movie ‘Nomadland’ to anyone who is interested or hasn’t seen it! I watched it a few weeks ago and I think it relates closely with a lot of what we have learned and seen so far in the course. 

The movie is about the modern-day nomad in the United States, and it follows Francis McDormand through her journey as a nomad. It follows her interactions and journey across the US and it seemed like a relatively uneventful movie but at the end you get the sense that all of the seemingly unimportant interactions are what takes her everywhere she goes. 

The part that I did not find out until after seeing it, which totally changed my perspective on it was that only two of the leading roles are actually actors (Francis McDormand and David Strathairn). Every other person in the movie is actually a nomad, and all of the conversations are on the spot and improvised. The few actors in the movie actually lived with the people they met during the creation of the movie. It emphasizes the misconceptions and stigmas of the lifestyles, the economic inequalities and hardships in America, and the untold stories of people who are usually left in the background.

Just thought I would throw it on here in case anyone has some free time and is interested. Hope you are all having a great week!

[jmageo2260-deactivated20210621]

76 Years In The Wilderness And Counting

The Case Study/You Tube Video, “Surviving in the Siberian Wilderness for 70 Years” is about a Russian family that lived in the Sayan Mountains in southern Siberia. In 1936, Agafia’s father, wife and their two children, Savin and Natalia, fled Russia to avoid religious persecution. Agafia Lykov is the last surviving member of her family, she was born in a hollowed-out pine washtub in 1944. Agafia’s mother died of starvation so that her children had food to eat. Three of the siblings died in 1981 within weeks of each other, possibly due to a virus that they had been exposed to when Russian geologist discovered and visited them. Her father died in 1988. There is no running water, no electricity and often times in the winter, temperatures fall to below 30O Celsius. Agafia chops her own wood, works hard all day and still practices her beliefs.

The VICE crew travelled to learn about her lifestyle and stayed with her for several days. The research technique that was used is the Qualitative Ethnographic Research Method of Participant Observation. “This enables researchers to share their experiences by not merely observing what is happening but also feeing it” (Gill and Johnson, 2002, pg. 144). In the documentary, the researcher helps Agafia do her chores, therefore experiencing what it is like. By working side by side with her, he is building a personal relationship.

The documentary’s invisible backpack is that he is privileged in terms of class and ability, compared to the person he trying to relate to. He was born in America (presumably), with a house, food, healthcare and education, While Agafia was born to a family without any of these privileges. This becomes very much evident in the video when you compare the two researcher and the person researched. I am sure the researcher recognized the ways his own privilege benefits him and his daily life. I would like to point out that even though Agafia did not have any formal education, she is a very wise and resourceful human being.

In this situation, many ethical guidelines should be taken in consideration. You have to be mindful to the person you are talking to and about, as in this case Agafia is very vulnerable. We are entering her home, and asking personal questions. We can assume that consent was given by Agafia for the crew to come there, interview and videotape her. The core value of Respect of human dignity is a Moral Imperative. The individual needs to be treated fairly and not taken advantage of (Hooykaas, 2021).

If I had the opportunity to visit Agafia, I would most likely choose not to arrive there in a helicopter and only bring basic necessities. Beside an interpreted, due to language barrier, I would not have brought and extra crew and invade her home. To gain sufficient amount of data, a significant amount of time would have to be spend with her. If Agafia were comfortable with the arrangement, I would choose to stay with her in her cabin. Like the VICE crew, I would also integrate myself into the environment and engage in the participant’s activities, while objectively, making observations. Ethically, respect for Privacy and Confidentiality needs to be taken into consideration. Is Agafia, for example, agreeable to having her location disclosed as was the case in the video. And additionally, is she ok with being videotaped and recorded.

Gill, J. and Johnson, P. (2002) Research Methods for Mangers (3rd edn)

Hay, I. (2016). Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography. Toronto. Oxford University Press

Vice (2013, April 9) “Surviving in the Siberian Wilderness for 70 Years (Full Length)” Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt2AYafET68

[amfgeog2260]

Hi Jordan!

I found your blog very thoughtful and in depth with relation to the way the research was carried out, the ethical issues to note, and the ways in which you might have done it. I agree with your analysis, it is such a delicate situation, and no doubt a lot of thought has to be put into a trip like this before any sort of interview or observations, or even contact can be made. 

I really liked your point about Agafia’s physical and cognitive abilities despite her lack of formal education and other resources provided to the Western world. This is an important thing to note in relation to geography, climate change, and humanity as a whole. Near the end of the documentary, the narrator mentions how remarkable it is that Agafia is able to not only live in these conditions, but thrive in them, for her entire life. He then brings up the important point that, if she can do it, why can’t we? This made me think a lot about the direction we are headed as a globe. There is this idea that things are needed, and there is things that we could absolutely not live without, and things that become so normalized in society that the term “necessity” becomes a more broadly used term, incapsulating more and more things throughout our existence. But what I gathered from the point made by the documentarian is that this is not true clearly, because Agafia has the closest thing to nothing that we could imagine, and she lives. 

This isn’t to say that either “way of life” is better or worse, but I thought it is important for us all to keep in mind the amount of things we actually need, and the resourcefulness of humans despite “stuff” we think we need.

Thank you for your post, it made me think again about the messages provided in the documentary, and allowed me to see other ethical concerns that I did not think of immediately. I look forward to reading more of your thoughts and insights throughout the course, all the best!

Aden

[kmgeog2260]

Book Recommendation!

“Hi everyone! 

I recently read the book “This Changes Everything” written by Naomi Klein for another class of mine. It is an amazing commentary on capitalisms damage to the environment to explain climate change in ways I truly had never thought of before. For people interested in geography (physical or human,) or even just climate change in general I would absolutely recommend it. Here is a great passage that might spark your interest;

“ The victims in all this are regular people: the workers who lose their factory jobs in Juárez and Windsor; the workers who get the factory jobs in Shenzhen and Dhaka, jobs that are by this point so degraded that some employers install nets along the perimeters of roofs to catch employees when they jump, or where safety codes are so lax that workers are killed in the hundreds when buildings collapse. The victim’s are also the toddlers mouthing lead-laden toys; the Walmart employee expected to work over Thanksgiving holiday only to be trampled by a stampede of frenzied customers, while still not earning a living wage. And the Chinese villagers whose water is contaminated by one of those coal plants we use as our excuse for inaction, as well as the middle class of Beijing and Shanghai whose kids are forced to play inside because the air is so foul. ”  (Klein, chpt. 2)

It is people like Naomi that remind me why I study human geography and why it is so important. 

[amfgeog2260]

Hey Kaya,

I am in the midst of reading this too, I would assume for the same class you are talking about (GEOG*2210)! I completely agree, and I wanted to reach out to support your recommendation. Although I am not totally finished it yet, it is such an important book. I would say especially in light of a lot of the current environmental, social, and political issues we face today. I really like that it is not simply a narration or conveyor of information on the state of global climate change, but Naomi Klein directly highlights specific and actionable things that need to work differently, namely the way we run our entire economic hierarchy. 

Thanks for sharing this with everyone, and I really look forward to reading more blogs of yours throughout the semester! 

Aden