Geographical Research最新文献

The relationship between the spatial configuration of the built environment and outdoor physical activity is supported in the literature. However, the role of crime prevention elements and safety is neglected in that relationship. Using structural equation modelling and considering the effect of demographic factors, this study combined concepts of space syntax for analysis of spatial configuration and Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) at property and street scales to investigate the direct and indirect relationships between neighbourhoods’ environments and levels of outdoor physical activity. The theoretical purposes have been to measure CPTED elements in two scales and each as a second-order construct and to gauge pedestrians’ feeling of safety as mediators in the relationship between space syntax measures and physical activity. The results of structural equation modelling suggest that streets’ CPTED elements mediate the relationship between space syntax measures and feelings of safety. The mediation role of feelings of safety in the relationship between CPTED at the street scale and physical activity is also supported. Thus, the study shows that space syntax measures cannot be considered in relation to physical activity without also thinking about its consequent effects on neighbourhoods’ physical environments andalso provides novel insights into the effects of demographic variables on outdoor physical activity.

It is no longer enough, if it ever was, for geographers to publish research with no mind to practising it in their daily lives. This essay is quasi-polemical, calling for us to consider both our responsibilities as geographers and our futures outside of research and to more consciously think about how to be role models of our discipline in both our professional and private lives. Such labours include asking how we can act sustainably in hosting, travelling to, and catering for conferences and how we can address our need to help build community and accommodate diversity, which are often present in calls to action in our research. Acknowledging the potential for hypocrisy also means being engaged citizen scientists and Anthropoceneans. Let us start a conversation: are we only communicators, or can we be role models, too?

The inevitable mine lifecycle sequences of the mining industry and the eventual closure of mines has dramatic impacts on mining communities. The complexities of mine closure and planning for a different future beyond mining demand prescient preparation, preferably long before mines close, to optimise community participation in planning and enhance change management opportunities. Convincing others of the usefulness of imagining a future that is so different from the status quo is challenging, and it is especially difficult bringing an entire community on a long-term planning journey. The Shire of Coolgardie, a small Western Australian local government authority, has embarked on a long-term mission to build economic and social resilience, shoring up funds that will assist the Shire to ride out the inevitable mine lifecycle sequences of and diversify its income bases. This article builds an evidence-based approximation of the economic and social benefits of the initiatives accrued across the Shire, outlining the calculated risks taken by the Shire in its quest to ultimately reorient the local economy to one less dependent on mining income and employment. The article concludes with lessons learned and a discussion regarding the replicability of the successful initiatives for other local government authorities elsewhere, particularly in Australia where the legislative restrictions to generate own-source revenues are so severely limiting.

This study offers a discussion of the role of street music (busking) in urban public spaces using the lenses of performance theory and the theory of atmospheres in order to consider how street music and buskers shape the public space of a city. The study examines urban characters, soundscapes, emotions and affects, and atmospheres in relation to street musical performance. Explored in particular are the roles and processes of two levels of atmosphere—the atmospheric performance space and the atmosphere of a city. We take Guangzhou, China, as the case study and use questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and participant observation as research methods to reach three main findings. First, street music has growing influence and affects how urban public spaces are appropriated and managed. Second, street music performance shapes the atmospheric qualities of urban public space and in doing so sensorially invigorates and animates urban space. Third, street music contributes to the broader atmosphere of the city. Such an atmosphere, created by Guangzhou’s street music performances, that echoes Guangzhou’s characters as a free, down-to-earth, tolerant, and vibrant city can be felt and warms those who encounter it.

Australia has a hidden but growing problem with household food insecurity, revealing the failure of conventional food infrastructures to support human flourishing. Disruptions to employment and livelihoods due to pandemic lockdowns have exacerbated household food insecurity, evincing the uneven geography of food access in countries globally, including Australia. Increasing demand for food relief had been observed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and has been met by food relief providers, which we consider as infrastructures of care addressing growing levels of hunger. This paper reveals COVID-19’s many impacts on the food relief sector across Metropolitan Sydney, New South Wales. It analyses both a questionnaire of food relief providers in 2022 and media articles, social media posts, reports, and websites. It provides much-needed insights into the impacts of pandemic lockdowns on the demand for food, interruptions to food provisioning, changes to food supply, and alterations made to suppliers’ ways of operating. Those insights show how infrastructures of care are place-based, responsive, dynamic, and constrained by caring capacities. Such insights are increasingly important for understanding infrastructural failures, documenting the real extent of household food insecurity, and challenging dominant discourses of Australia as a food-secure nation.

An increasing number of urban residents in the Global South are turning to rooftop gardening, whether through soil or hydroponics, to cultivate their own vegetables, fruit, and herbs. In Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital, rooftop gardening serves as an important alternative to traditional wet markets and more recently established supermarkets. In this paper, we examine the motivations, practices, and constraints of Hanoi’s rooftop gardeners, along with the level of government support or disapproval for rooftop gardening. Our study is grounded in critical urban geography and urban political ecology and specific debates regarding informal life politics. Our findings reveal that Hanoi’s rooftop gardeners feel confronted by a critical food safety crisis, emphasising their need to access safe, fresh, and affordable produce through rooftop gardening. Simultaneously, they express scepticism about the capacity and willingness of formal political institutions at both the municipal and national levels to address and resolve these concerns. We explore whether Hanoi’s urban rooftop gardeners can be considered to be engaging in a form of everyday life politics and examine the dynamics emerging in this regard. We conclude by offering potential policy recommendations for Global South cities to support urban gardening communities.