Geographical Journal最新文献

Smart eldercare is promoted as a potential solution to the urgent healthcare crisis stemming from an ageing population and a shortage of staff. The exact meaning of smart eldercare varies among stakeholders, including government bodies, eldercare firms, and the elderly. This study investigates the differing strategies of technology-focused and service-focused companies within smart care. Emphasising the political elements of intelligent eldercare, it highlights the importance of co-production. Using thematic analysis, the study demonstrates that technology-focused firms at a 2024 smart eldercare summit in Shanghai prioritise innovation and market prospects of emerging technologies, based on ethnographic research. In contrast, service-oriented firms focus on the pragmatic utilisation of technology in their eldercare services. This study contributes to the understanding of smart eldercare technology adoption and co-production by revealing the complexities and discussions associated with real-world implementation.

Amid the escalating rural gentrification, a diverse array of gentrifiers is precipitating the path from coexistence and cooperation to conflict and eventual displacement. Existing literature has primarily addressed gentrifiers as a homogeneous group and focuses on the displacement of indigenous villagers, while the staged interdependencies and the displacement of gentrifiers have remained largely understudied. Drawing on a longitudinal study of a Shanghai village on a path to rural super-gentrification, this article investigates the complex interdependencies of two waves of gentrifiers, from commensal relations to exclusion, culminating in the eventual displacement of the first-wave gentrifiers. The study further analyses the construction and deconstruction of a ‘Utopian Village’ and the role of the gentrifiers' divergent perceptions of rurality in this evolving process. First-wave gentrifiers tend to value the authenticity of villages, and seek to construct a ‘Utopian Village’ through commensal socio-economic relations and the maintenance of a sustainable ecosystem, while preserving the authenticity and openness of the landscape. Their efforts, however, attract a second wave of gentrifiers who hold differing views of rurality, and this misalignment results in the over-consumption and alienation of rurality, characterised by introverted social networks and over-decorative landscapes. The originally envisaged ‘Utopian Village’ is thus undermined, leading to the exclusion and displacement of the first-wave gentrifiers. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the evolving dynamics of rural gentrification, the super-gentrification trend, the complex interdependencies of the different types of gentrifiers and the effects on the communities in question.

The growing impacts of climate change are urging effective countermeasures in terms of adaptation, particularly through appropriate policy tools integrated across levels of governance. Local governments, often at the forefront of climate action, play a critical role. The regional level can become a key element in the adaptation chain, connecting higher-level perspectives to local implementation. The present study aimed to investigate, first, the formal development of regional adaptation policies and, second, their potential to drive local change, focusing on the case study of Italian regions. This study proposed a twofold, qualitative-quantitative assessment methodology based on the European Regional Adaptation Support Tool framework and a novel approach built on six main factors. Our analysis revealed the underdevelopment of regional adaptation policies, highlighting a critical interruption in the adaptation chain interconnecting European, national and local levels. Furthermore, even when formally issued, regional policies exhibited several significant weaknesses, severely hampering their potential to foster local change. This was especially evident in the generally limited efforts to engage internal and external climate agents through structured mechanisms. In this context, it would be beneficial for regions to embrace the role of coordinating local efforts and actions. Providing actionable solutions, along with related monitoring and evaluation tools, could enhance local climate action and inform the revision of policies across governance levels. Adaptation policies should envisage actions that progressively involve and promote change comprehensively across the territory. We conclude that further efforts should focus on strengthening local climate resilience, not only by developing formal adaptation policies but also by fostering local change.

The swift urbanisation and sprawl observed in major cities of Bangladesh have prompted a detailed examination of their spatiotemporal dynamics. Therefore, this study explores the intricate patterns of urban sprawl, aiming to provide comprehensive insights into its evolution and impact. Landsat TM images from 2003 and 2013, along with an OLI image from 2023, are employed in supervised classification to detect temporal built-up area expansion of the Rangpur City Corporation (RpCC). Urban sprawl trends and patterns were evaluated and analysed using Shannon's Entropy Model (SEM), Landscape Metrics (LMs), and the Urban Expansion Intensity Index (UEII). Findings include an increase in the urban expansion rate of 16.5% in 2023. Consequently, RpCC's urban expansion trend from 2003 to 2023 is 16 times greater. Additionally, SEM and LMs confirmed that the RpCC expanded in a dispersed manner and the uncontrolled expansion in urban areas, respectively. These results definitively measure urban sprawl and threaten the sustainable development of RpCC.

The COVID-19 pandemic catalysed a time of significant upheaval and change at multiple levels of politics and society. Early on, connections were made with the climate crisis. This featured strongly in global calls for a green recovery and the opportunities for pandemic stimulus to spur co-benefits with climate action. Highlighting the global and cascading nature of crises in the Anthropocene, the pandemic provided an opportunity to shed light on the political and societal determinants of multiple crises and the often temporary hopes for transformation that arise in their wake. While there is much literature on how crises provide these ‘windows of opportunity’ for attention and resources, there is much less attention on how the experience of, and discourses associated with, an emergent crisis reframe the politics of more chronic ones. This paper uses an analysis of media articles released during the pandemic in Aotearoa New Zealand to analyse the ways that COVID-19 reframed narratives relating to climate change politics in four key ways: the possibilities for collective action, the need for greater ambition, threats to progress and premonitions of future crises. We argue that these new narratives offer insights into how the place-specific experience and response to one crisis can reframe another, and which narratives may become elevated or obscured. In doing so, we demonstrate how the pandemic acted as more than a window of opportunity, becoming a temporary catalyst for new framings of the climate crisis and crisis-driven political change more generally.

This paper examines the spatial and social differences in people's lack of access to adequate energy and transport services in the UK. We respond to the need for developing a differentiated understanding of both the drivers and expressions of this ‘double energy vulnerability’ (DEV), while seeking to integrate and analyse relevant information from all four UK nations. Using a variety of statistically representative census and survey datasets, the paper develops a series of multi-dimensional indices to map transport- and energy-related injustices. This is followed by a cluster analysis to examine broad-level geographical patterns, and a Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model to explore the spatial variation of vulnerabilities related to contingencies such as income, ethnicity and housing. The paper corroborates the results of previous qualitative studies, and research within selected UK nations, while revealing several unexpected territorial clusters and underpinnings of infrastructural injustice. DEV is shown to disproportionately affect coastal, highland, peripheral and rural regions, with an internal granularity that exhibits high levels of variation within urban and peri-urban settings.

Religious identities play an important role in shaping migrants' experiences. Understanding the spatiotemporal distribution of religions enhances our knowledge of both religious expansion and religious cultures. This paper aims to leverage spatiotemporal analysis to characterise the topology of the spread of multiple religions in the Taipei metropolitan area from 1660 to 2020, including Folk Taoism (853 temples/altars, 55.39%), Christianity (306 churches, 19.87%) and Buddhism (332 temples, 21.56%). Three major factors affecting religious distribution are considered: the year of establishment of religious units (churches, temples or altars), the reclamation year of religious locations, and the economic index of religious sites. The results show that Folk Taoism and Buddhism have a long history of development in early reclamation regions with a hopping expansion pattern. However, Christianity expanded later in the later reclaimed and early reclaimed areas. The Christian religious units have highly concentrated spatial patterns and are located in the higher-income districts, centralised in the core regions of the Taipei metropolis. Modern forms of highly institutionalised religion, such as Buddhism and Christianity, are more prevalent in the relatively higher-income, later-cultivated areas, which provide richer social resources for development. Folk Taoism, as a traditional religion, is maintained and developed by local communities. This macroscopic analysis helps to (1) identify the exact chronology of different growth waves and explain them in a historical context, and (2) elucidate the spatial distribution differences between institutionalised religions and folk religion. Our research shows the evolution of religious landscapes from an undeveloped city to a developed city, offering valuable insights for geographical and religious studies, and enhancing understanding of diffused and institutionalised religious expansion.

Protected areas globally serve as crucial sanctuaries for biodiversity, playing a pivotal role in conserving endangered species and maintaining ecological balance. In the United Kingdom (UK), 25% of land is currently designated as public protected areas and discussions are underway regarding the implementation of new protected areas, including the establishment of new National Parks in all four nations of the UK. Wild places have an important role to play in understanding and deciding where public protected areas should or could be. People form profound connections to wild places locally and nationally. We used two online surveys to gather information on the UK public's local and national favourite wild places, and the characteristics of those places which make them their top choice. Our analysis revealed that respondents preferred different wild places based on their survey group, with significant differences in the importance placed on characteristics like ‘Accessibility’, ‘Nature’ and ‘Scenery’ across local and national scales. Demographic factors, including age and settlement, had some impact, but the overall importance of characteristics like ‘Peace and Quiet’ and ‘Nature’ were consistently high across both surveys. Recognising the prevalence of favourite wild places outside of designated areas underscores the importance of engaging the different viewpoints of the public in conservation initiatives, and indicates that public support for conservation might extend beyond officially protected regions.

Commodity exports have played a crucial role in driving global economic growth, but they have also led to increased flow and consumption of natural resources worldwide. To measure and analyse the inter-regional virtual water consumption and value-added benefits driven by exports, as well as the unequal exchange between regions, we utilised the global supply chain database of Eora to construct a multi-regional input–output (MRIO) model of virtual water consumption and value-added benefits among 189 countries and regions from 1991 to 2016. We also proposed a virtual water consumption uneven index. The results highlight that relatively less developed regions accounted for 27% of the world's total export value added and 56% of virtual water exports. In contrast, relatively developed regions contributed 73% of the global export value added but only 44% of virtual water exports. The export of high-value-added products, such as financial services, was concentrated in the relatively developed regions, while water-intensive products, like agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry, were mainly exported by relatively less developed regions. Economically developed regions enjoyed a beneficiary position in terms of virtual water consumption, with each unit of export-driven added value requiring only 4–100 kg of virtual water. Conversely, economically less developed regions consumed 140–1800 kg of virtual water per unit of export-driven added value. The disparities in virtual water exchanges across different regions primarily stem from the differences between developed and less developed regions. Therefore, less developed regions and countries should focus on improving water efficiency in water-consuming industries, adjusting the structure of export industries, and striving to reduce or reverse the disadvantageous position of resource consumption, such as virtual water, in global trade exports.

The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) annual Medals and Awards recognise achievements in researching, communicating and teaching a wide range of geographical knowledge. The speeches and citations are a record of the 2024 celebrations, which occurred at the Society on 3 June 2024, with contributions from Vanessa Lawrence, Stephen Venables, Lily Kong, Chris Clark and Stefan Doerr.