Geographical Journal最新文献

There has been increasing academic interest shown in the evolving market maturity of the private sector, purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) market and its role in supporting the massification of higher education in the UK and elsewhere. This paper focuses on the evolution of the private sector PBSA market in Sheffield, UK, whose material impact upon central Sheffield in the first two decades of the twenty-first century to both the built environment and socio-spatial structure of the central city has been transformational. It is asserted that these changes in Sheffield reflect the wider growth dynamics and impact of private sector PBSAs on similar locales across the UK. A fundamental conceptualisation of the paper is that government higher education policy, and the differential interpretation of that policy by higher education institutions, and the enabling planning frameworks of local authorities, have created the market for private sector PBSA. The private sector PBSA market in Sheffield, as elsewhere, has been increasingly drawn into a global financialised framework that positions PBSAs as assets that are enabling of abstracted extraction of value in a knowable and predictable way. The paper foregrounds how this process embeds within a de-industrialised, secondary city such as Sheffield a deeper connectivity to the global financial economy through not only inflows of investment capital but outflows of revenue to private sector PBSA investors.

Drawing on a Critical Physical Geography perspective, this paper problematises conceptualisations of the Anthropocene landscape of the Waimatā catchment on the East Cape, Gisborne district of Aotearoa New Zealand, through three lenses: forestry, restoration and indigeneity. Historical practices of arbitrary land division and resultant unsustainable forestry have caused multiple environmental, social and cultural problems within the catchment. Despite significant efforts of restoration groups and volunteers to remedy this, as yet programmes do not align with holistic Māori ideologies of seeing themselves as the land from which they trace their tribal identity. Fragmentation of the land has disrupted senses of identity and place. A kinship-based worldview between humans, the universe and everything in it suggests a more holistic lens through which humans are conceived as inseparable from nature. Such a more-than-human lens exposes a critical flaw in interpretations of the Anthropocene. Even when only considering its lexical construction, the word ‘Anthropocene’ innately centres the human. Continued use of such framings extends inequitable and unjust practices that imprint colonial forcings on the landscape and its people in ways inconsistent with intertwined Māori views of people, land and ancestors. No matter the lens through which it is interpreted, the Anthropocene term has little practical value in Aotearoa New Zealand, especially when considered in relation to emerging socio-natural river-centric perspectives.

Inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) is increasingly becoming a tool municipalities use to achieve development goals and increase public service quality. However, in Central and Eastern Europe countries, including Poland, such a modus operandi is less common due to administrative and legal considerations. This article analyses one bicycle-sharing project carried out jointly by 14 municipalities of the Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot metropolitan area in Poland. Based on a series of in-depth interviews, the study aimed to consider what builds inter-municipal cooperation at the local level. During the analysis, it proved that the various actors had different levels of commitment to cooperation based on substantive premises. Positive opinions about cooperation in the project resulted from partner and non-hierarchical relations, fair and equal treatment without domination towards smaller municipalities. The study showed that in addition to the assumed effects of cooperation, the applied cooperation model allowed many added effects to be achieved, beneficial for all project partners.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the global power structure entered a period of geopolitical transition. An evolved vision in the twenty-first century shows the arrival of the geopolinomic order based on the combination of economic, political and territorial codes. Geopolinomic codes, in synergy with the global political economy, regulate the territorial and infrastructural arrangement of the world order in periods of geopolitical transition between hegemonic and emerging powers. Spatialization of power politics requires going through a set of geopolitical representations and this adds a thin discursive layer to the territorial hegemonic order. I argue that the development of geopolinomic codes allows for a more significant infusion of political economy through the centrality of territorial communication networks. A country with more manoeuvring power in adjusting geopolinomic codes and its triple levels can change the balance of global power structures in its favour.

This paper explores how elected politicians' decisions impact place-based policies (PBPs) and the resulting consequences. It emphasises that understanding the political factors influencing PBPs offers insights into their effectiveness and potential pitfalls. The article draws upon the behavioural political economy theory, suggesting that political decisions often deviate from the purely rational due to cognitive biases and social influences. It examines the critical role of territorial intermediation, explores the potential discord between policy designs and ground realities, and investigates how broader political dynamics shape these trajectories. Additionally, the article probes the obstacles, including psychological, institutional and contextual factors, that may hinder policy implementation. In conclusion, the article proposes new avenues of research in regional, urban and planning studies that highlight the complexity of the political processes influencing these policies and calls for a multidimensional analysis of these processes.

The term ‘left behind’ has come to connote political disaffection, alongside social and spatial inequalities in wealth and opportunity. Yet the term is also widely contested, often prioritising a regional and economic perspective at the expense of a more local and nuanced approach. In response, we argue that neighbourhood context is integral to understanding and identifying ‘left behind’ places. Building a neighbourhood classification of ‘left behindness’ for England, we evaluate the extent to which the neighbourhood trajectory contributes to our understanding of a range of multidimensional individual-level outcomes. Our findings reveal a geography of neighbourhoods that are systematically disadvantaged over time, concentrated in major urban conurbations, and post-industrial and coastal towns. The magnitude and impact is highlighted through poorer economic, health, social and political outcomes for those living in ‘left behind’ areas.

The global tradition of fireworks at festivals causes significant environmental harm, including air, water, noise and light pollution, and impacts on human health. Diwali and the Chinese New Year fireworks can spike the Air Quality Index and elevate particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations in capitals during and after celebrations. This commentary examines evidence for the detrimental effects of fireworks on the environment, human health and wildlife. Alternatives like drone displays, laser shows and eco-friendly decorations are proposed, along with stricter regulations to curb firework impacts.

Colonial powers have long used islands and island forms for imperial projects, including military bases, weapons testing, resource mining and migrant detention. In order to pursue these interests, colonial powers have often sought geographically remote sites, but they further rely on the construction of remoteness. This article reflects on the colonial construction of remoteness by analysing the case study of Diego Garcia. The militarised atoll of Diego Garcia is one in a chain of islands that make up the British Indian Ocean Territory, the last colony created by the British government. While Diego Garcia is now under British sovereign control, the island was brutally cleared of its Indigenous inhabitants to make way for a joint British-American military base. By detailing the ways in which ‘remoteness’ has affected the Indigenous Chagossians, ‘war on terror’ detainees, asylum-seekers and migrant workers, this article demonstrates how colonial powers deploy remoteness as a way of distancing groups deemed ‘other’ from rights. Additionally, colonial powers use ‘remoteness’ to paradoxically protect their own proximity to colonial interests, including geopolitically significant sites for military installations.

This paper aims to stimulate debate around the development of a place-based research review methodology. We present place-based reviews as a potential source of support for wellbeing-related local policymaking. Our introductory discussions highlight an ever-growing need for insights about specific localities and a lack in resources—including time—for local policymakers to engage with research. Additionally, increasing demands for local insights have been driven by devolution shifts, which redistribute policymaking responsibilities to local authorities. Hence, we explore the challenges and opportunities that arise when places are considered in reviewing research relevant to wellbeing. We build a case study around two related places of different scale: Truro, a small cathedral city in the United Kingdom's Southwest; and Cornwall, the regional county that contains Truro. We use these places as search terms in combination with terms concerning health and social care (HSC) services. HSC services are included as a component of our case study, as the topic is a consistent concern for wellbeing-related policies. In our findings, we report a lack of papers on our smaller scale of place (Truro). One might expect this outcome. Nonetheless, we reflect on current research practices and processes that might have further limited our ability to generate insights about Truro. Encouragingly, our findings on Cornwall demonstrate the potential of place-based reviews in supporting local policymaking more broadly. We make initial judgements around knowledge gaps—including the exclusion of perspectives from certain groups and identities—and topological insights, that is, those that are relevant to Cornwall as a whole. Our discussions also consider how place-based reviews can be enhanced via the retrieval and inclusion of non-academic studies. Finally, key questions to induce debate on this subject are posed in the conclusion.

Proponents of green growth argue that technological advancements and price signals can decouple economic growth from environmental impact through resource substitution and enhanced efficiency. In this research, we investigate the extent to which economic growth in Norway is decoupling from three key indicators of environmental pressure: energy use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and material consumption. Our findings show efficiency improvements across all of these indicators, but no absolute decoupling for any of them, and less so, a sufficient absolute decoupling to meet global sustainability targets. Despite the prevalent discourse surrounding a purported ‘green shift’, the overall environmental pressure within Norway is still on an upward trajectory. Mounting evidence regarding the absence of sufficient absolute decoupling suggests that the time may be ripe for high-income nations like Norway to transcend policy focus on green growth and engage in transitions towards a post-growth economy.