Department Of Geography Research Articles

Editorial Introduction

This is Volume 40 of the Journal of Geographical Association of Tanzania (JGAT). Its production is based on critical and original work that has been verified through a doubleblind peer review process. The Journal has a new Editorial Team from early 2020 and its determination is to raise up to the challenges of promoting quality research and publications, which are key to our engagements with theoretic and methodological debates in Geography and related social sciences fields. The Journal is published annually under the Department of Geography of the University of Dar es Salaam. However, paper manuscripts that link Geography with other disciplines across the world are encouraged to attract inter- and multi-disciplinarity in knowledge generation and application.

Pow Choon Piew – our thanks

These are hard words to write. Three years after his diagnosis with cancer, this world is no longer home to Pow Choon Piew. A fuller obituary appears on the webpage of the Department of Geography a...

The effect of using knowledge society strategies in developing geographical criticism and successful intelligence for students in the geography department in the College of Basic Education.

The aim of this research is to identify the effect of using knowledge society strategies in developing geographical criticism and successful intelligence for students in the second year, in the geography department in the College of Basic Education in 2019-2020. In this research, we have included 44 students, male and female who distributed randomly. The first experimental group of 23 students were taught using knowledge society strategies and the control group of 21 students were taught in the usual way. To achieve the goal of this research, we have prepared two tools, the first of which was a test for geographical criticism consisting of 23 items. The test stability was 0.80 using Coder Richardson's equation 20, which is a high constant coefficient. While for the measure of successful intelligence, it consists of 28 items and its stability was extracted using the Pearson correlation equation and it was 0.75, which is a good stability factor. Using statistical methods, the results showed the superiority of the experimental group that was studied using the strategies of the knowledge society over the control group in terms of geographical criticism and successful emotional intelligence. Considering this, we presented a set of recommendations and suggestions, including: Emphasis on the use of the strategies of the knowledge society in teaching geography in the different academic stages, as it is a modern and effective study. We have suggested conducting a similar study and other studies.

How is COVID-19 reshaping temporary and circular labour migration: Serbia and North Macedonia perspectives

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused migrant workers worldwide to face numerous and specific challenges. This study aims to determine how the COVID-19 pandemic and its societal impact have influenced temporary and circular migrants from Serbia and North Macedonia. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 50 participants to gain a deeper understanding of their challenges and migration practices. Temporary circular labour migration from Serbia and North Macedonia are most intensive towards EU countries, which are geographically close and well-connected by traffic, and with which migrants have well-established migration ties. The results show that after the outbreak of the pandemic, respondents faced termination of employment contracts, reduced working hours and earnings. Most of the respondents returned and only a few found formal employment in the country of origin. Job-related impacts of COVID-19 on respondents are determined by temporary residence, a form of employment and the employment sector. Temporary and circular migrant workers from Serbia and North Macedonia involved in the essential sectors in EU countries are less likely to be severely affected by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results suggest that temporary and circular migration schemes should be improved after the pandemic, in a way that is sustainable even in times of sudden changes. In that regard, in addition to considering the needs of the labour markets of countries of origin and destination, the needs and the rights of migrants, should be prioritized in common solutions. © 2021 University of Craiova, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Geography. All rights reserved.

Multivariate and spatial analysis of reduced urban air pollution during COVID-19 pandemic in Delhi

Towards the end of 2019, a novel contagious virus (COVID-19) came out of Wuhan, China and turned into a disastrous pandemic. Many countries were completely or partially locked down. The ongoing pandemic has greatly affected our society and economy but, on the other side, it had effects upon the natural environment, as it rejuvenated itself. The present study repots the air quality and spatial distribution of air quality parameters (PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, O3 and CO) in Delhi, taking into account data from 36 monitoring stations, for the months of January - April 2019 and 2020, respectively before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The statistical tools like box plot, Pearson's correlation, and PCA were used to interpret air pollution data before and during the lockdown period. The results revealed the characteristics of pollutants with respect to location, relationship between pollutants, and monitoring their level in compliance with the limits set by the legislation. The results of multivariate analysis were further spatially analyzed by mapping the distribution of pollutants by using the Inverse Distance Weighted interpolation. The result revealed the gradual reduction in the pollutant concentrations (PM10, PM2.5, CO, SO2) and an increment in ozone concentration was observed, which was due to a drastic reduction in NO2, especially during March and April 2020, immediately after the declared lockdown in the region. The overall study indicated that the interventions for urban air pollution mitigation are crucial in the regeneration of nature. © 2021 University of Craiova, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Geography. All rights reserved.

Feeling the structures of Québec's 2012 student strike at Concordia University: The place of emotions, emotional styles, and emotional reflexivity

Based on experiences of geography students at Concordia University in Montreal, Québec, who participated in the provincial unlimited general student strike in 2012, this article explores how the physical and symbolic spaces of the university were key in determining these strike participants' emotional experiences, particularly confusing for being wrapped up in the collegial context. The relevance of emotions and affect in social movements has gained attention in the past decades in the geography literature, yet the latter has tended to focus on autonomous politics or on the streets where these strike participants or other protestors gathered. Complementing such scholarship, I highlight how a specific place -the site of the university, the geography department, and the student association structures housed within them- affected these strike participants' emotional experiences and styles via the materialities and emotional expectations of, as well as feelings of belonging to, that place. By focusing on the emotional geography of an academic department and institution during this tumultuous time, this article seeks to widen our understanding of emotional dynamics, emotional styles, and emotional reflexivity for diverse activist positionalities in a setting akin to a more traditional ‘workplace’: the place of study where this strike emerged, the educational institution.

Дидактичні засади організації туристичної краєзнавчої діяльності майбутніх географів

The organization of tourist local lore activities of future geographers is a holistic, integrative, mobile, complex system that meets modern educational and social requirements, labor market demands, individual educational needs of students, which effectiveness is provided by the methodological basis: at the philosophical level – principles of philosophy awareness of the value of achieving professional results; on general scientific – conceptual bases of future geographers training for the organization of tourist local lore activity in the conditions of the information and globalization world; the essence of information and cartographic support of tourist and local lore activity within the administrative district and its features are covered. The necessity of developing a tourist and local lore guide of the following structure is proved: introduction, general acquaintance with the territory, complex page-by-page tourist and local lore map, tourist and local lore routes, plans of the largest settlements, list of settlements of the district. Approbation was carried out on the example of Balakliia district of Kharkiv region. The main scientific provisions of the Program of regional mapping of natural and historical-cultural territories, objects and complexes of the region developed at the Department of Physical Geography and Cartography of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University are devoted to the current problems of development of a new direction of thematic mapping. Within its limits the basic theoretical questions are defined: information base, mathematical basis, structure and content of original experimental maps and atlases of natural and historical and cultural heritage; The approach to the structure and content of sports and tourism practice is appropriate to improve the level of mastery of the necessary skills, knowledge, broadening horizons and students in the 1st year to test their ability to manage the group in non-standard and emergencies

Reflecting on “Our Place”

In this conversation, we reflect on the development of a soundwalk produced by a theatre maker during her artistic residency in the Department of Geography at Swansea University. We discuss the approach taken to ‘place’ and the people in it, and the dynamics of an artist-geographer collaboration.

THE EMERGENCE OF GEOGRAPHICAL ECONOMICS: AT THE CONTESTED BOUNDARIES OF ECONOMICS, GEOGRAPHY, AND REGIONAL SCIENCE

We explore disciplinary boundary-making in geographical economics or “the new economic geography” with attention to the approaches taken by, and attempts at communication among, scholars with primary affiliations in economics, geography, and regional science. The Dixit-Stiglitz general equilibrium approach to monopolistic competition and increasing returns was applied to agglomeration and location by Paul Krugman, who had previously pioneered the “new trade theory” building on the Dixit-Stiglitz model, and, independently and slightly earlier, by Masahisa Fujita and his student Heshem Abdel-Rahman, starting from regional science, a tradition with its own departments, doctorates, conferences, and journals distinct from economics and geography. Economic geography, as studied by geographers, had already taken a quantitative and theoretical turn in the 1960s, reviving an earlier tradition of German location theory overshadowed within geography after World War II by areal differentiation. Another strand of economic geography pursued by geographers was influenced by economic theory but by non-neoclassical Marxian and Sraffian economics. Debates between these scholars raised questions whether these analyses were multidisciplinary, drawing on distinct disciplines, or crossed disciplinary boundaries (as when geographical economics in the style of economists is undertaken in geography departments) or transcends disciplinary boundaries, or involved the emergence of a new discipline.

FUNDAMENTALS OF FRACTAL CLUSTER METHODOLOGY OF EDUCATION SYSTEM RESEARCH Maksyutov Andriy, PhD in Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Geography and Methods of Teaching, Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University. ОRCID: 000

The article theoretically substantiates the structural and functional foundations of the fractal cluster methodology of the education system research, which reflects the interaction of its components, principles, forms, methods, tools, and functions. It clarifies and substantiates that the intensification of the process of convergence of the sectors of the education system and basic science requires the cooperative efforts of all state institutions and the world community. Only in this case the transition to a new social and educational formation of the third millennium is possible. It proves that the actual scientific problem is not only the disclosure of the content of the fractal cluster methodology of the education system research, but also the verification of the effectiveness of innovative methodology, which is based on new principles of the education system as a whole. It establishes that in pedagogical science the issue of developing principles that are the basis of fractal cluster methodology is of paramount importance. This study is an attempt to solve the scientific problem of developing theoretical and methodological provisions and practical recommendations for the formation and development of clustering systems of the national education system. The research is relevant due to the impact of European integration processes on the national education system, the need to move to innovative educational models, the development of public-private partnerships, and, therefore, we should intensify efforts to create innovative structures.
 Keywords: education, convergence of education, principles of education system, world educational space, quality of education, scientific problem, fractal cluster methodology, innovative educational technologies, convergent-divergent laws, synergetics.

„Geografe, nüme schlafe!“: Radikale Geographie in Zürich (1980–1990)

Abstract. In early summer 1980, radical geography students rallied around the slogan „Geografe nüme schlafe!“ („Geographers, stop sleeping!“) to take part in the radical youth movement that shook the city of Zurich at that time. In turn, these activist students brought these struggles back into the university and the geography department, where they confronted the professorate with their demands for a new curriculum. This paper argues that the antagonistic Stimmung, in which these struggles took place, produced a radical „thought style“ that flourished in a specific constellation of „thought events“: a prominent theory seminar in 1980, the AK WissKri, a network of radical geography students, the „Geoscope“ journal and, finally, a number of diploma theses on feminist, urban and historical geography. In these thought events, a radical geography materialized outside and beyond the mainstream of German language geography. Building on archival material and narrative interviews, this paper documents these student initiatives for a radical geography, and illustrates the precarious conditions of possibility of radical geography, in Zurich, and beyond.

Interactive videodiscs: beginnings of multimedia and catalyst for multimedia cartography

In 1985, I was lecturing in the Geography Department at Portsmouth Polytechnic. My lectures focused on cartographic design and production which focussed on the manual production of colour separatio...

The Effect of Learning model on Integrated Virtual Reality to Reduce Misconceptions of Geography Concept in Geography Students

The preliminary study found that students of the Department of Geography, FMIPA, UNM experienced many misconceptions about material concept of geography. Therefore, a research was carried out that aims to describe the reduction of misconceptions in the material after the implementation of E-Learning model to integrated Virtual Reality. This type of research is a quantitative descriptive study with the design ‘One Group Pretest-Postest Design”. The research subject were students of the Geography education ICP (International Class Program) in even Semester of the 2019/2020 academic year, each class totaling 32 students. Data were collected through observation, giving pretest questions before treatment and giving postest questions after treatment. From the data that has been obtained then analyzed using tabulation CRI values to describe the profile of misconceptions that occur in students and analyze the n-gain value to determine the decrease in student misconceptions on the material. From the research results, it can be concluded that the reduction of misconceptions in the material after the implementation of the E-Learning model to integrated Virtual Reality can consistently: reduce student misconceptions.

GIS Distance Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Students’ Perception)

The paper deals with distance learning of geographic information systems (GIS) at the Department of Geography and Regional Development FNS CPU in Nitra using various educational materials and the JitsiMeet application during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students of bachelor study had GIS lessons in face-to-face instruction in a computer room for half of a semester. In the middle of the semester, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in Slovakia and the face-to-face instruction had to be reoriented to the distance form of learning. The first month of distance learning took place with the help of textbooks and video tutorials, which were sent to students. The task of the students that month was to study a new subject, then students were sent a questionnaire where they had to express their opinion on learning GIS using video tutorials and textbooks, but also indicate whether they had facilities for online learning (PC, audio and video outputs, Internet) as well as to express their views and experiences with online learning as such. Although after evaluating the questionnaire, up to 71% of students answered that they had learned a new subject from the video tutorials and 57% also from GIS textbooks, several percent of students were still unfit for this form of learning. That is why we went to lessons with the free JitsyMeet app, which allows for video conferencing, screen sharing, chat, and more. The aim of the paper is to point out the perception of distance GIS learning by university students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Delivering the discipline: Teaching geography and planning during COVID‐19

COVID‐19 has radically changed the higher education sector in Australia and beyond. Restrictions on student movement (especially for international students) and on gatherings (which limited on‐campus sessions) saw universities transition to fully online teaching modes almost overnight. In this commentary, we reflect on this transition and consider the implications for teaching the disciplines of geography and planning. Reflecting on experiences at the Department of Geography and Planning at Macquarie University, we explore a series of challenges, responses and opportunities for teaching core disciplinary skills and knowledge across three COVID‐19 moments: transition, advocacy, and hybridity. Our focus is on the teaching of core disciplinary skills and knowledge and specifically on geographical theory, methods, and fieldwork and professional practice skills. In drawing on this case from Macquarie University, we offer insights for the future of teaching geography and planning in universities more broadly.

The Use of the Internet in School Libraries: An International Comparative Survey

This research sought to gain an impression of the use of the Internet by school librarians in the United Kingdom and South Africa. The research questions addressed the issues of access to the Internet by school librarians, the purposes for which school librarians used email and the Web, the demand from teachers for access to the Web, the key issues identified by school librarians in relation to the use of the Internet in schools in the next five years, and any differences between the responses of librarians from the two countries. The key findings were that there was limited access to the Internet in the respondents' schools; school librarians used the Web mainly for curricular material; science and geography departments were the heaviest users of the Web; and the key future issues identified included information skills, cost, inservice training, and the role of the school librarian. There were no significant differences between the two countries studied.

Playing with the Kitchen Table: Using persuasive games to promote empathy for persons with anaphylactic food allergies

This article focuses on the design and preliminary experimentation of a tabletop game called Kitchen Table, created to encourage more empathy towards people with severe anaphylactic food allergies. To measure the effectiveness of this game, the study ‘Use of persuasive games to promote empathy for persons with food allergies’ was conducted at the University of Waterloo in collaboration with the Games Institute and Department of Geography and Environmental Management's Genetics, Environment and Therapies: Food Allergy Clinical Tolerance Studies (GET-FACTS) project. This study involved volunteers completing a Likert scale-based pre-playtest questionnaire, playing the game, and then completing a post-playtest questionnaire identical to the original. Their pre-playtest and post-playtest responses were compared to measure the degree to which attitudes changed as a result of playing the game. In the end, the game was demonstrated to encourage more empathy towards people with severe anaphylaxis through the production of emergent narrative from the interaction between the players, the game mechanics and the participatory community experience.

Where have the cartographers gone? The status of cartography instruction within U.S. geography departments and programs

ABSTRACT Academic cartography continues to be shaped by advancements in computing technology and the growing emphasis on emerging geospatial disciplines, especially geographic information science and technology (GIS&T). Within geography departments and programs, stand-alone courses in cartography are offered within an increasingly crowded field of technical subjects. At the same time, recent graduates whose work involves mapmaking are less likely to identify themselves as cartographers. In this article, we explore academic cartography’s status through an analysis of cartography coursework offered within U.S. baccalaureate programs in geography and undergraduate GIS certificates. Our findings demonstrate that while available in many geography departments, a relatively small number of baccalaureate programs require students to complete a course in cartography. The situation within GIS certificates is the opposite with smaller course inventories and a higher likelihood of cartography being required. With supplementary data appearing to confirm cartography’s difficulties, we consider elements that may strengthen its status as an area of study and learning outcome within geography and GIS&T instruction.

What is Latin America? Between urban enigmas and postcolonial transformations

Download ArticleBy Simone Vegliò, PhD (Department of Geography, University College London, UK) The book “The Urban Enigma: Time, Autonomy, and Postcolonial Transformations in Latin America” (Vegliò, 2020) is a historical work which, as the title aims to highlight, explores episodes of urban transformation across the Latin American region. I wrote this book having a question […]

Understanding Permafrost Responses to Climate Change

It is not just the polar ice caps that are melting. On our warming planet, the ice buried within the layers of ground around the Arctic Circle is thawing, irreversibly changing these spectacular landscapes and posing risks to the communities that call these areas home. Understanding the dynamics of ‘permafrost’ is vital for predicting its future responses to climate change. The long-term research of permafrost expert Dr Christopher Burn, from the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Carleton University, Canada, is integral to shaping our collective knowledge of these icy environments.