Category: Latest news

Examples of methods in prize winning dissertations

We’ve looked through the full back catalogue of SCGRG prize winning undergraduate dissertations and found useful examples of methods that can be used during lockdown.

  • Thomas Paulsen, University of Exeter – Runner Up 2017

Doing your dissertation during the Covid-19 pandemic

The global pandemic has created a radically changed landscape for the practice of research. As we all face these challenges and look to rethink our research projects and approaches in line with this new situation, we wanted to gather together some resources that might provide some useful guidance, information, and support. These resources are thought particularly for undergraduate social and cultural geography students, but will of course be useful more widely too. We hope that you find them helpful. This is a live resource, and we will be adding things as and when they come up in the coming months. If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to get in touch with the group’s Dissertation Officer, Dr. Sofie Narbed: sofie.narbed@rhul.ac.uk.

Online research methods

If you’re thinking of taking your methods online – whether that’s interviews, questionnaires of analysing online media – we’ve found some great resources about online research methods to help you get started.

Secondary data sources

Due to the difficulties of doing ‘fieldwork’ during a pandemic, you might find yourself working predominantly with secondary rather than primary data for your dissertation. Here’s a list of secondary data sources which are freely available online, that could be used as a basis for a social/cultural geographical dissertation study.

Secondary data analysis

So you’ve chosen to use secondary data in your dissertation – what next? We’ve put together a list of readings which provide guidance on secondary data analysis of visual materials, texts, adverts, films and more.

Webinars, conferences and podcasts

Looking for further inspiration? We’ve collated lists of webinars, conferences and podcasts, all about accessing and using secondary data sets and adapting research methods to the new situation we are in.

Methods used in SCGRG prize winning dissertations

We’ve looked through the full back catalogue of SCGRG prize winning undergraduate dissertations and found useful examples using lockdown-appropriate methods.

Secondary data analysis for research during a pandemic

Due to the pandemic and the difficulties of doing ‘fieldwork’, you might find yourself working predominantly with secondary rather than primary data for your dissertation – visual materials, texts, adverts, films, etc. The below readings provide some guidance on or examples of this kind of analysis. 

Aitken, S. C. (2013). Textual analysis: reading culture and context. Methods in Human Geography: A guide for students doing a research project, pp. 233.

Bartram, R. (2010) Geography and the Interpretation of Visual Imagery, In Clifford et al., Key Methods in Geography, London: Sage.

Bhattacharyya, D. P. (1997). Mediating India: An analysis of a guidebook. Annals of Tourism Research, 24(2), pp. 371-389. DOI: 10.1016/S0160-7383(97)80007-2

Bishop, L. (2007). A reflexive account of reusing qualitative data: Beyond primary/secondary dualism. Sociological Research Online, 12(3), pp. 43-56. DOI: 10.5153/sro.1553

Cosgrove, D., & Daniels, S. (Eds.). 1988. The iconography of landscape: essays on the symbolic representation, design and use of past environments (Vol. 9). Cambridge University Press.

Daniels, S. (1993). Fields of vision: landscape imagery and national identity in England and the United States (pp. 112-45). Cambridge: Polity Press.

Dittmer, J. (2005). Captain America’s empire: Reflections on identity, popular culture, and post-9/11 geopolitics. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 95(3), pp. 626-643. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8306.2005.00478.x

Dittmer, J. (2011). Captain Britain and the narration of nation. Geographical Review, 101(1), pp. 71-87. DOI: 10.1111/j.1931-0846.2011.00073.x

Dodd, K. & Dodd, P. (2004) From the East End to EastEnders: representations of the working class 1890-1990, In D. Strinati & S. Wagg (Eds.) Come on down? Popular Media Culture in Post-War Britain, Routledge, pp. 125-141.

Dodds, K. (1996). The 1982 Falklands War and a critical geopolitical eye: Steve Bell and the if… cartoons. Political Geography, 15(6-7), pp. 571-592. DOI: 10.1016/0962-6298(96)00002-9

Domosh, M. (2003). Selling America: advertising, national identity and economic empire in the late nineteenth century, In Blunt et al. (Eds.) Cultural Geography in Practice, Oxford: Hodder Arnold, pp. 141-153

Dwyer, C., & Davies, G. (2010). Qualitative methods III: animating archives, artful interventions and online environments. Progress in Human Geography, 34(1), pp. 88-97. DOI: 10.1177/0309132508105005

Gallwey, A. (2013). The rewards of using archived oral histories in research: The case of the Millennium Memory Bank. Oral History, 41(1), pp. 37-50. www.jstor.org/stable/41806380

Goldman, R. (1992; 2005). Reading ads socially. Routledge.

Hones, S. (2008). Text as it happens: Literary geography. Geography Compass, 2(5), pp. 1301-1317. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2008.00143.x

Hones, S. (2010). Teaching and learning guide for: Text as it happens–literary geography. Geography Compass, 4(1), pp. 61-66. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2009.00291.x

Lyon, D., & Crow, G. (2012). The challenges and opportunities of re-studying community on Sheppey: young people’s imagined futures. The Sociological Review, 60(3), pp. 498-517. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-954X.2012.02096.x

Lyon, D., Morgan Brett, B., & Crow, G. (2012). Working with material from the Sheppey archive. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 15(4), pp. 301-309. DOI: 10.1080/13645579.2012.688314

Lutz, C. A., & Collins, J. L. (1993). Reading National Geographic (Vol. 59). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Kinsman, P. (1995). Landscape, race and national identity: the photography of Ingrid Pollard. Area, pp. 300-310. www.jstor.org/stable/20003600

May, J. (2003).The view from the streets: Geographies of homelessness in the British newspaper press, In Blunt el al (Eds.) Cultural Geography in Practice, Oxford: Hodder Arnold, pp. 23-38.

Mills, S. (2012) Young ghosts: ethical and methodological issues of historical research in children’s geographies, Children’s Geographies, 10(3), pp. 357-363, DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2012.693838

Mills, S. (2013). Cultural–historical geographies of the archive: fragments, objects and ghosts. Geography Compass, 7(10), pp. 701-713. DOI: 10.1111/gec3.12071

Monaco, J. (2009). How to read a film: The art, technology, language, history, and theory of film and media. New York: Oxford University Press.

Pinder, D. (2003). Mapping Worlds: cartography and the politics of representation, in Blunt et al. (Eds) Cultural Geography in Practice, Oxford: Hodder Arnold, pp. 172-190.

Rose, G. (1996). Teaching visualised geographies: towards a methodology for the interpretation of visual materials. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 20(3), pp. 281-294. DOI: 10.1080/03098269608709373

Rose, G. (2000). Practising photography: an archive, a study, some photographs and a researcher. Journal of historical geography, 26(4), pp. 555-571. DOI: 10.1006/jhge.2000.0247

Rose, G. (2001; 2016). Visual methodologies: An introduction to researching with visual materials. London: Sage.

Sharp, J. P. (2000). Towards a critical analysis of fictive geographies. Area, 32(3), pp. 327-334. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4762.2000.tb00145.x

Watters, E. C., Cumming, S., & Caragata, L. (2018). The Lone Mother Resilience Project: A Qualitative Secondary Analysis. In Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 19(2). DOI: 10.17169/fqs-19.2.2863

Secondary data sources for research during a pandemic

There are a wide variety of secondary data sources freely available online that could be used as the basis for a social/cultural geographical dissertation study. Check out the sources listed below for ideas.

National archives are searchable in a variety of ways. For example the UK Data Service is the UK’s largest collection of social, economic and population research data:
https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk/ can be reviewed by theme: https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/themes.aspx. You can also browse by type of data such as: quantitative and qualitative data collections.

IPUMs provides census and survey data from around the world. It’s possible to study change, conduct comparative research, and analyse individuals within family and community contexts.

A wide range of data sources and documents are available from government departments, for example, care, disability, citizenship and living in the UK, housing and local services, parenting, education, environment and the countryside. 

Other sources to explore: 

Webinars, conferences and podcasts on doing research during a pandemic

The below webinars from the UK Data Service offer guidance on the different kinds of data available for investigating particular geographical issues in the UK (political behaviour, mental health, religion, etc), and how to access and approach these data sets. There are also many live events online discussing how research methods and approaches might adapt to the new situation we find ourselves in – such as the NVivo conference below – that might be of interest. It’s also worth checking out the National Centre for Research Methods mini-podcasts series, in which they share methodological developments, research findings and ideas, and discuss their potential and actual impact.

NVivo virtual conference, 23rd September 2020

Hear from experts and doctoral students on how they are adapting their research (or not) due to the changed research landscape during Covid-19. Registration opens July 2020.  https://www.qsrinternational.com/nvivo-qualitative-data-analysis-software/nvivo-virtual-conference

UK Data Service

Dissertation projects: Introduction to secondary analysis for qualitative and quantitative data

Slides available here

Key issues in Reusing Data

https://ukdataservice.ac.uk/media/622714/web_reusingdata21may2020.pdf

Finding Data in the UK Data Service

Slides available here

Using UK Data Service in dissertations

Webinars

The following webinars discuss a variety of geographic issues that have used different data sets:

Investigating political behaviour in the UK – what data can I use https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjeEK8LrZNg&list=PLG87Imnep1Sln3F69_kBROUrIbT5iderf&index=12&t=0s

Investigating Religion in the UK – what data can I use? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBZkRm6yFwU&list=PLG87Imnep1Sln3F69_kBROUrIbT5iderf&index=15&t=72s

Investigating mental health in the UK – what data can I use? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhSu0-IqwuE&list=PLG87Imnep1Sln3F69_kBROUrIbT5iderf&index=24&t=0s

Investigating obesity in the UK – what data can I use? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znr5r153R54&list=PLG87Imnep1Sln3F69_kBROUrIbT5iderf&index=44&t=0s

Research using Youth and Young Adult Data in Understanding Society https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r66TKL5sbzg&list=PLG87Imnep1Sln3F69_kBROUrIbT5iderf&index=52&t=0s

Geography and Longitudinal Data https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw_6QA_KfCs&list=PLG87Imnep1Sln3F69_kBROUrIbT5iderf&index=54&t=0s

Introduction to the British Social Attitudes Survey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZLd1uBON8I&list=PLG87Imnep1Sln3F69_kBROUrIbT5iderf&index=72&t=0s

Introduction to data on ethnicity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-TA0AIJh1U&list=PLG87Imnep1Sln3F69_kBROUrIbT5iderf&index=88

Introduction to data on ageing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5N12075QNM&list=PLG87Imnep1Sln3F69_kBROUrIbT5iderf&index=94

Podcasts

The following National Centre for Research Methods podcasts provide useful resources on online methods: 

Making space for Big Qual: New ideas in research methods and teaching. https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/resources/podcasts/?id_specific=59&title=Making

Teaching Big Qual: Benefits and challenges for students and teachers. https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/resources/podcasts/?id_specific=60&title=Teaching

Mind the gap: Why skills are key to data reuse. https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/resources/podcasts/?id_specific=54&title=Mind

Mind the gap: Why skills are key to data reuse. https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/resources/podcasts/?id_specific=54&title=Mind

Using Social Media in Research. https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/resources/podcasts/?id_specific=24&title=Using

Online research methods in a pandemic

There are some great resources available for thinking about taking your methods online, whether that’s about doing interviews and questionnaires or analysing online media. Below are some websites and academic readings that might help you get started. 

Lupton, D. (editor) (2020) Doing Fieldwork in a Pandemic: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1clGjGABB2h2qbduTgfqribHmog9B6P0NvMgVuiHZCl8/edit?ts=5e88ae0a#

This highly recommended crowd-sourced document provides a list of resources for and about online research covering a wide range of methods.  

Website resources

National Centre of Research Methods: www.ncrm.ac.uk

TRI-ORM:Exploring Online Research Methods: http://www.restore.ac.uk/orm/site/home.htm. Includes modules for self-study on topics such as online questionnaires, online interviews, and online research ethics

Methods for the Analysis of Media Contents: http://www.restore.ac.uk/lboro/. Includes resources for understanding methodologies (e.g. content analysis, discourse analysis, frame analysis), data collection, data preparation and data analysis

Books and journal articles

DeLyser, D., Sheehan, R., & Curtis, A. (2004). eBay and research in historical geography. Journal of Historical Geography, 30(4), pp. 764-782. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhg.2005.01.001

Dodds, K. (2006). Popular geopolitics and audience dispositions: James Bond and the internet movie database (IMDb). Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 31(2), pp. 116-130. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-5661.2006.00199.x

Dwyer, C., & Davies, G. (2010). Qualitative methods III: animating archives, artful interventions and online environments. Progress in Human Geography, 34(1), pp. 88-97. DOI: 10.1177/0309132508105005

Hine, C. (2000). Virtual ethnography. Sage.

James, N. (2016). Using email interviews in qualitative educational research: Creating space to think and time to talk. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 29(2), pp. 150-163. DOI: 10.1080/09518398.2015.1017848

Madge, C. (2007). Developing a geographers’ agenda for online research ethics. Progress in Human Geography, 31(5), pp. 654-674. DOI: 10.1177/0309132507081496

Madge, C., & O’Connor, H. (2002). On‐line with e‐mums: Exploring the internet as a medium for research. Area, 34(1), pp. 92-102. DOI:  10.1111/1475-4762.00060

Madge, C., & O’connor, H. (2004). Online methods in geography educational research. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 28(1), pp. 143-152. DOI: 10.1080/0309826042000198710

O’Connor, H., & Madge, C. (2003). “Focus groups in cyberspace”: Using the Internet for qualitative research. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal. DOI: 10.1108/13522750310470190/ 

O’Connor, H., Madge, C., Shaw, R., & Wellens, J. (2008). Internet-based interviewing. The Sage handbook of online research methods, pp. 271-289.

Ridanpää, J. (2014). ‘Humour is Serious’ as a Geopolitical Speech Act: IMDb Film Reviews of Sacha Baron Cohen’s The Dictator. Geopolitics, 19(1), pp. 140-160. DOI: 10.1080/14650045.2013.829819

Social media forums

It is also worth looking out for groups on social media (from reputable sources) that can be great resources for information and discussion. 

Innovative social research methods: https://www.facebook.com/groups/333716010504710

National Centre for Research Methods: https://www.facebook.com/ncrmuk

Kim Peters – receives prestigious RGS-IBG Gill Memorial Award

We’re delighted to hear that Kim Peters is the 2020 recipient of the RGS-IBG Gill Memorial Award for Outstanding Early Career Research in Human Geography. Kim’s work has been at the forefront of contemporary geographical research, exploring the social, cultural and political dimensions of everyday maritime geographies and mobilities, making her one of the leading specialists in her field.  Beyond research, Kim demonstrates a high level of collegiality, developing collaborative strategies that are designed to promote geography at all stages, from A-Level curriculum development and undergraduate support, to postgraduate and early career researcher support and mentorship. The SCGRG were lucky to have Kim as Education Officer from 2014 to 2019, and we are proud to have her as a strong ambassador for social and cultural geography. Congratulations Kim, and we wish you all the best in your new role at the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity!

Responding to her accolade Kim said:

“Being involved with the RGS since studying as a PhD student, it became a disciplinary home to me, and so too the SCGRG specifically. As part of the group I have met – and continue to meet – amazing colleagues and friends from beyond my institution, sharing ideas, interests – and wine – with great people doing great work in social and cultural geography around the country. I was fortunate to take the helm of the ‘Education’ officer role for the first time in the group – a daunting but exciting challenge. Some things developed well, like mentoring, others (such as the inaugural Teaching Research event) took longer, and things, such as outputs from our events, are continuing at a slower pace of scholarship – but they have been possible not because of me but a passion from the whole group and the specific support of colleagues in each of these developments. I look forward to continuing with the group and seeing where plans go next!”

Webinar: Dissertation projects – Introduction to secondary analysis for qualitative and quantitative

The UK Data Service are offering a free webinar for undergraduates and postgraduates who are using secondary data analysis in their research projects.

The free webinar takes place on 26th May 2020, but if you can’t attend then, it will be recorded and uploaded to YouTube afterwards.

Organised by the UK Data Service, the webinar will take you through the research process of a secondary analysis project, which includes an overview of the methodological, ethical, and procedural issues.

If you are a postgraduate looking for a project to do this summer that doesn’t involve face-to-face contact, or an undergraduate student trying to evaluate options for next year’s dissertation, this webinar will give you options to ensure you get valuable research experience during your degree.

This is an introductory webinar which assumes no prior experience of using archived data.

Presenter: Maureen Haaker

For more info and to sign up, click here.

The SCGRG Researcher Showcase part 1: Milena Morozova

Welcome to our inaugural SCGRG Researcher Showcase! Through this platform, we aim to promote emerging and established researchers who are working in areas related in some way to the themes of our research group, Social and Cultural Geography (SCGRG).

We also thought given the unprecedented situation we find ourselves in, with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, this would be a good opportunity to continue to engage with our membership as we are increasingly working from home and dependent on internet-enabled technologies to keep us connected.

We hope you are keeping well, staying healthy and staying safe during this time.

To keep up-to-date with future posts, follow us on Twitter (@SCGRG_RGS) or search for #SCGRGShowcase, and Facebook and search for “RGS-IBG Social and Cultural Geography Research Group”
If you want to take part in a future SCGRG Researcher Showcase, please email Jamie Halliwell (SCGRG Website Officer) j.halliwell.mmu@gmail.com

Our first #SCGRGShowcase comes from our very own Postgraduate Representative Milena Morozova, a literary geography, PhD Student and lecturer at Moscow State University. You can find out more about her below.

Milena Morozova, PhD student and lecturer at Moscow State University

Milena Morozova

My current research projects are mostly connected to literary geography. My PhD dissertation is dedicated to the research and development of theoretical and applied aspects of studying literary regions. First, I analyse the theory and methodology of literary geography in Russia and abroad. Then I give a comparative analysis of six literary regions of the Russia, studying their literary places, routes, landscapes and images. But the articles linked to the dissertation approach other themes as well:

  • The features of literary maps of America of the XX century;
  • The process of literary region formation and development (field research in the central part of Russia and the Russian North);
  • The role of the borders and bordering of the literary space of a region;
  • The use of literary geography in literary museums;
  • International literary geography: the features of literary geography in Europe, America and Russia-stages of the development of literary landscapes and literary landscape classification;
  • The method of literary mapping and its application in the XX and XXI centuries;
  • The use of literary animation through theatrelization in literary museums;
  • Literary geography of the post-soviet space.

Another project I am working on (a project that is financed by the Russian Geographical Society) is the creation of an atlas-handbook of the lost toponymy of post-soviet space.

Hobbies and fun facts

One of my hobbies is travelling to literary places, reading books that describe the place I am visiting and taking photographs of literary places all around the world.

When I was a teenager my family and I traveled from the West Coast to the East Coast of America and back by car, visiting the greatest US National Parks, as well as literary and historical places. Maybe that’s where my love for nature comes from.

I love gardening and landscape design and I am collecting plants of different natural areas and landscapes in my garden.

I have a dachshund dog (Harry) who always travels with me during my trip in Russia, so he has already visited many literary museums and will surely become the first dog who composed a literary map (just kidding!).

Recent publications

Morozova, M.M., Kalutskov, V.N. (2019). Oryol Literary Region and the Processes of Its Development.MSU Vestnik. Series 19. Linguistics and Cross-Cultural Communication, pp. 131 – 142. (In Russian)

Morozova, M.M. (2018). Literary Maps of USA. Pskov Literary Journal, № 2, pp. 117 – 132 (In Russian)

Get in touch

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MILENA.MOROZOVA

Email: ms.morozova@gmail.com

Call for RGS-IBG 2020 sponsored sessions

The RGS-IBG Social and Cultural Geography Research Group (SCGRG) would like to invite expressions of interest for sponsored sessions for the RGS-IBG 2020 Annual Conference, which will take place in London from Tuesday 1 to Friday 4 September 2020.

The theme for the 2020 Annual Conference, chaired by Professor Uma Kothari, is borders, borderlands and bordering.

SCGRG is keen to sponsor sessions that directly relate to the conference theme but also those sessions that engage with broader issues of contemporary concern to social and cultural geographers.

You can find out more about the theme at: https://www.rgs.org/research/annual-international-conference/chair-s-theme/  

 When designing your session proposals please take note of the following:

  1. A session cannot occupy more than two timeslots on the conference programme unless this has been pre-arranged with the RGS team. Those seeking more than one timeslot should consider co-sponsorship (i.e. splitting sponsorship so as to have a sponsor for each time slot).
  2. Each attendee can only make two substantive contributions to the conference programme (e.g. as paper presenter, panel member, discussant). A substantive contribution is defined as one where the individual concerned needs to be present in the session room, and so can include session organiser if attendance is necessary. For individuals proposing multiple co-authored papers, an alternative presenter must be clearly nominated at the time of submitting the session/paper.

You can find the RGS guidelines for session proposals at: 

https://www.rgs.org/research/annual-international-conference/programme-(1)/guidance-for-session-organisers/  

You are welcome to propose joint sessions to be co-sponsored by another research group.

Please send expressions of interest including the below information by Friday 3rd January at 6pm. We will inform applicants of the outcome by 10th January.

 (i) Title of session;

(ii) Name of Co-sponsoring groups, if applicable

(iii) Name and Contact Details for Session Convenors

(iv) Abstract, outlining scope of session – 200 words max.

(v) Number of session timeslots that are sought – please note:  this year a session may not occupy more than 2 time slots unless this has been pre-agreed with the RGS.

(vi) Indication of session format

 Proposals for, or questions about, SCGRG sponsored sessions should be sent to Will Andrews w.andrews@bangor.ac.uk