This paper presents an overview of the emergence of mobile ethnography and its potential benefits to the discipline of geography. The rise of mobile ethnography has been linked with the so-called “new mobilities paradigm”, which has become especially important in geographical thinking over the past ten years. Erstwhile focused on more static concepts, such as space, place or landscape, geography is today rife with theories and analyses of movement, mobility and flow. In spite of that, mobile ethnography can soon claim a preeminent status within the discipline. In this paper, I document the rise of this methodology, focusing myself on three main aspects. The first is to attempt a definition of mobile ethnography itself. The second is to enlist some recent examples of its usages. The third is to provide several strategies and techniques arising from my own work. This paper might, thus, be useful to senior undergraduate and postgraduate students focused on qualitative research methods in geography.
Journal Archives
Mobile ethnography: emergence, techniques and its importance to geography
Author: Andre NovoaIssue: Volume 9, Issue 1, 2015
Patterns of electoral behavior in marginal rural communes: case study from eastern Slovakia
Author: Roman Mikuš and Lucia MálikováElectoral behavior is one of the central issues in the context of geography of elections which is currently considered to be an established subdiscipline of geography. Unlike traditional literature in this study we look at electoral behavior through a different perspective. Our attention is drawn to find out what is position of marginal rural areas in terms of electoral behavior. This research is carried out through a case study of Eastern Slovakia, which in the existing territorial structure and spatial polarization of Slovakia, represents an area with significant occurence of marginal communes. Thus, we aim to focus on selected aspects of marginality that might be perphaps transformed into a pattern of specific electoral behavior and analyze what is happening with the electoral preferences and participation if the area is considered to be marginal. Moreover, we attempt to answer the question whether and to what extent certain relations between the above mentioned aspects can be identified.
Investigating suburban environment by means of mental maps: a case study of Olomouc hinterland
Author: Jaroslav Biolek and Ivan AndráškoSuburbanization as a key process transforming the hinterland of cities has been researched by human geographers for a long time. The study of suburbanization involves the application of a wide spectrum of methods or analytic tools falling within the groups of quantitative, qualitative and combined approaches. One of the possibilities to study this process is mental mapping that we primarily use as an instrument for examining the character of suburban environment, its perception by local inhabitants, their experience of and relation to the place of living
The aim of this study is to look at the environment of the suburban municipalities in the hinterland of Olomouc by means of mental mapping. We use concrete examples of sketches to describe and interpret the outputs of perception of the researched suburban municipalities and their components by local inhabitants. Despite schematization, incompleteness or distortion, the results of the study prove that character of their mental maps mostly depends on how much time the inhabitants spend in their municipalities, whether they participate in the collective life or use a map of the municipality and what their relation to place of living is.
A GIS-based Multicriteria Decision Making Approach for Evaluating Accessibility to Public Parks in Calgary, Alberta
Author: Yunliang Meng and Jacek MalczewskiThis paper presents a Geographic Information System based Multicriteria Decision Making approach for evaluating accessibility to public parks in Calgary, Alberta. The approach involves the weighted linear combination with the entropy weighting method for obtaining the criterion (attribute) weights. The paper demonstrates a core-periphery pattern of accessibility to public parks in Calgary. Furthermore, the pattern has shown tendency to be more polarized between the year of 2006 and 2011. The results of this research can help the park planning authorities in identifying the needs for improving the accessibility to public parks, monitoring the changes of accessibility patterns over time, and locating new public parks. The results can also help the general public to better understand the spatial relationship between their neighbourhoods and public parks in the city.
Autonomy of educated urban women and their attitude towards female foeticide in India
Author: Dweepika KumariThe Sex-ratio in India is continuously declining in spite of gradually increasing literacy
among women. For long, it was thought that illiteracy and female subjugation is the reason
why women are unable to stand for their rights. As such, large scale attempts and programs
had been taken to increase the literacy of women. But in spite of the spread of female
education and increasing women autonomy in Urban India, the female foeticide has
continued to increase. Most of the results in the recent reports suggest that child sex ratio is
inversely linked to female literacy and female economic activity rate, especially in urban
India. Thus, this study is an attempt to prove that simply increasing the female literacy and
autonomy without bringing about the change in mind-set will not be completely successful in
combating the problem of female foeticide. It explores the level of autonomy being enjoyed
by the Women of Patna, their attitude towards female foeticide and also the factors which
arouse the son-preference in them.
Issue: Volume 9, Issue 1, 2015
Location decentralization due to the use of information and communication technology: Empirical evidence from Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Author: Rini Rachmawati, R. Rijanta and Achmad DjunaediIn the past, population movement and location of service centres were inuenced by the accessibility and land value factors, whereas the impact of the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has not emerged as reported in many studies. This research aims to analyse the decentralization of location of economic services due to the use of ICT from theoretical and empirical view. The study would examine the evolution of the theories of urban spatial structure, ranging from the theory of urban system, spatial distribution of land value in urban area, and decentralization of urban service centres as consequences of the use of ICT. Empirical study is gained from case study data collected through in-depth interview. The research shows that the use of ICT gives a signicant impact on the location decentralization of many ICT-based ofces. Location decentralization of economic services and residential areas away from the urban centre has moved toward the urban sprawl area. However, selection for residential and business location has considered the availability of access to ICT.
Issue: Volume 9, Issue 1, 2015
Title: Human Geographies - Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography
ISSN online: 2067-2284
ISSN print: 1843-6587
Imprint: University of Bucharest
Frequency: Biannual (May&November)
First volume: 1/2007
Current volume: 17/2023
Language: English
Indexed in: SCOPUS, ERIH PLUS, EBSCO (SocINDEX), ProQuest (Social Science Journals, SciTech Journals, Natural Science Journals), Index Copernicus, National Technical Information Service (NTiS), Bodleian Libraries, ExLibris SFX, DOAJ, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library, Google Scholar, Ulrich
EDITORS
Prof. dr. Liliana Dumitrache
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania
Dr. Daniela Dumbrăveanu
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania
Dr. Mariana Nae
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania
Dr. Gabriel Simion
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania
