Utilising community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles, this study aimed to support rural young adults in telling their own story regarding rural sustainability, including their concerns, hopes and understanding of rural sustainability. Through photographs, focus group and presentations, this study engaged intensively and creatively with a group of five individuals living rurally in the Scottish Highlands and Scottish Borders. Developed alongside and during a Beltane event that celebrated the ancient Gaelic May Day, the research contributes to wider studies analysing the concept and practice of sustainability in rural places. As rural Scotland becomes increasingly important in relation to a wider national transition to 'net-zero', there is likewise a greater need to understand the perspectives, concerns and hopes that rural young people have. This paper sought to collaboratively understand rural young people's perspectives on sustainability and to understand the opportunities and issues relevant to the changing nature of Scotland's rural landscape. Our research revealed how the young people involved in this photovoice project perceived the rural areas in which they lived and what sustainability meant in their context.
This article examines the surface thermal performance of parklets as tactical urbanism interventions within London, UK. Using in-situ thermal imaging (FLIR C3-X) during April 2024, the research evaluates surface temperature variations across three parklets measured at three daily periods. Results demonstrate that vegetated parklet surfaces generate substantial localised cooling, with within-parklet temperature ranges of 6-26 degrees C between coolest vegetated and warmest seating surfaces (mean differentials: 2.1-14.0 degrees C depending on material selection), with highly significant effects (p <= 0.003, Cohen's d = 0.94-1.42). This phenomenon - conceptualised as the Parklet Cool Island (PCI) effect - is driven primarily by vegetation-based shading, evapotranspiration, and strategic material selection. Statistical analysis confirmed a clear material thermal hierarchy (vegetation < light masonry < concrete/asphalt < dark metals), with material type explaining 12.6% of temperature variance (F(5,237) = 6.85, p < 0.001). The findings highlight the potential of parklets to function as compact, replicable cool surface nodes within dense urban fabrics, contributing to improved pedestrian thermal comfort and climate-responsive urban design strategies. Study limitations include focus on surface rather than air temperatures, April measurement timing, and absence of control sites and quantitative environmental variable measurements.
This commentary critically examines David Seamon's processual understanding of place in light of contemporary urban transformations in China. While Seamon's framework highlights the dynamic formation of place through interaction, identity, and design, its explanatory scope is challenged by three conditions. First, large-scale redevelopment and state-led planning demonstrate the decisive role of structural forces in shaping urban space. Second, heritage-led and themed developments reveal how place identity is often strategically constructed through design and cultural representation. Third, patterns of mobility and housing instability disrupt the everyday rhythms through which place attachment typically develops. These dynamics suggest that place processes are increasingly difficult to sustain in rapidly transforming environments. However, this does not diminish the value of Seamon's approach. Instead, it underscores its critical importance in resisting the reduction of place to commodified and consumer-oriented space. A renewed humanistic geography must therefore integrate structural analysis while preserving its commitment to lived, processual experience.
This paper conveys the notion of collaborative geographical biography through enmeshed encounters with mental ill-health. In the context of researching the life of Art Extraordinary artist, Adam Christie, this paper argues for the importance of lived expression provided by 'expert-by-experience' researchers arriving in academic spaces, reflecting on the power that it holds for generating deeper understandings of the geographies of mental (ill-)health. The paper seeks to illuminate the possibilities of creative collaboration for revealing the intricate geographies of mental (ill-)health through geo-biographical research. In doing so, it aims to encourage co-created exploration of academic research and writing in geography through lived experience, leading to new ways of considering and configuring collaborative geographical biography.
Vicki Husband (b.1970) is an Occupational Therapist who qualified in 1999 and has spent the majority of her career working in community rehabilitation. Husband is also a poet and her second collection of poetry, Glasgoscopy is centred on her role as a health professional in the North West health sector of Glasgow, where she has worked for over twenty years. In this article, Husband explores geographical themes of space, place, time, distance and scale in relation to Glasgoscopy, as well as reflecting on the creative process of writing the book: development of the book's structure and themes and choice of poetic forms.
Driven by local tenancy conventions, government policy and new transport networks, the growth of orchards played a key role in the development of the Vale of Evesham's horticultural economy from the 1880s onwards. By transforming the landscape from one focused on larger-scale arable and livestock production to a landscape dominated by smaller-scale horticulture in a relatively short space of time, the Vale of Evesham was able to respond to the pressures of the agricultural depression of the later-nineteenth century. In doing so, the Vale of Evesham drew upon already existing skills, work practices and knowledges to create a new spatial organisation, focused on smaller, intensively cultivated, labour intensive holdings. Using a series of GIS-created visualisations this paper demonstrates how orchards developed to form an integral part of the landscape, influencing not just the local economy but also transforming the spatial organisation and work practices of rural society.
This paper explores the recent public discourse on release from prison in England and Wales as a prism through which to view the wider justice system. There is much we can learn by looking at this pivotal point in someone's justice journey as it tells us not only about individual experiences on losing and regaining one's freedom but about fundamental values on liberty and the rule of law as well as a society's stance on justice. This paper confronts the question of how the spaces through which release is negotiated and takes place serve to shape attitudes towards justice. We are interested here to build connections between different geographies of court, carceral spaces and theoretical dimensions of justice. This paper raises important questions about how current public perceptions of failures to enforce the rule of law and erroneously releasing prisoners prematurely are connected to longstanding implications of debates around safety. Here we want to reflect on the endurance of the concept of a fixed border between prison and the outside world by looking at the significance of release.
This article is a first-person account of my encounter with humanistic and phenomenological geography. I review how I first became involved with geography and my graduate experience at Clark University, which in the 1970s was a major center of humanistic and phenomenological work, mostly because of geographer Anne Buttimer, today recognized as a founder of the humanistic tradition. I consider how phenomenology became central to my research and writing, and how my interest in what came to be called 'environment-behavior research' eventually led to my involvement with architecture, planning, and design programs. In the last portion of this article, I overview my recent work investigating place experience and lived emplacement, particularly the theme of how places change processually. I end by suggesting that the current disciplinary emphasis on 'critical theory' and 'critical thinking' might be usefully complemented with 'empathetic thinking' and a revitalized humanistic and phenomenological geography.
A plea is made for taking seriously 'early maps' by map-makers from what are conventionally dated as the earlier and later Middle Ages. Too readily, perhaps, such maps are dismissed either as forgeries dating to later eras or as essentially not 'proper' works of cartography. This article will dispute such dismissal and argue for a continuing scholarly engagement with the maps involved, their origins, makers, influences, and implications. The main aspect of this appraisal will address two early maps of the North Atlantic known as 'the Vinland Maps', both often regarded as fakes, adducing specific evidence suggesting, however tentatively, that they are authentic creations with much still to reveal about the worldly spaces depicted and the times of their creation. A crucial point is that readerships - scholarly and lay - should think further before accepting theories about fake maps and indeed be prepared to take ancient maps seriously as representations of the geographical knowledge held by early seafaring peoples. Additional information will be offered about related debates over the exact location of the place that, upon landfall, the Norse explorer Leif Erikson traditionally named as 'Vinland'.
In the current Anthropocene era, the unprecedented pressure on Earth's remaining habitats from human activities poses a major risk to long-term sustainability. This study used MaxEnt and InVEST models to evaluate habitat suitability and carbon sequestration potential in the Malakand division of northern Pakistan. The MaxEnt model was employed to identify the key bioclimatic variables influencing species distribution, analyzing 19 environmental factors, while the InVEST model assessed carbon storage across various land cover types over a span of 2 decades (2003, 2013, and 2023). Results revealed a marked decline in both habitat suitability and carbon sequestration, primarily attributed to deforestation, land-use changes, and other anthropogenic pressures. Results indicated approximately 24,169 km(2) of the study area was unsuitable for species habitation, whereas only 3,500 km(2) was identified as suitable. A similar decline in carbon sequestration was observed, particularly in the southern and central regions, highlighting an urgent need for improved land management practices. The integrated methodology findings revealed a strong spatial, association between habitat suitability and carbon storage, quantified by calculating a pixel wise Pearson correlation between the continuous MaxEnt suitability and the InVEST carbon storage for each period (2003-2023). This correlation underscores the critical role of biodiversity conservation in mitigating climate change.
Van dwelling is the act of living on wheels on a temporary or permanent basis. Social media and popular culture suggest that 'vanlife' is a growing phenomenon. We undertook a study to explore the experiences, challenges and opportunities of van dwelling across Scotland, including an evidence-gathering workshop with van dwellers and representatives from relevant organisations where we used creative methods to foster discussion. Through this work we identified two key gaps in understanding: (1) that there is a greater diversity of van dwelling experiences than is widely known; and (2) that a range of challenges arises because of this lack of understanding. We suggest a novel four-part agenda to: (1) extend the research focus beyond van dwelling to include a wider range of vehicles; (2) represent the diversity of experiences shaping vehicular dwelling; (3) diversify the voices shaping these understandings, through new participatory and creative ways of engagement; and (4) conduct further research to better understand how unique these trends are to Scotland, and how such trends may change in the future.
In this short piece, I explore the ways that Burgess and Gold fundamentally informed a nascent 'media geographies' in our field. Focusing on my own experience as a radio host and television news producer, I trace the impact of their work with respect to what I call 'quotidian geographies'.
Development constitutes a crucial component of India's regional context, particularly in socioeconomically disadvantaged states like Manipur. Despite national government efforts, marked disparity in development persists at various levels, including interstate, intrastate and interdistrict. This study assesses the extent of social development and advancement in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of Manipur at the district level, using secondary data from the Census of India, statistical publications and the SDG India and NER Index. It employs a normalization technique to assess fourteen social development indicators and indicators related to SDGs. The analysis shows that the plain districts of Manipur outperform hill districts, with Imphal West and Imphal East consistently ranking as the leading district in both social development and SDG achievements. The study explores underperforming districts like Jiribam, Ukhrul and Tamenglong, focusing on improvement in demographic and basic amenities indicators and emphasizing the need for inclusive growth and equitable resource distribution to achieve SDG 2030 targets.
In The Empire of Climate Livingstone examines the antecedents to our current-day concerns around the impacts and mitigation of anthropogenic climate change. Key areas of analysis include: zonal climatic theories; assumptions about causal influences of climate on health, wealth and the human body; theories on weather and war; and the development of hierarchical theories of race. The book examines the persistence of determinist and reductionist thought evidenced both in current scientific work on climate change and the often apocalyptic journalistic reports on these issues. Livingstone traces how early ideas about the relationships between climate and humanity have remained remarkably persistent in current debates, including western pejorative ideas about people and places in the global south. This discussion considers firstly, the intersections between environmental/ climatic determinism and race; secondly, mappings of race and climate; and thirdly, reflects on alternative ways of both representing and addressing the impacts of anthropogenic climate change and climate and environmental justice issues.
This paper describes a new community for Scottish geography, earth, and environmental sciences educators (i.e. the ScotGEESE community). It explores the formation of our community including our aims, distinguishing features, and influences through the metaphor of geese behaviour: hatching, honking, flocking, and flying. We identify tensions that have arisen including the visibility and access to our disciplines and the lack of communication between the educational levels and GEES disciplines. We also present the community through the lens of social learning theory 'landscapes of practice' [Wenger-Trayner et al., 2014. Learning in landscapes of practice: Boundaries, identity, and knowledgeability in practice-based learning. Routledge] and describe the challenges and strengths of working between/within/across our professional communities. We invite those from early years, primary, secondary, further, higher, alternative and public education to come together to foster professional learning and to acknowledge and celebrate the similarities and differences of teaching between/within/across our disciplines.
The UK governments have set ambitious targets for tree-planting as part of their commitments to address climate breakdown and biodiversity loss. Meeting these targets requires the cooperation of farmers, including those farming on common land. The complexity of farmers' concerns about planting trees, coupled with the specific socio-cultural context of the commons, presents challenges. This interpretative essay begins with an exploration of commoning as culture, conceptualising the commons and how they are contested, before exploring the dynamics of change and stasis. It then narrows its lens to focus on the history of the Welsh commons, identifying a centuries-long struggle for survival against exploitation, displacement and commodification, a struggle extending into the present as new external forces press upon the commons. The arguments are illustrated with a case study on two Welsh upland commons, sites of contestation over woodland creation. This place-based study within the broader discussion reveals a powerful insider/outsider dichotomy and a determined resistance to any force external to the commons. We identify potential for positive change, perhaps on a case-by-case basis, if the 'pluriversal' values of commoning could rise to prominence over normative neoliberal concepts. Ultimately, the contestation in Wales is not really about the trees.
Despite their ubiquity, student societies of geography, and other subjects, in university departments have received relatively little consideration in historical and contemporary accounts of these departments. This is a grave oversight considering the potentially large part they play in the academic and social life of the department and discipline itself. Using the geography department at Glasgow University as a case study, this paper attempts to begin correcting this omission by excavating and tracing a history of their student geographical society through the pages of their student-run magazine, Drumlin. Focusing on student members' social and academic interactions with their fellow members, with departmental staff, and with student-geographers beyond Glasgow, what emerges is a highly active and impactful society. A reading of this partial history reveals the benefits, and perhaps troubles, of the student geographical society in terms of disciplinary belonging, development of geographic identity, and the formation of wider networks and communities. Additionally, through its activities, the Society may have allowed students an opportunity to become active participants in the reproduction of their own discipline. This exploration highlights the importance of writing student-geographers and their student geographical societies into the histories of geography and the academic spaces in which it is practiced.
This study investigates spatiotemporal trends in daytime and nighttime land surface temperature (LST) across Greenland from 2000 to 2023 using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra (MOD11A2 v6.1) 8-day composites. LST data were analyzed to assess seasonal, zonal and altitudinal variability, while long-term trends were derived using linear regression. Throughout the study period, coastal areas consistently exhibited higher temperatures than the central regions. A general warming pattern was observed, with the most significant increases observed during spring and summer. April exhibited the highest LST rise, both daytime and nighttime (0.11 degrees C and 0.13 degrees C/year, respectively), while June showed a notable daytime cooling trend (-0.06 degrees C/year). Seasonal trends indicated a 0.03 degrees C/year increase in fall (daytime) and spring (nighttime), and decline in winter (nighttime). Warming rates were higher along the coasts, especially in the south and southwest and particularly at night, compared to colder, high-altitude, ice-covered interiors. The strongest warming coincided with accelerated snow and ice melt, with NDSI declining by -1 to -0.2%/year. Areas in northern and southern Greenland with rising LSTs (0.11-0.2 degrees C/year) showed the most significant decreases in snow and ice cover. These findings underscore the growing vulnerability of Greenland's coastal zones and their potential contribution to sea-level rise under continued warming.
The figure of the demonic witch has a looming presence in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. That said, this more-than-human being that held force throughout the years of the great European witch-hunts arrived belatedly, emerging from trials for heresy and sorcery conducted in Western Europe and codified in several learned demonological treatises beginning in the early fifteenth century. Although geographers have in recent years directed attention toward more-than-human geographies, fewer studies have explicitly addressed those of Late Medieval and Early Modern Western (European) traditions, including demonology. In this paper I reflect on the knowledge-claims forwarded by demonologists and witch-theorists from this period. As part of a broader project on demonic geographies, I document the other-than-human worlds disclosed by these writers; that is, to resituate demonology within the corpus of geographic thought. In doing so, I draw on the concept of geographical imaginations and introduce the term 'geo-demonic imagination' to help conceptualise the socio-spatial relationship between humans and demons. Drawing especially on the Malleus Maleficarum, an early-fifteenth century demonological treatise, I premise that the demonic pact - the explicit contract entered by humans and demons - is foundational to the production of geo-demonic imaginations.
The RSGS has commissioned a substantial report, Into the Red: Counting the Costs of Climate Change, that analyses existing inquiries into the financial dimensions of climate change as it impacts Scotland in its global context. For the first time, quantifiable trends and projections for the Scottish case are brought together, analysed and pulled through into conclusions and actionable recommendations. The core logic is to balance the financial costs of climate change, already been felt by many peoples and places in Scotland and beyond, against the costs of society not responding urgently and constructively to the challenges that are arising and will undoubtedly become more acute in future. The present position paper introduces this report and its central messages.
