Annual Report 2005: Research
Research Clusters
Regional Economy and Society
Over the past few years, there has been considerable interest in the 'resurgence of regions', as the loci of wealth creation, innovation, economic governance, social welfare and policy intervention. In particular, there is increasing focus on regions as the foundations of the so-called 'new economy' or 'new society'. This research cluster brings together a number of staff whose research address different aspects of three basic questions relating to the regional dimensions of the 'new economy' and its social and policy impacts:
- What are the geographical foundations of the new economy?
- Why and in what ways is the new economy recasting the geographies of public policy?
- How is the new economy reshaping the landscapes of work and welfare?
Cluster members: Dr P M Gray, Prof R Bennett, Professor R Haining, Dr A James, Professor R Martin, Dr M Warrington.
Historical and Cultural Geography
The main interests of this research cluster lie in culture and in demography. Culture is important to geographers because, in studying diversity and connections, issues of meaning, communication and interpretation are paramount. Demography is important to geographers because population is the material substance of society. The cluster's focus is on:
- questions of power, knowledge and identity with an emphasis on diversity and connections in relation to the inequalities and spatial reach of imperialism,
- the power relations involved in networks of knowledge,
- the geographical imaginations at the heart of national identities
- the spatial patterning of sickness and mortality
- the ideological settings of health and population policies
- the social, legal and cultural embeddedness of family systems.
Culture and demography, meaning and materiality, complement each other since imperialism and colonialism are both issues about power and form the drivers behind global migrations of peoples, diseases, family systems and ideologies that have shaped societies across the globe.
Cluster members: Dr Richard Smith, Professor Andrew Cliff, Dr Gerry Kearns, Dr Jim Duncan, Dr Phil Howell, Dr Michael Bravo, Dr Tim Bayliss-Smith
Society, Environment and Development
Members of the Society, Environment and Development cluster are engaged in research on a diverse range of topics in both the developed and developing world, but share major interests in institutions, governance and sustainability. Within the Cluster there are three broad, interrelated strands of research:
The Society & Environment group is primarily concerned with environmental ethics, politics and policies in developed countries and in the international arena
The Political Ecology of Development group has interests in the politics, management and human ecology of natural resources in the developing world, especially forests, wildlife, grazing land and water.
The Society & Development group is concerned with social contexts for human development and state-society relations, with research in Africa, South Asia and Latin America.
Cluster members: Dr W Adams, Dr S Owens, Dr S Trudgill, Dr T Bayliss-Smith, Dr B Vira, Dr P Vitebsky, Dr E Watson, Dr D Low-Beer, Dr S Radcliffe
Environmental Processes
The Environmental Processes research cluster focuses on understanding Earth surface or near-surface processes in a diverse range of environmental systems - coastal, ecological, fluvial, volcanic and atmospheric. Common ground is found in crosscutting research projects and in the scientific approaches employed.
Cluster members undertake innovative research, integrating field investigation (often using novel instruments), theoretical modelling, and controlled experiment. Numerical models are tested in experimental circumstances, then applied to field environments. These environments have complex boundary conditions and multiple processes, and considerable experience of research at a field site is needed to gain an understanding of processes and their boundary conditions; such long-term commitment to field sites is a characteristic of the research.
These methods are supported by Earth Observation, using various space-borne, airborne and ground-based sensors (for example, lidar for coastal topography, and UV, visible and infrared spectrometers in measurements of fluxes of volcanic gases and particles in the atmosphere). The cluster is unique in having direct access to the airborne remote sensing capability of the Unit for Landscape Modelling.
The cluster is committed to inter-disciplinary research, amongst its sub-groups, with the Society, Environment and Development cluster, and with groups in other Departments. There are significant contributions to policy and practical application of research in environmental management, with particular emphasis on environmental hazards and risk management (floods, volcanic eruption), and environmental management, conservation and restoration (floodplain woodland, coastal salt marshes).
Cluster members: Professor K Richards, Dr J Brasington, Dr S Trudgill, Dr B Devereux, Dr H Allen, Dr T Spencer, Dr I Möller, Professor H Graf, Dr M Bithell, Dr C Oppenheimer
Glaciology and Quaternary Change
Geological evidence in many forms provides clear records of fluctuations in the earth's climate, and our research seeks to resolve issues that are central to a wider understanding of a range of past, present and predicted future environments and climate change. Within the cluster, several themes of research reflect our interdisciplinary approach towards key scientific problems, including:
- What are the links between ice-sheet flow and sediment delivery to the marine environment?
- What does the stratigraphic record tell us about the nature and rate of Quaternary climate change?
- How will polar ice-sheets respond to changes in climate and what is their contribution to sea level?
- How will the vegetation of polar environments respond to changes in global climate?
Cluster members: Professor J Dowdeswell, Dr N Arnold, Dr Phil Gibbard, Dr Gareth Rees, Dr Andrew Shepherd, Dr Ian Willis
Grants Awarded
| Principal Investigator | Total / £ | Sponsor | Grant Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. H. Allen | NERC Flying time | NERC | Modelling of post-fire Mediterranean sclerophyllous vegetation communities in southern Portugal, using multisensor airborne data |
| Dr T Bayliss-Smith | £177,310 | DEFRA (Darwin Initiative) | Sustainable insect collecting and farming in Papua New Guinea |
| Prof R Bennett | £7,495 | British Academy | Evolution of the Geography of Chamgers of Commerce 1760-1970 |
| Dr J Brasington | £14,000 | Ambiental Technical Solutions Ltd | An investigation into the use of a Floodplain Inundation Model to provide Urban Flood Risk Mapping |
| Dr. M Bravo | £14,173 | Swedish Academy | Swedish Polar Social Science Research |
| Prof J Dowdeswell | £20,000 | Isaac Newton Trust | Continuity of scholarly advice and access to the internationally significant archival collections of the Scott Polar Research Institute |
| Prof J Dowdeswell | £30,000 | AHRC | The First Nations: Inuit, Inupait and Kalaallit artefact collection from Canada, Alaska and Greenland: enhancing documentation and access |
| Prof J Dowdeswell | £103,165 | NERC | Marine geophysical and geological investigations of a major west Greenland ice stream through Late Quaternary glacial-interglacial cycles |
| Prof J Dowdeswell | NERC Sea time (22 days) | RRS James Clark Ross (NERC) | Northern Svalbard margin |
| Dr M Dwyer | £30,233 | ESRC (Fellowship) | Komi Reindeer herding: Mobility and land use in a changing natural and social environment |
| Prof H Graf | £78,397 | EC FP5 | Smoke Aerosols, Rainfall and Climate: Aerosols from Biomass Burning Perturb Regional and Global Climate (SMOCC) |
| Prof H Graf | £30,000 | Isaac Newton Trust | Treatment of (mainly) convective clouds in large scale circulation climate models |
| Prof H Graf | £35,822 | EC (Asia Pro-Eco Programme) | INSIDE (Indonesian Smoke Induced Drought Episodes) |
| Prof R. Haining | £25,082 | Colt Foundation | Investigation of the effects of outdoor air pollution on stroke incidence, phenotypes and survival |
| Dr. A. James | £13,314 | ESRC | The impacts of work-life balance on learning and innovation in regional economies |
| Dr G Kearns | £7,236 | British Academy | Naturalising Empire: The Geopolitical Vision of Halford Mackinder and its Modern Resonances |
| Dr. P. Kitson | £97,165 | British Academy (Fellowship) | The economic context of family formation in England, c. 1550-1851 |
| Dr. S Legg | £500 | British Academy | Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers |
| Dr C Oppenheimer | £14,545 | NERC | Volcanogenic Bromine and Iodine: Pretraology, Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Emissions |
| Dr. C Oppenheimer | £56,875 | EPSRC | Air Quality in Airport Approaches: Impact of Emissions from Aircraft in Ground Run and Flight |
| Dr. C Oppenheimer | £84,368 | EC | NOVAC |
| Dr S Owens | £31,790 | Leverhulme Trust | Visiting Professorship for Sheila Jasanoff |
| Prof K Richards | £29,620 | University of Ulster (NERC) | North South Share |
| Prof K Richards | £51,282 | Downing College | Study of Arsenic in Groundwater |
| Prof R Smith | £12,511 | ESRC | The sociological study of fertility and morality in Ipswich 1872 - 1910 |
| Prof R Smith | £5,064 | Nuffield Foundation | Historical Demography in sub-Saharan Africa: computer inputting of a parochial micro-dataset for Mwanza, Tanzania 1907 - 1988 |
| Dr T Spencer | £33,462 | Khaled Bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation | Shallow Marine Environments, Southern Seychelles |
| Dr T Spencer | £3,388 | NERC | Washbanks flood defence scheme- environmental modelling |
| Dr. M Szolteysek | £100,532 | EC Marie Curie Fellowship | Astride's of Hajnal line: Central Europe and the geography of family forms, 17th - 19th centuries (CEURFAMFORM) |
| Prof EA Wrigley | £6,012 | British Academy | Mapping the Hundreds in England and Wales |
Departmental Seminar Programme
| 19 January | Dr Rob Larter, British Antarctic Series | 'What do sediments on the Pacific margin of Antarctica tell us about development of, and late Quaternary fluctuations in, the West Antarctic and Antarctic Peninsula ice sheet?' SPRI Physical Sciences Series |
| 26 January | Dr Sarah Hodges, University of Warwick | 'Contraception's voluntary empire: health and society in India before the development state' Historical and Cultural Geography Cluster |
| 2 February | Dr Doug Benn, University of St Andrews | [Theme:] Himalayan glaciology and climate change) SPRI Physical Sciences Series |
| 3 February | Professor Ray Hudson, University of Durham | 'Destroying an industry, remaking places: British coalfields after coal' Regional Economy and Society Research Cluster |
| 9 February | Dr Alex Vasudevan, University of Nottingham | 'Governing performances and spaces of exception: science and the everyday in Berlin 1919-1933' Historical and Cultural Geography Cluster |
| 16 February | Professor Colin Ballantyne, University of St Andrews | 'Periglacial trimlines, palaeonunataks and the dimensions of the last British ice sheet SPRI Physical Sciences Series |
| 17 February | Professor George Petrakos, University of Thessaly, Greece | 'Regional inequalities in Europe' Regional Economy and Society Research Cluster |
| 23 February | Dr Gerry Kearns, University of Cambridge | 'From Mackinder to Bobbitt: naturalising empires through geo-politics' Historical and Cultural Geography Cluster |
| 24 February | Professor Adam Tickell, University of Bristol | 'Neoliberalization' |
P.T.O.
| Regional Economy and Society Research Cluster | ||
| 9 March | Mr Tom Nutt, Magdalene College | 'The politics and geography of old poor law bastardy' Historical and Cultural Geography Cluster |
| 16 March | Dr Doug Mair, University of Aberdeen | SPRI Physical Sciences Series |
| 28 April | Dr Frances Cleaver, Bradford Centre for International Development | 'Rethinking agency in collective action' Society, Environment and Development Research Cluster |
| 4 May | Dr Jim Duncan, Cambridge University | 'Boundary problems: modernity, abjection and the cooly body' Historical and Cultural Geography Cluster |
| 4 May | Dr Karen Heywood, University of East Anglia | 'Oceanography on polar continental shelves and the influence of ice melts'' SPRI Physical Sciences Series |
| 5 May | Professor Anthony Bebbington, University of Manchester | 'NGO Geographies: interventions and uneven development' Society, Environment and Development Research Cluster |
| 11 May | Dr Chris Briggs, HPSS, Geography Department | 'Travelling in search of civil justice: English villagers' litigation beyond the manor, 1275-1400' Historical and Cultural Geography Cluster |
| 11 May | Dr Rob Mulvaney, British Antarctic Survey | 'Ice cores and past climate change' SPRI Physical Sciences Series |
| 12 May | Dr Ruth Kerry, Brigham Young University, USA | 'Integrating quantitative soil spatial analysis with traditional soil survey methods: does it work for precision agriculture?' |
| 18 May | Dr Karen Till, Royal Holloway, University of London | 'Aestheticizing the rupture: the politics of memory at Berlin's holocaust memorial' Historical and Cultural Geography Cluster |
| 25 May | Dr Richard Essery, University of Wales, Aberystwyth | 'Snow processes in complex landscapes SPRI Physical Sciences Series |
| 13 October | Dr. Suma Athreye, The Open University | 'Selection Environments and the Growth of Hi-Technology Firms: A Comparitive Analysis of Cambridge (UK) and Bangalore (India)' |
| 27 October | Professor John Allen, The Open University | 'Ambient Power: Potsdamer Platz and the Seductive Logic of Public Spaces' |
| 10 November | Professor Andy Blowers, The Open University | 'A Time for Decision: the Problem of Integrating Social and Scientific Knowledge in the Management of Radioactive Waste' |
| 17 November | Professor Ray Hudson, University of Durham | 'Destroying an Industry, Remaking Places: British Coalfields after Coal' |
| 24 November | Dr. Frances Cleaver, Bradford Centre for International Development | 'Rethinking Agency in Collective Action' |
| 1 December | Professor Graham Chapman, University of Lancaster | 'Development, Disaster, and Dolphins: a Trip Down the Lower Ganges' |