Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
major European consortia funded to study key issues such as
environmental change over the last millennium and sustainability
involve geographers.
•
As a specifi c contract or consultancy to address and offer solutions
to a current issue.
There is a long record of one-off projects
whereby geographers have been commissioned to undertake
specifi c tasks of evidence-based research. These are sometimes
supported by Funding Councils but also by the private sector.
Studies of retail change, whether it be store locations, market
defi nitions, or consumer behaviour, offers one example. Optimal
location projects might involve airports, marinas, hospitals, and a
range of public utilities. These types of applied geography often do
not push at the research frontiers but have practical value.
•
As a by-product of research that may have some other conceptual
purposes but from which practical applications emerge.
This
is the most common source of applied geography and the
most diverse. So-called 'blue skies' research (with no direct
applications foreseen in advance) may stimulate an interest in
an evidence-based sideline that may later yield applications. The
thrust in human geography towards discourse analysis and non-
representational theory is at times obscure but its main purpose
is to achieve a better under
standing of the societies in which
we live. Historical geography examines the past in a variety
of ways that often, intentionally or unintentionally, throws
light on contemporary issues. The ways in which young
migrants, especially women, to Swiss cities in the early 20th
century were controlled in an attempt to maintain middle-
class standards of social order has some resonance
for modern
refugees (see box). Again, a detailed study of ghostly heritage of
a district in Singapore that once held female labour collectives in
the so-called 'death houses', shows how the image has persisted in
the modern city and affects the way in which the area is regarded
(see box). These examples show how a great deal of scholarship
in geography touches upon the real world and has something
relevant to offer.
