The majority of research in this area by Dr Dan Donoghue has focused on urban systems in the UK with a particular emphasis on employment specialization and metropolitan change. Other recent research has focused on a range of topics all involved with monitoring urban system change, a key theme identified by the International Geographical Union's Urban Commission. Various papers and presentations have theorized urban change more generally but also examined change in smaller cities. One particular aspect of this ongoing research is to identify the formation of economic clustering. One key outcome of this research was the creation of a new quantitative measure to assist other researchers engaged with urban and regional economics. This empirically based research continues with the most recent available data for the UK although the emphasis is now changing to link employment structure and change to industry clusters and ultimately to urban and economic policy nationally. Another strand of research currently being undertaken deals with the use of GIS in visualizing urban change at both inter and intra-urban scales.
[For a list of publications associated with this area of study, please visit the home page of Dr Dan Donoghue|.]
Dr Julia Maxted's current research focuses on two major themes:
Youth, identity and culture in mixed residential neighbourhoods. The attitudes of young people will be of crucial importance for the future of intergroup relations, both in South Africa and in other multi-ethnic societies. This research examines the construction of youth identities in mixed and segregated residential areas in Tshwane (Pretoria) and Slough (UK) and investigates the importance of different forms of intergroup contact for the potential sustainability of mixed neighbourhoods.
Technological, behavioural and institutional pathways for the adoption of emergent solar technologies in African urban areas. This research is developing strategic analytical frameworks to identify technological, behavioural and institutional pathways for the rapid transfer and adoption of emergent solar technologies to African urban settlements. Traditional approaches to technology transfer have been driven by technology, rather than by the needs of societies. The novel approach taken here is that the pull of market needs (defined by the current and future energy needs of urban dwellers) will be integrated with technology-push components (comprising a technology watch of emerging solar technologies) in order to identify appropriate energy solutions. Solar energy has the potential to provide a plentiful and highly scalable solution to future energy production. The pressing need for poor urban communities in the developing world to have access to clean, secure and affordable energy at a time of rapid change in energy supply requires the development of a robust analytical framework such as that being developed here.
Within the West European setting, another research theme has been the examination, by Dr Peter Thomas, of changing patterns of economic development within Wallonia (Belgium), using spatial welfare indicators to assess the degree of geographical polarisation at the sub-regional scale. This work is located within the institutional framework of Belgium's complex political structure as a federal state and also embraces a wider focus on the problems of economically depressed regions, including the French region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais. This study has been set within the wider context of European integration and has been expanded to assess the INTERREG initiative and the Channel Tunnel rail link as potential tools of regional development in the Anglo-French frontier zone. Work on the Franco-Belgian coalfield has also been extended to include a study of the former Kent coalfield, as a contribution to the Historical Atlas of Kent.
Publications by geography staff have appeared in major geographical journals such as Regional Studies, Urban Studies, Applied Geography and the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.
The Department has also successfully supervised a number of postgraduate students working in aspects of Economic and Social Geography. Recently completed PhDs have examined:
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the changing urban morphology in Romania with a view towards identifying hybrid city forms resulting from the post-communist transition towards capitalism;
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the relationship between geographical proximity (clusters) in business services and firm performance in south-east England;
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local sustainable food marketing (e.g. farmers' markets, vegetable box schemes and community supported agriculture);
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the tourism potential of rural resources in Kent, including community forests and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs). This work has been supervised in collaboration with the Department of Sport Science, Tourism and Leisure;
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the geography of rural primary school provision.