Publications

Sociologia Ruralis 51(3) pp 219-237 This article explores the significance of researchers positionality for the interpretation of local cultures of rurality. Drawing on personal experience of studying the apparent emergence of a new squirearchy in an English village, it argues that backyard ethnographies, in which researchers study worlds with which they are already familiar if…

Globalization is arguably the most prevalent force reshaping rural localities around the world today, and the most significant factor framing the challenge for rural development in regions from the Canadian prairies to the rolling downlands of England, from the forests of Scandinavia to the Andean mountain communities of South America, from Australian mining towns to…

In writing the article ‘Applied policy research and critical human geography’ (Woods and Gardner, 2011), Graham Gardner and I aimed to nudge discussion of policy research in human geography along from debates about the value of such research, to engagement with the actual practicalities of conducting contract research and the challenges that arise. Through an…

This paper discusses the relationship between applied policy research commissioned by the state and the development and maintenance of critical human geographies. In contrast with recent debates, which have centred on the relative status of human geography within policy circles, we focus on the often mundane and messy realities of undertaking policy research. The paper…

We study implications of persistence of shocks in total factor productivity (TFP) growth under Bayesian framework for a set of African countries over the period 1970-2003. Contrary to convention, we find that stochastic unit root is present for most of the African countries and that there is time-varying dependence structure in the underlying processes. The…

Most analyses of the role of the media in shaping and reproducing popular discourses of rurality have focused on film, television drama and literature. Comparatively little attention has been directed towards the role of the news media in framing perceptions of contemporary rural issues through reportage and commentary. This paper examines the engagement of the…

Audio walks have increasingly been adopted by the tourist and leisure sector as a way of introducing people to material and audio landscapes. By providing people with tracks that correspond to places set out on a map, people are taken on a journey around and through different worlds, listening to accounts, histories, stories and tales…

The team has produced a literature review report to conceptually frame and analytically ground the project. This report presents the findings of a preliminary review of the literature in the areas of digital divides, community connectivity and minority communities. It also introduces literature regarding digital divides in the context of Wales in order to contextualise…

Rapid industrialization and urbanization in China has produced a unique phenomenon of ‘village-hollowing’, shaped by the dual-track structure of socio-economic development. This paper analyzes the phenomenon of ‘village-hollowing’, identifying the processes and influences that have driven their evolution, and highlighting the challenge that the locking-up of unused rural housing land in ‘hollowed villages’ presents for…