Ask the Geographer

Globalisation is changing our world as we know it, it’s transforming economies, societies, and the environment. But whilst geographers have long studied its effects in global cities - there’s been little research on the concept of ‘a global countryside’ and the impacts of globalisation on rural spaces.

In this podcast we meet Professor Michael Wood from Aberystwyth University. We discuss how migration, trade, and tourism has shaped the rural landscape in England and Wales.

In this podcast we meet with Dr Jon Oldfield, from the University of Birmingham to discuss geopolitics, the role of Russia as an influential climate actor, and the potential consequences of climate change on this vast and environmentally dynamic country. We’ll be finding out more about his latest research project into Soviet climate science and its intellectual legacies

In this podcast, we meet with Laura Schoenberger, we explore how, in countries such as Cambodia, sand mining is contributing to the erosion of estuaries, collapse of riverbanks. Sand is not a renewable resource within human timescales, so what does this mean for our environment and the countries that will suffer the most insecurity as a result of its loss.

When refugees re-settle into new communities it can impact sense of belonging, place and home. So how can this be negotiated and managed?

In this podcast we’re joined by Sara Kindon and Amber Kale from Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand. We’ll be discussing their research into migration, homliness, belonging and the methods that geographers use to explore these issues through qualitative data.

Caribbean creativity has shaped literary, music and dance cultures globally. Alongside this geographers are increasingly looking at what performance can tell us about place, identity and politics.

In this podcast we're interviewing Dr Pat Noxolo from the University of Birmingham, to discuss the ways in which Caribbean people deploy creative energy to live with the everyday effects of insecurity, poverty, inequality and violence in this culturally and environmentally unique region.

International aid is more than a flow of money. Whilst it’s an economic exchange, it’s also one that shaped by geopolitics and geographical imaginations about place - especially so, in terms of traditional donors and recipients of aid. In this podcast we're joined by Dr Emma Mawdsley to discuss global development, and how international aid really works.

Traditionally, gentrification has been considered a highly urban process, taking place in cities and towns. But gentrification - and its implications for changing landscapes, rising rents, and displacement - take place in rural spaces too.

In this podcast, we meet Professor Martin Philips from the University of Leicester to discuss how TV and Media have constructed representations of rural life in Britain, and how often this may belie the realities and challenges of the countryside.

With changing borders, Brexit and Trump it’s an interesting time for global geopolitics. Historically, and even more so in today’s current climate political cartoons are released via newspaper and social media as a commentary on global power relations and nation-hood.

In today’s podcast we’re joined by Dr Daniel Hammett from the Department of Geography at the University of Sheffield to discuss what we can learn from such cartoons, the role of humour in political geography and his research into citizenship and geopolitics in Southern Africa.

Whilst research and science often provide an explanation on how the world works, the role of concepts such as fate, luck, fortune affect our understandings of risk. In this podcast we speak to Professor Esther Eidinow about the role future scenarios play in our perception of risk.

Declining retail poses fundamental questions to the future of places where we live, work and socialise. In this podcast we're joined by Dr Steve Millington from Manchester Metropolitan University to discuss place-management. How have these places been managed so far - and how can geographers envisage brighter futures for their creative, social, cultural and economic development?