8.4 Flashcards
What do statistics provide?
Census data provides large scale quantitative data which has been used by national agencies to better understand and plan for population growth and other demographic changes.
What is the issue with quantifiable data in particular statistics?
They’re not as objective as the first appear. This is because people selectively choose the data they wish to use for their particular purpose. Their use therefore becomes subjective.
Also, they tell us very little about human experience of place and what it’s like to live there.
Why are maps bias and subjective?
Because, google maps for example, filters place - directing people to businesses that have engineered their appearance on the first page of a google search.
What is counter mapping?
A bottom-up process by which people produce their own maps, informed by their own local knowledge and understanding of places
Evaluation of maps?
- reliability and accuracy of maps has to be considered
- maps can include hidden bias and influence
- search engines filter place
What is the advantage of counter mapping?
It includes factual information and a sense of place.
What is emotional cartography?
The mapping of emotions shown by people to certain places through the use of a device which records the wearer’s Galvanic Skin Response (which is a simple indicator of emotional response in conjunction with a geographical location).
What are interviews?
Interviews can generate detailed insights about a person’s sense of place or perception of place. They are first hand or direct reports of experiences, opinions and feelings.
Can be structured or unstructured.
Evaluation of interviews?
- interview bias, where the interview may affect the responses of the interviewee using leading questions
- people like to present the self in a favourable light, therefore may not be honest
What is ethnography?
A research method that explores what people do as well as what they say.
Eg to understand inside perspective, the ethnographer would participate in the daily life of a person or group of people, watching what happens etc.
Evaluation of photographs?
- with advanced technology, people are increasingly using photo editing to make photos appear different, to improve the image or perception of place.
- can be selective, bias from the photographer
- only a snapshot in time
What do textual sources do?
Evoke a sense of place - a feeling that the reader knows what it is like to ‘be there’.
These associations can play a positive role in representation of place.
What does poetry do?
Evoke a sense of place.
Poets may refer to specific places in personal and responsible ways but they also enable the reader to sense and imagine what it is like to be in that place.
Why is TV and film important in representations of place?
Paces are a vital backdrop to most dramas. We then associate certain places with different types of stories, eg derelict houses in horror films.
The sites chosen for filming can portray the same place in different lights (eg eastenders vs the Apprentice).
Why is art important in representations of place?
Art has long been used to represent place.
Painters have become synonymous with geographical places.
