Cultural Geography
As cultural geographers, we believe that everyone relates to places in different ways and that places play key roles in people’s lives, in their spatial behavior and in their attitudes towards natural and cultural landscapes. In our teaching and research, we explore how senses of place and identity influence the ways people experience and respond to spatial transformations in rural, urban and virtual communities. We do this from varying angles, including community engagement, quality of life and wellbeing, socio-spatial inequalities and (in)justice, heritage, perceptions of landscape change, social impact assessment, culture and art, and social aspects of new technology. We use quantitative, qualitative and spatial methods and continually seek out societal and policy relevance in the projects we undertake.
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Professor of Rural Geography
Expertise
Rural Geography
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Management assistant Economic and Cultural Geography
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Professor for Population Decline and Quality of Life in Northern Netherlands
Expertise
rural development, social innovation, rural mobility and migration, rural magrinalisation, rural governance, participatory governance, animal welfare, rural gender, sustainable food production and consumption, green care, multifunctional agriculture
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Assistant Professor Geographies of Media and Culture
Expertise
Dr. Leonieke Bolderman is Assistant Professor Geographies of Media and Culture at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. Her research concerns the role of music, heritage and tourism in urban and regional development, as well as qualitative research methods. Besides research articles, she has published the monograph Contemporary Music Tourism: A Theory of Musical Topophilia (Routledge, 2020), and the co-edited collection Locating Imagination in Popular Culture: Place, Tourism and Belonging (Routledge, 2021).
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Associate Professor
Expertise
Cultural heritage
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PhD student
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Professor by Special Appointment in Nature-inclusive Rural Development
Expertise
Ecological and environmental economics
Agricultural economics
Economics and policy
Rural development
Nature inclusivity
Agricultural economics
Economics and policy
Rural development
Nature inclusivity
Function
Aletta Jacobs Chair 'Place, Social Change and Collaborative Research for Wellbeing and Justice'
Expertise
Cultural Geography, qualitative research, participatory and visual methodologies, inclusion and exclusion, youth, older adults, disability and impairment, wellbeing, urban context, science-meets-arts
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Assistant professor urban poverty & inequality
Expertise
I research the geography of inequality, poverty, and social exclusion, especially in cities. My expertise is in the following domains and their interactions;
- experiences of poverty and social exclusion
- coming of age in disadvantaged neighbourhoods
- social & spatial justice
- initiatives and interventions in the neighbourhood
- social infrastructure
- intergenerational poverty
View my research minute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlpQR18n2Uc
- experiences of poverty and social exclusion
- coming of age in disadvantaged neighbourhoods
- social & spatial justice
- initiatives and interventions in the neighbourhood
- social infrastructure
- intergenerational poverty
View my research minute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlpQR18n2Uc
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Assistant Professor in Physical Geography
Expertise
My research focuses on how people and computers can collaborate to solve complex problems. I design systems that blend human insight with advanced computer simulations and AI to better understand and manage challenges in nature, urban spaces, and cultural environments—achieving outcomes that neither could achieve alone.
Human-machine collaboration
Spatial Artificial Intelligence
Dynamic Landscapes
Environmental Science
Peatland Palaeoecology
More about my Arctic research:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QDnQS37dgU] and
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih5w7si5cQw]
Human-machine collaboration
Spatial Artificial Intelligence
Dynamic Landscapes
Environmental Science
Peatland Palaeoecology
More about my Arctic research:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QDnQS37dgU] and
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih5w7si5cQw]
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Director of Education and Associate Professor Landscape Geography
Expertise
Landscape geography, earth & environmental sciences, soil science, hydrology, historical geography, GIS
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Associate Professor in Networks, Sustainability, and Human Dimensions of Environmental Change
Expertise
Research expertise: Multi-scale social networks as drivers of climate change impacts & socio-environmental inequalities; stakeholder networks as supportive mechanisms for improving environmental governance outcomes (e.g. social learning, social-environmental resilience, adaptive capacity); policy discourse networks for identifying policy aims, actors, and coalitions; expertise in multidisciplinary & transdisciplinary collaborative research; social-spatial-economic network analyses; participatory modeling.
Teaching expertise: philosophy of social science; research design; quantitative & qualitative methods (including network analysis); environmental governance with emphasis on coupled human-natural interactions (socio-ecological systems).
Teaching expertise: philosophy of social science; research design; quantitative & qualitative methods (including network analysis); environmental governance with emphasis on coupled human-natural interactions (socio-ecological systems).
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Assistant Professor
Expertise
Rural Development
Community Development
Cultural Geography
Social Exclusion
Community Development
Cultural Geography
Social Exclusion
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Professor of Social Impact Assessment and Management
Expertise
Prof Frank Vanclay has a personal chair as professor of social impact assessment and management. He is highly-ranked in the Stanford University listing of the world’s top 2% of scientists and is a leading authority in the field of social practice/social performance. He has received awards from the International Association for Impact Assessment and other organizations. He has authored many key documents in the social impact assessment field, including the 2003 International Principles, and the 2015 international guidance document. An open access book is: Vanclay & Esteves (eds) 2024
Handbook in Social Impact Assessment and Management . His interests also include: project induced displacement & resettlement; business & human rights; social licence to operate; extractive industries & society; Indigenous peoples' rights; Free, Prior & Informed Consent (FPIC); benefit sharing; community engagement; and public participation.
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Assistant Professor in Spatial Data Analysis
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Associate Professor
PhDs
Expertise
My PhD research focuses on participatory art projects in the Dutch province of Fryslân. Central notions are art, rural communities, participation and 'mienskip'.
Expertise
Natural History, Urban Wildlife Conservation, Animal Geographies, Nature-Human Relations, Biology Field Techniques and Bats, Bees, Birds and any Beast!
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PhD researcher
Expertise
cultural consequences of climate change; Indigenous experiences; Indigenous ways of knowing
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PhD student
Expertise
Human Geography, Tourism Studies, Post-Disaster Recovery, Political Economy, Urban Studies, Qualitative Research
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PhD student
Expertise
Cultural Geography
Children's Geographies
Children's Geographies
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PhD candidate
Expertise
Regional identities; film industries
Expertise
Transport & Urban Studies: cycling, walking and disability; transport energy use; transport infrastructure auditing methods.
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PhD student
Expertise
Arts-based rural development, rural cultural tourism, creative entrepreneurship, urban-rural integration
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PhD student
Expertise
Geographies of discontent; populism; place and politics; qualitative research methods
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PhD student
Expertise
rural governance, rural gender, rural geography, qualitative research methods
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PhD candidate and Early Stage Researcher (ESR) in i-CONN ITN
Expertise
Survey Methodology for the Social Sciences,
Qualitative Data Analysis (Atlas.ti) ,
Social Network Analysis (including basics of statistical modelling via ERGM and SAOM)
Qualitative Data Analysis (Atlas.ti) ,
Social Network Analysis (including basics of statistical modelling via ERGM and SAOM)
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PhD candidate
Expertise
Everyday places and experiences of in- and exclusion; urban studies; disability studies. Using qualitative methodologies (e.g. interviews, go-along interviews and ethnographic methods) and participatory methods (e.g. participatory game design, participatory mapping with GIS, design thinking).
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PhD student
Expertise
Rural-urban resettlement, aging in place, perspectives and practices of death and dying, social contact
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PhD Student
Expertise
Rural digitalisation, rural entrepreneurship
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PhD Candidate
Expertise
place attachment, spiritual and cultural tourism, well-being, spiritualities and sacred sites in Japan, critical research methods
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PhD student
Expertise
Research Topic: The dynamics of territorial networks in ‘Culture-led Village Revitalisation’ in China: Towards more inclusive and collaborative Endogenous Rural Development
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PhD student
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PhD student
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PhD student
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