Spaces of Affectivity: Innovating Interdisciplinary Discourse in Open, “Free” Space

This essay presents a reflective narrative on an innovative approach taken to create an open,“free” space in which to share ideas and discuss the theme “Spaces of Affectivity” across the disciplines of arts, humanities, and geography with a focus on the exploration and negotiation of socio-spatial cultural productions of identity. These reflections are based on the planning of two symposia held in 2014 and 2015 under the title Spaces of Affectivity at Liverpool Hope University with the remit of encouraging scholars to stand in their own space and engage with cross-disciplinary discourse. What emerged was a deepening awareness of cross-disciplinary commonalities of spatial discourse that can lead to interfaces between material experience and the human imagination. At its heart is a truly spatial matter which shows the importance of paying careful attention to the mutually influencing forces of human embodiment and the contextualizing environment of nature and cosmos

Navigating our way through the research-teaching nexus.

This article explores some of the synergetic relationships between research and teaching which can help shape geography undergraduate students’ understandings of research. Through the experience of investigating students’ attitudes towards, and engagement with, satellite navigation (Sat Nav) technologies, it considers ways in which learning can be achieved through dialogic processes in teaching and research. It presents an example of active student engagement with academic research praxis in a co-learning setting in which research is encountered and experienced as exploration of the new, processes of enquiry and ultimately, tangible research products

'Buying' into the waterfront dream? Trajectories of luxury property led developments in Malta

This paper explores the under-researched intersections between the trajectories of luxury waterfront property-led development and changing contemporary tourism product supply and offer. A case study approach is used and positioned within the context of mediatised, financialised neoliberal capitalism and interpreted through the lens of critical theory. It focuses on prestige property developments in Malta and on how tourists are being given the opportunity of ‘buying into’ the lifestyles of the affluent elite. Qualitative bricolage methods are utilised. The study argues that the adaptive reuse of luxury property by tourists is stalling potential waterfront development decline. Through conspicuous consumption and the search for status symbolism by tourists, economic resilience is strengthened. The significance of this case study is that it introduces this particular tourism property relationship as a new area of research and opens up opportunities for further conceptualisation and theoretical contexts

Spaces of Affectivity: Innovating Interdisciplinary Discourse in Open, "Free" Space

This essay presents a reflective narrative on an innovative approach taken to create an open, “free” space in which to share ideas and discuss the theme “Spaces of Affectivity” across the disciplines of arts, humanities, and geography with a focus on the exploration and negotiation of socio-spatial cultural productions of identity. These reflections are based on the planning of two symposia held in 2014 and 2015 under the title Spaces of Affectivity at Liverpool Hope University with the remit of encouraging scholars to stand in their own space and engage with cross-disciplinary discourse. What emerged was a deepening awareness of cross-disciplinary commonalities of spatial discourse that can lead to interfaces between material experience and the human imagination. At its heart is a truly spatial matter which shows the importance of paying careful attention to the mutually influencing forces of human embodiment and the contextualizing environment of nature and cosmos

The city‐island‐state, wounding cascade and multi‐level vulnerability explored through the lens of Malta

In this paper, we introduce the concept of “city‐island‐state” into a discussion of small highly urbanised islands. We place the “city” at the forefront of our analysis by bringing together the geographies of the “city” and “state”, together with a wider discussion of factors that may cause both the wounding of the city and increase the precariousness of the “island”. We apply this concept to the advanced city‐island‐state of Malta (Central Mediterranean), which is a densely populated, urbanised small island archipelago with ca. 500,000 inhabitants and operates as a single city with: an urban core; suburbs and a rural hinterland which is rapidly decreasing in size. This city‐island‐state is frequently considered as being “safe” from external geophysical, climatic and anthropogenic wounding, but, in reality, Malta, as a city, an island, and an independent nation‐state, is faced with multiple internal and external pressures that increase its precariousness and vulnerability to such externalities. Some of these are socio/economic, but others are environmental. We argue that the potential for wounding is particularly marked in Malta, is exacerbated by the contemporary globalised neoliberal world of flows and interconnectivities and that this represents a multi‐level wounding cascade: wounding the city, wounds the island and, by extension, the state

Urban development and visual culture: Commodifying the gaze in the regeneration of Tigné Point, Malta

This paper explores some of the hitherto under-researched intersections between urban (re)development, urban planning and visual culture. What emerges is an academic context that, to date, has largely compartmentalised discrete literatures on ‘view’, ‘value of the view’ and cityscape change, (re)Imagineering and (re)scripting). It shows how materialising processes associated with the commodification of a panoramic view in politico-economic and cultural terms can be used to transform and regenerate along neoliberal lines. It demonstrates how panoramas, when treated as a commodity within the context of neoliberal capitalism, are appropriated, (re)imagined and (re)scripted by architects and property developers to create high status, residential and commercial space for an affluent élite. As such, panoramas are a mechanism for the acceleration of capital accumulation that inherently create new and reinforce existing spatial inequalities. This study draws on research into the commodification of the view of the historic city of Valletta in the redevelopment of Tigné Point, the largest, most comprehensive regeneration scheme in Malta in recent years

CATALISE: A multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study. Identifying language impairments in children

Delayed or impaired language development is a common developmental concern, yet thereis little agreement about the criteria used to identify and classify language impairments inchildren. Children's language difficulties are at the interface between education, medicineand the allied professions, who may all adopt different approaches to conceptualising them.Our goal in this study was to use an online Delphi technique to see whether it was possibleto achieve consensus among professionals on appropriate criteria for identifying childrenwho might benefit from specialist services. We recruited a panel of 59 experts representingten disciplines (including education, psychology, speech-language therapy/pathology, paediatricsand child psychiatry) from English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland,New Zealand, United Kingdom and USA). The starting point for round 1 was a set of 46statements based on articles and commentaries in a special issue of a journal focusing onthis topic. Panel members rated each statement for both relevance and validity on a sevenpointscale, and added free text comments. These responses were synthesised by the firsttwo authors, who then removed, combined or modified items with a view to improving consensus.The resulting set of statements was returned to the panel for a second evaluation(round 2). Consensus (percentage reporting 'agree' or 'strongly agree') was at least 80 percentfor 24 of 27 round 2 statements, though many respondents qualified their responsewith written comments. These were again synthesised by the first two authors. The resultingconsensus statement is reported here, with additional summary of relevant evidence, and aconcluding commentary on residual disagreements and gaps in the evidence base.</p