Gordon Clark

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Verified

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• MA PhD FRGS
• Retired at Lancaster University

A GIS project is an effective means of linking learning about GIS and learning with GIS, and it can enhance students’ employability. However, individual project work creates challenges that could result in failed assessment. Here we adopt a mixed-methods approach to examine how students of mixed abilities cope with GIS problems and to reveal the va...

This paper reviews five decades of efforts to relieve Lancaster's traffic congestion by widening the bottleneck created by Skerton Bridge. The paper explains why all these attempts failed. Introduction Lancaster occupies a strategic position in northwest England, its Castle overlooking the lowest crossing point of the River Lune. North-south traffi...

William Coulthart was a significant architect in the development of Lancaster but little is known of his life, career or works. This paper broadens our understanding of his contribution to the design of buildings in late-Georgian Lancaster. His life and career William Coulthart was baptized in New Abbey, Kirkcudbrightshire, in 1787, the son of Jame...

This paper explores Stephen Mackreth's map of Lancaster published in 1778. It explains the map, assesses its accuracy, shows how it was produced and presents new information on Mackreth's life.

The database The Urban Archaeological Database for Lancaster is a publicly-available compilation of archaeological and historical data for Lancaster, presented as a graphic output in a GIS format. Our knowledge of the archaeology of any city has been built up over centuries, item by item, find by find. The information may be a discovery from an exc...

This paper charts the history of the airfield at Scale Hall, Lancaster, from 1912 to the present day.

This paper reviews the Regional Planning Scheme for Lancaster, Morecambe and the surrounding area that was published in 1927 during a period of major economic and cultural changes and when the profession of town planning was in its infancy.

Some social scientists have criticised the workings of research-ethics committees because their biomedical model is ill-suited to social-science research in both practical and philosophical terms. In this paper we review these criticisms and propose an alternative approach to ethical review that is based on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas.

This article explores students’ extracurricular activities and, uniquely, their short- and long-term effects on employability. Drawing on the literature, six research questions are identified. A questionnaire and interviews with alumni provide the quantitative and qualitative information needed. The effects of different extracurricular activities a...

This paper uses triangulation to assess key aspects of a team-based, participatory action research programme for undergraduates in rural communities across northern Ghana. The perceptions of the programme and its effects on the students, staff and host communities are compared, showing areas of agreement and disagreement. The successes of the progr...

The book focuses on three areas of development driving the significant structural and functional changes that have been appearing in and shaping rural spaces: development of renewable energy, multifunctional agriculture, and rural tourism. In the rural context these three phenomena are related and significantly influence each other – or better to s...

Students’ experience of higher education comprises not only their academic studies but also their extracurricular activities. This article reports on the findings from a mixed-methods research project, exploring in detail the nature and value of extracurricular activity engagement and the significance of institutional schemes encouraging extracurri...

Does attending lectures improve student performance? Using novel attendance data, we examine statistically the relationships between attendance and performance for first-year and third-year students. The relationship is moderately positive: very high attendance is significantly associated with an improvement in performance over very low attenders o...

Geographical information systems (GIS) are in tune with the current ethos of higher education because of their perceived vocational value. However, it is particularly difficult to teach GIS vocationally. This paper critiques the claim of vocationalism. The authors use an innovative method of evaluating a module that enlists its alumni to reflect on...

This chapter reviews the various meanings of the concept of the region in a modern European context.

This paper discusses the geography of parental choice in a rural locale and shows how a group of parents negotiated their way through the process of primary school choice. Using ethnographic data collected through interviews and observations with parents and staff from three rural primary schools in England, the research utilises Bourdieu's concept...

Measuring the success of knowledge transfer from universities to firms has traditionally been seen as an unproblematic activity, apart from the practical issues of how to measure the new jobs and sales that have been created.This article problematizes the concept of`success' in terms of its definition, measurement and interpretation. It explores cr...

If the concept of integrated rural tourism, as developed in the SPRITE (Supporting and Promoting Integrated Tourism in Europe's Lagging Rural Regions) project, is to be used as an operational tool to assess the all-round value of tourism in rural areas, there needs to be a means of measuring the value of tourism, and changes in it. Statistical, ‘ob...

Rural spaces are no longer associated purely with agricultural commodity production but are seen as locations for the stimulation of new socio-economic activity, often incorporating tourism, leisure, speciality food production and consumption and e-commerce. Within the context of debates about integrated and territorial approaches to rural developm...

The development of rural tourism is regarded as a promising diversification strategy especially for lagging and mountainous areas of the European Union. Research concerning the demand and/or supply of rural tourism services has been limited within the agricultural economics domain despite the significance attached to rural tourism by various rural...

Also available at http://www2.glos.ac.uk/gdn/icp/ideaf.pdf

Also available at http://www2.glos.ac.uk/gdn/icp/student%20to%20print.pdf

This article examines why the growing gap-year phenomenon is important for university geography departments in the context of education and employment. The research examines the scale and types of gap years, and their effects on students. The study uses a multi-actor approach comprising information from national statistical sources, university depa...

An educational development issue common to all disciplines and countries is how to combine generic development of staff as teachers with appropriate engagement with the specificities of teaching individual subjects. This article explores the nature of the relationship between the generic and the discipline specific, defines the role of the discipli...

This paper reviews the reasons for incorporating work-based learning (WBL) into higher education degrees and the barriers to achieving this despite the many advocates of WBL. Five key dimensions of WBL are noted and examples of WBL in departments of geography across the UK are located on these five dimensions. The paper then describes the client-ba...

This paper examines the development of farm-based tourism in the less favoured area of the northern Pennines. Farm tourism is conceptualized as an alternative farm enterprise (AFE) comprising one of seven possible 'pathways of farm business development'. As such, the development of farm-based tourism (FBT) is influenced by a range of factors both e...

Ce témoignage se situe dans une démarche de compréhension des situations Européennes en matière de développement des espaces ruraux. Il propose d'une part d'identifier les caractéristiques des régions rurales britanniques qui sont comparables ou différentes des régions françaises, et d'autre part de situer et de décrire les questions politiques qui...

This paper explores the educational value of a rural trail—a field visit on foot—using as an example a trail in a small area of countryside near Lancaster in northern England. This trail provides those teaching rural geography in higher education with a means of developing their students’ skills of informed observation and interpretation of field e...

Previous studies have revealed what employers have said they require in terms of career or transferable skills in their prospective employees when they leave university. This paper reports on a survey of groups of geographers who graduated one, Jive and 10 years ago from two different British institutions of higher education. The students identifie...

The weakening of the postwar nexus of a productivist agriculture and a distinctive system of regulating the rural economy has created new challenges for British rural institutions. The task of diversifying rural and farm economies has required the institutions to change how they operate. Using the concept of the local mode of social regulation (MSR...

This paper offers an empirical test of a middle-order theorisation of business change on family labour farms. The concept of ‘paths of farm business development’ is examined in the northern Pennines of England using discriminant analysis and 34 variables drawn from the published literature on the dynamics of the family farm. Farm indebtedness is sh...

This paper critically re‐evaluates the ‘enterprise dissertation’ at Lancaster in the light of subsequent developments in teaching in the Department of Geography. It explains why client‐based experience was not provided for all our students using this initiative.

The main report is presented of a study, written and coordinated by the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change at Lancaster University for the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), which explores the far-reaching implications of new issues in the fields of leisure and tourism in the UK countryside. The report contains six chapte...

The initial development of a scheme for ‘enterprise education’ within the Department of Geography at the University of Lancaster is described. The constraints and opportunities provided by the United Kingdom Training Agency's Enterprise in Higher Education Programme are set out. It is concluded that evaluation of the scheme will be lengthy and conc...

This volume focusses on rural settlement, income generation and the multiple use of land. The symposium clearly showed the parallels between the processes of change in rural areas of the UK and the Netherlands. An introductory chapter explores general features of structural forces operating in both countries, such as privatisation, scale enlargemen...

This paper explores the meaning to be given to agricultural regions. It notes the influence on the form of regions of the data and methods used to create them, and it criticises as arbitrary the use of classification as a means of data reduction in agricultural studies. It recommends the restriction of regionalisation to testing theories and histor...

Recent work on diffusion of innovation is discussed under three main headings. The structural component describes the role of evolution in the structure of societies and economies. It is thus concerned with high level abstractions and generalizations, and is most closely limited to other areas of the social sciences. The process component is concer...

The UK Agricultural Census is a potentially valuable source of information for A-level projects. Nevertheless, it must be remembered that some parts of the census are less accurate than others. Its accuracy also varies spatially. These inaccuracies are described and illustrated.-Authors

The presence of second homes in the Lake District National Park has engendered two opposing housing policies. The form and consequences of each are examined and the events leading to the reversal of policy are discussed. -from Author

The agricultural census is one of the major sources of information for those engaged in rural studies. This booklet's objective is to demonstrate the potential and pitfalls of this source of data for undergraduates and researchers in geography and other disciplines. The origins and form of the agricultural censuses in the UK and the USA are surveye...

On the basis of successive registers of research in rural geography, trends over the last decade are reviewed and the future status, relevance and role of the subject are critically examined in the light of other developments in geography.-Author

By reference to mainly UK experience, discusses the difficulties of identifying the objectives of government institutions in rural and agricultural matters in developed countries. Governments simultaneously operate policies with several objectives, which may at times conflict with one another. This may reflect attempts to appeal to different intere...

The paper examines the ownership of land by public bodies in Scotland in 1872–73 and in the 1970s. The former provides the better data but comparisons with the present day are still possible. The reasons for the marked growth of public land‐ownership over the century are discussed and future trends suggested.

The article uses sources of information on land‐ownership in Scotland in 1872/3 and 1970 to examine the national and regional trends in the concentration of land‐ownership over this period. Some trends are identified but they arc shown to be affected by changes in the method used to measure the concentration of ownership. Further lines of research...

Many researchers in agricultural geography in schools and universities find great difficulty in taking random samples of farms during projects and research. A lack of a sampling frame and the distances between farms are common operational difficulties. Describes three methods useful in certain circumstances for overcoming these difficulties.-Author...

The paper examines the history and current state of farm amalgamation in Scotland using material from the Agricultural Census and from a survey of a sample of amalgamating farms. The nature of farms participating in amalgamations is described and explained and areas of very rapid and very slow amalgamating are investigated in detail. Finally, the e...