Peter Groote

University of Groningen | RUG · Department of Cultural Geography

Since 2002, cremation has been the dominant form of bodily disposal in the Netherlands. Consequently, people are increasingly using crematoria as places to say farewell to their loved ones. However, in contemporary society, with its growing demand for more personalised death rites, many crematoria have been criticised for being technical ‘non-place...

We use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to analyze the relationship between the biological standard of living and the development of the transport network in 90 municipalities located in the rural provinces of Groningen and Drenthe, the Netherlands, in the historical context of the 19th century. By running advanced spatiotemporal models, we fin...

Roadside memorials are frequently visible in the Netherlands. Such a memorial marks a previously anonymous roadside, which is transformed into a place with special, even sacred, meanings to the bereaved, as it is the place where their loved one has died. We look at these memorials from a geographical point of view, i.e. we discuss the memorials as...

Using a new data set that allows for a distinction between transport and other categories of infrastructure investment, this paper finds strong evidence of a positive impact of transport infrastructure investment on Dutch GDP in the second half of the nineteenth century. However, as the time-series characteristics do not allow us to find permanent...

Political-administrative reorganizations are often underpinned by spatial and historical narratives to tap into people's sense of place and, this way, justify the new territories. Using a mixed-methods study of the recently amalgamated municipality Het Hogeland (Netherlands), we studied how sense of place is politically mobilized and in what sense...

This paper examines identity formations and negotiations among Indo-Europeans, and senses of ‘race’ in the postcolonial Netherlands. We do so by analysing daily practices of ‘being’, ‘feeling’ and ‘doing’ identities by second- and third-generation Indo-Europeans in the North-Eastern Netherlands. The paper contributes to ‘mixed-race’ literature by h...

We explore whether local planning culture influences the effectiveness of heritage impact assessment (HIA) and we discuss the legitimacy of ICOMOS, the international advisory body to UNESCO on cultural heritage. We examined the HIA processes for two proposed infrastructure projects that potentially could affect the Defence Line of Amsterdam World H...

Many post-industrial regions reinterpret their industrial past as a heritage resource for marketing purposes. This paper explores how two sites in the Ruhr area in Germany, Zollverein and Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, are narrated in marketing brochures with selective industrial heritage narratives. Industrial heritage is utilized for both immedia...

This article explores senses of belonging of three Indo-European generations and examines how these are influenced by roots travel to contemporary Indonesia. We use the notion of roots tourism to refer to tourism to ancestral homelands to ‘experience heritage at the personal level’. While the notion of roots tourism has gained scholarly attention,...

Italy was unified in 1861. As part of the process of nation-building, a mandatory free-of-charge primary school system was established. Whereas the new school system greatly contributed to the modernization of the country, its initial design did not considerably reduce regional disparities in human capital, with Southern regions lagging behind. The...

Was the coming of the railways a revolution? Some scholars argue that the coming of the railway represented an unprecedented break. For the first time in human history transportation costs over land were competitive to those over water. Other scholars believe instead that the coming of railways represented rather a further improvement in transport....

In tourism, the concept of “benefit-sharing” refers to the idea that the benefits arising from tourism should be distributed across a wide range of stakeholders. We argue that the development of synergetic interactions between stakeholders involved in governance processes is a prerequisite for effective benefit-sharing from tourism in protected are...

In 2017, the University of Groningen (UG) in The Netherlands and DePaul University in the USA (DePaul) connected undergraduate students in geography courses using an Online International Exchange (OIE) assignment involving videoconferencing. Whereas many international OIE projects are designed on joint alignment principles connecting similar course...

This paper adds to our knowledge and understanding of the time and space dimensions of the shift from an urban penalty to an urban premium effect on the biological standard of living in the second half of the nineteenth century. Although in the literature there is general agreement that urban-rural relations are part of the explanation of declining...

The expertise of impact assessment practitioners and the legitimacy of their reports are increasingly being questioned. We analyze the subjectivity of impact assessment by exploring how the framing undertaken within Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) influences decision making about spatial development projects. Framing is the process by which actors...

To make regions more resilient, a useful idea is that of synergy between tourism and landscape (i.e., a win-win situation). To help policymakers manage for synergy, we provide practical recommendations. Using the case of Terschelling (the Netherlands), an island that is part of the UNESCO World Heritage listed Wadden Sea, we analyzed how policy and...

Italy was unified in 1861. As part of the process of nation-building, a free and mandatory national primary school system was established. While the new school system greatly contributed to the modernization of the country, its initial design did not reduce considerably regional disparities in human capital, with Southern regions lagging behind. Th...

Even though the societal and academic attention to geoparks is on the rise, there is a distinct absence of studies on communities and their perceptions of the landscapes institutionalized by geoparks. This paper contributes to the geopark literature by problematizing the geographical awareness, landscape associations and territorial identities of g...

The literature and practice of place promotion, place marketing and place branding lack a common understanding of what these three concepts mean and through what kind of policies they can be implemented. Although scholars have provided several theoretical frameworks and definitions, both scholars and practitioners (advisors, civil servants, public...

Content analysis is a valuable tool to identify changes in policy. By analysing historical documents, policymakers and planners can improve their understanding of the institutional context in which decisions were made. Using the Island of Terschelling in the UNESCO World Heritage Wadden region of the northern Netherlands as our example, we show how...

In 2011, ICOMOS published its Guidance on Heritage Impact Assessment for Cultural World Heritage Properties. By 2016, over 100 Heritage Impact Assessments (HIAs) had been requested by UNESCO. This paper provides an analytical critique of the HIA Guidelines focusing on their implicit assumptions. We argue that the assumptions in the HIA Guidelines d...

This paper analyses the different degrees to which place promotion, marketing and branding policies are institutionalised, based on a relatively straightforward and generally applicable methodology in order to stimulate international comparative research in the field. A consensus has emerged over the last decades among scholars and practitioners on...

In a Geographical Information System (GIS), we built a complete digital geodatabase containing each railway line opened in Italy from 1839, when the first short trunk connecting Naples to Portici was opened, to 1913, when the national network was essentially completed. The data presented in this paper consist of an entirely new series on the railwa...

In tourism, the concept of “benefit-sharing” refers to the idea that the benefits arising from tourism should be distributed across a wide range of stakeholders. We argue that the development of synergetic interactions between stakeholders involved in governance processes is a prerequisite for effective benefit-sharing from tourism in protected are...

Geodatabase (map package, shapefile) showing the development of railways in Italy, 1839-1919. Constructed by Carlo Ciccarelli (University of Rome - Tor Vergata) and Peter Groote (University of Groningen). See also: http://bit.do/italianrailways

Groote, P. D., & Ciccarelli, C. (2017). Railway Endowment in Italy’s Provinces, 1839-1913. Rivista di Storia Economica, (April), 45-88. DOI:

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to look at the potential synergies between tourism and landscapes and examine the potential contribution of tourism to build social-ecological resilience in the Dutch Wadden. Design/methodology/approach The authors reveal how a social-ecological systems perspective can be used to conceptualize the Wadden as a c...

Een Duitse kunstenaar metselt steentjes met opschrift in het plaveisel voor de huizen van slachtoffers van de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Er ontstaan kringen van geïnte-resseerden en het initiatief trekt bredere aandacht in heel Europa. Passanten worden ter plekke geattendeerd op een persoonlijke tragedie.

This paper describes the construction and analysis of a historical database of European road networks over the period 1957-2012 covering the whole European continent. Road accessibility is analysed over time for cities, regions and counties. The results show that peripheral regions have lost accessibility relative to the centre during the first per...

A visual content analysis of photos of 216 roadside memorials in the Netherlands was undertaken together with 24 interviews with the people who constructed them to understand how they deal with traumatic death. Friends urgently need to memorialize the deceased and establish spontaneous memorials. They place meaningful objects at the place of death,...

In natural areas, park management organisations need to cater for economic, environmental, recreation and social demands and values. However, multifunctional land use also creates conflicts. Increased numbers of people using an area could exceed its ecological carrying capacity. The recreational quality of areas could be negatively impacted by conf...

Book Review of: Avril Maddrell & James D. Sidaway (eds), 2010, ,Deathscapes, Spaces for Death, Dying, Mourning and Remembrance, Ashgate.

Crematoria may be considered cultural places of death and remembrance, as well as technical places of bodily disposal. Cultural meanings of such places are (re)produced and communicated through their architectural and interior design and landscaping. Consequently, they are interesting for cultural geographers, as it is different actors (architects,...

Scale-enlargement processes have made people more conscious of the identity of their region. Professionals, or those actors involved professionally in the development of a region, also recognise this impact on popular perception and they use characteristics of regions to fulfil their goals. They play an important role in employing the identity of a...

Acquiring the world heritage label, a reward for establishing and preserving an outstanding environment, is often assumed to be an honour for the local population and a useful leverage for the tourist and environmental organisations. However, the case of the Wadden Sea, a trilateral nomination by Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands, makes clear th...

This paper evaluates the role of self-employment for people with disabilities. Self-employment can be seen as a means to circumvent barriers that people with disabilities face on the labour market. The advantages of self-employment, such as more flexibility, autonomy and control over work time and the layout of the work place, are particularly impo...

Bijgevoegd is een proefdruk ter oriëntatie; koop of leen de eindversie s.v.p.

In the literature it is often suggested that place may play an important role in coping with death. In this paper, three interrelated elements of place (Agnew 1987), location, sense of place and locale, are applied to roadside memorials, to get more insight into the meaning of these deathscapes, which are increasingly visible in The Netherlands. Fi...

A study of natural areas of Netherlands has been conducted to describe the agents involved in deciding on the designation and the resulting public character of natural areas depending on property rights, money, access rights, and design. The main agents involved in nature management are Government, Staatsbosbeheer (SBB), Natuurmonumenten (NM), Prov...

The use of public places, including heritage sites, by the general public is under constant threat from growing privatization and commercialization. The concept of public space is defined on the basis of the absence of exclusionary policies and includes three key terms namely access rights, freedom, and the general public. These spaces mediate betw...

In het kader van de Nota Belvedere zijn talloze projecten gestart om cultureel erfgoed in te zetten bij ruimtelijke ontwikkeling en zo de regionale identiteit te versterken. Dat uitgerekend de Limes-zone naar voren wordt geschoven, die ooit de noordgrens van het vijandige Romeinse Rijk markeerde, heeft menigeen bevreemd.