ARMCHAIR GEOGRAPHER
ABOUT
The armchair geographer brings geographers and film making together. At the Armchair Geographer we are interested in how you tell your story about the places and people that you are engaged with?
If you are interested in making geography based documentary or narrative using film and video we would like you to join us on our jurney of exploration, starting with our own armchairs and going out into the world to bring back stories of places and people.
WHAT WE THINK
Armchair Geographer
Who are we?
Armchair Geographer
Purpose
There are lots of geographers, geography societies and purveyors of geographical information.
The Armchair Geographer provides a vehicle for people to understand global issues, local contexts and physical world processes and solutions. But it does much more than that, it provides a place for people to get an understanding of real world solutions.
The armchair geographer will deliver a webpage, space for people to have healthy conversations about the environment and to understand the scientific, economic, social and infrastructure implications of local, regional and international actions.
• Armchair geographer is set around themes that create a framework for people to test their experience of place
• Armchair geographer covers the same themes in a range of settings to examine the outcomes; with humour, entertainment, interesting facts and take away messages.
• Armchair geographer motivates people to leave the armchair and engage the world.
• Armchair geographer showcases cities of the world and how they become the interface between culture and creative activity.
THE HUMAN SPIRIT FINDING ITSELF IN UTOPIA SCANS THE HORIZON LOOKING FOR A NEW DESTINATION
Armchair geographer is about the relationship between people and the environment!
Overview
• Armchair geographers investigate the diversity of human settlement within a new rationale.
• Armchair geographers identify the dynamic forces that change places.
• Armchair geographers introduce a lot of interesting people who have fascinating perspectives.
• Armchair geographers present new and unfamiliar places; cities, countryside, oceans and towns, with their own extraordinary stories.
Armchair Geographer
Themes
Geography is about people in the environment: how people adapt to the places they live and adapt where they live to their needs. One way of highlighting this is within a framework or through themes: The themes are:
• What drives this place?
Economy, technology and innovation have an impact on place: the places we live are shaped by their location and the power of the economy; this is set against a backdrop of competition that drives inventiveness and innovation
• Political drivers;
Some places exist entirely for political, strategic, military or government reasons. Their long-term survival depends on the political or strategic need and their ability to adapt when that need disappears.
• Location and orientation:
Places that are oriented to take advantage of their circumstances and ameliorate their disadvantages can create havens. A well oriented place is like a glistening jewel in velvet. Orientation and connections go together. Some places have considerable geographic advantage; they are located on important trade routes, near resources or strategically located to provide services, others create connections.
• Connections:
No place exists in isolation; every place needs connections.
• Resilience and adaptation:
Beyond sustainability, is adaptation and resilience.
• Collaborative diversity:
Resilience and adaptation emanate from collaborative diversity. Getting the mix right in an open system allows places to change in a way not too dissimilar to forests. Diversity with conflict divides: collaborative diversity multiplies outcomes and ameliorates risks.
• Scale defines relationship.
Human environments develop like a work of art. The physical environment is cultures canvas, society's sandpit to occupy and modify at its whim. Every culture imposes its own solutions on the environment which pushes back in a feedback process that goes through continuous refinement. The built environment reflects history and culture and constrains the future.
Culture and Community
• Places are anchored by culture and shaped history. History is the reflection of culture in the fabric of place. Our cultural paradigms have an impact on how we respond to the present.
Governance
• Governments fail when they fail to act in the interests of their citizens.
Governments set the agenda, facilitate the ethos and arrange infrastructure to deliver for their citizens. They create the climate for activity, provide the capacity for development; ultimately they set the national agenda that determines how effective and efficient and how well directed the places that they govern are.
But things are changing and some mega businesses are redefining the roles of government.