Igu international Geographical Union

Research Profile

In substantive terms my research can be placed in the field of urban geography, rural geography, gender studies and ageing studies. My work focuses on the gendered aspects of activity involvement and social networks of women and men from an urban-rural and European comparative perspective. This research is embedded in the time-geography tradition founded in the early 1970s by the Swedish geographer Torsten Hägerstrand and the transformation of this tradition in geographical gender studies by Susan Hanson, Geraldine Pratt, Jacqueline Tivers, Helen Jarvis and others. Time-geography focuses on day paths and life paths of individuals and the way these paths are shaped in and by the social and spatial context in which they live. The aim of my research is to understand how women and men in different stages of the life course (as youth, young adults, parents with children and older adults) experience physical, social and institutional-political constraints from their environment and are actively managing the environment in which they live. In terms of methods my research is field-work based work with a combination of quantitative, survey- based research and qualitative research based on interviews. Between 2001 and 2003 I participated in the European Study of Adult Well-being (ESAW), a EU-FP5 funded research project on material security, social support networks, activity involvement, health, mental efficacy and well-being. This interdisciplinary gerontology network of universities in six countries (United Kingdom, Italy, Luxembourg, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands) was coordinated by Clare Wenger, University of Wales in Bangor.