Integrating Undergraduate Fieldwork into the Study of Human Mobility

ABSTRACT

Fieldwork has long been fundamental to human geography; however, increasingly unreceptive institutional environments have led to a decline in fieldwork in undergraduate human geography programs. We argue that mobility research presents an opportunity to reinvigorate the undergraduate field trip in human geography. We report on a second-year field course to Noosa, Australia, that blends new technologies with conventional survey techniques to capture data on a spectrum of human spatial behaviour. Over the course of a single weekend, students collect GPS traces of tourist mobility, survey businesses on the journey to work, collect residential migration histories and trace population dynamics on Noosa beach. Over the three years the course has been running, students have constructed a large repository of data on this Australian mobility hotspot, of which we report highlights. Results from standardised student course evaluations confirm the pedagogical value of these initiatives for human geography undergraduates.

KEY WORDS:

• Human mobility
• fieldwork
• undergraduate education
• GPS
• migration
• journey to work
• temporary populations

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the Noosa and Sunshine Coast Regional Councils, Tourism Noosa and students of GEOG2001. The interpretations of the analysis are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Noosa and Sunshine Coast Regional Council or Tourism Noosa or any of their employees.