Over Researched Places: Towards a Critical and Reflexive Approach

The book explores the implications that research-density has on the people and places researched, on the researchers, on the data collected and knowledge produced, and on the theories that are developed.

It examines the effects that research-density has on the people and places researched, on the researchers, on the data collected and knowledge produced, and on the theories that are developed. By weaving together experiences from a variety of countries and across disciplinary boundaries and research methods, the volume outlines the roots of over-research, where it comes from and what can be done about it.

The book will be useful for social science students and researchers working in ethnographic disciplines such as Human Geography, Anthropology, Urban Planning, and Sociology and seeking to navigate the tricky ‘absent present’ of already existing research on their fields of exploration.

Cat Button is a senior lecturer in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape at Newcastle University, UK. She creates interdisciplinary and international research on the global challenges of water. She is currently a co-investigator on two UKRI GCRF Hubs: Water Security and Sustainable Development and Living Deltas.

Gerald Taylor Aiken is a research associate at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) and a fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. He researches the role of community in pursuing low-carbon futures, particularly how community is used to understand, value, and relate to the environment.