Editor’s Introduction

The papers in issue 58-3 of Southeastern Geographer highlight the range of research methods that invigorates contemporary geography. Derek Alderman, Joshua Inwood and James Tyner showcase historical geography in a contextual biography of a major sports figure at the turn of the 20th century. Their analysis draws on an archival record of news reporting, as well as secondary sources at the interface of historical geography, social history and sports history. Their paper showcases the synergistic quality of geography research inflected with the sensibilities of the humanities. Noah Goyke and Puneet Dwivedi analyses of recent African American migration to the southeasatern United States continues a tradition of empirical work and quantitative analysis that shaped much of the discipline from the quantitative revolution onward. Their paper theorizes and tests a set of qualities pertaining to this particular migration stream, and opens a suite of additional research questions. Paul McDaniel’s paper is grounded in a textual analysis of public rhetoric and policy documentation of municipal programs in three major cities, showcasing the kinds of work that qualitative research methods make possible. Georgianna Strode, Victor Mesev and Julianna Maantay developed a new technique for pre-processing disaggregated census data to apply to parcels with group living situations (e.g. college dormitories, nursing homes, etc.) while correcting for mis-matched geometric alignment.

Substantively, the first three papers share broad thematic interests in how members of minority racial or ethnic groups make spaces for themselves in American society, in relation to broader structural conditions and power structures. As part of their ongoing examination of Black athletes and competitors, Alderman, Inwood and Tyner’s paper explores the “dynamic and contested terrain” of the reputation of turn of the century heavyweight fighter Jack Johnson. Johnson was a Black world heavyweight boxing champion from 1908 to 1915 who challenged racist social structures through a complex reputational politics. He owned the role of black villain ascribed to him by the white establishment and used it to taunt those who refused to accept that Black people should live lives of their own choosing. Alderman et al. reflect on the implications of Johnson’s life and actions for race relations throughout the 20th century, with attention to the contemporary recuperation of Johnson’s reputation.

Noah Goyke and Puneet Dwivedi’s paper theorizes and tests for differentiated migration streams of African Americans to the southeastern United States. The region has been a net destination for African Americans since the 1970s. The analysis of migration from 1976 to 2015 teases out rural and urban destinations, and theorizes different rationales for migration. Goyke and Dwivedi’s empirical analysis sheds light on the dynamism of the southeastern region of the United States, and suggests multiple avenues for continued research.

Paul McDaniel’s paper draws on Jamie Winder’s (2011) typology of stances toward immigrants to examine “welcoming city” programs in Atlanta, Charlotte and Nashville. The welcoming city designation signifies municipal investment in immigrant integration. McDaniel examines rhetoric and documentation of welcoming city programs in these three cities to find that such programs are motivated by and linked to somewhat different policy outlooks and agendas. The paper suggests that further study of how municipal leadership navigates cross currents in relation to immigration is critical to an analysis of urban growth in new immigrant destinations.

Georgianna Strode, Victor Mesev and Julianna Maantay developed pre-processing steps to integrate cadastral parcel data and census population data. Frequently, the geometrical extents of parcel data and census population units are mismatched, and this can result in underestimating population or mis-assignment of population to parcels. These issues are especially problematic for group living situations such as college dormitories, nursing homes, correctional institutions and shelters. Precision and accuracy in dasymetric population maps has broad implications for emergency planning and response as well as modelling at-risk populations. Their three-step pre-processing methodology can be easily applied to all dasymetric areal interpolation methods to reduce error.

A review of the second edition of Natural Hazards: Explanation and Integration by Burrel E. Montz, Graham A. Tobin, and Ronald R. Hagelmann III is provided by Ben Wisner. Individual chapters...