Exploring Qualitative Geographies in Large Volumes of Digital Text : Placing Tourists, Travelers, and Inhabitants in the English Lake District

Gregory, Ian and Smail, Robert and Taylor, Joanna and Butler, James (2024) Exploring Qualitative Geographies in Large Volumes of Digital Text : Placing Tourists, Travelers, and Inhabitants in the English Lake District. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 114 (9). pp. 1985-2009. ISSN 2469-4460

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Abstract

Thus far, approaches to analyzing geographies in large collections of digital texts have used coordinate-based locations derived from toponyms (place names). Although this approach provides a useful starting point, it ignores both nontoponym references to place and textual structure while stressing Euclidean space. This article addresses these issues. Focusing on a corpus of writing about the English Lake District before 1900, it explores the different geographies associated with tourists, travelers, and inhabitants. Alongside toponyms, we identify the concept of a geo-noun to associate place with geographical features. Sense of place is then identified using the adjectives, nouns, and verbs that writers associate with locations and locales. This methodology allows us to identify and define places described in large volumes of digital text both holistically and textually.