Mobilities, road construction and social change in rural areas of the global South

In my own current work this interest involves investigating the implications of a newly constructed road for the daily lives, identities, and spatialities of residents in a small agricultural village in northern Pakistan. Opportunities exist for qualified and interested students to work with interviews, testimonial information, archives and photographic evidence relevant to this particular road-building project. I would also be interested in supervising students who would like to work on this general topic in relation to other geographical contexts.

Qualitative research methods, especially ethnography and autoethnography in their various forms

I am eager to work with students who wish either to use or interrogate the use of these approaches in geographical research. Students entering graduate school seldom realize that methodology itself is a dynamic area of research. Ethnography, and especially the place of the self-reflexive researcher-self in ethnographic research, is an especially dynamic area of research on methodology, that I would be interested to help interested students explore.

Geographies of Music

My interests are in (a) sound as a resource for understanding and representing spatiality, (b) music’s role in constituting specific spaces, (c) the concept of acoustic space, and (d) relationships among music, identity and place. I have thought about these issues most carefully in relation to reggae music, but my supervisory interests are not constrained by genre preferences. I recently supervised a student who studied how the use of i-pods is shaping the constitution and experience of public transit environments.

From September to May I host a weekly one-hour radio show called Riddim Come Fawaad: Solid Reggae Vibrations on CFBU 103.7FM. The show live-streams Wednesday nights at 9:00 and Saturday afternoons at 4:00.

Publications relating to work in Pakistan:

• (2021) (N. Cook and D. Butz) ‘The road changes everything’: Shifting gendered mobilities, spaces and subjectivities in Shimshal, Pakistan. Gender, Place & Culture, 28(10): 800-822.
• (2020) (D. Butz and N. Cook) (Eds.) Road Construction, Mobility and Social Change in a Wakhi Village: Shimshali Perspectives in Words and Pictures. Brock Digital Repository, St. Catharines, ON. (ISBN: 978-1-7771450-4-0)
• (2018) (D. Butz and N. Cook) Autoethnography, knowledge governance and the PANOS Oral Testimony Project in Shimshal, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. Naveiñ Reet: Nordic Journal of Social Research (NNJLSR) 8: 27-44.
• (2018) (N. Cook and D. Butz) Gendered mobilities in the making: Moving from a pedestrian to vehicular mobility landscape in Shimshal, Pakistan. Social & Cultural Geography 19(5): 606-625.
• (2017) (D. Butz and N. Cook) The epistemological and ethical value of autophotography for mobilities research in transcultural contexts. Studies in Social Justice 11(2): 238-274.
• (2016) The dance of transculturation. The Arab World Geographer 19(3/4): 168-183.
• (2016) (N. Cook and D. Butz) Mobility justice in the context of disaster. Mobilities 11(3): 400-419.
• (2016) (D. Butz and N. Cook) Political ecology of human-environmental change in Gojal, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. In, H. Kreutzmann & T. Watanabe (eds.) Mapping Transition in the Pamirs: Changing Human-Environmental Landscapes. Frankfurt: Springer (pp. 197-214)
• (2015) (N. Cook and D. Butz) The dialectical constitution of mobility and immobility: Recovering from the Attabad landslide disaster, Gojal, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. Contemporary South Asia 23(4): 388-408.
• (2015) Review of Education for Development in Northern Pakistan: Opportunities and Constraints for Rural Households by A. Benz, in Erdkunde69(2), 191-5.
• (2014) (N. Cook and D. Butz) Road infrastructure for community organisation.Wi: Journal of Mobile Culture 8(1): on-line.
• (2013) (D. Butz and N. Cook, eds.) Shimshal Before the Road: Photographic Archive 1988-2000. (This is an exhibit of 128 photographs depicting Shimshal before the Shimshal link road was constructed.  The photos were selected from many thousand Nancy and I took during our 6 research trips to the community between 1988 and  2000. The exhibit of 16×20 photos was first displayed in Shimshal in summer 2013 and remains there as a community photographic archive. The exhibit is accompanied by a catalogue of captioned smaller prints of the photos.)
• (2013) (N. Cook and D. Butz) The Atta Abad Landslide and everyday mobility in Gojal, Northern Pakistan. Mountain Research and Development 33(4): 372-80.
• (2012) (D. Butz and N. Cook, eds.) Living With the Road: Shimshal Autophotography Project 2011-2012. (This is an exhibit of 114 photographs depicting the implications of the newly constructed Shimshal road for the lives of Shimshal residents. The photos were selected from 344 photos made by Shimshalis as part of the autophotography component of out research in Shimshal. The exhibit of 16×20 photos was first mounted in Shimshal in Fall 2012, and remains there as a community photographic archive. The exhibit is accompanied by a catalogue of captioned smaller prints of the photos.)
• (2011) (D. Butz and N. Cook) Accessibility interrupted: The Shimshal road, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. The Canadian Geographer 55(3): 354-64.
• (2011) (N. Cook and D. Butz) Narratives of accessibility and social change in Shimshal, northern Pakistan. Mountain Research and Development 31(1): 27-34.
• (2007) (Dagleish, M.P., Qurban Ali, R. K. Powell, D. Butz, M.H. Woodford) Fatal Sarcoptes scabiei infection of blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur) in Pakistan Journal of Wildlife Diseases 43(3): 512-517.
• (2006) Tourism and portering labour relations in Shimshal, Gojal Hunza,  in H. Kreutzmann (ed) Karakoram in Transition – The Hunza Valley Oxford: Oxford and Karachi (pp. 394-403).
• (2005) (Ali, I. and D. Butz) Report on Shimshal Nature Trust (SNT), Ghojal, Northern Areas, Pakistan, in D. Pansky (ed) Governance Stream of the Fifth World Parks Congress. Ottawa: Parks Canada and IUCN/WCPA. (17pp).
• (2003) (I. Ali and D. Butz) The Shimshal governance model – A community conserved area, a sense of cultural identity, a way of life Policy Matters 12: 111-120.
• (2002) Sustainable tourism and everyday life in Shimshal, Pakistan. Tourism Recreation Research 27(3): 53-65.
• (2002) Resistance, representation and third space in Shimshal Village, Northern Pakistan ACME: An International Journal of Critical Geographies 1: 15-34.
• (2001) (Butz, D. and K. MacDonald) Serving sahibs with pony and pen: the discursive uses of native authenticity Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 19(2): 179-201.
• (2001) Autobiography, autoethnography and intersubjectivity: analyzing communication in northern Pakistan, in P. Moss (ed) Placing Autobiography in Geography: History, Method and Analysis Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 149-166.
• (1999) (Butz D. and M. Ripmeester) Finding space for resistant subcultures InVisible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Studies (2, Winter 1999) 16pp.
• (1998) Orientalist representations of resource use in Shimshal, Pakistan, and their extra-discursive effects, in I. Stellrecht (ed) Karakorum – Hindukush – Himalaya: Dynamics of Change (Part 1) Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, 357-386.
• (1998) (MacDonald, K. and D. Butz) Investigating portering relations as a locus for transcultural interaction in the Karakoram region of northern Pakistan. Mountain Research and Development 18(4):333-343
• (1997) (Butz, D. and J. Eyles) Reconceptualising senses of place: social relations, ideology and ecology Geografiska Annaler: Series B: 79(1) 1-25. (‘The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com’)
• (1996) Sustaining indigenous communities: symbolic and instrumental dimensions of pastoral resource use in Shimshal, northern Pakistan The Canadian Geographer 40(1): 36-53.
• (1995) Legitimating porter regulation in an indigenous mountain community in northern Pakistan, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 13(4): 381-414.
• (1994) A note on crop distribution and micro-environmental conditions in Holshal and Ghoshushal Villages, Pakistan Mountain Research and Development14(1): 89-97.
• (1993) Developing Sustainable Communities: Community Development and Modernity in Shimshal, Pakistan, Unpublished PhD Dissertation, McMaster University, Hamilton.
• (1989) The agricultural use of meltwater in Hopar Settlement, Pakistan Annals of Glaciology 13: 35-9.
• (1987) Irrigation Agriculture in HighMountain Communities: The Example of Hopar Villages, Pakistan, Unpublished MA Thesis, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo.
• (1987) Adapting meltwater supply to meet irrigation demand in high mountain agricultural communities: the example of Hopar Villages, Pakistan Proceedings of the 44th Annual Eastern Snow Conference, Fredericton, 34-47.

Publications relating to reggae research:

• (2010) “Response as autoethnography: 1970s outernational roots reggae” paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Washington DC, 12-18 April 2010.
• (2009) Review of Bob Marley: Herald of a Postcolonial World? By Jason Toynbee. Popular Music 28(2), 267-9.
• (2007) “Burnin’ and Lootin’ across the Black Atlantic (Leeds, 1973): Trans-local associations of identity and experience” paper presented at theAnnual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Geographers, Saskatoon, 29 May – 2 June 2007.
• (2007) Review of Caribbean Popular Music: An Encyclopedia of Reggae, Mento, Ska, Rock Steady and Dancehall by D. Moskowitz, in Popular Music and Society 30(2): 285-287.
• (2005) (D. Butz and S. Sabra) “Musical and Diasporic Networks: Understanding Space in the Music of the Fugees” paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Geographers Annual Meetings, London, June 2005.
• (2005) (S. Sabra and D. Butz) “Epistemologies of Diaspora: Affiliations of Space and Identity in the Music of the Fugees” paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Denver, CO, 5-9 April 2005.
• (2004) “Trod On: Spatial Ontology, Diaspora and Reggae Music” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Geographers, Moncton, 25-29 May 2004.
• (2004) “Starting from Scratch: The Evocation of Spatiality in Lee Perry’s Reggae Sounds” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Cultural Studies Association, Boston, 5-9 May 2004.
• (2004) “Sufferers’ Dub: The Articulation of Spatiality in Lee Perry’s Reggae Music” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Philadelphia, 15-19 March 2004.
• (2003) “My Roots/Routes I’ll Never Forget: The Constitution of Spatiality in Reggae Music” Invited lecture for the Waikato University Cultural Studies Seminar Series, Hamilton, New Zealand, 4 June 2003.
• (2003) Review of Sound Tracks: Popular Music, Identity and Place by J. Connell and C. Gibson, in The Canadian Geographer 47(4):  84-86.
• (2002) “Every Word, Every Second and Every Third: Listening for Geography in the Sounds of Music” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Los Angeles, 19-23 March 2002.
• (2001) “Preliminary Reflections in Favour of Musical Metaphors of Socio-Spatial Relations” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Geographers, Montreal, 29 May – 3 June 2001.

Other publications:

• (2019) (A. Hughes) History Made in Niagara. M. Ripmeester, D. Butz & L. Gasparotto (Eds.). St. Catharines, ON: Elbow Island Publishers.
• (2019) (N. Cook and D. Butz) (Eds.) Mobilities, Mobility Justice & Social Justice. London: Routledge.
• (2019) (N. Cook and D. Butz) Introduction ­– Moving toward mobility justice. In, N. Cook & D. Butz (Eds.) Mobilities, Mobility Justice & Social Justice (pp. 3-21). London: Routledge.
• (2019) (D. Butz and N. Cook) Mobile methods, epistemic justice & mobility justice. In, N. Cook & D. Butz (Eds.) Mobilities, Mobility Justice & Social Justice (pp. 81-97). London: Routledge.
• (2017) Autobiography. In, D. Richardson, N. Castree, M. F. Goodchild, A. Kobayashi, W. Liu, & R. A. Marston (eds.) The International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology. Washington: Wiley/AAG (8pp). DOI: 10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0378
• (2015) Editorial: Social justice scholarship in a neoliberal governance context. Studies in Social Justice 9(1): 1-6.
• (2011) (K. Zavitz and D. Butz) Not that alternative: Short-term volunteer tourism at an organic farming project in Costa Rica. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies 10(3): 412-441.
• (2011) Introduction: Places post-colonialism forgot (and how to find them). ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies 10(1), 42-47.
• (2010) (Bauder, H., Belina, B., Butz, D., Gedalof, Z., Lagendijk, A., Mudu, P., Paasi, A., Schuurman, N., Wilson, D.) Critical Practice of Grant Application and Administration: An Intervention. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies 9(1), 102-112 .
• (2010) Autoethnography as sensibility. In The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Geography. Eds. D. DeLyser, S. Aitken, S. Herbert, M. Crang & L. McDowell. London: Sage (pp. 138-155).
• (2009) (D. Butz and K. Besio) Autoethnography. Geography Compass 3(5), 1660-1674.
• (2008) Sidelined by the guidelines: Reflections on the limitations of standard informed consent procedures for the conduct of ethical research. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies 7(2): 239-259.
• (2007) (Pain, R., H. Bauder, L. Berg, D. Butz, C. Desbiens, S. Engel-Di Mauro, and S. González) The Politics of Indexing and Ranking Academic Journals. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies 6(2), 131-34.
• (2004) (D. Butz and K. Besio) The value of autoethnography for field research in transcultural settings. The Professional Geographer 56(3): 350-360.
• (2004) (K. Besio and D. Butz) Commentary – Autoethnography: A Limited Endorsement. The Professional Geographer 56(3): 432-438.
• (2002) (Butz, D. and L. Berg) Paradoxical space: geography, men and duppy feminism, in P. Moss (ed) Feminist Geography in Practice: Research and Methods Oxford: Blackwell (pp. 87-102).
• (2001) (Butz, D. and D. Leslie) Risky subjects: changing geographies of employment in the automobile industry. Area 33(2): 212-219.
• (1998) (Leslie, D. and D. Butz) “GM Suicide”: Flexibility, space and the injured body. Economic Geography 74: 360-78
• (1995) Revisiting Edward Said’s ‘Orientalism’. The Brock Review 4(1/2): 54-80.
• (1991) (Butz, D., S. Lonergan and B. Smit) Why international development neglects indigenous social reality. Canadian Journal of Development Studies 12(1): 143-58.