Staff profile

I am a PhD researcher in Human Geography at Durham University. My research examines how places are made into heritage, tourism and lifestyle destinations, and how these processes unevenly reshape local people’s relations to place. Focusing on Shaxi, a historic town in Yunnan, southwest China, I explore how destination-making changes people’s ability to possess and dwell in place, use space and make a living from it, represent it to others, and remain connected to it across distance. I am particularly interested in how differently situated local people experience, interpret and evaluate these transformations, and in whose concerns, knowledge and ways of representing place come to be recognised as legitimate.

This research draws on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Shaxi, including participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Before beginning my PhD, I trained in architecture, urban and rural planning, and built heritage conservation. This background continues to shape my attention to the material and spatial dimensions of destination-making. My fieldwork has also led me to question the categories through which places are understood and valued, particularly where institutional ways of seeing a place differ from how local people inhabit, use and make sense of it.

My doctoral research is supervised by Dr Penelope Anthias and Professor Michael Crang. I am always happy to hear from researchers working on related questions, whether simply to exchange ideas or to explore possible collaborations.

• Cultural geography
• Tourism geographies
• Heritage geographies
• Destination-making
• Place relations and belonging
• Recognition, power and cultural politics
• Community change and inequality
• Ethnography and qualitative methods
• China, especially Southwest China

Conference Paper

• 传统村落空间形态演变研究——以山西下塔村为例
  王格琳., & 龙彬. (2023). 传统村落空间形态演变研究——以山西下塔村为例. 人民城市，规划赋能——2022中国城市规划年会论文集（09城市文化遗产保护） (pp. 253-262). 中国建筑工业出版社. https://oversea.cnki.net/kcms2/article/abstract?v=tVGN6Um245rHfbQcGr7oOCw1twrBIf0nEnlnkm0z7J3L3sVYk63W1bfZ5qac6hGELAmAiq4IOstATiIyfzs3bfJcVuj-_gHIHdZPzwoPuxmQWc2iR3IcWe4PoRngE-GGI4EGYSrGiGT_4nYax6QWVQzSkL3P80l-85IohR170lacyBT6O-z85w==&uniplatform=OVERSEA
• 传统乡村聚落空间形态特征及驱动因素——以湖南省岳阳市张谷英村为例
  陈远国., 王格琳., 裴婉婷., & 张婷婷. (2023). 传统乡村聚落空间形态特征及驱动因素——以湖南省岳阳市张谷英村为例. 人民城市，规划赋能——2022中国城市规划年会论文集（16乡村规划） (pp. 349-362). 中国建筑工业出版社. https://oversea.cnki.net/kcms2/article/abstract?v=tVGN6Um245q7tJesNwNNRXRVtoGTV4GVgL4v_B4nNA44OG0MkhCW1rUYtIS-DOZbMvhBf98bK-nb7QUAIC0mFLv7DxfwnUK9Z_rWvBoglIp27P11MXevc1GDZccV-2j6-Q4Mobu1TRxodvKiKeglu9zdevRTV6NZ1sE1LmugGZ7sBZTGJu8TtQ==&uniplatform=OVERSEA
• 文化遗产保护中权利博弈问题的研究
  王格琳., & 徐梓雅. (2021). 文化遗产保护中权利博弈问题的研究. 面向高质量发展的空间治理——2021中国城市规划年会论文集（09城市文化遗产保护） (pp. 73-82). 中国建筑工业出版社. https://oversea.cnki.net/kcms2/article/abstract?v=tVGN6Um245rj8-gsp1mXtB812RZqQwn81BJhM8Go531xfcgVRCNHFY1cU0AEl2yl8281rPFRe34XFg3Wen1xrJsPeXYryTAdVmJb7DaOrbXGrdKViTSacsHVKWipbHR8Bs_FCASknG4fAaFGeq2Dt5Ty56TZkm-oB-qchkpMn3yf2qeVJP5coA==&uniplatform=OVERSEA