Open research questions in Spatial and Cultural Studies
59 gap statements mined from Spatial and Cultural Studies papers in our 4.5M-paper local library, which holds 1,392 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.
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What the literature leaves open
Future research should prioritize the development of a transscalar research agenda that values territorial differences and promotes a situated, intersectional, and territorially grounded queer sociology. Studies should explore queer ruralities, queer anti-urbanism, and critical queer regionalities in diverse contexts.
The metronormative paradigm has led to a lack of research on non-heteronormative subjectivities in rural and peripheral contexts. There is a need to challenge this paradigm and explore queer ruralities, queer anti-urbanism, and critical queer regionalities. The article identifies a gap in the existing literature on queer geographies and critical regionalities.
Future research could explore the concept of embodied geography in more depth. Future research could examine the ways in which the geography of disability intersects with other social and cultural factors.
The article identifies a need for more research on the interdependence between disability and space.
Future research could explore the representation of urban spaces in other films and media. The study's findings could be applied to the development of more nuanced and realistic representations of urban spaces in film and other media.
Liquid Modernity, Simulation and the City: The Cinematic Construction of Cities in Inception · 2026 · DOIAlthough the fate of the purloined manuscript remains unclear, it seems to have figured in Mitterrand’s surprise victory over Giscard in 1981, and in the blossoming American academic career of a former male prostitute.
The Maggie and Hopey Stories, part of the Love and Rockets comic series, I argue that the graphic landscape of this understudied comic offers an illustration of the theories of space in relation to race, gender, and sexuality that have been critical to understandings of Chicana sexuality.
It highlights the need to examine the experiences of Quebec women in the representation of space.
The study highlights the need to examine the development of preservation policies and their impact on the city's landscape.
The gap is not explicitly stated, but it can be inferred that the paper aims to fill a gap in the understanding of the amusement park as a national experience.
Very little has been written about theme parks or their unique and growing importance. The paper aims to fill this gap by exploring the concept of theme parks and their influence on American culture.
Future research should explore the role of specific architectural features in supporting privacy experiences. Future research should investigate the relationship between territoriality and privacy experiences in different populations.
The gap is that geographers have scorned 'mere' description of appearances and have evolved technical descriptions. The paper identifies a need for humanistic description in geography.
The study is limited to a case study of Newcastle, and may not be generalizable to other cities. The study relies on a comprehensive land use survey, but may not capture all the complexities of the retail pattern. The study uses a hierarchical grouping program, but may not be able to identify all the nuances of the data.
Further research could be conducted to apply the classification of street characters to other cities. Future studies could investigate the impact of non-retailing activities on retail planning. Additional research could be done to develop more nuanced and detailed classifications of street characters.
During the period the book investigates, roughly the 1880s through 1930, New York experienced a time of tremendous growing pains which were not limited to the infrastructural pressures that came as a result of a massive population expansion (from immigration and domestic migration).
The prior belief that the technique originated from American technological development is challenged. The existence of a tradition of light timber stud framing in English counties is highlighted as a potential explanation for the technique's origin.
The author suggests that Muzak is often overlooked or underestimated in its significance.
The results may be limited only to college students. The study ignores the role of specific architectural features in supporting privacy experiences. The components of experience investigated were closely tied to territoriality.
The author argues that the plays require a specific type of response from the audience.
Kamran Shirdel’s The Morning of the Fourth Day (1972), a seminal yet understudied work of Iranian New Wave cinema, extends the director’s documentary critique of Pahlavi modernisation into fiction through a reflexive and formally experimental mode.
Urban spaces, flânerie, and the crisis of modern Iranian identity in Kamran Shirdel’s the Morning of the Fourth Day (1972) · 2026 · DOIThe paper identifies a gap in the analysis of spatiality in Doina Ruști's work, - highlighting the need to examine the concept of liminal spaces in the fictional…
Further study of the impact of theme parks on American culture. Analysis of the influence of theme parks on the design of public spaces. Exploration of the potential of theme parks to shape the future of public spaces.
The lack of funding - The need for creative and imaginative design - The challenge of building a playground that encourages physical and cognitive…
The lack of creative and imaginative play environments in schools - The need for playgrounds that encourage physical and cognitive development…
Most-cited papers in Spatial and Cultural Studies
- The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · 2000 · 3,708 citations
- PLACE AND IDENTITY PROCESSES · Journal of Environmental Psychology · 1996 · 977 citations
- For better or worse: Exploring multiple dimensions of place meaning · Journal of Environmental Psychology · 2005 · 677 citations
- MEANINGS OF PLACE: EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE AND THEORETICAL CONCEPTUALIZATIONS · Journal of Environmental Psychology · 2001 · 553 citations
- Place: An Experiential Perspective · Geographical Review · 1975 · 538 citations
- Sense of place: an empirical measurement · Geoforum · 1991 · 397 citations
- Contours of a Spatialized Politics: Homeless Vehicles and the Production of Geographical Scale · Social Text · 1992 · 374 citations
- Standing in the Spaces · Contemporary Psychoanalysis · 1996 · 339 citations
- Empowering Place: Multilocality and Multivocality · American Anthropologist · 1992 · 336 citations
- Critical geographies and the uses of sexuality: deconstructing queer space · Progress in Human Geography · 2008 · 325 citations
Most recent work
- Brave space-making as co-creating anew · Journal of Applied Communication Research · 2026
- Going underground: Tours into the subterranean · Tourist Studies · 2026
- (de)Parting Thoughts: Leisure at the Edges – A Visualised Essay · Leisure Sciences · 2026
- From binaries to ontogenesis in tourism encounters: A clarificatory note on Deleuze and assemblages · Annals of Tourism Research · 2026
- Camp Time: Heterochronies in ‘Other Spaces' · Population Space and Place · 2026
- A Place of Forgetting: Examining the Littoral in Dionne Brand’s a Map to the Door of No Return · The Explicator · 2026
- Queering Portobello Promenade: testing ‘queer’ inclusive spatial design and thinking. · Proceedings of DRS · 2026
- The Cinematic Narrative of Space and Ambiguity Interaction: The Case of the Film Arrival · CINEJ Cinema Journal · 2026
- Mindless Consumption or Hopeful Anarchy? · American Studies in Scandinavia · 2026
- Visualising border and frontier theory: a photographic reading of the Paris Périphérique · Journal of Cultural Geography · 2026
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