Tagged / research paper

BU geography student’s undergraduate dissertation published in international journal

student research

Grassroots opposition to second homes, seen on the streets of Cornwall.

Research that began as an undergraduate dissertation at Bournemouth University has been published in Geographical Review, journal of the American Geographical Society. The paper, “Second Homes and the (Re)production of Cornish Nationalism,” is co-authored by Conan Millen, a recent graduate of BU’s BSc (hons) Geography, and Dr Marin Cvitanović, Principal Academic in Human Geography in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences.

The study looks at how attitudes toward second homes and tourism connect to identity in Cornwall, one of the poorest regions in Western Europe despite its high concentration of second-home ownership. Drawing on an online survey of 504 Cornwall residents, the paper identifies four distinct clusters of opinion on housing, tourism and belonging, and asks how these relate to age, income and ethnic identity.

A few findings stand out. Younger, lower-income and Cornish-identifying respondents were significantly more likely to oppose second homes and short-term holiday lets, particularly over concerns about affordability and community cohesion. Older and more affluent respondents identifying as British or English took a more positive view of tourism’s economic benefits. Age had the strongest statistical effect of any factor measured, more so than ethnicity or income, suggesting that generational experience of housing insecurity plays a central role in shaping these attitudes. Opposition to second homes was also somewhat higher in postcodes with higher average house prices.

The paper places these findings within wider debates on housing and identity. It draws a link between the rise of “generation rent” across the UK and Europe and the emergence of place-based, often exclusionary responses to housing pressure, sometimes described in the literature as forms of “housing nationalism.” In Cornwall’s case, the study argues that expressions of Cornish identity in relation to housing are shaped as much by material economic exclusion as by cultural or ethnic distinctiveness.

Since graduating, Conan Millen has been working as part of the wider public health team at Cornwall Council, where he is involved in analysing and processing data to inform projects and monitor the health and wellbeing of people living and growing up in Cornwall.

BU’s BSc (Hons) Geography is accredited by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). In the most recent National Student Survey, 94% of students agreed that teaching staff were good at explaining things, and 94% agreed that teaching staff had supported their learning well.

References:

Millen, C., & Cvitanović, M. (2026). Second Homes and the (Re)production of Cornish Nationalism. Geographical Review, 116(1), 39–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/00167428.2025.2578855

First EPPOCH study paper accepted for publication

open access, Publishing, writing

This afternoon the editorial office of Frontiers in Psychiatry informed us that our manuscript “Prenatal maternal mental health and resilience in the United Kingdom during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: A cross-national comparison” [1] has been accepted for publication in Frontiers in Psychiatry, section Perinatal Psychiatry.   An interdisciplinary team from Germany, Canada and the UK designed and initiated a longitudinal pregnancy cohort in the United Kingdom titled Maternal mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: Effect of the Pandemic on Pregnancy Outcomes & Childhood Health (EPPOCH).    In the second half of  2020, we recruited 3,600 pregnant individuals via self-enrollment through our website ‘www.eppoch-uk.org’. Our EPPOCH study has since collected a wealth of validated questionnaire data at multiple time points, from mothers (during pregnancy and postpartum) and their children (from birth to age 3), and we are currently distributing our 4-year childhood follow-up questionnaire. This is the first paper from the EPPOCH study.

The UK team is a collaboration between Bournemouth University and University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust, the latter through Professor Minesh Khashu and Dr. Latha Vinayakarao based in Poole Maternity Hospital. The German team is led by Dr. Melanie Conrad, previously at Charité University Medicine Berlin, and now associated with the University of Augsburg, and includes Swarali Datye, PhD student at Charité University Medicine Berlin, whilst our Canadian collaborator, Alison MacRae-Miller, is based at the University of British Columbia, Victoria.  This EPPOCH cohort is closely linked with a sister cohort in Canada called the Pregnancy During the Pandemic (PDP) study.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

 

 

Reference:

  1. Datye, S., Smiljanic, M., Shetti, R.H., MacRae-Miller, A., van Teijlingen, E., Vinayakarao, L., Peters, E.M.J., Lebel, C.A., Tomfohr-Madsen, L., Giesbrecht, G., Khashu, M., Conrad, M.L. (2024) Prenatal maternal mental health and resilience in the United Kingdom during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: A cross-national comparison, Frontiers in Psychiatry, (accepted).

BU research paper receives Radiography journal’s Editor’s Choice award

NHS

A paper led by BU’s Dr Theo Akudjedu, exploring the impact of Covid-19 on radiographers, has been named as Radiography journal’s Editor’s Choice for 2021.

Each year, the journal presents an award for the Editors’ Choice paper, selected from the five issues which make up the current volume.

Headshot image of Dr Theo Akudjedu

Dr Theo Akudjedu

Dr Akudjedu, a Senior Lecturer in Medical Imaging and MRI Radiography at BU, was lead author of the winning paper – a systematic literature review examining the global impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on clinical radiography practice.

The paper was chosen from a shortlist of 12 papers which were selected for their topicality, important messages and sound research methodologies.

Dr Akudjedu brought together collaborators from across the world, as well as colleagues from the Institute of Medical Imaging and Visualisation at BU, to investigate the pressures facing radiography departments as key teams in the treatment of Covid-19 across the globe.

Published in Issue 4 of 2021, the article brings together available evidence to provide a comprehensive summary of the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on diagnostic and therapeutic radiography practice.

He said: “In the initial acute phase of the pandemic, medical imaging emerged as one of the key diagnostic tools for the management of COVID-19 patients. This altered the work pattern and load of the clinical radiography workforce. We explored the impact of the pandemic on the radiography workforce independently in regional studies including the UK.

“We employed a robust methodology to systematically review and integrate the available evidence in our research to provide a comprehensive summary of the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on diagnostic and therapeutic radiography practice to serve as a one-stop-shop to practitioners in the field.”

He added: “It is exciting for this important piece of work conducted by colleagues at the Institute of Medical Imaging & Visualisation at Bournemouth University with its global partners to be recognised. We are very grateful to our international partners and the Editors of the Radiography Journal for the recognition”

Naming the paper as their Editor’s Choice winner, J. M. Nightingale, Editor-in-Chief of Radiography journal, said: “With so many COVID-19 related articles published within radiography and radiology journals in the last two years, it has been challenging for practitioners, managers and educators to keep up to date with the latest evidence.

“This review was timely and much needed as a valuable reference resource for policy formulation and to inform developments in the radiography workforce, education and training.”

Read the full paper – The global impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on clinical radiography practice: A systematic literature review and recommendations for future services planning (available open access) 

You can also listen to Theo talking about the winning paper on the Radiography Journal Podcast