Mountains are among the most prominent and inspiring landforms on Earth. Earth’s internal (tectonic, or endogenic) and external (surface, or exogenic) processes have conspired to produce a wealth of mountainous landscapes that span almost every region of our planet. No strict definition of a mountain exists, other than they rise abruptly and prominently above the surrounding land, usually in the form of peaks and ridges. Thus, mountains have considerable local relief. Some mountains may rise only a few hundred meters above sea level (asl), such as the highest mountain in the United Kingdom, Ben Nevis (1,099 m asl [above sea level]). Nonetheless, it is one of the most formidable mountains in the Scottish Highlands (Fig. 6.1A). Other mountains are far more prominent. Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth at 8,849 m asl (Fig. 6.1B), is undoubtedly the most famous of all mountains.

Now equipped with broader participant samples and more diverse stimuli, we can create Big Data experiments. This chapter reviews research methods involved in running Big Data surveys and experiments. The chapter discusses overt and covert measurements that we can collect via online experiments. The chapter then discusses practical logistics to keep in mind when running a Big Data experiment, including experimental design decisions, and a behind-the-scenes look at how data is saved online via server-side coding. Next, once you have the data from an experiment, how do you clean the data and how do you visualize it? The chapter ends with discussion on the ethical implications of collecting covert measures and the useful applications of web-coding skills to create public-facing websites.

The term periglacial describes areas subject to repeated freezing and thawing and the processes associated with the growth of ice within soil and rock. Although originally referring to processes and climates adjacent to glaciers, “periglacial” now applies more broadly to cold-climate processes where frost action predominates. Earth’s cold, periglacial landscapes span both polar regions and many high elevation and mountainous areas. These landscapes are unlike any others, with ice-formed landforms such as pingos (Fig. 20.0) ice-wedge polygons, sorted circles, and rock glaciers found only in these cold landscapes.

In Chapter 1, we invited you to consider the critical potential of social work: the potential for us as individual workers, and collectively as a profession, to question the social conditions and discourses that give rise to human suffering and what we might do about these. The critical standpoint is one that sensitises us to social injustice and the need for transformation. Being a critical practitioner is challenging: while we may decide that this is the path we wish to take, it is an ongoing process, borne out in day-to-day and week-to-week activities. Becoming a critical practitioner is not a single act of commitment, but an often-arduous journey of revelation and struggle. There are many potential setbacks along this journey. As the words of a great twentieth-century social reformer Martin Luther King remind us, ‘Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable … Every step towards the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concerns of dedicated individuals.’ Critical social workers are among those dedicated individuals with passionate concerns.

From the Blue Ridge overlook in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, USA, one can see the broad Shenandoah Valley, split by Massanutten Mountain, with more ridges and valleys in the distance (Fig. 9.1). This view of the Appalachian ridges and valleys provides a classic example of an eroded fold and thrust belt, where parallel ridges of hard, resistant rocks are separated by valleys underlain by comparatively softer rocks. Fold and thrust belt topography develops on folded bedrock structures called anticlines and synclines (Fig. 9.2). But this type of geologic structure is not without a long back-story. Most of the folded rocks underlying these mountains were originally deposited as flat-lying sediments, hundreds of millions of years ago. The folding occurred much later, driven by compressive forces associated with continental collision. Millions of years of subsequent erosion on these rocks were then required to give us the landscapes we see today.

This chapter focuses on how to create Big Datasets by thinking like a data scientist. It begins by discussing examples of impactful open access datasets. It then teaches the reader the basics of data scraping to allow them to create their own datasets, including an introduction to client-side web coding. The chapter concludes with discussion on the ethical questions around data scraping, and current practices in Open Science to make your datasets publicly available.

In this and the following chapter we explore the importance of context for social work practice. Ife et al. suggest that context is vital because it impacts on how social workers understand the issues they are working with and how they will respond. Social work does not exist in a vacuum. Therefore, we focus on a number of powerful social forces that shape our social contexts. These consist of far-reaching (sometimes global) social structures and discourses. Social structures, as noted in Chapter 1, are the enduring social patterns, divisions and institutional arrangements that can give rise to inequality and harm. Discourses, on the other hand, are sets of ideas or language about a particular topic with shared meanings and assumptions that reflect and reinforce particular power relations. In other words, discourses are never neutral descriptions of reality, but actively justify certain asymmetric social structures; in turn, these structures promote discourses favourable to their maintenance.

This chapter will introduce you to some of the key formal social work theories that underpin practice. We begin with the individualistic and systems-based theories that originated in psychology and conservative sociology respectively. As was evident in Chapter 5 on the history of social work, these establishment theories generally dominated social work before the emergence of critical social work theories. We then shift our attention to the development of critical theories, such as Marxist, radical, structural, feminist and anti-oppressive perspectives that aim for social justice and autonomy, and discuss the more recent contribution of poststructural and queer theories to the evolution of critical theories and to critical social work. The newer critical theories developed out of critiques of the older establishment theories, so it is necessary to have some familiarity with the principles of both. Finally, we draw on research with our first-year students to demonstrate the application of theory in relation to a case study.

Rivers and their valleys have long been a source of contemplation and wonder. They are not only key geomorphic agents, but they are also economically important, acting as transportation arteries, sources of irrigation water and food, and as generators of hydropower. We also use rivers for drinking, waste disposal, and for a variety of recreational activities. Many geomorphologists consider running water to be the most dominant and important geomorphic process – shaping landscapes everywhere. Even in deserts, running water is often the most important and widespread geomorphic agent.

Most valleys have a stream or a river at their bottom. In ancient days, it was thought that water simply “found” its way into preexisting valleys, forming rivers there. Geomorphologists now know that most valleys were formed by the rivers currently within them, which moved sediment out and carved the valley over time.