Jul 2026· Asian Journal of Geographical Research· Vol 9, pp. 440-465· 0 citations
Abstract
Research on migration and socio-economic change in India has expanded rapidly but remains dispersed across disciplines, methods, and regional case studies. This review maps the field’s intellectual and conceptual landscape and synthesises what is established, contested, and insufficiently examined. A convergent mixed-methods systematic review combined performance analysis and science mapping of 153 open-access, peer-reviewed documents published during 2000–2026 in the Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny environment with a structured thematic synthesis of 148 full-text articles. Reporting followed the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Publication output was limited before 2014, increased sharply after 2019, and peaked in 2023, suggesting a possible transition towards consolidation. Authorship was highly dispersed (Lotka \(\beta\) = 3.82), while 14 core sources formed the field’s principal publication base. Bibliometric mapping and thematic synthesis converged on five domains: environmental distress and survival mobility; the migration–development and remittance nexus; left-behind households and the feminisation of agriculture; migrant precarity and statistical invisibility; and transnational diasporic identity. Across these domains, circular and female migrants were frequently underrepresented in official statistics. By integrating quantitative science mapping with qualitative synthesis, the review provides a structured account of the field’s development, intellectual organisation, and unresolved debates. It also identifies priorities for longitudinal, intersectional, and spatially explicit research capable of addressing persistent data and evidence gaps.
Since the end of the Cold War, Joseph S. Nye’s concept of soft power has become a central analytical framework for understanding national attraction and non-coercive influence in international relations. Despite the rapid expansion of both theoretical and empirical research, the field still lacks systematic bibliometric evidence concerning its knowledge structure, thematic evolution, and patterns of scholarly collaboration. To address this gap, this study constructs a comprehensive bibliometric map of global soft power research based on 2,772 English-language social science articles indexed in the Scopus database from 1991 to 2025. Using VOSviewer and RStudio (Biblioshiny), the analysis examines publication trends, citation structures, country collaboration networks, author co-citation relationships, keyword co-occurrence patterns, and thematic evolution pathways. The findings indicate that soft power research experienced steady growth after 2005, followed by a pronounced acceleration after 2015. While the United States, China, and the United Kingdom remain the principal research hubs, Australia emerges as an important cross-regional bridge, suggesting a shift toward a more multi-center structure of knowledge production. Keyword co-occurrence and thematic evolution further reveal a transition from early concept-oriented debates to a more diversified and policy-focused research agenda. In addition, soft power is increasingly conceptualized as an observable and comparable form of international influence, with growing attention to practical domains such as higher education cooperation, sports diplomacy, digital diplomacy, vaccine diplomacy, and the Belt and Road Initiative. Overall, this study systematically maps the intellectual structure and emerging frontiers of global soft power research, highlighting the rise of multipolar soft power and a shift toward policy-oriented and interdisciplinary inquiry, while providing a bibliometric foundation for developing measurable soft power assessment frameworks.
Na Wang, M. Ahmad· Multidisciplinary Reviews· 0 citations
This study examines Indigenous migration as a complex phenomenon rooted in the interplay between historical legacies, market pressures, and regulatory frameworks, rather than as a series of isolated individual choices. Following the SPAR-4-SLR protocol and reporting in accordance with PRISMA 2020, we searched the Web of Science on 10 May 2026 for articles indexed in the economics, business, management, or interdisciplinary social sciences categories and published in English, Portuguese, or Spanish. Conceptual and empirical articles examining Indigenous migration as an object of analysis were eligible; records that did not address Indigenous migration were excluded. Of 311 records retrieved, 69 met these criteria. The evidence was synthesised using the Antecedents–Decisions–Outcomes (ADO) framework to map migration dynamics across different regions and temporal arcs. The findings reveal a significant temporal shift: while earlier periods (pre-1900) were defined by colonial expropriation and conflict, the contemporary era is dominated by Economic and Market Pressures. Adaptive Family Migration is the most prevalent decision strategy; although it aims to secure socioeconomic well-being, it frequently results in persistent vulnerability, especially in Latin America. The evidence base has important limitations: the included studies are highly heterogeneous in design, method, and unit of analysis, which precluded quantitative synthesis; geographical coverage is uneven, with Latin America and Anglo-America accounting for most studies and Africa and Europe for very few; and the restriction to a single database and three languages may have omitted relevant evidence. Building on these findings, we propose a dynamic analytical model that offers an alternative perspective on Indigenous migration.
Michelle Moraes, Inês Carvalho, Orlando Gomes· Open Research Europe· 0 citations
In Sub-Saharan Africa, spatial injustice and inequality continue to be major issues that affect socioeconomic development, opportunities, and services. A comprehensive bibliometric review of studies on spatial injustice and inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa that were published between 1981 and 2023 is presented in this paper. 384 publications were found to be eligible for analysis after being retrieved from the Web of Science database and reviewed according to PRISMA principles. VOSviewer (version 1.6.18) was used for bibliometric analysis to look at collaboration patterns, thematic focus areas, research output, and publication trends. With South Africa accounting for almost half of the articles 47.1%, followed by Ghana (12.0%) and Kenya (11.5%), the results show a significant increase in scholarly interest in spatial inequality and spatial injustice over the study period. Most of the literature focuses on socioeconomic differences, urban inequality, spatial planning, and service accessibility. The implications of urbanisation, governance, and the COVID-19 pandemic’s disproportionate effects on disadvantaged groups are highlighted by emerging study themes. Significant geographical and thematic gaps are also identified by the evaluation, including the underrepresentation of several Sub-Saharan African. This study offers a thorough summary of the development, output, and visibility of research on spatial injustice and inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa. The findings contribute to a better understanding of existing knowledge gaps and offer directions for future research and evidence-based policy interventions aimed at promoting spatial justice and inclusive urban development.
Mzikayise Shabangu, W. Musakwa, James Magidi· Discover Cities· 0 citations
Paternity leave is increasingly recognised as a key component of modern family policy, yet global research remains uneven. This bibliometric analysis maps the intellectual and geographical landscape of paternity leave scholarship in Scopus. From 2,967 records, 555 publications met inclusion criteria. Using Excel, VoSviewer and RStudio’s Biblioshiny trends in productivity, authorship, institutional output, country contributions, citations and keyword networks were examined. Findings show a sharp rise in publications after 2010, especially between 2020 and 2025, reflecting growing global interest. Keyword patterns indicate a shift from policy descriptions to broader themes of gender equality, child development, workplace culture and family well-being. However, research remains heavily concentrated in high-income regions, with significant gaps in South Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. These disparities highlight the need for more inclusive, context-specific research on paternity leave worldwide.
Yatheesh Bharadwaj H S, S. S, Sivaranjini M et al.· Abhigyan· 0 citations
Urban slums constitute a persistent epicenter of multidimensional deprivation, arising from the complex and mutually reinforcing interactions among economic, social, health, and environmental conditions. Although scholarly attention to slum welfare has expanded substantially over the past decade, the literature remains theoretically and methodologically fragmented across disciplinary boundaries, constraining cumulative knowledge development. This article undertakes a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the global scientific literature on multidimensional welfare in urban slums, drawing on peer-reviewed publications indexed in the Scopus database between 2010 and 2023. Bibliometric techniques implemented through the bibliometrix package and the Biblioshiny interface in R are employed to examine publication trajectories, leading journals and authors, spatial distribution of research outputs, collaboration patterns, and the underlying conceptual structure of the field. The results indicate a pronounced and sustained increase in research activity since the mid-2010s, accompanied by increasing thematic diversification and interdisciplinary convergence. Four dominant knowledge clusters are identified: (i) economic deprivation, informal employment, and livelihood insecurity; (ii) social capital, exclusion, and participatory dynamics; (iii) health vulnerabilities associated with inadequate sanitation, housing quality, and service access; and (iv) environmental risk, infrastructural deficits, and spatial exposure. Emerging research fronts emphasize the growing application of spatial and digital technologies such as GIS and volunteered geographic information as well as heightened attention to gender, migration, and power relations shaping slum upgrading outcomes. By mapping the intellectual landscape and its evolution, this study offers a structured synthesis to guide future empirical inquiry and to support the design of more integrated, inclusive, and evidence-informed urban welfare policies.
Riski Septiyanto, Putu Mahardika Adi Saputra, Dini Atikawati· Nusantara Science and Techno...· 0 citations
Return Migration has been recognized as a critical part of development and is a much-debated topic in the globalized world. As a result, Scholars were particularly enthusiastic about return migration and thus, this study summarizes and synthesizes empirical research papers on return migration from 2000 – 2024. Systematic Literature Review and PRISMA guidelines were employed to achieve the primary objective of this study. Following seven inclusion criteria, 1697 research papers published during 2000 – 2024 were obtained from Lens.org and Google Scholar, of which 467 papers were considered for review. In addition, Biblioshiny and VOSviewer-based Keyword Co-Occurrence Analysis was used to analyze the content and structure of papers. Accordingly, Keywords Co-occurrence Overlay Visualization results depict a strong relationship between Return Migration and Migration. Further keywords such as Diaspora, Gender, Ethnicity, Transnationalism, Development, and Entrepreneurship denote their strong relationship with the Return Migration. Moreover, Density visualization map denotes that keywords such as entrepreneurship, circular migration, and developing countries appear less frequently and have garnered less attention compared to return migration. Apart from that, the study found 12 themes, they are; Return Migration, Dimensions of Return Migration, Wellbeing and Migration, Entrepreneurial Reintegration, Youth migration, Government Policies on Migration, Migration and Development, Extreme Ends of Migration, Skilled Migration, Age and Migration, Family Dynamics, Economic benefit of Remittances. The findings of this research highlighted that the researcher identified a few studies on certain areas related to return migration. Especially on entrepreneurship, circular migration, developing countries, and transnationalism. This study considered only papers that were downloaded from two databases. This study aids legislators, corporations, and academics in developing enhanced approaches, innovations, and service advancements.
N. P. Ravindra Deyshappriya, P. Uluwaduge, W. Bandara et al.· Sri Lanka Journal of Social...· 0 citations