Showing papers in "Geography Compass in 2007"

Catchment Classification and Hydrologic Similarity

Abstract: Hydrology does not yet possess a generally agreed upon catchment classification system. Such a classification framework should provide a mapping of landscape form and hydro-climatic conditions on catchment function (including partition, storage, and release of water), while explicitly accounting for uncertainty and for variability at multiple temporal and spatial scales. This framework would provide an organizing principle, create a common language, guide modeling and measurement efforts, and provide constraints on predictions in ungauged basins, as well as on estimates of environmental change impacts. In this article, we (i) review existing approaches to define hydrologic similarity and to catchment classification; (ii) discuss outstanding components or characteristics that should be included in a classification scheme; and (iii) provide a basic framework for catchment classification as a starting point for further analysis. Possible metrics to describe form, hydro-climate, and function are suggested and discussed. We close the discussion with a list of requirements for the classification framework and open questions that require addressing in order to fully implement it. Open questions include: How can we best represent characteristics of form and hydro-climatic conditions? How does this representation change with spatial and temporal scale? What functions (partition, storage, and release) are relevant at what spatial and temporal scale? At what scale do internal structure and heterogeneity become important and need to be considered?

Intergenerational Geographies: Age Relations, Segregation and Re‐engagements

Abstract: Research on age in geography has become highly compartmentalized into separate literatures on younger and older generations that rarely intersect. As such, the geographies of intergenerational relationships – and particularly, extrafamilial intergenerational relationships – remain substantially under-researched. This essay reviews how geographers have approached issues of intergenerational relationships while also drawing on recent work from other fields (including sociology, anthropology and queer theory) that can extend current thinking on the geographies of intergenerationality and age relations. How does space facilitate and limit intergenerational contact and relationships? How do the geographies of intergenerational relationships vary between social groups and contexts? And if generational separation and segregation are problems (as a substantial body of work suggests), how can this be ameliorated? Throughout the essay, I examine how social scientists have attempted to address these questions while also identifying the significant gaps that remain in our understanding.

Place‐Based versus People‐Based Geographic Information Science

Abstract: Geographic information science and technologies are revolutionizing basic and applied science by allowing integrated holistic approaches to the analysis of geographic locations and their attributes However, the increasing mobility and connectivity of many people in the world means that the relationships between people and place are becoming more subtle and complex, rendering a place-based perspective incomplete This article discusses the need to move beyond a placebased perspective in geographic information science to include a people-based perspective (ie, the individual in space and time) It reviews the theories and technologies that can support the people-based perspective and provides some example applications of the people-based perspective

Urban Heat Islands: Observations, Impacts, and Adaptation

Abstract: Urban heat islands are a clear, well-documented example of an anthropogenic modification to climate that has an atmospheric, biological, and economic impact. This review shows how field-based and modeling studies continue to help unravel the factors that are responsible for heat island development and are providing a basis for the development and application of sustainable adaptation strategies. As urban areas continue to expand, there is a heightened awareness that scientific knowledge of the urban heat island must be more effectively communicated to architects, engineers, and planners and translated into intelligent urban design. Green roof technology is a case in point. This and other technologies are being slowly adopted, and research published since 2003 suggests that the pace with which many practical applications are put into practice should accelerate.

Urban Rivers: Hydrology, Geomorphology, Ecology and Opportunities for Change

Abstract: This article describes how urban development impacts on the processes that control river geomorphology and influence ecology. At the catchment scale, urban development transforms the hydrological system through construction of impervious surfaces and stormwater drainage systems. River water and sediment quality also are affected by stormwater and waste water drainage and by point and diffuse inputs of pollutants. Within the river channel network, widespread river engineering improves floodwater conveyance but imposes major changes in river network and channel characteristics. The results of an analysis of Urban River Survey data from 143 channel reaches in three European rivers (the River Tame, UK; the River Emscher, Germany; and the River Botic, Czech Republic) are presented to demonstrate the strong influence of river channel engineering on channel structure, physical habitat features and vegetation patterns. This analysis also shows the surprisingly varied character of urban rivers and thus their differential potential to respond to rehabilitation efforts. Because the success of river rehabilitation efforts depend not only on a scientific understanding of form and process within urban river systems but also on the acceptance and support of urban communities and integration within urban design and planning, the article briefly explores the coupling of natural and social science approaches to drive a more sustainable future for rivers in cities.

City Marketing: The Past, the Present and Some Unresolved Issues

Abstract: For several decades now, cities all over the world have been applying marketing techniques and increasingly adopting a marketing philosophy to meet their operational and strategic goals. City marketing has grown into an established field of research and an academic subdiscipline. This article begins with a description of the three main historical episodes of city marketing development and then assesses its current state, suggesting that cities have moved into a fourth episode, which centres on the application of city branding. Despite the accumulated experience, however, many issues surrounding the application of city marketing remain in need of further theoretical development and practical clarification. The last part of this article therefore seeks to further the discussion about the effects of city marketing, seeking to elicit the latent potential that city marketing might still hold for the future prospects of cities.

Business Improvement Districts: Policy Origins, Mobile Policies and Urban Liveability

Abstract: This article reviews the trans-nationalisation of Business Improvement Districts. It outlines the geographical and ideological origins of this much-heralded approach to downtown governance, and the means through which it has found itself in such diverse settings as Cape Town in South Africa, Krusevac in Serbia and Liverpool in the UK. Analysing the emergence of Business Improvement Districts in terms of the external edges of the state and its internal architecture, on the one hand, and, on the other, in the context of discussions around urban liveability, this article reviews work across geography, planning, political science and sociology. It concludes by arguing that Business Improvement Districts are both interesting in their own right, for what they reveal about contemporary trans-national trends in urban governance, and for what they what they have to say about wider processes of neoliberal urbanisation.

The Geographies of Social Movements

Abstract: This article aims to provide a review of how geographical concepts can help us better understand the development and effects of social movements. Geographers have been rather slow to analyze the specific processes and mechanisms that make it possible for people to cooperate and engage in sustained political struggles with rich and powerful adversaries. Not only has this inattention to social movements deprived the discipline of robust conceptual tools for analyzing contentious politics, it has also limited the discipline’s abilities to contend with broader theoretical issues concerning collective action and agency in the political arena. Recent research into social movements has begun to fill this void. The article maintains that the most fruitful strategy for conceptualizing the geographical underpinnings of social movements would be to examine how issues of space, scale, and place affect the processes already identified in the established sociological and political science literature on social movements.

Anthropocene Geopolitics: Globalisation, Empire, Environment and Critique

Abstract: Critique is about challenging the taken for granted categories in scholarly and political discourse. Three aspects of contemporary politics at the biggest of scales are subject to critique here: the assumptions underlying the War on Terror, globalisation and the notion of environment. The global War on Terror is not really global, and might well be better understood by using imperial analogies from the past. Globalisation, once its implicit geographies are directly addressed, might be better understood as a matter of glurbanisation. Likewise earth system science, and its suggestion that human actions are now on such a large scale that we live in a new geological period, the Anthropocene, requires us to rethink assumptions of our living within an external environment. Taken together these criticisms of the taken for granted spatial categories of contemporary political life raise big questions for how geography is now understood and how we might teach it in the future. Such an analysis also suggests the continued importance of critique as an intellectual practice in the academy.

Places of Work, Scales of Organising: A Review of Labour Geography

Abstract: Labour has for a long time been an important concept in economic geography, but more often as a cost that influences investment decisions than as a social force in its own right. Recently, however, some geographers have begun putting the politics of labour at the forefront of the analysis. Labour geography can be understood as a discernible strand of research which, throughout the last decade or so, has begun to emerge from a wider Anglo-American Marxist-inspired geography tradition. In this article, I will critically review this emerging literature, which represents a fresh approach to the recent changes in the world of work and to the close relationships between workers, firms, the state and the wider community. Particularly interesting – from a geographical point of view – are the strategies of organised labour in creating new scales of organising, and in rethinking old ones.

What Is a Natural River

Abstract: Form and process in rivers around the world reflect a long history of human influences, but the effects of these influences are often not readily apparent to the casual observer. Progressive alteration of rivers over a period of decades to centuries as a result of land-use patterns influences expectations for the appearance of natural rivers. These expectations in turn help to govern strategies of river restoration, which is being increasingly practiced in industrialized countries. This article uses examples from three regions in the United States ‐ headwater streams in the Rocky Mountains, streams in the mid-Atlantic piedmont region of the eastern United States, and coastal rivers of the Puget Lowland in the western United States ‐ to explore how historical land-use patterns continue to influence contemporary river form and process, and the implications of these historical effects for understanding and managing rivers. If restoration is designed to facilitate natural river form and process, then it becomes critical to understand how human activities have altered rivers. Such an understanding defines the limits within which restoration can be undertaken and provides a conceptual framework for adaptive management of river restoration.

Ethnic and Racial Segregation: A Critical Perspective

Abstract: This review adopts a critical perspective on geographical research on ethnic and racial segregation. It seeks to address four key questions. First, how can we conceptualize ethnic and racial segregation and what are the implications for geographical research? Second, how can we best measure ethnic and racial segregation? Questions about the politics of data collection, categorization and representation are addressed. Third, what does ethnic and racial segregation mean? The article examines the different forces underlying clustering and the way in which levels of segregation have become an indicator of migrant integration. Finally, the article reflects on how statistics and visual representations of minority ethnic segregation might be used in the political and policy sphere. It concludes that a critical perspective on ethnic and racial segregation requires us to acknowledge the gaps and silences in the data produced and the complexity, and often value-laden nature, of our interpretations.

Mega-Yardangs: A Global Analysis

Abstract: Yardangs, analogues of which occur on Mars and possibly on Venus, are wind moulded landforms that develop in the world's drylands. Mega-yardangs (wind-abraded, ridge, and swale features of regional extent) are easily identified on satellite images and these have been employed to map their global distribution. Areas where they are present include Central Asia, the Lut Desert of Iran, northern Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the Libyan Desert in Egypt, the central Sahara, the Namib Desert, the high Andes and the Peruvian Desert. These features develop in a wide range of rock types, including sandstones, ignimbrites, limestones and basement rocks, occur in hyper-arid areas, form where winds tend to be unimodal in direction, are best developed in areas of sand transport rather than sand accumulation, and occur in plains rather than in mountainous areas.

The Geographies of Disability: Reflections on the Development of a Sub-Discipline

Abstract: Geographers’ interest in the subject of disability has traditionally been confined to particular parts of the discipline, and usually been of marginal interest to most academics. This has mirrored a broader antipathy to the study of disability in the social sciences although, in recent years, geographical scholarship about space, place, and disability has proliferated. In this review paper, we outline and assess the significance of this trend, and we comment on the importance of theoretical and methodological developments in the sub-discipline. In doing so, we anticipate the ways in which studies of geography and disability are likely to evolve.

The Business Improvement District Model: A Balanced Review of Contemporary Debates

Abstract: This article presents an o verview of the burgeoning literature on business improvement districts (BID) by highlighting its historical underpinnings, identifying the economic and political factors that explain its transnational proliferation, and demonstrating how the model varies within and across nations. It also provides a balanced review of the key debates associated with this relatively new urban revitalization strategy by asking the following questions: Are BIDs democratic? Are BIDs accountable? Do BIDs create wealth-based inequalities in the delivery of public services? Do BIDs create spillover effects? Do BIDs over-regulate public space?

Feminism and Geographic Information Systems: From a Missing Object to a Mapping Subject

Abstract: Although feminism and the field of geographic information systems and science (GIS) have only recently begun speaking to each other, the feminist mapping subject is emerging across a variety of sites ‐ academic, professional, and lay. However, it is most articulated in the work of critical GIS scholars. Both male and female, they are committed to nonpositivist practices of knowledge production and are sensitive to gender and other power hierarchies that produce social, economic, and cultural difference. These scholars have been creating ‘feminist cartographies’, practicing ‘feminist visualization’, and developing new mapping alternatives to mainstream cartographic and GIS representations. We begin by briefly re-reading the history of women in cartography and GIS as a first step toward reclaiming mapping as a critical practice. We then review feminist theorizations of visual representation and geography that move beyond critique and posit a feminist deployment of such technologies. Finally, we reflect on explicitly feminist engagements with cartography and GIS and their implication for the discipline of geography and contemporary mapping practices in general. Throughout, we trace the evolution of a feminist mapping subject and her or his potential to disrupt the traditions of mapping and reclaim the power of maps and GIS-based spatial analysis for critical intervention.

Diaspora as Process: (De)Constructing Boundaries

Abstract: This article discusses different conceptualisations of diaspora, as bounded, unbounded and as a process, in order to help highlight the useful role diaspora can play in explorations and (de)constructions of nation-state, community and identity boundaries. There are two main ways in which diaspora has been theorised. The first theorises diaspora in relation to defined homeland-orientated ethnic groups and identities and the second theorises diaspora in relation to fluid, non-essentialised, nomadic identities. This article argues that it is necessary to look beyond such conceptualisations of diaspora as nomadic/fluid (unbounded) or homeland-centred/ethnic-religious (bounded). This article advocates a flexible use of diaspora as process that is able to examine the dynamic negotiations of collective, strategic and politicised identities based around constructions of ‘sameness’ and the homeland, as well as individual identities that are malleable, hybrid and multiple. It stresses that it is within this notion of diaspora as process that geographers, with their emphasis on place, space and time, have an important role to play.

The Current Debate on the Linkage Between Global Warming and Hurricanes

Abstract: Following Hurricane Katrina and the parade of storms that affected the conterminous United States in 2004 –2005, the apparent recent increase in intense hurricane activity in the Atlantic basin, and the reported increases in recent decades in some hurricane intensity and duration measures in several basins have received considerable attention. An impor tant ongoing avenue of investigation in the climate and meteorology research communities is to determine the relative roles of anthropogenic forcing (i.e., global warming) and natural variability in pr oducing the observed recent increases in hur ricane frequency in the Atlantic, as well as the reported increases of tropical cyclone activity measures in several other ocean basins. A survey of the existing literature shows that many types of data have been used to describe hurricane intensity, and not all records are of sufficient length to reliably identify historical trends. Additionally, there are concerns among researchers about possible effects of data inhomogeneities on the reported trends. Much of the current debate has focused on the relative roles of sea-surface temperatures or large-scale potential intensity versus the role of other environmental factors such as vertical wind shear in causing observed changes in hurricane statistics. Significantly more research – from observations, theory, and modeling – is needed to resolve the current debate around global warming and hurricanes.

Call It Consumption! Re‐Conceptualizing Ecotourism as Consumption and Consumptive

Abstract: Labeling ecotourism as ‘non-consumptive’ and contrasting it with direct uses of wildlife through activities such as hunting is common practice among organizations and academics primarily concerned with conservation. We interrogate this binary opposition by questioning the assumptions underlying it, namely that ‘the direct consumption of wildlife’ (i) does not occur in ecotourism; (ii) is incompatible with ecotourism; (iii) is the primary concern; and (iv) is inferior to ecotourism as both a conservation and development strategy. Based on a review of the relevant theoretical and case-study based literature, as well as our own research, we argue that categorizing ecotourism as ‘non-consumptive’ is not only inaccurate, but also has consequences for both environments and people. We suggest ways in which ecotourism can be re-conceptualized in order to better achieve its goals of conserving both nature and culture, and of contributing to both conservation and development.

The Decline of Inner Suburbs: The New Suburban Gothic in the United States

Abstract: In this article, we critically examine transformation and decline in US suburbs. We identify four distinct, chronological phases of development: suburban utopias, suburban conformity, suburban diversity, and suburban dichotomy. An element of this new suburban dichotomy is what we term suburban gothic. We theorize that the forces of an aging housing stock, land-use planning, and deindustrialization contribute to the divergent realities of US suburbs.

Participatory Development: From Epistemological Reversals to Active Citizenship

Abstract: The past decade has witnessed the ubiquity of participation in governance across the globe, involving efforts to bring more marginalised people into the decision-making processes that affect them. At one level, there is an apparent consensus around the need to reconnect citizens with the policy process, which has seen experiments in different forms of direct democracy. Common to these experiments is changing epistemologies in terms of knowing what marginalised people feel and need. This article charts the rise of participatory governance and offers a critique of the epistemological assumptions that underpin it. A key critique is that changing epistemologies, by themselves, are no guarantee of more meaningful participation so that concerted institutional change is also needed. I argue that for participation to become more transformatory we need to see it as a form of citizenship in which political processes are institutionalised and people can hold others to account. This revitalised citizenship agenda is also spatialised in that peoples’ understandings of the world and the political channels available to them are locally differentiated and contingent. The conclusion is a call for more geographically sensitive empirical research on the unfolding of new forms of participation.

Buzz-and-Pipeline Dynamics: Towards a Knowledge-Based Multiplier Model of Clusters

Abstract: This article critically reviews the idea that regional prosperity and growth are heavily dependent on regional industry networks In contrast with this view, a cluster approach is presented which emphasises both the need for close local networks and strong extralocal or global linkages The approach argues that local interaction or ‘buzz’ and interaction through translocal ‘pipelines’ create a dynamic process of learning, knowledge production and innovation that is central to understand a cluster's success Based on a reflexive relationship between local and non-local knowledge flows, this approach is interpreted as a knowledge-based extension of regional multiplier models that have been intensively discussed in regional economics since the 1960s The buzz-and-pipeline conception suggested here aims to overcome problems of these models by providing a microscale explanation of regional growth processes

Geographies of Voluntarism: mapping the terrain

Abstract: In the last decade or so a body of geographical work has begun to emerge that examines, in various ways, the interrelationship between people, place, volunteering and the voluntary sector Work in this field is spread across a number of geographical subdisciplines, from social, health and development to political geography As a body of work it is increasingly being referred to as ‘geographies of voluntarism’ Focusing specifically on voluntary activity around health and welfare, this article reviews how geographers have begun to critically engage with issues of voluntary activity and space It draws out how geographical perspectives on voluntarism are contributing to a wider understanding of how and why disparities in voluntary activity occur and the implications for people and places at a range of spatial scales from the global to the local

Memoryscape: how audio walks can deepen our sense of place by integrating art, oral history and cultural geography

Abstract: This article is concerned with the history and practice of creating sound walks or ‘memoryscapes’: outdoor trails that use recorded sound and spoken memory played on a personal stereo or mobile media to experience places in new ways In this relatively new and rapidly evolving field, the author brings together works from music, sound art, oral history and cultural geography as a starting point to understanding how such trails can give us a more sophisticated and nuanced experience of places He suggests that this might offer some exciting opportunities for practice-based multimedia research and teaching

Crossing Boundaries, Crossing Scales: The Evolution of Environment and Resource Co‐Management

Abstract: As an approach to mediating human–environment interactions, the co-management of natural resources influences a diverse array of geographic endeavors. This article chronicles the development of the concept from its historical roots to the more recent past, where it has gained prominence as a tenable solution in situations of competing property claims and as a model of environmental governance. In surveying more that 15 years of experience with co-management, we draw attention to several points of contention or debate, including concerns about power-sharing and representation in co-management arrangements, and the imprecise use of the term. Despite these tensions, the concept of co-management continues to evolve and is attracting increasing attention. In probing the frontier of this subject, we highlight theoretical developments, evaluative challenges, cultural and ethical sensitivities, and the need to embrace uncertainty and complexity through adaptation and learning. Concluding reflections recognize the multifaceted nature of co-management, potential benefits, and importance to geographers.

Caribbean Transnational Return Migrants as Agents of Change

Abstract: This article challenges several of the firmly held convictions drawn from extant research on return migration to the Caribbean. For many contemporary small island societies undergoing rapid change and transformation, modernization and integration into the wider global economy, today's younger and more youthful return migrants are no longer an ineffective demographic cohort. Despite their numerically small size, many are demonstrating they can be influential “agents of change.” No longer merely returning retirees, they are more diverse, in terms of age, life-course transitions, class and gendered social positions, family networks, and migration histories. Multiple identities are the rule, rather than the exception, as returnees of different ages choose to live, work (and play) in island society, to give something back to the island home of their parents or of their youth. Many embrace transnational strategies to live in and between two worlds, or more if their family network's reach is multilocal.

Climate Change and Human Health

Abstract: What kinds of climate-mediated diseases exist, and how are projected climate changes expected to alter their spread and timing? Disease is produced in a complex way, through coupled interactions between natural and human systems. Climate is a major factor controlling ecosystem variability and therefore the potential for outbreaks of certain diseases. Yet, the concept of vulnerability shows how overall disease risk depends not only on the environmental exposure, but also on the sensitivity and adaptive capacity of the group and place experiencing it. These interactions between environment and society are highlighted through a set of climate-related diseases, ranging from direct to complex relationships, including extreme heat, air pollution, aeroallergens, fungi, water- and food-borne diseases, influenza, rodent-borne diseases, and insect-borne diseases.

China and Africa: Emerging Challenges to the Geographies of Power

Abstract: Over the last few y ears, China has assiduously pursued stronger economic and diplomatic relations with many Asian, African and Latin American countries. In part, this is fuelled by its extraordinary economic growth, which has led to a boom in domestic resource demand, and the search for profitable markets and investment outlets. China is also seeking diplomatic support in challenging the inequalities of ‘global’ governance. For better and worse, China’s rise will lead to changes in the present structures and loci of power in an uneven world. This review article examines one set of China’ s ‘South–South’ interactions through an histor ical account of Sino–African relations from 1949 to the present day. It points to the complexity of interactions between diverse Chinese and African actors, a range of opportunities and problems, and the dangers of a defensive response from the West, if based on unreflexive and unsophisticated foreign policy analysis.

Through the Looking Blast: Geopolitics and Visual Culture

Abstract: It is often argued that the most commonly assumed visual mode in geopolitics is the objective and disembodied gaze of the master geopolitical tactician. This is a charge that has been levelled at both geopolitical figures such as national leaders, and at academics who write about historical and present-day geopolitics. However, recent work has diversified the way in which formal, practical and popular geopolitical visions may be examined in critical geopolitical studies. Such work calls for greater attention to be paid to popular visual cultures and to geopolitical practice as a way of envisioning global space that is embodied and subjective.

Geographies of War: Perspectives on ‘Resource Wars’

Abstract: Natural resources figure prominently in studies of geographies of wars. This article reviews the three main perspectives on so-called ‘resource wars’: geopolitical, political economy and political ecology. Classical geopolitical perspectives mostly provide ‘realpolitik’ assessments of international tensions over the supply of ‘strategic’ resources. Such geopolitical constructs of ‘resource wars’ frequently oversimplify power relations and provide a fertile ground for critical enquiries. Refining understandings of resource scarcity and power relations, political economy perspectives point at resource dependence and ‘looting’ opportunities as potential risk factors in the onset and duration of armed conflicts. Finally, through greater contextual sensitivity and multiscalar analysis, political ecology perspectives emphasise the diverse forms of violence at play in ‘resource wars’ and stress the importance of identities and territorialities. Bridging and renewing conceptual and methodological approaches drawn from these three perspective could yield yet further insights on so-called ‘resource wars’ and serve broad objectives of social and environmental justice.