“Doing” Critical Geographies with Numbers

Criticisms of quantitative geography have a long history in our discipline. Since the emergence of early Marxist geography, the advent of new theoretical traditions has been accompanied by sustained and sometimes vigorous critiques of spatial analysis. In this introductory article to the second focus section on critical quantitative geographies, we discuss the accuracy of some of the criticisms about the use(s) to which spatial analysis is put and about the philosophical presumptions underpinning quantitative geographies. We argue that spatial analysis and critical geographies should not be considered mutually exclusive of one another—although this does not mean that numbers and critical geographies are entirely comfortable with one another. We suggest that critical geographies cannot dispense with numbers and visualizations based on numerical information. We hope that the articles collected here will inspire geographers to engage with numbers and statistics to challenge inequality and imagine alternative futures.     

A Review of “Geographies of Media and Communication”

Contemporary cartographic research on mapmaking and map use has a broad mandate and, as a consequence, researchers need a broad suite of methods. Consistent with research developments in other geographic subdisciplines, cartographic researchers now use qualitative methods. They offer the advantage of bringing research closer to the problem-solving realms of mapmakers and map users. Our purpose here is to discuss an array of qualitative methods for mapmaking and map use. Questionnaires, interviews, and protocol methods are used to gather verbal data about mapmaking and map use. Ethnographies produce data from direct observation of mapmakers and users. Maps also are sources for document analysis. We use examples of published cartographic research to elaborate on each of these methods.     

Legal Geographies—Governing Through Law: Rightsbased Conflicts and Property Development in Shanghai

This article examines recent legislation on the mandatory practice of government adjudication and its impacts on community residents' legal challenges to chaiqian (demolition and relocation) in Shanghai. In recent years, rights-based grievances over community displacement have become a major source of social conflict in urban China. The new legislation represents the Chinese state's efforts to establish a law-based model through which to govern an increasingly rights-conscious society. It is argued that the mandatory practice of government adjudication has smoothed out the conflict-laden property development process by establishing a legalized channel for affected residents to express their claims of rights and interests. Yet, at the same time, legislative practice has also reinforced the government's control in defining social interests to which residents' individual rights are subordinate.     

The Safe Schools Program and Young People’s Sexed and Gendered Geographies

This essay examines the recent controversy surrounding ‘Safe Schools', a federally-funded education program designed to reduce anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) bullying in Australian schools. Although LGBTI students are known to experience homophobic, biphobic and transphobic verbal and physical abuse at school, opponents of Safe Schools have argued that the Program is both unnecessary and potentially harmful. In the essay, we argue that geographers have valuable contributions to make to this debate, particularly by revealing the ways in which sexuality and gender shape young people's experiences of school spaces.     

“The Corner of Avenue A and Twenty-Third Street”: Geographies of Street Numbering in the United States

The designation of streets by number is one of the hallmarks of North American urbanism, yet very few studies have examined the geographies of street numbering in U.S. cities and towns. This article provides one of the first comprehensive, nationwide assessments of the spatial distribution of street numbering and lettering practices across the United States. Drawing on data collected from Google Maps, census records, state almanacs, and related sources, we analyze the proportion of incorporated places in all fifty U.S. states that have adopted some form of street numbering or lettering; the regional variation in the prevalence of alphanumerical systems of street designation and the relationships between the occurrence of street numbering, population size, and date of incorporation. In doing so, the broader aim of this study is to undertake the empirical groundwork needed to develop a more nuanced critical theory of the social production of calculable space.     

Legal Geographies—The Right to Spaces for Social Dancing in New York City: A Question of Urban Rights

As municipalities have enforced laws meant to enhance "quality of life" in gentrifying neighborhoods, controversies have erupted over the legitimacy of such laws. This study investigates one such controversy in New York City. It focuses on how the denial by the courts of social dancing as constitutionally protected mode of expression has led to the judicial endorsement of the municipality's cabaret law regulating the spaces for social dancing, despite the questionable legitimacy of this regulation. The study also draws out two implications for urban activism associated with movements making claims for "the right to the city": first, that we should take seriously activities such as social dancing and the spaces that enable them, which are invaluable to urban life but are not constitutionally protected; and second, that we may use the notion of "urban rights" as a principle to protect these activities and spaces from gentrification and questionable governmental regulations.     

Legal Geographies—Skating Around the Edges of the Law: Urban Skateboarding and the Role of Law in Determining Young Peoples' Place in the City

This article argues that urban skateboarding and the laws by which the city is governed must be understood as intertwined. The transformation of skateboarding's most popular practices from the 1970s onward are a product of an ongoing dialectical engagement between young people and the law. When faced with shifting landscapes of property and liability, young skaters have adapted their practices, seeking out new types of terrain. This search has led skateboarding into the public spaces of the city and regimes of urban governance. Contemporary efforts to build public skateparks in cities such as Seattle, Washington are properly contextualized as part of a continuing evolution of skaters' agency in responding to and capitalizing on openings in the legal landscape. By working both within the political system and constructing skateparks outside conventional political avenues, skatepark advocates seek spaces that are free from increasingly restrictive conventional logics of private and public property.     

曹振, 胡克, 张永光, 介冬梅, 赵亮

 通过对地表沉积物的粒度分析,研究了科尔沁沙地四种主要土地类型地表沉积物的粒度分布特征;结合该地区多年气候状况,对不同土地类型的可风蚀性进行了定量研究;分析了不同土地类型的潜在可风蚀性。同时,对玉米地、谷子地等七种农作物种植地的表土做了粒度分析,认为不同农作物对地表可风蚀性的影响较小。     

Contaminated aquatic sediments: Historical records,environmental impact,and remediation,Milwaukee, USA,June 14–16, 1993

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Contaminated aquatic sediments: Historical records, environmental impact, and remediation, Milwaukee, USA, June 14–16, 1993     

郝成元, 吴绍洪, 杨勤业

 依据野外调查和遥感动态监测结果,对毛乌素地区的土地利用与沙漠化过程的发展及其防治进行了研究。结果表明,该地区20世纪80年代中期和90年代末轻度以上沙漠化土地面积分别占土地总面积的85.98%和86.07%,沙漠化土地的总面积略有增加,总体趋于稳定;但沙漠化程度加重,重度以上的沙漠化土地面积在总土地面积中增加了3.6%;沙漠化发展的重要原因之一就是人类不合理的土地利用方式。不合理土地利用方式及土地利用方式的改变,使以风沙活动为主导外营力的沙漠化过程得以发展。最后,根据毛乌素地区沙漠化过程与土地利用之关系,提出了研究区防治土地沙漠化应调整农业结构和土地利用方式的建议。     

中国现阶段的人口,土地,粮食,灾害恶性循环与逆转对策

长期以来，由于忽视了人口、土地、粮食与灾害系统内各因素的相互协调，人类的生存与发展基本问题越来越多地摆在我们面前，致使在人口增长过快情况下，产生了土地资源质减量退，粮食生产徘徊不前，自然灾害频繁发生等危害生国计的社会问题，在跨入２１世纪的关键时期，如何采取有力措施解决上述问题，已为９０年代的重要任务，针对针中国国际本文分析了人口，土地，粮食，灾害相互间的关系，进而提出了相应之对策。