Women,Politics, Elections,and Citizenship

Abstract

Significantly more women than men are registered voters in the United States, and a higher proportion of women voters actually cast ballots on election day. Yet the 106th Congress (1999-2001) includes only 56 women members, 12% of the total membership of the House and Senate. Likewise, women hold only 22% of the total seats in state legislatures. The purpose of this article is to examine this paradox. It first examines the history of the women's movement in the United States. It then turns to an evaluation of women's progress in gaining elected office. Finally it considers three primary obstacles to women gaining equitable representation: solidarity among women, political culture, and the single-member district system now employed in the United States.     

Geography,Race, and Quantification

This article reviews how race, quantification, and raced quantification have been used and written about in geography. Its two primary arguments are that race should be more central in the discipline and that a reluctance to address ontological and epistemological issues has left quantitative geography methodologically impoverished. These two issues merge in an examination of two cases where race is employed as a variable in quantitative models. The critique of these cases is not meant as a condemnation of quantitative geography but as an instructive example on which to construct a critical quantitative geography. The article ends by stressing the importance of quantification in geography and by presenting exemplars of race-critical quantification.     

Geographers in Business,Government, and Nonprofit Organizations: Skills,Challenges, and Professional Identities

This study examines the experiences of geography graduates who work in business, government, and nonprofit organizations. We analyzed 352 logs from eighty-two professionals detailing professional activities, challenges, and opportunities during one work week each month, over a period of six months. Our analysis explores interpersonal relationships and working conditions affecting participants’ progress toward work goals, workplace climate, and professional identity. Geographic information systems and technology accounted for more than half of the geographic skills respondents reported using on the job, and administrative and leadership factors were the most commonly cited types of transferable skills. Professional geographers value collaborative workplaces as well as opportunities to work independently with the confidence of their supervisors, and their sense of a professional identity is enhanced when they feel valued and are recognized for their work. Professional development activities are important because they reinforce geographers’ sense of positively contributing to their organizations, enhance interpersonal interactions, facilitate work on specific projects, and expand individuals’ knowledge and skills. Moreover, our findings suggest that nearly half of the reported workplace difficulties could potentially be reduced or eliminated as a result of more and better professional development. Nonetheless, many employers do not consistently provide opportunities for professional development to their employees. Based on our analysis, we contend that professional development is a beneficial investment for lifelong learning, from undergraduate and graduate education throughout the entire course of a professional career.     

Popular Culture,Geopolitics, and Identity

Abstract

This study aims to theoretically investigate the notion of critical thinking for a more just understanding of self and “others” in global geographical learning. It focuses on the kinds of injustice in the world which are driven by our relationships with “others.” By drawing on the literature of critical education, philosophy of education, and geography education, this study reveals how universal notions of criticality tend to easily undermine those perceived as global others and may highlight, in deficit mode, their perceived differences. Instead, the study presents the imperative of deconstructive thinking for a more just world. The article concludes by proposing a teaching strategy for alternative criticality which strives for justice in school geography.     

Zoogeography and paleozoology of leeches,molluscs, and amphibians in Western Bonneville Basin,Utah, USA

The artesian springs of Tule Valley are similar to those of adjacent Snake Valley and Fish Springs Flat based on conductivity and temperature. All three valleys support Ranidae amphibians and the leechErpobdella punctata. The artesian springs in Snake Valley and Fish Springs Flat contain six and two species of fish and contained up to 18 and 12 species of mollusk respectively, whereas Tule Valley artesian springs contain neither fish nor mollusks. The leechesHelobdella stagnalis, Glossiphonia complanata, andHaemopis grandis were found in Snake Valley whereasHelobdella triserialis, Theromyzon rude, andHaemopis marmorata were found in Tule Valley. These springs which were covered by Lake Bonneville to a depth of several hundred meters, 16 000 BP., became isolated after the paleolake desiccated 13 000 years BP. The marsh snailCatinella is found above the paleolake level in Snake and Tule Valley and has not penetrated to the valley floor habitats once covered by the paleolake, whereas another marsh snailOxyloma has penetrated into these habitats in Snake Valley. The leech and molluscan distributions in Tule, Snake and Fish Springs Valleys suggest that the paleolake did not allow for much movement among the valleys, and successful passive aerial transport has not occurred after the paleolake desiccation 13 000 years BP. Paleozoological models are proposed to explain the presence and absence of these species in Tule Valley. Both lateral movement (along paleolake shorelines) and vertical movement (to new habitats formed after the desiccation of the paleolake) by amphibians, mollusks and leeches is restricted in large terminal lakes and is species dependent in both spatial and temporal scales of the hydrological cycle.     

Slums,Ghettos, and Urban Marginality

This paper gathers potent visual images of one city, Los Angeles (L.A.), by examining three contemporary films— L.A. Story (1991), Boyz N the Hood (1991), and Grand Canyon (1991). It argues that popular culture, and in particular popular film, is an integral part of the portrayal of the cultural landscape. This paper primarily uses the assorted visual images of the urban landscape in considering how this one city has been recently depicted. The three films reveal a city shaped by rapid changes in urban America, depicting Los Angeles as an urban area composed of a fragmented landscape divided into many geographies: L.A. as a realm of simulations and void of consequences; L.A. as a city under siege, a place of epidemic violence and fear; L.A. as a place obsessed with security and control; L.A. as an increasingly ambiguous and chaotic place. Far from concluding that cities have become so fragmented that they are ageographic, these films reveal various geographies that are rooted in economic, political, and cultural contexts. Attention to the “restlessness” of cities and the postmodern focus on the instability and chaotic nature of urban experience actually challenge geographers to uncover the multitude of geographies of place. Interpreting the many geographies of Los Angeles shows that film can reveal a uniquely visual catalog of human experience of place, supplementing the ways in which we decipher place image and representation. This paper suggests that film is one way by which previously marginalized groups, such as blacks, can disseminate ideas from the margins and provide alternative experiencesof place. Geographers should add film to the cache of qualitative data that constructs an urban experience through images and representation, widening the discussion of what is place     

Place,Learning Progressions,and Progress

This commentary response reflects on the thoughts offered by Solem, Mohan, Rawling, and Lambert regarding Larsen and Harrington's article titled “Developing a Learning Progression for Place” (2018).     

Race,Gender, and Constrained Work Trips in Buffalo,NY, 1990

This study investigates whether women's short commutes should be interpreted as constrained or convenient work trips by examining how race, gender, travel mode, occupation, residential location, workplace location, and Inc.ome affect commuting time. The analysis is restricted to a sample of European American and African American male and female workers residing in Buffalo, New York, and the surrounding county using data drawn from the Public Use Microdata Samples of the 1990 U.S. census. Given the pervasive gender wage gap, women unsurprisingly have more compromised (short commutes to low-Inc.ome jobs) work trips than do men. Multivariate analysis reveals that among those who reverse commute to suburban locations, African American women have the longest work trips.     

Response and recovery of the Eel River, California, and its tributaries to floods in 1955, 1964, and 1997

Northwestern California is prone to regional, high magnitude winter rainstorms, which repeatedly produce catastrophic floods in the basins of the northern Coast Ranges. Major floods on the Eel River in 1955 and 1964 resulted in substantial geomorphic changes to the channel, adjacent terraces, and tributaries. This study evaluated the changes and the effects of a moderate flood in 1997 through field observations and examination of aerial photographs that spanned from 1954 to 1996. The purpose was to document the nature and magnitude of geomorphic responses to these three floods and assess the rates and controls on the recovery of the Eel River and its tributaries. Channel widening from extensive bank erosion was the dominant geomorphic change along the lower Eel River during major floods. As a result of the 1964 flood, the largest amount of widening was 195 m and represented an 80% change in channel width. Channel narrowing characterized the periods after the 1955 and 1964 floods. More than 30 years after the 1964 flood, however, the river had not returned to pre-flood width, which suggests that channel recovery required decades to complete. A long recovery time is unusual given that the Eel River is located in an area with a “superhumid” climate and has an exceptionally high sediment yield. This long recovery time may reflect highly seasonal precipitation and runoff, which are concentrated in 3–5 months each winter. In contrast to the main stem of the Eel River, the dominant effects of floods on the tributaries of the Eel River were rapid aggradation of channel bed and valley floor followed by immediate downcutting. Dendrogeomorphic data, aerial photographs, and field observations indicate that thick wedges of gravel, derived largely from hillslope failures in upper reaches of the tributaries, are deposited at and immediately upstream of the mouths of tributaries as the stage of the Eel River exceeded that of the tributaries during major floods. In the waning stages of the flood, the tributaries cut through the gravel at a rate equal to the lowering of the Eel and generated unpaired terraces and nickpoints. The complete process of deposition and incision can occur within a few days of peak discharge. Although reworking of some sediment on the valley floor may continue for years after large floods, channel morphology in the tributaries appears to be a product of infrequent, high magnitude events. The morphology of the tributary channel also appears to be greatly influenced by the frequency and magnitude of mass wasting in headwater areas of small basins.     

Race,Gender, and Constrained Work Trips in Buffalo,NY, 1990

This study investigates whether women's short commutes should be interpreted as constrained or convenient work trips by examining how race, gender, travel mode, occupation, residential location, workplace location, and Inc.ome affect commuting time. The analysis is restricted to a sample of European American and African American male and female workers residing in Buffalo, New York, and the surrounding county using data drawn from the Public Use Microdata Samples of the 1990 U.S. census. Given the pervasive gender wage gap, women unsurprisingly have more compromised (short commutes to low-Inc.ome jobs) work trips than do men. Multivariate analysis reveals that among those who reverse commute to suburban locations, African American women have the longest work trips.     

Subjectivity,Power, and the IRB

A substantial literature in social sciences, including law and society, examines the intersections of research ethics and institutional review board (IRB) frameworks. Although geographers have engaged this literature, we argue that further involvement in ethical and regulatory discussions will advance opportunities for better understanding and negotiating the complex subjectivities produced in the IRB structure. Drawing on illustrative experiences of researchers, we focus specifically on the institutions convening IRBs, the researchers, and the human “subjects” produced in the IRB process. We conclude with a call for greater open discussion of the power dynamics, subjectivities, and challenges of formal ethical research structures.     

Race and Primary,Return, and Onward Interstate Migration

This paper uses the U.S. 1990 Public Use Micro Sample to characterize the 1985-1990 primary, return, and onward interstate migration patterns for blacks and whites. The classification of these three types of migration is based on the state of birth and state of residence at the start and end of the census interval. Major migration streams, migration rates, and net migration are evaluated for each migrant type and compared for blacks and whites. Overall, the migration patterns of blacks resemble those of whites, with an attraction to the South and the Southwest and movement out of the Northeast and the Midwest. Some differences were observed, however, between the two races. Return migration rates were somewhat higher for black migrants as compared with whites, and onward migration rates were lower. Black primary out-migrants represented a larger proportion of the total flows from the southern states as compared with white out-migrant flows, and they represented a larger share of the out-migrants from the rust belt states. The major migration streams also had different regional and national patterns by race and migrant type.     

Transportation subsidies, economic efficiency, equity, and public policy

According to many environmentalists, the U.S. transportation sector is being subsidized by federal, state, and local governments. Whether or not road users are, in fact, paying the cost of using roads is a critical issue in supporting sustainable transportation. Subsidies increase road consumption above levels that would otherwise be dictated by the market. This paper compares different estimates of transportation subsidies, noting their strengths and weaknesses. Following this discussion, the issue of transportation as a public good is covered. How economic efficiency and equity are considered depends in large part on the role of transportation in society. If transportation is deemed a public good, then alternative evaluation criteria must be applied. If not, then economic efficiency would need to be considered. Both efficiency and equity could be enhanced by a pollution tax. Such a measure would improve equity by charging users for the pollution they generate. In addition, economic efficiency could be enhanced by internalizing the environmental externalities associated with transportation. This study, compares different estimates of transportation subsidies as a prelude to discussing economic efficiency and equity issues. The study does not develop a definitive answer to the problem of transportation subsidies, but rather highlights the important public policy issues that exist within this arena.     

Laws,Contingencies, Irreversible Divergence,and Physical Geography*

Four critical challenges for physical geography are examined here: deterioration of common cores of knowledge associated with increasing intellectual niche specialization; the need for conceptual thinking and problem‐framing to catch up with measurement and analysis technology; and the need to explicitly incorporate human decision making in analysis of earth surface systems. The future calls for physical geography to embrace and confront the creative tension between nomothetic and interpretive science, and to fruitfully and explicitly integrate these approaches.     

Oil, water, ice and light

The boehaviour and ultimate effect and fate of oil in the marine environment in the polar region depend on a large number of factors. From a chemical point of view the most important ones to consider are the intrinsic chemical properties of the oil, the consequences of oil/water interactions, the influence of ice on physical and chemical processes, and the interactions between oil and light when the influx of solar energy shows great seasonal changes. This paper reviews the main aspects of these issues.