Dictionaries, disciplines and the future of geography

This essay contributes to the discussions initiated by Setten [Setten, 2008. Encyclopaedic vision: speculating on The Dictionary of Human Geography. Geoforum 39 (3), 1097–1104], about The Dictionary ofHuman Geography. Rather than focusing on the identity and relative exclusiveness of the contributors, I emphasize how successive editions of the Dictionary have helped reshape the discipline in two ways. First, the proliferation of texts, like the Dictionary, aimed squarely at a student market has gone hand in hand with a variety of changes to the political economy of publishing in geography. Second, human geography has increasingly come to be defined in terms of its concepts and theories. The paper ends by considering the implications of these changes for disciplinary unity and the future of geography given the increasing prominence of both of integrated environmental science and of GIS.     

Beyond the Anglo-American hegemony in human geography: a European perspective

Over the past five years or so, Anglo-American hegemony in human geography has been widely debated. This debate has highlighted the obstacles put in the way of the building of a more international geographical discipline. In this paper, we reflect on the possibilities and also the limitations of Europe as a context for the experimentation with a more cross-national discipline. In doing so, we notice on the one hand the increasing attention towards the Europeanisation of human geography, particularly at an institutional level, but on the other hand we also notice the lack of some basic forms and tools of communication and exchange that might facilitate the mobilisation of scholars around the ‘European project’. The paper tries to offer a contribution to this issue by discussing the ways in which a European journal of human geography might be conceived and also concretely organised. In this respect the paper takes into account issues of language, access to scientific knowledge and recognition of cultural and academic diversities.

Contemporary fiddling in human geography while Rome burns: has quantitative analysis been largely abandoned--and should it be?

Chris Hamnett [Geoforum 34 (2003) 1] has certainly been provocative in his claim that the nature of much contemporary human geography means that the discipline ‘will cease to be taken seriously in the world beyond the narrow confines of academe’ (p. 1). Much of his critique focuses on what he terms ‘post-modernism, new cultural geography and the interpretative turn’ (p. 2) practiced by those he identifies as ‘the new intellectual dilettanti’ (p. 3). In responding, however, our concern is not with that aspect of his critique, but rather with Hamnett’s misrepresentation of one section of contemporary human geography.     

Proximity,subjectivity, and space: Rethinking distance in human geography

This paper critically reviews the current status of the concept of distance in human geography in order to argue that recent experimentally-driven work in construal-level theory offers ample opportunities for recasting distance as a key geographical trope. After analysing the four entangled dimensions of distance revealed by construal-level theory (spatial distance; temporal distance; social distance; and hypothetical distance), the paper articulates this research program from experimental psychology with geographical work on non-representational theory, geographical imaginations/imaginative geographies, learning as a geographical process, TimeSpace theorising, and ontogenetic understandings of space. It is argued that the subjective understanding of distance afforded by construal-level theory can rescue distance from its entrenched association with positivistic geography and spatial analysis.     

Differential spaces of critical geography

This intervention address some of the social and epistemological mechanisms that construct an `international' writing space imbued with an Anglo-American hegemony. This is done by way of three examples, each making it possible to infer one of the general mechanisms at work. Taking off from the, comment, by the way of examples from Denmark, tries to illustrate how a truthful acknowledgement of the contextuality of geographical knowledges can multiply the spaces of critical geography--in the end enriching Anglo-American and non-Anglo-American debates alike.     

俄罗斯远东金属矿床形成条件的古地球动力学分析

根据本区地质构造的新资料,提出了区域板块构造模型。研究了从俯冲到加利福尼亚型转换和由后者又到俯冲的古地球动力学环境更替的意义。这种更替发生在对本区最重要的中—新生代历史时期,对区域成矿带整体乃至一些金属矿床的形成具有重要影响。论证了一些地体性质,尤其是俯冲-增生杂岩对矿床形成的重要意义。     

Geography’s changing lexicon: measuring disciplinary change in Anglophone human geography through journal content analysis

Much writing on changing trends in geographical practices is based on subjective interpretations of the discipline’s scholarly output. This paper introduces a data source which provides quantitative information on the discipline’s lexicon through full-text searching of the contents of five of the discipline’s major Anglophone journals. Analysis of the large data set identifies two main trends in geography’s language and practices during the period 1950-1998: one group of terms associated with quantitative work became prominent in the 1970s but declined in relative importance thereafter - though by no means disappearing from the lexicon; the other, comprising a range of terms generally associated with cultural and social geography, increased in prominence from the 1980s on.     

时间维的自然地理学研究

自然地理学方向的古地理学开创了时间维地理学研究的领域,其在我国的发展经历了一个从古地理学向环境演变研究拓展的过程。以现代自然环境的历史建构为主体的古地理学,以时间坐标系下自然地理过程研究为主的环境演变研究,以从时间的维度探索人地关系为主的人地系统演变研究,分别体现了地理学的区域研究传统、地球科学传统和人地关系传统,构成了自然地理学时间维研究的3个基本方面。广义地理解自然地理学方向的古地理学、环境演变以及人地系统演变,它们可以看作是相通的,人地系统演变可以理解为包括了人类作为驱动力和承受者的环境演变,用人地关系来定义自然学地理方向的古地理学,则可以将其定义为关于人地（人类-环境）系统历史演变的科学。     

The question of development and environment in geography in the era of globalisation

This paper focuses on how livelihood and the question of development and environment in a globalising era should be examined. It discusses various views in geography on the question of environment and development, and it explores the concept of sustainable livelihood. It concludes that a geographical conceptualisation of ‘development and environment’ may profit from the discussion on sustainable livelihood, provided that it does not become entangled in an actor-cum-local bias. Moreover, the diffusion of non-equilibrium concepts may broaden the analysis of man-land relations and open the way to an analysis of globalisation effects. Globalisation gives rise to new assortments of geographical entities and, as livelihoods adapt, they will shape constantly shifting regions with specific man-land arrangements. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

German research in transport geography: Life in the space between objective analysis and political advice1

Transportation has been a bone of public contention for decades, the discussion ranging from traffic-calming measures in individual streets to the continual growth of global transport movements. In the last 20 years transport topics have also received increased attention within the discipline of geography, be it academic, professional or in schools, but the topics addressed by today's transport geography have almost nothing in common with the roots of the field. This means that transport geography is a handed-down, hyphenated sub-branch of geography in name only. In fact, the name refers to a field of geography that is experiencing not only all the birthing pains and uncertainties of a discipline in the process of defining a new direction for itself, but also the sense of excitement and thrill of the new. This paper sets out to show both the role transport geography plays as part of human geography with its concepts and paradigms, and also the role it plays within the political debate on transport. An appeal is made to geographers to become more involved in this branch of our science.     

The non spaces of critical geography in Mexico

The paper examines the limited presence of critical geography in Mexico and analyses why the lack of theoretical discussion means there is a need for theory from abroad. Different stages in the development of our critical practice, our links with planning programmes, and a lack of relations with other Latin American countries are all salient features.     

An understanding of geography: The perspectives of English primary trainee teachers

There have been few studies of trainee teachers' conceptions of the term ‘geography’. Building on these, this study identifies a number of conceptions of geography held by primary school trainee teachers in England. Their ideas are compared with their understanding of the reasons for teaching geography to young children. Similar outcomes emerge. While a small number of primary trainee teachers see geography education as concerned with the study of places, a slightly larger group view teaching geography as developing children's sense of responsibility for the earth and its people. However, by far the largest groups of students perceive geography's role to be to develop younger children's awareness and knowledge of the environment. Additionally, a sizeable group of trainees see geography as providing knowledge about the features and countries of the world. The implications of these findings are considered for the brief geography study units which primary teacher trainees take as part of their initial teacher training programme in English higher education. The conclusion is that it is important to widen primary trainee teachers' perspectives during even the briefest of units, not least to enable them to teach the national curriculum requirements for geography in primary schools. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

新世纪俄罗斯找矿地球化学

在系统跟踪研究国内外地质期刊文献的基础上,梳理了新世纪找矿地球化学面临形势和存在的重大问题,全面总结了近十年来,俄罗斯有关找矿地球化学基础理论和方法论、区域地球化学调查方法与应用,以及地质-地球化学找矿模型的研制与应用等众多方面的思路和做法。研究认为,俄罗斯首创的多目标地球化学填图技术可有效地提高国家地质图的质量,为矿产资源量的综合评价和生态环境的评估及一系列基础问题的解决,提供详细的信息。同时,还指出俄罗斯地球化学家为解决新世纪的找矿问题,加大了技术创新,重点聚焦于提高地球化学找矿信号的衬度和强度,提高运用地质-地球化学找矿模型的效用,完善处理地球化学数据的计算技术,以实现地球化学场与地质、地球物理场的综合等,诸创新点和思路值得参考借鉴。     

Changing distribution of gender in the Extended Bangkok Region under globalization

This study examines recent changes in the structure of migration and population by gender in the Extended Bangkok Region (EBR) taking the influences of economic globalization into consideration. The EBR is understood here to consist of three concentric zones, namely the Bangkok Metropolis (BM), the Vicinity and the Extended Urban Region (EUR). The spatial policy of the Thai government has encouraged investors to build manufacturing factories outside the BM. Consequently the industrial structure of the BM has turned strongly into service-dominated while the Vicinity and the EUR have attracted factories mainly owned by foreign capitals. Light industries and electronics industries, both of which set up relatively earlier, concentrated on the Vicinity, the adjacent provinces to the BM, while heavy and petrochemical industries are recently have developed in the outer regions, the EUR. Service sectors and light industries as well as electronics industries prefer females to males to employ as workers. As a consequence the population structures of the BM and the Vicinity became female-dominant while male workers were likely to gather in the EUR attracted by heavy and petrochemical industries. The gender imbalance in the population in the areas in concern may have been one of the consequences of the economic globalization of Thailand. The Thai government supported the economic globalization through its investment promotion policy, but it seems that the government did not assume the policy resulted in such gender imbalance. It can be suggested that in the future this gender imbalance may cause changes in family formation behaviors of the Thai population. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Population geography with GIS in Japan

Japanese geography studies are now being greatly affected by the rapid development of geographical information systems (GIS). Unfortunately, there has been little response from Japanese population geographers to this movement. Is GIS a welcome or an unwelcome guest? After discussing the significance of employing GIS, this article introduces some recent papers that used GIS in the field of population geography on such issues as mortality mapping, migration analysis, and household studies. Then, the two promising population-related topics of married one-person households and fertility are discussed. The ability of GIS to greatly facilitate analysis, which previously needed much time and energy, can be an encouraging stimulus of innovation in studies of current population geography. Therefore, GIS is clearly a welcome guest, although it is too wishful to think that its use would lead directly to a revitalization of contemporary population geography studies.     

Stratigraphy of Middle-Upper Jurassic deposits in the East Russian plate

The work is aimed at litho-, bio- and magnetostratigraphic subdivision of the Middle-Upper Jurassic sedimentary succession in the northeast of the Ul’yanovsk-Saratov depression (the East Russian plate). Problems of regional and interregional correlation of distinguished subdivisions are considered. As is shown, the ammonite biostratigraphy is most effective method for solving problems of chronostratigraphy.