Ethnography, space and politics: interrogating the process of protest in the Tibetan Freedom Movement

This paper examines the ability of ethnographic research methods to effectively study spatially extensive political activity. It argues that traditional ethnographic methods of sustained engagement with spatially bounded sites are not adequately suited to dealing with contemporary spatially extensive political movements. It argues that contemporary attempts to bridge this impasse have emphasised a dichotomy between global and local that ignores the connections, disconnections and process that occur between places. The paper argues for a critical ethnography that is based on a relational understanding of space emphasising Gillian Hart's conception of the interconnected nature of the 'site'. Taking a single demonstration against the Beijing 2008 Olympics conducted by UK-based Tibet supporters, it examines how the site of protest was closely linked to a variety of other places. Interrogating the processes of connection and disconnection brought about through the protest creates an ethnographic account that, while partial, develops an engagement with the heterogeneity of contemporary political action.     

Ethnic concentration and entrepreneurship: the case of African Americans in three US metropolitan areas

Using 2006–2010 American Community Survey data and a multilevel research design, this study examines how the spatial concentration of African Americans within local labor markets is associated with the probability of self-employment and job earnings from business ownership. We find a negative relationship between the spatial concentration of African Americans and their business ownership in Miami, but not in Atlanta. In Detroit, a higher percentage of US-born African Americans in the local labor market is actually associated with a higher probability of business ownership. The relationship between the percentage of African Americans and job earnings also differs across the three study areas. These results suggest that the relationship between racial/ethnic concentration and African American entrepreneurship is highly contingent on the economic conditions and demographic composition of local labor markets.     

From economic integration to socioeconomic inclusion: day labor worker centers as social intermediaries

Day labor worker centers have emerged as an important mode of regulatory action in the informal economy of major US cities. Research suggests that these organizations are beneficial in improving employment outcomes experienced by migrant workers engaged in this labor market sector. Yet, the extent to which these organizations impact the social integration of this working population remains relatively undeveloped in the literature. Using data from the National Day Labor Survey, we examine the impact of day labor worker centers on the level of social inclusion experienced by migrant day laborers. We find that worker centers have a modest, but statistically significant, impact on the levels of social integration experienced by this working population and that this varies from city to city. Ultimately we argue that the social intermediary role of these organizations may offer a type of counter mobilization necessary to promote the socioeconomic integration of this working population, but that issues of capacity remain.     

The remittance forest: Turning mobile labor into agrarian capital

How does labor migration affect Indonesian forests? In the mountains of Java, where political forests and plantations date back to colonial state land acquisitions in the nineteenth century, forests are being reconstituted and reconfigured by unusual subjects: the wives and daughters of contracted forest workers and other forest farmers. Working as maids and other domestic laborers in Hong Kong and other prosperous Asian cities, these landless women are sending home remittances to invest in rural resources and changing the understory of the political forest where their husbands and fathers are required to remain available for formal forest labor. Slowly, without really intending to, these women have regendered the forest, not completely ousting the men or the masculine associations with logging and resin collection, but making inroads into the control of the forest lands via the under‐used understory. This article tells how poor, landless women, marginalized as forest residents and as free household labor, reforestation farmers, and poor agricultural laborers, signed up to work as maids in Hong Kong and ended up remaking the forest.     

GEOGRAPHIC PUBLICATION IN GERMANY

Abstract

Feminist geography and political geography still represent two solitudes within the discipline. While increased traffic between these different parts of the discipline points to a degree of intellectual engagement, there remains a paucity of feminist thought in political geography. This article examines recent scholarship on feminist political geography, with a view to applying its insights to the struggles to protest and end political violence. The concept of feminist geopolitics is employed and recast, both as a bridging concept between feminist and political geography and as an analytical approach that has political valence in the context of the war in Iraq. Feminist geopolitics is revisited in this article, but remains a critical analytic in relation to body counts and other casualties in war zones.     

中国省域城镇工资水平的区域分异机制与空间效应

工资水平的区域分异是一种较为常见的经济地理现象,其形成源自于众多影响因素的综合作用,生成与演进也带有特定的区域相互作用特征。运用空间计量分析与GIS相结合的方法,系统分析我国省域城镇现有工资水平的区域分布特征及分异格局,进一步深入探讨中国工资水平区域分异的作用机制和空间效应。在对中国工资水平区域分异的基本现状进行简要描述的基础上,利用新经济地理学中的工资方程,结合中国经济社会发展实际,试图阐明中国工资水平现有分异格局的作用机制;并通过全域自相关指数、SLM和SEM模型实证检验了各主要理论因素对中国工资水平区域分异的影响程度及其空间效应,结果显示：市场潜能、开放度、市场分割度等因素对中国工资水平的区域分异有重要的影响,且中国省域间城镇工资水平存在显著的空间误差效应。最后,从合理缩小现有的工资水平区域差距,促进区域协调发展的角度提出了若干政策建议,具体包括健全劳动力市场协调机制、减少劳动力资源的跨区域流动障碍;强化人力资本积累在缩小地区工资差异中的作用力;增进省级地域单元间的贸易联系性,弱化市场分割程度;优化低工资地区的外贸投资环境,提升其对外贸易竞争力和融资效率;推进东部地区尽快转型升级,积极培育中西部省份重要的增长极。     

Feminist Geopolitics Revisited: Body Counts in Iraq*

Feminist geography and political geography still represent two solitudes within the discipline. While increased traffic between these different parts of the discipline points to a degree of intellectual engagement, there remains a paucity of feminist thought in political geography. This article examines recent scholarship on feminist political geography, with a view to applying its insights to the struggles to protest and end political violence. The concept of feminist geopolitics is employed and recast, both as a bridging concept between feminist and political geography and as an analytical approach that has political valence in the context of the war in Iraq. Feminist geopolitics is revisited in this article, but remains a critical analytic in relation to body counts and other casualties in war zones.     

重庆下浩社区绅士化中的失所空间体验

现象学着重关注人的经验问题.在绅士化失所研究领域里,当研究视角从关注物质空间转变为空间经验时,"生活世界"成为了基本的出发点,这体现为从"直接性失所"往"间接性失所"的转变.以列斐伏尔的"表征的空间"为基础,围绕象征要素对失所经验展开定性分析则成为主要的研究路径.以此方法论,对重庆市下浩历史文化社区经历绅士化凸显出的失...     

The Practices and Process of Neighborhood: the (Re)Production of Riverwest,Milwaukee, Wisconsin

This article examines the practices and process that (re)produce neighborhoods. I argue that the practices producing neighborhoods in the 1970s inform the practices (re)producing neighborhoods today. Drawing upon Lefebvre's concepts of social space and spatial practice, Bourdieu's concepts of practice and habitus, and Pred's concept of place as a historically contingent process, I examine the (re)production of Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood as a process. Practices of institution building and protest were central to the production of this relatively socially inclusive and activist neighborhood. Over the past 30 years, through what could be defined as the habitus of place, the process of neighborhood (re)production continued many of the practices first established in the 1970s, as new practices addressed social and cultural changes. A focus on practices and process draws our attention to the (re)production of a relatively stable, consistent, long-term neighborhood identity.     

Race,Gender, and Spatial Segmentation in the Twin Cities*

This study analyzes commuting trends in a relatively vibrant setting during the 1980s to determine (a) how labor market segmentation correlates with differences in the spatial dimensions of local labor markets, and (b) whether this link represents a direct spatial effect, independent of earnings, travel mode, and part-time work. I use 1980 and 1990 PUMS data to analyze changes in racial and gender divisions in the workforce, and I develop an estimate of work trip distance to adjust for different travel modes. For all groups except white men, employment in a job “typical” of one's gender and racial group is associated with more localized commutes, but this effect is strongly mediated by variations in earnings and part-time work. Using a covariance structure model to control for these effects, I find no independent link between segmentation and longer commutes among African Americans. Earnings and commute distances remained unchanged over the decade for African Americans, providing no evidence of a purely spatial mismatch manifest in lengthening work trips without corresponding wage gains. The spatial dimensions of an employment mismatch for inner-city minorities are concealed through the replacement of production jobs by poorly paid service work in the expanding downtown economy of a vibrant regional center.     

Impacts of Non-farm Employment of Rural Laborers on Agricultural Land Use: Theoretical Analysis and Its Policy Implications

During rapid urbanization and industrialization process, non-farm employment of rural laborers has emerged as a prevalent phenomenon in rural areas of China and become an important driving factor for changes in agricultural land use. This article attempts to theoretically analyze the impacts of non-farm employment of rural laborers on agricultural land use based on economic frameworks. As rational agents, farmers aim to maximize their income and follow equilibrium principles when they decide how to allocate their labor forces (or working time) in two departments (farm and non-farm) and how to use their agricultural land with different quality and location. The income earned by non-farm employment is higher, and there exists a comparative advantage between labors, as a result the quantity and quality of labor input in agricultural land use decreases. With the limitation of labor input during agricultural land use decision-making of farm households, on the one hand, land with higher quality is still utilized by farmers. On the other hand, poor quality land will be less well managed and is more likely to be abandoned. Non-farm employment of rural laborers and the rising of opportunity costs will result in abandonment of poor quality land, and great importance should be attached to this by policy makers.     

The Coproduction of Peri‐Urban Space

Expanding beyond narrow approaches of understanding postapartheid space, this research analyzes the social relations contributing to land use patterns and livelihood decisions as manifestations of the coproduction of space. Drawing on a detailed livelihood and land‐change analysis case study of Polokwane, South Africa, it is argued that combinations of social processes across scales contribute to the production of peri‐urban South Africa and offer an uncommon mixed‐methods approach by combining qualitative ethnographic interviews, quantitative survey data, and land‐cover change detection. The peri‐urban interface is coproduced as individuals participate in multiple livelihood activities (wage labor, businesses, social programs) and changing land use patterns (residential, urban, mixed use) through negotiations at multiple scales—from macrolevel economic policy to local labor regimes.     

不同受教育水平女性流动人口的就业差异研究——以福建省为例

通过对福建省女性流动人口的调查,获取不同受教育水平的女性流动人口的就业信息,对受教育水平为"文盲半文盲"、"小学"、"初中"、"高中/中专"和"大专及以上"5组女性流动群体的就业特征以及差异进行研究。结果表明:受教育水平越高的流动女性的就业层次越高、通过正式的市场找到工作的比例越高、获得较高收入水平的比例也越大;受教育水平越低的流动女性的工资越容易遭到拖欠,劳动强度越大,工作越不稳定,获得职业技术培训的比例越低且受培训愿望越不强烈。因此,有必要从提高女性流动人口整体素质,拓宽就业信息网络,规范劳动用工市场等方面采取相关政策以提高女性流动人口的就业能力、保护其就业权益。     

Manpower, institution and the growth of knowledge economy in Shanghai

1 The Concept: About Knowledge EconomyIn general terms, all kinds of productions have knowledge with them, either western or eastern, past or present. In production process, people use knowledge to choose suitable materials, to develop processing technologies, fashion and styles to meet the needs of customers and, after all, to make profits (or sometimes to make for "public good"). In order to cut the cost to the possibly lowest level, people also use knowledge to choose suitable places and,…     

Research In Ethnic Segregation III: Segregation Outcomes

This progress report is third in a series that examines the causes of segregation and the meaning and measurement of segregation. In this final report, we begin with the premise that ethnic and racial segregation carries tremendous impacts on the groups involved, altering their daily patterns and their future prospects. Yet the types of consequences that result from segregation depend on group dynamics; the social, political, and economic context; and a variety of contingent circumstances. In this essay, we review the recent literature on the outcomes of urban ethnic segregation and focus on some major themes that emerge from the literature. These themes include health and deprivation effects, how segregation can influence the group's employment prospects, how the fact of concentration may alter degrees of tolerance and intolerance, how segregation can augment levels of crime and violence, and finally the extent to which segregation influences the political and civic life of minority groups.     

农户土地规模与生产率的关系及其解释的印证——以吉林省为例

依据原中共中央政策研究室和农业部的农户固定观察点数据,利用数理模型对吉林省农户土地规模-生产率之间的关系进行了验证。结果表明:(1)农户土地规模-土地生产率之间的关系并不是简单的直线关系,当农户经营的土地面积小于30亩时,负向关系并不明显,但农户经营土地的规模超过30亩后,两者之间则呈现出明显的负向关系;(2)吉林省大规模农户土地产出率较低的主要影响因素为化肥投入,劳动投入因素的影响位列次席,这与前人的研究有所差别;(3)农户劳动力的影子工资率与农户土地规模存在正向关系。鉴于目前吉林省大部分农户的经营规模在20亩以下,因此笔者建议鼓励土地流转,进一步推动耕地的适度经营规模;大规模农户可适当地增加化肥和劳动投入量。     

城市规模与高管工资溢价区域差异分析

利用2008—2017年中国A股上市公司和地级市层面数据,采用回归模型进行实证分析并作检验后发现：① 高管薪酬显著地受相邻地区同行薪酬的正向影响,但更多地还是由公司情况及高管自身水平决定;② 城市规模和城市的集聚经济正相关,集聚经济对高技能劳动力的工资水平有促进作用,形成工资溢价,不同城市规模产生的集聚经济效应是产生工资溢价的主要原因;③ 不同规模城市等级对高管薪酬的影响呈现差异化特征,因为不同城市厂商的生产率水平不同,大城市能够为高技能劳动力提供更好的学习机会,表现为水平效应和增长效应;④ 房屋价格对工资有正向影响,人均绿地面积的提高及城市居住环境的改善,会使工资水平有所上升,但超大城市可能因其生活成本及房价过高等因素的影响对高管薪酬正向影响相对减弱。     

Dynamics of coupled human-landscape systems

A preliminary dynamical analysis of landscapes and humans as hierarchical complex systems suggests that strong coupling between the two that spreads to become regionally or globally pervasive should be focused at multi-year to decadal time scales. At these scales, landscape dynamics is dominated by water, sediment and biological routing mediated by fluvial, oceanic, atmospheric processes and human dynamics is dominated by simplifying, profit-maximizing market forces and political action based on projection of economic effect. Also at these scales, landscapes impact humans through patterns of natural disasters and trends such as sea level rise; humans impact landscapes by the effect of economic activity and changes meant to mitigate natural disasters and longer term trends. Based on this analysis, human-landscape coupled systems can be modeled using heterogeneous agents employing prediction models to determine actions to represent the nonlinear behavior of economic and political systems and rule-based routing algorithms to represent landscape processes. A cellular model for the development of New Orleans illustrates this approach, with routing algorithms for river and hurricane-storm surge determining flood extent, five markets (home, labor, hotel, tourism and port services) connecting seven types of economic agents (home buyers/laborers, home developers, hotel owners/ employers, hotel developers, tourists, port services developer and port services owners/employers), building of levees or a river spillway by political agents and damage to homes, hotels or port services within cells determined by the passage or depth of flood waters. The model reproduces historical aspects of New Orleans economic development and levee construction and the filtering of frequent small-scale floods at the expense of large disasters.     

From salvage to recycling – new agendas or same old rubbish?

Recent years have seen increased attention paid by geographers to the phenomenon of household waste recycling. Much of this attention by geographers has focused on contemporary recycling, especially contemporary policy and behaviour. This article takes a wider temporal perspective and considers the antecedent 'National Salvage Campaign' of the Second World War. It considers the conceptual lessons from this recycling campaign, drawing out the importance of themes of scale, relatedness, civic duty and positive identity. The article explores the socially constructed boundaries that attempt to find an 'appropriate' place for waste and how such boundaries are constantly reconsidered and redefined.     

打工文学中的城市空间书写 ——基于索亚“第三空间”的分析

改革开放以来,在国家与资本的双重作用下,流动于农村与城市的打工一族开始出现。打工文学作为打工者发声的平台,不仅反映了打工者观照城市的方式,也体现出城市中不同主体对打工者的规训。文章以打工文学为分析内容与工具,以索亚的“第三空间”为分析理论,从身体、厂区、城市三种空间层次出发,探讨了外来工在城市生活中的空间体验。研究发现,外来工的生活空间充满了“第三空间”的特征,是一个被资本与权力的话语操控的空间,体现为外来工“我者-他者”“压迫-抵抗”“核心-边缘”的多元体验。这一城市空间体验也促进了打工者群体主体性的建构。