Transformations of the Spatial Hegemony of the Courtyard in Post-Soviet St. Petersburg

Abstract

The courtyard is a space that existed before, during, and now after the Soviet period in Russian urban history. Noting the change in the courtyard's formerly hegemonic position on daily trajectories illustrates both Harvey's and Lefebvre's suggestions for uncovering the way that spaces articulate social values. A particularly revealing case study occurs in the struggle over including courtyards in a Chinese developer's project for a new multi-use district outside St. Petersburg. A brief history of the courtyard in Soviet planning allows subsequent analysis of the ways in which the city administration, the Chinese design team, and Russian planners deployed the courtyard as a spatial code for social meaning in design discussions. Examining the change in function and conceptualization of the courtyard shows how different groups in post-Soviet Russia seek to retain or redeploy concepts of the “collective” as they attempt to remake St. Petersburg as a successful “world” city.     

Strategic Positivism∗

Many “sociological”factors can account for the initial acceptance and continued persistence of W. M. Davis's Geographical Cycle. Such factors include Davis's attractive and forceful presentation of the cycle and the role of the cycle as a unifier of the discipline of physical geography, to name two. An analysis of the scientific character of the cycle, in the light of Karl Popper's criteria for demarcating between science and non-science, suggests that persistence of the cycle can also be attributed to a “logical”factor, the irrefutability of the central concept, stage.     

The Strange Case of the Missing Female Geographer∗

“It is not our desire to change needle and thread in women's hands into astrolabes and globes; neither do we consider it necessary that a woman should retreat to a room papered with maps and ornamented with globes ‥. Their high moral standards allow them, in our view, to possess wide knowledge of geography, on condition that they do not attempt, through use of terms too coarse for a lady, to appear too eager a group of geographers. I am certainly willing to let them use such words as climate, zones, and so forth; but I do not want them to scare me stiff quoting longitude and latitude at me. Let them speak as much as they want about what they read in travelers'tales, and I will listen with pleasure ‥. But I certainly do not want to see the day when a woman's knowledge of the earth equals that of men!'”(1)     

The Posthuman City: San Diego'S Dead Animal Removal Program

Abstract

Nonhuman animals are part of the dynamism that typifies cities, yet prior research has obscured this condition by focusing upon a limited subset of animals and the privatized spaces that contain them. Consequently, previous research provides little guidance in developing a post-human conception of cities. This paper redresses this deficiency by redefining conceptions of “the public” and analyzing data from San Diego's Dead Animal Removal Program (DARP). Commensurate with modern political conceptions, “the public” is defined simultaneously as a spatial formation and (akin to democracies) a quantitative body of bodies. The DARP data indicate the pervasive presence of nonhuman animals in urban environments and the difficulties they face. As a nexus, the DARP illustrates how urban practices and bureaucratic systems reinstantiate “the public” in humanized form through the death and disposal of nonhumans. These hybrid relations challenge geographic methods.     

(Hetero)sexing Space: Gay Men and “Straight” Space in Adelaide,South Australia

This paper examines gay men's perceptions and experiences of everyday places in Adelaide, South Australia. It illustrates the nature of social space as a heterosexual artifact. The paper also outlines ways in which gay men may contribute to the heterosexualization of space. Many gay men monitor the public and private roles they play for fear of the consequences of “discovery,” and through self-policing and restricted behaviors they may contribute to the spatial supremacy of heterosexuality. Acts of nondisclosure and the adoption of straight sexual facades constrain gay men's social and spatial lives.     

Geographical Text-Books and Geographical Teaching

Abstract

We are teaching the television generation in our college classrooms and if we can't beat' em, we should certainly join' em. Visual images can, indeed, be effective teaching tools in geography. Three uses of a “classic” concealed image of Jesus Christ in a melting snowfield are discussed. First, the image serves as an example of the geographer's search for spatial regularities. On a more interpretative level, the concealed image becomes a metaphor for the quasi-religious quest for scientific truth. If we aren't careful, this quest can devolve into Ideological explanation. Finally, the mysterious origin of the Jesus image is akin to an urban legend. Its origin may be used to illustrate the fallibility of scientific citation as can the image entitled “My Wife and My Mother-in-Law” incorrectly cited by the geographer William Kirk. Whether the Jesus image was a natural event or a product of human creation is an object lesson in the pitfalls of imputed intentionality.     

THE MOST PERFECT EXAMPLE OF AN ALIEN ECOLOGY EVER CONSTRUCTED

Much science-fiction literature is based upon the creation and exploration of alternative environments. Stanley G. Weinbaum's short story, “Parasite Planet,”introduces an unusual environment that may be wrong in the light of recent evidence on Venus but still stimulates the geographical imagination.     

CLIMATOLOGY: THE CHALLENGE FOR THE EIGHTIES

Geographical climatology must systematically investigate the exchanges of heat, water, and momentum that occur at or near the earth's surface. Our discipline should focus upon surface features described under the general term “topoclimatology”as well as upon transfer processes occurring in the planetary boundary layer. Climatologists must increase their understanding of the synergistic relationships among climatic processes, surface features, and human actions. Methods of data collection, summary, analysis, and display also need to be improved. These challenges must be met in order that we may develop a better understanding of climate and improve our quantitative climatic analogues.     

The “Oldest River” As An Appalachian Popular Region

Abstract

Appalachia's New River was labeled “the second oldest river in the world” during the 1970s as part of a campaign to save the river from being dammed. Despite the absence of geomorphic evidence, the promotion of the superlative age of the river was so successful that the mythical label became reality in the minds of the region's populace. The “oldest river” thus became a popular or vernacular region, defined as one perceived to exist by its inhabitants. Sources of evidence for the current existence of the oldest river as a popular region include Internet references, which typically use the positive place image of the ancient stream to enhance the value of the river valley's attributes. Geography educators and students at all levels will benefit from class research projects aimed at identifying and understanding popular regions found near their educational institutions.     

Teaching Social Justice: Reviving Geography's Neglected Tradition

Abstract

American students are encouraged to become globally competitive. I argue that in a world plagued by social inequality and environmental mismanagement, students should become globally cooperative. But this position is not new. Nineteenth century geographers such as Peter Kropotkin argued that geographic education should promote cooperation and tolerance of others. This article explores why geographers cast aside this progressive vision for geographic education. It hypothesizes that geography's pursuit of academic and scientific legitimacy prompted it to spurn “value-laden” methods. The article concludes by suggesting that geographers return to their social justice roots by adopting constructivist pedagogical methods of Paulo Freire.     

The Geography

Editor's Note: The views and opinions expressed in the following paper have been written in the form of a letter or conversation between a dissertation advisor and an advanced graduate student in medical geography. It emphasizes the pervasive qualities of the health component of human behavior, and hopefully transmits aspects of human behavior that are taking hold in medical-ecological research. It attempts to suggest what at least one practicing medical geographer thinks a major facet of the field will be like as it matures. The holistic perspective that it envisages seems to be taking hold in neighboring disciplines—or perhaps “interdisciplines”as they might someday be called. The speculative quality of the presentation is intended to serve as a possible springboard for professional interaction.     

Bargaining for nature: treating the environment in China’s urban planning practice

ABSTRACT

In much of the contemporary academic inquiry and political discourse on Chinese cities, urban entrepreneurialism and environmentalism often appear to be analyzed disjointedly and unreflectively. They are portrayed as two conflicting interests. Commentators also view urban planners as a homogenous group of professionals and/or state agents being forced to give up environmental goals to pursue economic value of space. Using the case of Tianjin Eco-City planning, this article interrogates the bargaining process between the “ecological value” and “commodity narrative”. It offers three major arguments. First, even though the discourse of environmental sustainability has been used to legitimize economic transformation, ecological demands are creating new pressures on entrepreneurial urban governance. Second, rather than treating Chinese planners as a fully constituted, internally coherent, organizationally-fixed, and operationally-consistent group, they should be viewed as hybrid, and diverse entities that represent divergent and sometimes contentious state interests. Third, planners, though still under tremendous pressure from landed interests, can become active players to positively influence urban transformation toward more environmental care.     

Training Teachers for the Study of Home Geography,A Field Lesson for a Summer Institute

Abstract

1960 Report on Jamaica. British Information Services, 845 Third Ave., New York 22, N.Y., 1963. iv and 477 pages with table of contents, photographs, graphs and bibliography. $3.50.

George W. Hoffman. The Balkans in Transition. D. Van Nostrand Co., Princeton, N.J., 1963. 124 pages. $1.45.

Stephen W. Sears and Marvin W. McFarland. Air War Against Hitler's Germany. American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1964. 154 pages including index. $3.95.

Olive TV. Burt. Wind Before the Dawn. John Day Co., New York, 19G4. 192 pages. $3.50.

Los Angeles Geographical Society. Day Tours: Geographical Journeys in the Los Angeles Area. Glenn Cunningham, Editor. Pacific Books, Palo Alto, California, 1964. 277 pages. Maps. $3.95.

Editorial note: In answer to inquiries, other Highlighting features on Southeast Asia topics which have appeared in The Journal of Geography are: (1) “Federation of Malaysia,” May, 1963, 230–231, (2) “Indonesian Panism,” May, 1964, 232–233, (3) “Disintegrating Laos,” September, 1964, 284–285, (4) “Splitting Wedge of Communism,” October, 1964, 334–335 and (5) “Cambodia's Three Sea Outlets,” November, 1964, 382–383.

John H. Bradley. World Geography. Fourth Edition. Ginn and Co., Boston 17, Mass., 1964. 619 pages with table of contents, list of maps, maps, illustrations, photographs colored and black and white, bibliography, statistics, study guides and index. For high school grades 9–12. $6.20.

Atlas of Florida. Compiled by Erwin Raisz and associates; text by John R. Dunkle. University of Florida Press, Gainesville, Fla., 1964. 52 pages with maps, graphs, diagrams, sketches, photographs and fold-in rear cover pocket map. $7.50.

Frank R. Brandenburg. The Making of Modern Mexico Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1964. 379 pages with index $8.95.

A. V. Hardy and F. J. Monkhouse. The Physical Landscape in Pictures. Cambridge University Press, American Branch, 32 E. 57th St., New York, 1964. 92 pages with table of contents, preface and 92 black and white photographs. $1.75 paperbound.

Mary F. Horkheimer and John W. Diffor (eds.). Educators Guide to Free Films. Educators Progress Service, Randolph, Wis., 1964. 631 pages. $9.00.

Marton Pecsi and Bela Sarfalvi. The Geography of Hungary. Collet's, 44–45 Museum St., London, 1964. xii and 299 pages, black and white illustrations and two colored insert maps. About $4.55.

Stephen H. Longrigg. The Middle East: A Social Geography. Aldine Publishing Co., Chicago, 1962. 291 pages. $6.95.     

Constructing Alterity in Ile De France?

Abstract

The aim of the article is to determine whether the Walt Disney Company has manufactured a landscape “other” to French culture around its parks in the Eastern Paris Basin. Val d'Europe is contentiously constructed by three main groups, not just one enterprise: the French state, the Walt Disney Company and local and regional governments, as well as by present and future residents, within the constraints of a contract based on French laws. The Company's investment has been a tremendous boost to the French state's project but did not lead to Disneyfication of the Briard landscape of agricultural lands in the Eastern Paris basin. In Val d'Europe the French state did not abdicate its authority in favor of commoditization of Paris as a global metropolis. The French state and French culture were never “weak” and overwhelmed.     

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING,WASHINGTON, D. C. June 8-9, 1973

Abstract

I argue that scientific disciplines are esteemed, supported, and patronized largely to the degree to which they are perceived as providing a “return” on invested societal resources. This “return” takes the form of scholarly products that help answer deep human questions or otherwise materially benefit members of the society whose resources they are. Such a view implies that disciplines exist in a “market” in which members compete for these limited resources by delivering products seen as valuable. In such a market, disciplinary relevance and survival are ultimately tied to decisions individual scholars practicing within the disciplines make about which research they pursue, the greater the perceived “return” the better for the long-term health of the discipline.     

The Council at Work

Abstract

The George J. Miller Award for Distinguished Service Committee has selected truly “A Person for all Seasons.” The recipient of this year's award favors the tropics, but has had rich experiences in the middle and high latitudes as well. The approach to geographic analysis which this year's recipient espouses has a rough but recognizable parallel in De Bello Gallico: “Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres” (referring, obviously, to the recipient's A-V-T association). Although never a general—and here I presume Julius Caesar was—this person has chaired, ruled, flown, edited, directed, presided, superintended—and in each case earned a title appropriate to the service. But in two distributaries of endeavor where much of the time no formal title is granted, this year's award recipient has truly excelled: serving the profession and teaching students.     

Shrinking ‘Smart’?: Urban Redevelopment and Shrinkage in Youngstown,Ohio

Abstract

This article analyzes the impact of the much-heralded Youngstown 2010 Plan and the enacting of a program of “controlled” or “managed” shrinkage. It is argued that while the program of redevelopment has had an impact on Youngstown and its national image, it represents an exclusionary project that has centered on redeveloping downtown areas and neglected many city neighborhoods which continue to experience high levels of unemployment, vacancy, and crime. The analysis is situated in relation to the contemporary literature on “shrinking cities.” Youngstown's experience raises critical questions regarding the nature of the challenges facing shrinking cities, the constraints on actions available to them due to state and federal funding, and the coherence of the concept of “smart shrinkage.”     

Twenty-Second European Congress of the Regional Science Association

Abstract

In his article, “Whither Geography?,” Jay R. Harman raised a number of important issues regarding the nature and direction of geographic scholarship. In this response I critically address some of those issues and offer an alternative perspective. In doing so, I support Harman's desire for the discipline to “help answer deep human questions” but argue that rather than reinforce the vitality and legitimacy of the discipline, a market-based approach of the sort he advocates could instead potentially undermine such objectives and compromise disciplinary integrity by discouraging critical inquiry. While acknowledging the influence of “the market,” I defend a place for critical inquiry within the discipline.