Holiday in Cambodia: Perceived effects of a New Zealand high school international field trip on students

Using an exploratory case study approach, this research used semi‐structured interviews to investigate the motivations, expectations and experiences of high school students in New Zealand who travelled to Cambodia on a school supervised field‐trip. Findings suggest students are motivated by altruistic behaviour and the desire for unique experiences. Students had very high expectations, predicting the experience to be either life changing or incredibly important. Post‐trip interviews revealed that the volunteer work undertaken was perceived as positive and that experiences of poverty were challenging and influential. Finally, personal development and an increased sense of social responsibility were identified as important effects of the trip.     

Bringing globalization to the countryside: Special Economic Zones in India

Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are important vectors of neoliberal globalization in India. Despite facing widespread resistance against the proposed land acquisition for these zones, they are still being promoted across the country. We argue that the wealth redistribution to the country's elites and the fractured resistance movements enable neoliberalism and its practices to grow in the countryside. Using a private sector SEZ in Gurgaon as a case study, this article explores how special economic zoning, as a neoliberal policy, has been implicated in the spatialized production of poverty. We also show that the main actors who promote neoliberalism in India (the state and the large‐scale urban private sector) have found a seemingly unlikely ally in rural India in the form of farmers with large landholdings, rural elites who are willing to let go of their land under certain conditions. The data for the article was collected in India in 2009–10.     

‘Census Towns’ in India and what it means to be ‘urban’: Competing epistemologies and potential new approaches

The classification of 2 532 new settlements in the Census of India 2011 as ‘urban’, and specifically as ‘Census Towns’, has brought small and emerging urban centres back into the purview of urban studies and urban development in India. Taking this to be a point of entry, this article seeks to explore how the urban has been framed and approached from different and competing epistemological standpoints in the Indian context. First, it attempts to outline the different epistemologies of the urban in India, which may be seen as competing traditions because of the unequal stakes they have claimed so far in public and policy discourse. Then, it presents two brief case studies of Census Towns from the state of West Bengal to put forth new questions in this regard. The case studies illustrate significant gaps and discrepancies between the lived experience of the urban and its representation in dominant epistemological frameworks such as the official census. I argue that the historical development of various settlement systems, which constitutes the core narrative of urbanization in India, cannot be understood in all its complexity through mere census extracts or aerial images, but requires engagement with rich, embedded epistemologies that have taken shape within these settlements.     

Late Quaternary geomorphic evolution of the lower Narmada valley, Western India: implications for neotectonic activity along the Narmada–Son Fault

Geomorphic data combined with stratigraphic studies provide significant information to constrain timing and amount of fault movement. The lower Narmada valley lies astride the Narmada–Son Fault (NSF), an important ENE–WSW-trending tectonic element responsible for the current intraplate seismicity being experienced in the central part of the Indian plate. Varying nature and degree of tectonic movements along the NSF during Late Pleistocene and Holocene have produced four geomorphic surfaces in the lower Narmada valley: the alluvial plain (S₁), ravine surface (S₂), a gravelly fan surface (S₃) and the valley fill terrace surface (S₄). Two major phases of tectonic movements in a compressive stress regime are recorded along the NSF: slow synsedimentary subsidence of the basin during Late Pleistocene due to differential movement, followed by inversion of the basin during the Holocene marked by differential uplift along the NSF. The study suggests that the inversion of the basin is in response to the significant increase in the intensity of compressive stresses in the Indian plate mainly during the Early Holocene. The present incisive drainage and recent seismic activity indicate that the compressive stresses continue to accumulate along the NSF due to continued northward movement of the Indian plate.     

Development of center pivot irrigation farmlands from 2009 to 2018 in the Mu Us dune field,China: Implication for land use planning

The Mu Us dune field in China has become a focal region for research of the prevention and control of desertification. Agricultural practices in this area have been modernized in recent years, evidenced by the development of Center Pivot Irrigation(CPI) farmlands.However, the impacts of CPI farmlands on combating desertification remain poorly understood. This study chose the southeastern part of the Mu Us dune field as a study area to investigate the variations of CPI farmlands from 2009 to 2018...     

基于Multi-Agent System的多尺度土地利用变化模型的构建与模拟

通过土地利用情景变化模型反映多尺度的土地利用现象,是学者们研究的焦点问题。本文基于MAS理论,构建从地块到村庄的多尺度土地利用变化模型,揭示微观层面不同尺度上土地利用变化的机制。应用该模型,以陕西省米脂县孟岔村为例进行研究,定量分析该村农户个体、农户群体和农户整体等不同尺度上的土地利用决策,并通过与2008年实际土地利用变化数据对比和分析,对构建的多尺度土地利用变化模型进行检验。通过分析,认为:(1)基于MAS的多尺度农户土地利用变化模型可较好地反映微观土地利用决策和空间的多尺度变化;(2)构建用 连续数值表示的农户土地利用决策与实际状况比较符合;(3) 本文为不同农户群体间的转化方法、农户间相互作用,以及市场与政策因素的作用等方面的研究打下坚实的基础。