Reviving old technology?: Rural handicraft production in Southern Africa

The imperative for expanding employment opportunities in manufacturing activities in the developing world has led to increasing attention being devoted to issues of small-scale industrialization. In the present paper one element of small-scale production little studied by geographers is examined, namely, the sphere of rural handicrafts. Against a background of a survey of contemporary debates on the development potential of rural handicrafts, an examination is pursued of the historical evolution and current situation of rural craft producers in Southern Africa. Issues of concern include the organization of rural producers, the nature of the production system and the differentiation among rural handicraft schemes in the region.     

Policy and implementation in rural planning

Although often critical of the results achieved by rural planners, research by geographers and others has for some time been constrained by an inability to isolate the precise impacts of planning procedures on rural areas. The notions of a technically solvable ‘implementation problem’ and a politically complex ‘policy problem’ are confronted here, and acknowledgement of the latter directs research into the realms of decision-making and policy-implementation iteration in rural areas. Key themes in the understanding of these matters are those of central-local state relations, inter-agency relations and public-private sector relations, all of which should figure prominently in any conceptualisation of policymaking and implementation in rural areas. One final factor which invites conceptual clarification is that of the specificity of rurality as a policy-moulding phenomenon. The idea is introduced of a ‘rural dimension’ which presents a spatial facade to aspatial structures and processes.     

Social justice and access to legal services: a geographical perspective

This paper discusses the theory, method and results of the Exeter Access to Justice in Rural Britain project which examined the question whether rural inhabitants are disadvantaged in terms of their access to legal services by comparison with people in urban areas. Analysis of the spatial distribution of solicitors in private practice in England and Wales revealed rural areas to be relatively well provided for. An interview survey of a random sample of solicitors in Devon and Cornwall showed some important differences between rural and urban solicitors, with the former being less specialized and more conservative in orientation. A parallel survey of managers of CABs, providing a limited legal service, also revealed some perceived differences between rural and urban bureaux and some spatial unevenness in distribution. Surveys of rural clients, supported by parallel studies elsewhere in Britain, suggest that remote rural communities harbour cases of considerable deprivation with respect to legal services.     

Extinguishing disaster in Alpine France: The fate of reforestation as technocratic debacle

In 19th-century France, concepts of alpine degradation formed the basis of ambitious state policies to reforest the Alps, Pyrenees, and Massif Central. Responding to the reality of large-scale flooding and to assumptions about the destructiveness of agro-pastoralism, both the Second-Empire and early Third-Republic regimes formulated legislation allowing for both voluntary and mandatory alpine reforestation projects. The latter regime's law of 1882 on the restoration and conservation of alpine lands was more conciliatory toward alpine agro-pastoralists; however, two case studies demonstrate that foresters attempted to overstep the limits of this more restrictive law. These actions conduced to rural protest which stymied the reforestation schemes. Although foresters could claim victory following the amended reforestation law of 1913, reduced budgets and a reduced forestry corps after World War One prevented its full implementation. Ultimately, geographers and some foresters revised scientific thinking about the history of deforestation, alpine ecology, and the place of humans in the mountains.     

Publication practices in physical and human geography: a comment on Nigel Thrift’s ‘The future of geography’

This note expands on, and in some respects challenges, the distinction Thrift (Geoforum 33 (2002) 291) makes between the publication practices of young human and physical geographers. Evidence on highly-cited papers by eminent British geographers is used to suggest that human geographers have been publishing mainly in human-geography journals, but physical geographers in a wider range of outlets, for at least two decades; and that the most influential papers of all, human or physical, have generally been in multi- or inter-disciplinary journals. Publication in ‘non-geographical’ journals is desirable since it helps geographers have a wider impact. Conversely, the discipline is harmed if influential outsiders perceive geographers as only concerned with internal debates and seeking to impress each other.     

Risk, rescue and emergency services: The changing spatialities of Mountain Rescue Teams in England and Wales

This paper considers the role of the emergency services in society and, in particular, their role in controlling, mitigating and resolving risk. Using a network approach, Mountain Rescue Teams are studied in order to examine how people, agencies, animals, technology and knowledge are deployed to resolve emergencies. The paper traces the changing nature of risk in rural places and the impact of state regulation on the deployment, spatialities and practices of the emergency services. In doing so, it argues that greater attention should be paid to the emergency services by geographers.     

‘Public intellectuals’, geography, its representations and its publics

Recent years have seen academic geographers engaged in a series of debates over the current state of the discipline, its ‘relevance’ to others in the social sciences, to policy-makers, and to those studying geography at school age. This short critical review builds upon an issue raised in this journal [Thrift, N., 2002. The future of geography. Geoforum 33, 291–298], namely the role of geographers as public intellectuals. After reviewing the different ways in which the notion of public intellectuals has been understood, the paper turns to geography’s representations and to its publics. The paper concludes by arguing for an appreciation of the full range of ways in which geographers call forth publics through a range of representational strategies. It suggests that regardless of how geographers perform publicly and intellectually, two things are perhaps worth remembering: it is in the interest of geographers to name what they do as geography and to name themselves as geographers.     

On the role of evidence in physical and human geography

While physical geographers are united in a commitment to the scientific method with its emphasis on quantitative evidence, human geographers face a dilemma in deciding whether to adopt a scientific or humanistic approach in their research. The scientific approach offers a more secure, objective knowledge, but limits the scholar to a relatively narrow range of topics. The humanistic approach allows the scholar to explore a wide range of human experiences, but it lacks rigorous procedures of objective verification. The difficulty of the application of theoretical ideas to human societies can, to some extent, be avoided by adopting an historical approach, with an emphasis on the empirical investigation of human activity as a reflection of ideas. As long as human geographers have a commitment to basing their interpretations of geographical phenomena on objective evidence the possibility of a profitable co-operation exists among proponents of different philosophical approaches. A unified human geography embracing scholars of diverse views depends for its success on the identification of geographical problems that transcend philosophical and theoretical points of view.     

Post-positivist social geography

Although positivist methodology has been used so extensively in social geography, it is non widely recognized that it is inadequate for describing and understanding social processes as a whole because it eschews cultural values. The behavioural reaction recognized this but still used positivist methodology. Methods may reflect scale, a macro-approach demanding a positivist approach, a micro analysis being more qualitative. Applying both to problems of assimilation in an American ethnic group revealed different processes, both necessary for a full understanding.Aggregate methods and generalized models of man go part of the way only. The quantitative/macro approach must be supplemented by the qualitative/micro. A further departure has been a recognition that social geographers must look at society's needs. Involvement in social processes and policy making is accepted by most. Whether the answer is interpreted by a liberal/concensus approach, or by a radical/revolutionary, is for the individual to decide.Finally, as geographers, social geographers cannot ignore the significance of place and region, whose specificity is sometimes critical in our perception of problems and answers.     

Towards a normative concept of settlements: the development process and theoretical and conceptual problems in the “Lower limb”

This paper critically evaluates theories of settlement pattern and change which have commonly been employed by geographers. Those discussed include central place, growth pole and modernization theories, as well as notions of settlements as a product of adaptation to environmental conditions, as central places, or as nodes of retail distribution. In all instances criticism centres on the applicability of those notions to the African rural scene. It is suggested that not only are most concepts inappropriate in this context, but they are also partial and historically relative. More suitable, normative concepts of settlements and settlement systems are suggested.     

Aims and implementation in British urban and regional planning

Failure to fully understand or recognise crucial but culturally-determined British dimensions has led to confusion and error even among the British geographers in understanding and contributing to, urban and regional planning. This point assumes more rather than less significance in the context of a discussion between British and Soviet geographers. This paper therefore examines in part one, three fundamental features of the British system of urban and regional planning and then proceeds in part two to focus on the aims and their implementation. It concludes with a reference to the nature of the relationship between planning and geography.     

Policies for rural Eastern Europe in transition: The case of Slovakia

After losing much of their demographic vitality under communism, rural areas of Eastern Europe are now handicapped by greatly reduced commuting opportunities and by a lack of foreign investment in the countryside. Although restitution and privatisation has placed much of the land under the control of private farmers, there is a need to modernise agriculture and rural infrastructure generally and also to increase the scope for pluriactivity. At the same time, functional links with the towns must be restored through a growth of employment linked with the central place system. Despite the importance of private enterprise under the conditions of a market economy, the government must take a lead and this paper deals with initiatives taken in rural Slovakia to mobilise the human resources of the countryside. The paper is heavily oriented towards research by the geographers at Nitra who have been much involved with the transformation of their local area. It is evident that while there has been no shortage of ideas, progress has been limited on account of low investment and the tensions associated with a series of three Meciar governments which have dominated Slovak politics through the 1990s. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Capitalist homoficience,the frontier and uneven development in Southern Africa

Frontier studies continue to be compromised by a double inadequacy. While geographers mistakenly cling to obsolete models of frontier process, those who have adopted a more progressive interactionist definition have difficulty conceptualizing the components and dimensions of interaction. The conceptual framework suggested by the literature on the articulation of modes of production is proposed as a partial resolution of the problem. Discarding the abstract and problematical notion of the mode of production as a useful tool for concrete analysis, attention is focused on the concepts and hypotheses suggested by the notion of articulation. It is proposed that in southern Africa, at least, this concept offers geographers a way forward which will circumvent the difficulties currently being experienced by the predominantly liberal interactionist school.     

Mobile bodies: Animal migration in North American history

North Americans have had a profound affect on wildlife, especially migratory animals such as elk, bison, salmon, and many species of birds. Migration is a vital adaptation for these and other species. Yet despite this importance and the myriad ways in which people have influenced and understood migration, environmental geographers have devoted scant attention to it. This paper examines the role of animal migration in North American history. North Americans have affected and managed animal migrants in six primary ways: transforming migrant habitats; harvesting migrants; obstructing and facilitating migrants; working across borders; visualizing migrants; and accepting and resisting migrants. I examine these different aspects of animal migration history in North America and end with a discussion of how other geographers such as environmental historical geographers, political ecologists, and animal geographers can employ this framework.     

The study of tourism in Britain — a geographical perspective

Conclusion This review must be seen alongside others which have attempted to explore the relationship between geography (and geographers) and the study of leisure and recreation (Coppock 1980, 1982a). It serves to confirm the wide-ranging and diverse contribution that geographers have made in this field and the ways in which the study of tourism has reflected developments in the wider discipline. It also confirms the very close and intimate connection between studies of tourism and social and economic policy in Britain and indicates the way in which geographers have attempted to shape policy and have in turn been influenced by the needs and demands of policymakers. The rewards of such interaction are clear and yet costs have also been incurred by the academic geographic community. Not the least of these costs is that tourism studies have been predominantly of an empirical nature and conceptual and theoretical advance has inevitably tended to lag behind these empirical investigations. It is to be hoped that the study of the geography of tourism, having now demonstrated its credentials to policymakers and decision-makers alike, can secure for itself a more central place within geographic teaching and research so that these lacunae can be remedied.     

Experiencing agricultural failure: Internal migration, tourism and local perceptions of regional change in the Yucatan

In response to a growing body of literature encouraging geographers to present textured, regional case studies that demonstrate how neoliberalism functions at diverse scales, this article presents a nuanced account of neoliberalism in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. The study seeks to illustrate how neoliberal reforms to agriculture and ongoing neoliberal tourism development in the Yucatecan state of Quintana Roo intersect to create a unique regional context for migration between the state’s rural areas and Mexico’s largest planned tourism development zone in Cancun. The research presented is based on a series of in-depth qualitative interviews that took place in 2003 with rural residents and regional migrants working in Cancun. Through the employment of an experiential definition of neoliberalism, grounded in the lived experiences and perceptions of study participants, the article suggests that rural-urban tourist pole migration is the result of a complex negotiation of the region’s neoliberal landscape. The article argues that rural residents’ and migrants’ perceptions of the failure of agriculture as a livelihood is shaped relative to the perceived success of the tourism industry and better livelihood opportunities in Cancun. These widespread perceptions of agricultural failure in the Yucatan peninsula are constructed not solely in response to local conditions but rather in response to the overall regional outcome of neoliberal economic restructuring initiatives which have negatively affected traditional agriculture in the rural sphere while privileging tourism development in the urban sphere centered in Cancun.     

The status of geography in Saudi universities with special reference to King Saud University

Although there are several departments and subdepartments of geography in Saudi universities and other institutions, these departments have so far failed to produce professionals who are capable of filling the posts offered by the employers in both the public and private sectors. This paper suggests that since the demand for geography graduates with general training is rather low at presents, it is time for geography departments to turn to professionalism in the field so that geography graduates can compete favourably for the available posts. This calls for a new look into the geography curriculum, particularly at university level with a view of improving the skills and aptitude of geographers to assume a more positive role in the process of development. The paper also calls for the regional specialisation of geography departments in Saudi Arabia as a step forward towards solving the existing job problem for geography graduates, as well aas underlining the involvement and commitment of geographers to issues of development at the local, regional and national scales.     

Urban-rural relationships in India: a macro-scale approach using population potentials

The urban system in India is the product of a long and complex history and the urban-rural dichotomy is marked. While urban India is often viewed as ‘modern’ and ‘commercial’, rural India is generally characterised as myopic, backward and traditional. The diffusion of a modern commercial sector into traditionally agricultural areas is seen to be slow because of the lack of small sized towns, and many of the major cities are viewed as the centres of introverted economic systems. This paper seeks to examine these aspects of urban-rural relationships and levels of development in India at two scales, the national and the district. The national scale study analyses the urban and rural components of population potential surfaces. The study at the district level uses similar data, but at a finer scale, and in addition considers potentials of retail trade which gives a clearer illustration of ‘importance’ than population data alone. Several innovations in technique are discussed. The paper concludes with some general methodological comments about the nature of location as perceived by geographers.     

The geography of tourism in France: definition,scope and themes

Conclusions The substantial body of literature produced in the last two decades bears witness to the marked development of the geography of tourism in France over this period. This research has been strongly influenced by traditional geographic thought and is notable for the logic which underlies it. At the same time much remains to be done, with various avenues for future research being suggested in this paper. French geographers might also look increasingly outwards and to the work of others. By considering new and different methodologies, theories and fields of interest, the conceptual base of the subject might be enlarged and a more systematic approach developed. This need is keenly felt and this opening up is starting to occur, particularly through the exchange of ideas with foreign geographers at meetings of the national or international (IGU) commissions on the geography of tourism.     

Human behaviour and disease hazards: Spatial perspectives on rural health

Human behaviour in a given society and environment can result in behaviour-associated increases or decreases in local disease hazard. Following the concepts of health researchers Jacques May, E.N. Pavlovsky, J. Ralph Audy, and Frederick Dunn and the geographer Torsten Hägerstrand, the identity and spatial distribution of infectious disease hazards generated by normative behaviour of rural-dwelling Ethiopians are delineated. Graphic illustrations represent an Ethiopian highland village environment by a cross section of contact habitat cells. For Ethiopia, the probable disease hazards brought about by human behaviour associate with specific cells of this spatial cross section. The conclusion portrays the utility of identification by geographers of the spatial aspects of these human-generated hazards for improved programs of rural development in Third World areas.

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