Postbellum race relations in commodity exchange

A structural imperative of capital is to expand commodity exchange. To realize surplus value, capitalists not only have to exploit workers in the production process, but also make workers buy what they produce. This paper examines how this imperative of capital shaped race relations from the end of slavery through the Jim Crow era. The racism that sustained black slavery was highly exclusionary––a fixed racism that undermined this imperative of capital to expand commodity exchange. A more flexible racism would resolve this contradiction. Reconstruction was a move to erase all vestiges of the fixed racism that sustained slavery from relations of commodity exchange. Jim Crow countered with a more flexible racism that maintained the racial status quo but was less of a barrier to blacks participating in commodity exchange in the consumption process.     

The favelas of Rio de Janeiro: A temporal and spatial analysis

A spatial and temporal analysis, at a city wide scale, is given of the main type of informal housing (favelas) in Rio de Janeiro. Rapid change in the number and distribution of favelas and their inhabitants (favelados) over time is seen as the outcome of two opposing sets of factors. Demand-led housing factors, including population growth and variations in levels of poverty in the city, have constantly outstripped the supply side of the housing equation where inadequate housing policies and investment, together with restricted building land have been characteristic. Added to these factors are a set of more specific developments which shape the favela geography, including the timing and location of urban redevelopment, favela eradication and recognition, transport development and access by the favelados to employment sources. Evidence shows that the contemporary distribution of favelas in the city does not conform to spatial models of this urban form, and that any interpretation of the Rio favelas, including their growth, development and diversity, needs to be space and time specific. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Multicriterial analysis in the investigation of favorable areas for edifications with shallow and deep foundations in the Municipality of Campos dos Goytacazes — Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The Municipality of Campos dos Goytacazes is located on the northern coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The city developed on a floodplain and as a consequence of this occupation it has experienced problems with the water table level, drainage system, soil carrying capacity and aquifers' contamination. The purpose of this paper was to accomplish a geological and environmental study, producing interpretive and derived geotechnical maps to analyze the degree of aptitudes or restrictions of the physical environment for urban expansion. In order to do this, the methodology of multicriterial analysis was used, combined with pedological indicators resulting in the elaboration of the Favorability Maps for Buildings (Shallow and Deep Foundations). The remote sensing tools, GIS and GPS, sped up the elaboration of the Information Plans. The maps generated in this work allow us to indicate problems in the physical environment serving as a guide to urbanization. It was verified that the city expands into unsuitable areas and it is recommended as areas for expansion those considered favorable in the outcomes of this research.     

Property-based redevelopment and gentrification: The case of Seoul, South Korea

The urban experiences of South Korea in times of its rapid urbanisation and economic growth show that wholesale redevelopment had been a dominant approach to urban renewal, leading to redevelopment-induced gentrification. This was led by a programme known as the Joint Redevelopment Programme, transforming urban space that was once dominated by informal settlements into high-rise commercial housing estates. This paper tries to explain how this approach was possible at city-wide scale in its capital city, Seoul. Through the examination of redevelopment processes in a case study neighbourhood, it puts forward three arguments. First, the development potential arising from the rent gap expansion through under-utilisation of dilapidated neighbourhoods provided material conditions for the sustained implementation of property-based redevelopment projects. Second, this paper critically examines the dynamics of socio-political relations among various property-based interests embedded in redevelopment neighbourhoods, and argues that external property-based interests have enabled the full exploitation of development opportunities at the expense of poor owner-occupiers and tenants. Third, South Korea had been noted for its strong developmental state with minimum attention to redistributive social policies. The Joint Redevelopment Programme in Seoul was effectively a market-oriented, profit-led renewal approach, in line with a national housing strategy that favoured increased housing production and home-ownership at the expense of local poor residents’ housing needs.     

The urban geography of underdevelopment: a case of petty commodity production

The study in urban geography of underdevelopment has serious inadequacies although there are numerous studies on unemployment, housing, transportation and poverty problems of the city in underdeveloped societies. Urban petty commodity production (a group of activities normally seen as lying outside the principal spheres of large-scale production in underdeveloped economies), for example, has been the focus of development economics and geography in the last two decades but the specific problem of appropriation of urban landscape by this group of activities, which in turn reproduce and transform the landscape has, at the very best, been only partially and indirectly addressed. This paper deals with this problem with particular reference to material derived from fieldwork in the Turkish city of Bursa.     

Population density pattern and change in the City of Riyadh,Saudi Arabia

This paper examines and assesses changes in the population density pattern in the city of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia where the city has undergone dramatic changes in its physical as well as its social structure. Analysis of data revealed a decline in population density at an exponential rate from the city center with variation between city sectors and zones. The city's rapid horizontal expansion and dispersal of population is the result of factors such as increases in city population and in size and number of single family dwellings, widing of streets, rise in income and residential mobility rates, mass use of automobile, change in family size, zoning regulations, leapfrogging, and huge governmental city development projects. The resulting low population density pattern made it difficult for city officials to provide necessary services and facilities for the dispersed residential development. This paper recommends that city officials make real efforts and workable programs to stop or slow this uneconomical growth by improving quality of life in the central areas to make them residentially desirable by some city residents and reduce the high residential turnover the central area has experienced in last years, and to centralize peripheral growth by planning for self-sufficient satellite communities in outer areas.     

Population density pattern and change in the city of Riyadh,Saudi Arabia

"This paper examines and assesses the changes in the population density pattern in the city of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia where the city has undergone dramatic changes in its physical as well as its social structure. Analysis of data revealed a decline in population density at an exponential rate from the city center with variation between city sectors and zones. The city's rapid horizontal expansion and dispersal of population is the result of factors such as increases in city population and in size and number of single family dwellings, widening of streets, rise in income and residential mobility rates, mass use of automobiles, change in family size, zoning regulations, leapfrogging, and huge governmental city development projects."     

A review of recent urban geographic studies in India

This paper reviews the changing nature of the growing specialized trends of urban geography in India since independence, with a particular emphasis to the 1980s and early 1990s. Urban geography has emerged as a major academic sub-field in India with active researchers at its frontier. The 1980s and early 1990s are characterized by a diversified and growing trend of specialization both in inter-urban and intra-urban research in urban geography. This diversification is most clear and pronounced in intra-urban studies where the emphasis is directed towards socio-cultural aspects of the city. Conversely, inter-urban research is concerned both with analysis of patterns and trends of macro level urbanization and the processes. Although model building is in its infancy, a few static, deterministic, probabilistic and dynamic models have been constructed. There has been severe limitations in the use of computers in India, particularly the large-frame ones, so the researcher there cannot use the large scale data on national level.     

Labour struggles and the formation of demands: The spatial politics of Red Clydeside

This paper combines labour history and labour geography through an analysis of the making of labour demands in Glasgow during the early twentieth century. The paper asserts how revisiting histories such as Red Clydeside reveals complexities within labour movements and links to more recent debates within labour geography. Archival research provides a relational account of the place-based politics of Glasgow that emerged during the forty hours movement in 1919. This allows the paper to juxtapose the broader international linkages forged by Scottish workers alongside racialised hostilities within the city. In particular, the paper compares and contrasts the progressive internationalism of the strike newspaper with the Broomielaw race riot between local and foreign sailors during the same month as the strike. This comparison also raises the longer-term trajectories of labour grievances to foreground the ambivalent and contested nature of labour demands, identities and histories. In particular, the paper pays close attention to contrasting practices of labour internationalism emerging from the relevant archives. This historical approach makes a broader contribution to debates within labour geography by engaging with the complexities and tensions of labour organising and demand making.     

The relocation of Nigeria's Federal Capital: A device for greater territorial integration and national unity

As an important feature in the political geography of a country, the location of the capital of a state is of great significance especially as any geographical forces which have affected the political history of a country reach their most intensive expression in the choice of site for the development of the capital city. The decision to relocate it is usually an exceedingly tough one to make and difficult to follow up. In the post-colonial era, Nigeria like many newly independent African States inherited a capital which is central in respect of international trade but eccentric in relation to the country's administrative and cultural hinterlands. Lagos is a typical example. Although the city continues to function as the federal capital, a new site has been selected for its relocation prompted by administrative and political considerations, physical limitations, and the numerous problems resulting from excessive concentration of the nation's resource there. It is hoped that the new site in the country's geometric centre will bring a long-dormant region into effective settlement by spurring a central migration that will open new agricultural frontiers, create a more equitable distribution of population and above all foster the growth of a core region in and around which the state idea could develop.     

A GIS framework for evaluating the implications of urban road network failure due to earthquakes: Bucharest (Romania) case study

Through this paper we propose and test a GIS framework that addresses the issue of seismic risk due to urban road network failure. The approach relies on full GIS integration, on Monte Carlo simulations for generating potentially disrupted network configurations, considering also the damage probability due to direct earthquake implications, and on traffic considerations (both in typical and post-earthquake situations). The damage probability can be obtained using fragility functions for critical structures like bridges and tunnels or by determining empirically the possibility of affected buildings to generate debris leading to road obstruction. Multiple performance indicators such as travel time and distance under various conditions are combined, in order to quantify the risks inflicted by dysfunctionalities in the emergency intervention process. The framework considers at the same time temporal and spatial dimensions, being able to cope with traffic dynamics or reconfigurable network configurations. The ArcGIS Network Analyst Module is used for model integration, and full city scale analysis is performed in order to test the capabilities. Bucharest (capital of Romania) is selected for the case study; this 2 million inhabitant city is one of the most endangered in Europe, due to earthquakes that occur in the Vrancea Area, at intermediate depth, with moment magnitudes > 7, but also due to the vulnerable building stock. Beside this, it is one of Europe’s top cities when it comes to traffic congestion. The results of the study provide initial insights on the deficiencies of the city’s road network and connectivity limitations, showing the high impact of road obstructions and traffic congestion on intervention times, for ambulances and firefighters, in case of an earthquake.     

Reviewing urban revitalisation strategies in Rio de Janeiro: from urban project to urban management approaches

This paper describes key urban development strategies pursued during the last seven years by the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city in Brazil. It discloses internal processes, organisational restructuring of the municipality and institutional changes geared to increase effective urban management and resource mobilisation required to implement multiple sector programmes and key projects in several locations in the city like Favela Bairro and Rio Cidade Programmes, The Rio Strategic Plan, etc. It is argued that the formation of interdepartmental working groups for better horizontal articulation of policy making and implementation, the creation of the financial and accounting unit, the decentralisation of authority towards sub-municipality levels, and capacity strengthening of its personnel – among other things – have made a positive impact on the performance of local government. The paper further highlights a significant change towards policies of urban consolidation and revitalisation of declined areas of the city supported by heavy public investments and the effort towards broader civil society involvement in municipal projects. Municipal autonomy, problem-solving and result-oriented type of planning and management and organisational change are some of the lessons pinpointed by the paper for a city of that size and complexity.     

On geography as science

The paper attempts a preliminary exploration of some of the issues raised if we choose to account geography a “science”. The inherent equivocation of the notion of “science” is first examined, and the methodological implications are emphasised, leading into a brief consideration of inductivism and deductivism; it is concluded that deductivism, despite some valid questions which hang over it, represents the more secure methodological framework, and some of the implications of this conclusion for geographical study in general are explored. The importance of deductivism in physical geography is then considered, and the special problems of human geography are also examined, notably the significance of human volition and of value judgments in social, economic and cultural geography. The methodological implications of human perception are also reviewed. Regional geography is then briefly evaluated, and the possibilities of applying techniques of systems analysis to its problems are developed, viewing these techniques as a special phase of scientific method. Some issues relating to the notion of causality are then raised, with special reference to the crucial distinctions between the notion of causality in natural science and the related concept in historical study, and, by extension, in certain aspects of geography also. The paper concludes with a brief evaluation of the quantitative movement in geography, paying particular attention to the role of mathematics in science in general and in geography in particular.     

GIS and quantitative geography

The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of the GIS revolution within the field of geography in the 1980s and 1990s, taking into consideration the influence of external and internal factors on disciplinary change. Geography is rapidly changing by the impact of external factors on geographical research and also as a consequence of economic recession and cutbacks in higher education. Most geography departments in universities have tried to approach this impact by promoting or shifting to human geography as an applied science, and by offering relevant skills through GIS as an approach to contemporary problems. It is concluded that quantitative geography is essential for the further expansion of GIS within geography and also for the survival of geography. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

宝鸡市城市空间形态演化研究

合理选择宝鸡城市空间拓展方向,推动城市空间集约化发展,达到城市与区域生态协调发展.在大量查阅相关资料的基础上,运用定性描述和带形城市空间扩展理论进行探讨.宝鸡城市空间扩展分四个阶段,自然地理环境、经济发展水平及交通条件是驱动城市空间扩展演化的主要动力.城市空间拓展必须合理选择发展方向,通过交通及生态建设,实现市域城镇间...     

Source Parameters of Old Earthquakes: Semi-Automatic Digitization of Analog Records and Seismic Moment Assessment

Recovering seismic information contained in old analog records could increase our knowledge of seismic source characteristics and the seismicity of a region. This is particularly important in zones with low to moderate seismicity.To extract the available information, it is necessary to digitize the seismic records. This is not an easy task especially owing to the generally poor quality of the original records, with illegible or missing parts. However some exceptions were found in the records of a few seismological stations in Germany, Sweden and France.This paper presents an example of the recovering of source parameters and can be divided in two parts: the first one presents a simple semi-automatic technique for digitization of old analog seismic records, developed using commercial software on a PC; the second part describes the methodology of assessing the seismic moment, using empirical and theoretical relations, as well as the seismic source dimensions.The earthquake selected to illustrate this procedure is the 23 April 1909 Benavente (Portugal) earthquake. This earthquake occurred in the Lower Tagus Valley region and caused great destruction in the meizoseismal area. It is the biggest earthquake that occurred during this century in the central part of the country and its magnitude has been estimated between 6.6 and 7.6.The digitization procedure allowed the recovery of seismic information contained in old analog records, in particular, the seismic moment estimation. The results obtained indicated that 7.6 was a very high value for the magnitude of the 23 April 1909 earthquake, suggesting that the magnitude reported in the Portuguese catalogue is overestimated. The estimated moment magnitude is 6.0.     

Beyond ‘backwater’ island to global city vision? Rethinking feminist geographies for Singapore after Lee Kuan Yew

Feminist scholars have emphasised the central import of bringing feminist approaches into political geography, so as not to reify the global or the totalizing ambitions of political geography. However, the reification of the global is perhaps a pragmatic strategy for small places in a big world. Singapore is touted as the Asian development miracle; a Tiger Economy that has survived in spite of its small size and lack of natural resources. This year the man credited with its transformation from a backwater island-state to a global city-state, passed away. This is also the year that marks the 50th year of Singapore’s independence. In writing this review I analyse the overlap and synergies between the developmental goals of a newly independent state and the goals of the feminist movements. In particular, I maintain that the government’s push to transform Singapore into a global city from the late 1980s onwards, and its strategic use of Asian Family Values as the panacea for the threat of Westernisation have resulted in a more divided movement. Looking past the legacy of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, I ask how we may begin to reclaim feminist politics to stitch together the divided spaces produced by Singaporean state biopolitics. Through this exercise, this intervention contributes to feminist articulations on the problem spaces of feminism; and challenges the reification of the global by talking across multiple worlds that feminist politics inhabit.     

A GIS framework for evaluating the implications of urban road network failure due to earthquakes: Bucharest (Romania) case study

Through this paper we propose and test a GIS framework that addresses the issue of seismic risk due to urban road network failure. The approach relies on full GIS integration, on Monte Carlo simulations for generating potentially disrupted network configurations, considering also the damage probability due to direct earthquake implications, and on traffic considerations (both in typical and post-earthquake situations). The damage probability can be obtained using fragility functions for critical structures like bridges and tunnels or by determining empirically the possibility of affected buildings to generate debris leading to road obstruction. Multiple performance indicators such as travel time and distance under various conditions are combined, in order to quantify the risks inflicted by dysfunctionalities in the emergency intervention process. The framework considers at the same time temporal and spatial dimensions, being able to cope with traffic dynamics or reconfigurable network configurations. The ArcGIS Network Analyst Module is used for model integration, and full city scale analysis is performed in order to test the capabilities. Bucharest (capital of Romania) is selected for the case study; this 2 million inhabitant city is one of the most endangered in Europe, due to earthquakes that occur in the Vrancea Area, at intermediate depth, with moment magnitudes > 7, but also due to the vulnerable building stock. Beside this, it is one of Europe’s top cities when it comes to traffic congestion. The results of the study provide initial insights on the deficiencies of the city’s road network and connectivity limitations, showing the high impact of road obstructions and traffic congestion on intervention times, for ambulances and firefighters, in case of an earthquake.