Employment Structure and the Environment in Cape Coast, Ghana

The relationships between poverty, population growth and government policy in the creation of poor sanitary environments in low income residential areas are discussed. In recent years, the implementation of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries has had the effect of shrinking the formal/modern sectors and expanding the informal sector. While small scale informal sector activities have dominated Cape Coast's economic base for a long time, the contraction of the formal sector resulting from structural adjustment conditionalities has engendered a disproportionate growth of the informal sector. This paper examines the environmental implications on an urban economy (Cape Coast) dominated by informal sector activities. It shows how the low pay associated with available employment reduces the ability of the municipal authority to promote urban development especially environmental health on the basis of taxes alone.     

SMALL‐SCALE INDUSTRY AS A SPONGE? EMPIRICAL SURVEY IN THE CENTRAL REGION,GHANA

It has been posited that small‐scale industry – businesses with less than 30 workers – provides a large share of employment and income in Ghana. This paper examines the proposition that while such enterprises in the informal sector are said to act as a sponge to soak up surplus labour in marginal activities, they are unprofitable. Using data from a survey in 1998 of 175 micro and small‐scale enterprises in the Central Region of Ghana, the paper also confirms problematic aspects of employment in this sector including the lack of formal contracts, irregular pay, low remuneration, non‐existent social protection and only marginal employment growth. The implication is that the small‐scale industry sector is not economically sustainable in its present form in Ghana.     

Globalization,economic crisis and Africa's informal economy women workers

The processes of globalization and debt crisis led to dramatic changes in African countries. In the context of a new economic crisis – now on a global scale – it is useful to revisit debates regarding the impact of earlier policies in response to economic crisis on the poor, with a focus on very low‐income informal women workers. In this paper, we adopt a gender analysis framework to examine contending perspectives about the differential impacts of globalization, liberalization and structural adjustment programs on African women and men. We comment on two predominant schools of thought that appear to underlie and define the majority of case studies situated in African countries. While one asserts that globalization and liberalization offer entrepreneurial opportunities for women, an opposing view contends that the neoliberal political and economic reforms connected with structural adjustment policies have been devastating for poor women workers. A review of available empirical research on the responses of informal economy women workers to challenges of increased workload, reduced income and curtailed access to social services, cautions against dogmatic adherence to conceptual perspectives that either assume workers in the informal economy to be dynamic entrepreneurs when they cannot be, or condemn only contemporary policies for conditions that are the product of complex historical processes.     

沈阳市部门企业地理集聚与城市结构

基于产业空间聚集分布情况探寻城市结构特征,是当前大都市区实证研究中的聚焦点所在,但由于方法论的限制而无法真正揭示产业地理集聚之间的内在关联性。基于已有研究基础,试图通过完善潜力模型、设置距离参数、结合主成分分析法实现对产业地理集聚测度方法论的完善与发展,并选取极具代表性大都市区核心城市——沈阳市为样本单元,以2008年的经济普查部门企业数据开展实证检验。结果表明：沈阳市部门企业之间除了交通运输、仓储和邮政中心产业属于地方化经济外,其余的均为企业关联;水利、环境和公共设施管理业产业依附于制造业呈临街抑或隔街集聚,而与公共管理和组织产业之间同街道集聚;支配主角之间,存在中心CBD主宰制造业的布局,而制造业又在很大程度上影响着交通运输、仓储和邮政中心的布局;企业地理集聚形成的城市结构依然是一个明显的“单中心圈层”结构,没有表现出“去中心化”抑或多极化或分散化演变趋势。研究成果与现实情况基本吻合,侧面说明该模式对揭示城市产业地理集聚模式以及由此形成的城市结构特征具有一定的解释力。     

我国空间运输联系的实验研究：以货流为例

本文从实证分析入手,探讨了影响我国空间运输联系的因素和各种运输方式在空间运输联系中的作用;系统分析了省级区域以实物交流形成的外在依存关系和彼此间关联关系、大区向货运联系的特征和发展趋势;提出了首位联系的概念并用其分析了省级区域运输联系的空间组合特征,验证了传统经济协作区的存在基础和内外联系特征。     

Australian ports,metropolitan areas and trade‐related services

One important service carried out in Australian port cities and metropolitan areas involves the organisation of the transport of goods from producers for export, and for delivery to importers. This paper examines the activities that are involved in those links, grouped under the heading of trade‐related services. Data assembled on the location of these services in Australia, together with a study of a sample of firms, indicates their location is influenced by networks and linkages between firms; services are not necessarily located in the busiest port, but rather in the city with the most diverse service sector. This result illustrates the selectivity in location that is typical of producer services, and has important consequences for the role and influence of cities. It is illustrated in the paper with reference to Melbourne and Sydney.     

Knowledge absorption of optical technology companies in Shanghai, Pudong: Successes, barriers and structural impediments

Knowledge absorption theories argue that technologically less advanced companies (latecomer firms) can substantially upgrade their knowledge base through active knowledge absorption. These theories view knowledge absorption as a stepwise process which includes a linkage phase, a leverage phase and a learning phase (LLL concept). Case studies in Taiwan and Korea have shown that latecomer firms can indeed follow this approach and catch-up technologically with advanced firms. This paper aims to discuss the relevance of the LLL concept in China using the example of Optical Technology (OT). It reveals that the concept is not universally applicable. In the case of China, the ownership of companies determines successes and failures of strategies for increasing knowledge absorption. Private firms face substantial difficulties in establishing the necessary linkages; the upgrading of foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) is controlled by their parent companies. This result has implications for theoretical concepts of learning and innovation in China, as well as for policy.     

Current Convenience,Desperate Deforestation: Ghana's AdjustmentProgram and the Forestry Sector

Since the early 1980s, most Sub-Saharan African countries have resorted to structural adjustment programs to reform their ailing economies. Adjustment, however, may provide a convenient means for governments of the adjusting economies and international capital to meet their current economic and political interests, usually by sacrificing the physical environment, with huge environmental costs for the adjusting country. This paper uses Ghana's forestry sector, which has been characterized by a dramatic increase in woodexports since adjustment, to demonstrate a direct link between adjustment and environmental destruction. Ghana's dramatic increase in wood exports, involving a rapid and extensive deforestation, results from the government's need to meet its increasing external debt service obligations, and is exacerbated by the series of massive local currency devaluation required under adjustment “to get prices right.” The systematic reduction in government revenue from devaluation to amortize the increasing debts, keeps the government and indebted wood processing firms on a treadmill of export-based extraction/deforestation.     

大连市海洋渔业集群空间格局演化与企业区位选择

全球化时代是发展海洋经济的时代,海洋渔业是海洋经济的重要部门,是深耕蓝色国土的重要一步.以典型海洋城市大连市为案例,基于海洋渔业企业视角研究海洋渔业产业,建立海洋渔业企业数据库,运用核密度方法分析大连市海洋渔业企业的空间格局演化规律,建立回归模型重点分析了 2011-2018年海产加工企业在区位选择时的影响因素.结果表...     

Fluvial architecture in actively deforming salt basins: Chinle Formation,Paradox Basin,Utah

Determining the response of fluvial systems to syn‐sedimentary halokinesis is important for reconstructing the palaeogeography of salt basins, determining the history of salt movement and predicting development and architecture of sandstone bodies for subsurface fluid extraction. To assess both the influence of salt movement on fluvial system development and the use of lithostratigraphic correlation schemes in salt basins we have analysed the Triassic Chinle Formation in the Paradox Basin, Utah. Results indicate that sandstone body development proximal to salt bodies should be considered at two scales: intra‐ (local) and inter‐ (regional) mini‐basin scale. At the intra‐mini basin or local scale, conformable packages of up to 12 m deep meandering fluvial channel deposits and associated overbank deposits are developed, which may thin, pinch‐out or become truncated towards salt highs. When traced down the axis of a mini‐basin, individual stories extend for a few hundred metres, and form part of amalgamated channel‐belt packages up to 60 m thick that can be traced for at least 25 km parallel to palaeoflow. Where salt movement outpaces sediment accumulation, progressive low angle unconformities are developed along the flanks of salt highs. Significantly, in mini‐basins with high sand supply, sandstone bodies are present across salt highs where they show increased amalgamation, decrease in thickness due to truncation and no change in internal sandstone body character. At inter mini‐basin or regional scale, spatial and temporal variations in accommodation space generated by differential salt movement strongly influence facies distributions and facies correlation lengths. Broad lithostratigraphic packages (5–50 m thick) can be correlated within mini‐basins, but correlation of these units between adjacent mini‐basins is problematic. Knowledge of fluvial system development at a regional scale is critical as, fluvial sediment distribution is focussed by topography generated by growing salt bodies, such that adjacent mini‐basins can have significant differences in sandstone body thickness, distribution and lateral extent. The observations from the Chinle Formation indicate that lithostratigraphic‐based correlation schemes can only be applied within mini‐basins and cannot be used to correlate between adjacent mini‐basins or across a salt mini‐basin province. The key to predicting sandstone body development is an understanding of the timing of salt movement and reconstructing fluvial drainage system development.     

Temporal Extensions of Landscape Ecology Theory and Practice: Examples from the Peruvian Amazon*

The growing overlap between geographic information science (GIScience) and landscape ecology for landscape characterization has led to increasingly sophisticated measures of landscape site and situation. Scale, both temporal and spatial, has been injected into methodologies to improve our ability to derive process from pattern with the hope of defining, monitoring, and modeling ecological landscape function. This article addresses an evolving methodology of longitudinal or panel analysis designed to test the relative importance of thematic versus structural landscape configuration as well as interannual versus intra‐annual change. Landscape typologies for both temporal signature and dominant structural trajectories are offered as guideposts for rethinking dynamic landscape characterization. A case study from the Peruvian Amazon is provided to illustrate interpretive advances available via panel methods that allow for disentangling inter‐ and intra‐annual shifts as well as separating changes in composition versus configuration for improved understanding of landscape dynamics and dynamism.     

Chained to Development? Livelihoods and global value chains in the coffee-producing Toraja region of Indonesia

ABSTRACT

A popular rural development strategy in recent years has been through the adoption of what has been widely called a ‘value chain approach’, where improved linkages between small producers in underdeveloped rural communities and ‘lead firms’ constitute the foundations for development interventions. Whilst the global value-chain framework can deliver insights into the broad structural processes shaping livelihood possibilities, the adoption of value chains as a development strategy tends to disregard the complexity of smallholder livelihoods that shape poverty alleviation pathways in different contexts. The relationships between global value chains, development interventions, and rural livelihoods are explored in this article through a case study of smallholder coffee farming in the Toraja region of Indonesia. In this case, value-chain interventions in the coffee sector are unlikely to significantly contribute to improved rural welfare due to the diversified reality of local livelihoods, the nuances of how coffee production is embedded within Torajan culture and economy, and excellent prevailing market opportunities. The livelihood framework, therefore, provides an important corrective for the sometimes excessive optimism presented by advocates of a value-chain approach to rural development.     

The Changing Geography of Export Trade in Ghana under Structural Adjustment Programs: Some Socioeconomic and Spatial Implications

Like many other countries in Africa, Ghana has traditionally depended on a few export products—namely, cocoa, timber, and mineral resources—as the mainstays of its economy. The often‐volatile nature of the world market price of these products made the economy very vulnerable to fluctuations in the prices of export commodities. Moreover, the geographical distribution of these resources meant that only a few regions could participate in their production and export. This resulted in wide spatial and socioeconomic disparities between the producing and nonproducing regions. Within the past eighteen years, however, a shift seems to have taken place. Under the auspices of the ongoing structural adjustment programs, emphasis is being placed on nontraditional export goods. This is not only helping to reduce the vulnerability of the economy by diversifying the sources of export earnings, but also engendering participation in the export trade by regions that have been traditionally left behind. This study analyses the changing geography of the export trade of Ghana using data from the International Monetary Fund/World Bank, the Ghanaian government, the World Trade Organization, and field observation. The study argues that while these new trends and efforts are laudable, they cannot bridge the gap between the export producing and nonproducing areas and cushion the economy against the vagaries of the export market unless deliberate attempts are made to improve transportation and other basic infrastructure in the less‐endowed areas.     

Employment change in Tasmanian manufacturing, 1980–1985: an enterprise‐based approach

Regionally‐based employment studies must place greater emphasis upon the specific processes taking place within and between firms which lead to employment change. The present study, using an enterprise‐based approach, examines employment change within Tasmania's manufacturing sector between 1980 and 1985. Restructuring taking place within the state's larger resource‐based firms is compared with the role of small indigenous firms in terms of their employment implications. Analysis suggests that future employment growth is least likely to come from the large resource‐based industries which, nevertheless, will continue to employ a major share of Tasmania's manufacturing workforce. Most employment growth since 1980 has come from the state's small indigenous firms which sell their products primarily within the local region. Given the limited Tasmanian market, the potential for continued employment growth within the indigenous firm sector largely depends on these firms’ improved export performances in mainland and overseas markets.     

Small Business Establishment Profiles and Rapid Population Growth in Sunbelt Metropolitan Areas, 1995-2005

This study investigates a linkage between rapid population growth in the Sunbelt's metropolitan areas (MSAs) and characteristics of small-scale businesses. Many Sunbelt MSAs are experiencing relatively rapid employment growth that also fuels population growth, and such linkages could well be related to especially potent employment multiplier effects associated with small firms. Using data from the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) for 2000, relative concentrations of small-scale establishments in rapidly growing Sunbelt MSAs are described and classified by type. Size of MSA appears to be an important factor in supporting higher- and/or lower-order activities, as proposed by the basic principles of central place theory. In contrast, some of the slowest growing Snowbelt MSAs show a lack of small businesses in key economic sectors, particularly quaternary activities, and their economies continue to be dominated by location-specific industries, such as mining.     

Macroregional economic integration in Southeast Asia: AFTA and the automobile industry from a Thai perspective

Cross‐border automobile production and trade is still subject to regulations and restrictions in developed as well as developing political economic spaces. Although global production networks are within this industrial sector are significantly underpinned by political economies at national scales, macro‐scale regulation increasingly influences how and where lead firms operate within the global economy. Within this changing context, this paper outlines the recent regulatory changes in the regional political economy of Southeast Asia with the introduction of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). Drawing on empirical evidence from the Thai industry, and how macroregional automobile production networks are established, the paper focuses on the changes of this free trade policy for component as well as vehicle trade.     

China and the changing economic geography of coffee value chains

For the past three centuries, the economic geography of the global coffee sector has been characterized by the supply of beans from tropical countries for consumption in North America and Europe, with various modes of value chain coordination enacted by lead firms to ensure reliable and affordable supply. This pattern is now fundamentally changing, with growth in coffee consumption in emerging markets, including China, exceeding that in established markets. But China is not only a growing consumer market, it is less well known that rapidly increasing agricultural production in Yunnan province of southwest China has also inserted the country as an important source region for coffee, and this has been pivotal in facilitating the emergence of Chinese lead firms in the sector. This article presents the emergence of China, and Chinese firms, at a critical juncture for the structure and governance of the global value chain for coffee. The processes through which this is occurring are outlined, and the implications for regional development prospects across Southeast Asia are discussed. We argue that the changing economic geography of coffee value chains, and their increasing driven‐ness by Chinese actors, is starting to reshape the regional coffee industry in profoundly new ways.     

Along‐strike structural linkage and interaction in an active thrust fault system: A case study from the western Sichuan foreland basin,China

Along‐strike structural linkage and interaction between faults is common in various compressional settings worldwide. Understanding the kinematic history of fault interaction processes can provide important constraints on the geometry and evolution of the lateral growth of segmented faults in the fold‐and‐thrust belts, which are important to seismic hazard assessment and hydrocarbon trap development. In this study, we study lateral structural geometry (fault displacement and horizon shortening) of thrust fault linkages and interactions along the Qiongxi anticline in the western Sichuan foreland basin, China, using a high‐resolution 3D seismic reflection dataset. Seismic interpretation suggests that the Qiongxi anticline can be related to three west‐dipping, hard‐linked thrust fault segments that sole onto a regional shallow detachment. Results reveal that the lateral linkage of fault segments limited their development, affecting the along‐strike fault displacement distributions. A deficit between shortening and displacement is observed to increase in linkage zones where complex structural processes occur, such as fault surface bifurcation and secondary faulting, demonstrating the effect of fault linkage process on structural deformation within a thrust array. The distribution of the geometrical characteristics shows that thrust fault development in the area can be described by both the isolated fault model and the coherent fault model. Our measurements show that new fault surfaces bifurcate from the main thrust ramp, which influences both strain distribution in the relay zone and along‐strike fault slip distribution. This work fully describes the geometric and kinematic characteristics of lateral thrust fault linkage, and may provide insights into seismic interpretation strategies in other complex fault transfer zones.     

THE URBAN LABOR MARKET IN MEXICO: GLOBAL CHANGE,INFORMALITY, AND SOCIAL POLARIZATION

In this study I argue that Mexico's integration into the global economy has increased the dependent nature of its capitalist development and has resulted in the weakening of organized labor and growth of the informal sector. Neoliberal policies in Mexico have accentuated the disparities between the formal and informal sectors and between highly paid skilled workers and those working in unskilled and poorly paid occupations. New forms of geographic dispersion and agglomeration of economic activities contribute to the reproduction of differentiated labor markets in various regions and cities. This is particularly true in those areas most affected by the global economy, such as the major metropolitan areas and the northern regions of the country.

The main changes in the urban labor market associated with economic restructuring in Mexico during the 1980s are analyzed. The paper makes three main points: (1) the ability of the formal sector and especially industry to absorb labor has declined, and there is a clear trend toward a tertiarization of the economy; (2) the informal sector has experienced rapid growth, particularly in small firms and other less productive economic activities; and (3) the occupational structure displays more marginal employment and signs of polarization between the proportions of jobs with the highest and lowest levels of skill.     

Trouble in paradise: resilience and Vancouver’s second life in the “new economy”

Resilience is an increasingly important concept within urban studies, economic geography, and evolutionary economics for measuring the capacity of city-regions to respond to economic shocks. In this article, we provide a sympathetic critique of the resilience metaphor in urban studies, which we explicate through an analysis of the recent history of the Vancouver economy. On the surface, Vancouver seemingly showed resilience when it overcame the abrupt decline of its resource-based economy in the 1980s, and established an alternative flourishing “new economy” by the 1990s. But over the last five years, the key local “creative” industries such as video game development and film production have suffered, with a number of large firms leaving Vancouver, and industry employment declining sharply. Drawing on more than 40 interviews conducted over a five-year period with members of the local video game community, our paper documents the rise and more recent decline of Vancouver’s “new economy” sector. Our research raises questions about the value of the resilience metaphor in urban studies and highlights the difficulties facing city-regions reliant on highly mobile “new economy” industries.