Local government perspectives on rural retirement migration and social sustainability

Within the policy and academic literature, the impact of rural retirement migration (RRM) on community sustainability has been questioned. This qualitative study investigated the perceived impact of retirement migration on rural social sustainability from a local government perspective. Focus groups were conducted with local government senior managers and community services staff (n = 39) across six rural local government areas in one Australian state. Data were analysed against the three components of rural social sustainability (equity, community and rurality) proposed by Jones and Tonts [1995. “Rural Restructuring and Social Sustainability: Some Reflections on the Western Australian Wheatbelt.” Australian Geographer 26: 133–140]. While RRM is perceived to benefit rural community capacity to facilitate or maintain equity, community and rurality, it also presents challenges for local government. Participants suggested that capacity to facilitate equity, community and rurality in contexts of RRM was impacted by uncertainty around future impacts of RRM on population ageing, increasing advocacy and expectations of older in-migrants, and the impact of RRM on rural heterogeneity. These issues required local governments to think critically about how to accommodate and manage the needs and expectations of older in-migrants, while mediating potential impacts associated with RRM.     

A Debt to the West: Recent Developments in the International Financial Situation of East-Central Europe

East-Central Europe is undergoing a rapid political and economic transformation. The unprecedented depth and speed of the economic reforms have produced serious questions about the stability of the region, and its future relations with western Europe and the world economy. This paper surveys and evaluates the size and character of existing debt stocks owed to the West by Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. The future political and economic stability of East-Central Europe and the European Community depends, to a large extent, on the ability of the Western financial system to respond to the long-term needs of the region.     

A Debt to the West: Recent Developments in the International Financial Situation of East-Central Europe

East-Central Europe is undergoing a rapid political and economic transformation. The unprecedented depth and speed of the economic reforms have produced serious questions about the stability of the region, and its future relations with western Europe and the world economy. This paper surveys and evaluates the size and character of existing debt stocks owed to the West by Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. The future political and economic stability of East-Central Europe and the European Community depends, to a large extent, on the ability of the Western financial system to respond to the long-term needs of the region.     

Internal migration in Peru

"E. G. Ravenstein proposed 'laws of migration' to explain the movement of population in the British Isles from data in the 1881 census. Here, migration in Peru is studied using data from the 1981 census to ascertain the extent to which Ravenstein's 'laws' hold for a different country at a different time.... In conclusion, it is a salutory exercise to apply Ravenstein's seven laws and other findings to Peru and to see how, in a different environment a good time ago, someone could produce a model with wide applicability."     

Producer Services Research in Europe*

Four directions in producer services research in Europe are identified: the economic role of producer services for urban and regional development; the location of advanced producer services; the role of regional structures and innovative “milieu”; and local development and labor markets. Issues for future research include the role of producer services in the urban structuring and/or restructuring of world cities; the relation between producer services and interregional disparities; the integration of producer services into networks; and the impacts of the liberalization of producer services.     

Old Europe, new Europe: for a geopolitics of translation

This paper looks to the role of geographical metaphors in the 'battle of words' to describe Europe and its presumed identity. The facile adoption of banal cartographies such as those of a 'New' and 'Old' Europe highlights two concerns: first, that despite the imperial and isolationistic temptations of the current American administration, its geopolitical imagination remains firmly wedded to – indeed, cannot but define itself by – its relationship with the 'Old Continent'. Secondly, it reveals an astonishing distance between such cartographic abstractions and the variety of non-territorial metaphors – in particular, those of mediation and translation – that are increasingly being invoked to inscribe possible futures for the European project.     

Questions of migration and belonging: understandings of migration under neoliberalism in Ecuador

This paper explores alternative understandings and experiences of migration under neoliberalism in Ecuador. Through the case study, the study examines migrants' multiple motivations for mobility and their ambivalence toward the process. Insights from the transnational migration literature were drawn in order to think through the implications of an increasingly contradictory context of economic modernization and its impact upon the sense of possibilities and belonging of migrants. In-depth interviews with urban-destined migrants in Ecuador were drawn to argue that mobility produces ambivalent development subjects. This argument is developed in three sections. First, the paper centers on the epistemological and theoretical basis for the relevance of migrant narratives in extending theorizations of migration. Second, in-depth interviews with migrants to Quito are drawn to explore migrants' sense of belonging and regional affiliation, identity formation through migration, and experiences of alienation and disruption in their lives. Lastly, this paper concludes with a retheorization of the role of migration places in the migrant identity construction.     

Synoptic conditions of heavy snowfalls in Europe

Synoptic conditions of heavy snowfalls at four stations in Europe (Oslo, Bremen, Smolensk and Budapest) were analyzed using daily data of snow cover depth from 50 winter seasons (1960/1961–2009/2010). Composite maps of the sea level pressure and 500 hPa geopotential height means and anomalies were presented for the days with an increase in snow depth by ≥10 cm, for each station separately. In the same way, maps were presented for the 850 hPa temperature and the precipitable water content. Additionally, 48 h back trajectories of air masses for the chosen days with the highest amount of snowfall were constructed, using the NOAA HYSPLIT model. Negative anomalies of sea level pressure and 500 hPa heights, which correspond to low‐pressure systems spreading over Europe, are prerequisites for the occurrence of heavy snowfalls at each analyzed location. In Budapest, heavy snowfalls appear as a result of cyclonic cold fronts from the Mediterranean Sea. Another typical location of snow‐bringing low‐pressure systems is the Baltic Sea region. Negative pressure anomalies over the North Atlantic with a low‐pressure centre over the Norwegian Sea cause snowfalls in Oslo. There are two main sources of air masses bringing abundant snowfalls in Europe: the Atlantic region and Mediterranean. According to back trajectories, the humid air masses are transported over long distances and on the way they are shifted from the low troposphere in the source regions to the upper layers.     

Putting Japanese investment in Europe in its place

Summary Research on Japanese economic activity in Europe concentrates almost exclusively on investment in manufacturing. However, this paper demonstrates that this emphasis both underestimates the longevity of Japanese direct investment in Europe and also grossly underdefines the importance of services. Not only does Japanese direct investment have a much longer history in Europe than is usually recognized but also—and perhaps more significantly—the bulk of that investment is not in manufacturing production per se but in a variety of circulation services. Using establishment-level data, this paper shows that the spatial manifestation of these circulation services is very different from that of manufacturing production.     

当代国际移民创业研究进展

移民创业活动是经济地理学研究中一个重要主题。创业是一种经济活动,但不同群体的创业活动蕴含着不同文化内涵和行为选择。移民创业的研究是解读移民群体社会与文化形成的一个关键的维度。移民群体具有明显的边界,其内部的空间秩序、社会网络、族裔文化以及共同的身份认同都是值得探讨话题,因此学界对移民创业活动给予了持续的关注。移民活动日益频繁,所涉及的行业地域日益扩大,对移民创业群体的研究有利于促进区域经济发展、了解全球政治网络,沟通地理学与社会学和经济学的研究融合,是经济地理学研究中值得关注的问题。本文基于Citespace软件,运用文献分析法,从国际移民创业概念内涵阐述、研究动态、研究前沿及演变、未来研究可能四个方面出发,阐述移民创业研究的历史脉络及进展。研究发现美国和英国在移民创业中占有重要地位。区域创业环境是研究者们主要关注的话题,与创业联系最为紧密的是绩效（0.28）、自雇佣（0.17）和组织（0.17）等关键词研究。全球化趋势不可逆转,跨国主义日趋强盛,未来关于移民及移民创业的研究大有可期。     

Hazards and 'forced' migration in Bangladesh

This paper deals with two basic assumptions about migration patterns in Bangladesh. First, it is commonly assumed that poverty and landlessness in rural Bangladesh lead to migration to and settlement in disaster-prone areas along the main rivers or in low-lying areas in the Bay of Bengal. Second, it is also commonly assumed that when people living in these areas experience loss of land, property and income opportunities due to natural disasters, they are forced to seek their livelihood and housing in urban areas. These two assumptions are discussed on the basis of data from a char in Jamuna river and a slum settlement in Dhaka.