Jamaica bound? Marine resources and management at a crossroads in Antigua and Barbuda

Antigua and Barbuda is rapidly developing a tourism industry built around a marketed perception of a healthy marine and coastal environment. Yet economic indicators suggest that Antigua and Barbuda is overexploiting its marine resources, particularly its fish and coral reef communities. Although its marine resources remain relatively healthy, Antigua and Barbuda will jeopardise the ecological basis of its economic growth and sustainability if current exploitation rates continue. We compare the current situation and economic trends of Antigua and Barbuda's tourism and commercial fishery industries to those of Jamaica and other OECS member states. Jamaica is suggested as a cautionary example of the potential socioeconomic and ecological impacts caused by resource overexploitation and mismanagement within the various economic sectors. Antigua and Barbuda is at a crossroads. The 'Jamaica path' leads to large-scale resource depletion, fishery collapse, and a mass tourism industry that can operate independent of a healthy environment. Alternatively, it can pursue a path that seeks to conserve its marine resources. Antigua and Barbuda will be better able to protect its sustainability both for commercial fishing interests and its growing high-end destination tourism industry. To this end, Antigua and Barbuda has developed a network of marine-protected areas along the northeastern coast of Antigua, an area popular with both fishers and tourists.     

ICT development from the perspective of connectivity and inclusion – the operation of a local digital agenda in Sweden

ABSTRACT

The aim of the article is to determine what a local Digital Agenda (DA) implies for ICT development at the local level and how such a policy can be realised in practice. The topic is discussed in relation to the EU and Swedish Digital Agendas, which have motivated the definition of a local DA for the examined Swedish municipality of Linköping. An analytical model is used both to examine the balance of supply-side and demand-side policies of the local DA, and in an attempt to determine what a local DA implies for local ICT development. The empirical material shows that local policy focused on supply-side strategies towards households and businesses, while demand-side policy was present to a greater extent in the management of the municipality’s own operations. The local authority has provided a major expansion in broadband infrastructure to rural areas of the municipality. This complies with mandates from local authorities to manage local infrastructure development and services to the local population. The authors conclude that the policy implications of the results suggest that although operations through the local DA are substantial, complementary measures to support increasing demands across households and businesses are important when dealing with challenges of uneven access and underutilisation of the large investments for ICT infrastructure.     

Game strategies in government-led eco-compensation in the Xin’an River Basin from the perspective of the politics of scale

China's policy on ecological compensation (eco-compensation) in watershed eco-systems is of economic,social and environmental significance for China's ecological gov-ernance and protection of natural areas.It involves balancing the interests of regional stakeholders,coordinating the development of regional environments and establishing effec-tive cooperation models,making it a classic topic for geographical research.This study in-troduces the concept of institutional "stickiness" to the theory of politics of scale to analyze the features and mechanisms of the game behavior of government entities in the process of im-plementing watershed eco-compensation in the Xin'an River Basin.Our results show the following:government entities at various levels,including the central,provincial and municipal governments,experienced the three stages of game strategy of competition,cooperation and"coopetition";building a government community of shared interests can promote watershed eco-compensation,and "appropriate intervention" by the central govemment is key to achieving inter-provincial watershed eco-compensation;there was clear institutional stickiness during the transition from a "vertical" model of watershed eco-compensation to a "vertical-horizontal"model,with government entities using policy innovations and social participation to limit and reduce stickiness so as to reshape the watershed eco-compensation system;scalar jumping is the core mechanism that promoted eco-compensation in the study basin,and government entities shaped the discourse on watershed eco-compensation by redistributing powers and capital and creating informal constraints,which promoted the transformation of eco-compensation from a "strong state-weak society" structural model,to a "strong state-strong society" model in the Xin'an River Basin.These results can provide theoretical support for the construction of inter-regional watershed eco-compensation mechanisms,pro-vide a scientific basis for the rational evaluation and guidance of watershed eco-compensation practices,and promote the coordinated and sustainable socioeconomic development of watersheds.     

The 2012 Olympic Learning Legacy Agenda – the intentionalities of mobility for a new London model

This paper investigates the emergence of a Learning Legacy Agenda (LLA) in the wake of the London 2012 Olympic Games as a governmental tool for the dissemination of urban development and infrastructure project delivery best practice. Focusing on the inception, coordination and implementation of the LLA we outline the intentionalities of mobility that underpin its formation and appropriation and suggest how this points to the emergence of a new “London model” of development and governance. Three intentionalities of knowledge capture, public duty and extra-local salience are unpacked to demonstrate the range of ways in which the bureaucratically initiated LLA banner has been used by various development actors and organisations to validate their existing practices. The case study of the LLA as an institutionalised governance apparatus is used to analyse the impact of specific forms of social relations on the ways in which “models” are produced, what their content consists of, how dominant agendas and narratives co-evolve with the priorities of an assemblage of actors and the processes of selective abstraction used to curate particular messages and forms of fixed and potentially mobile knowledge, yet dubious claims of “learning”.     

Towards a typology of urban centers and subcenters – evidence from German city regions

This study aims to characterize urban spatial structure with respect to its multidimensionality. Using an encompassing data set of socioeconomic variables, as well as variables pertaining to the built environment, accessibility and land use, we suggest a quantitatively based urban (sub-) center typology. The fine-grained spatial scale of 1 km² grid cells permits a higher spatial resolution than that used in most previous studies. Our suggested typology is two-layered: a “macro layer” based on cluster analyses sheds light on urban spatial configurations. A corresponding threshold-based “micro layer” identifies distinctive types of centers and subcenters at the local level. The application of this multi-scale and multivariate typology to four German city regions indicates both the core cities’ morphological dominance and the formation of subcenters with distinct profiles of regional economic importance, land use patterns and urban form. However, a substantial degree of spatial dispersion is observed because much activity is located in non-central locations.     

Think regionally,act locally?: gardening,cycling, and the horizon of urban spatial politics

In the contemporary American urban renaissance, formerly fringe efforts to produce place, conducted by longtime residents and “urban pioneers” alike, now shape mainstream urbanism. Gardening and bicycling are constitutive of contemporary excitement about the city, representing the reinvigoration of the urban neighborhood following the depredations of suburbanization. This paper draws on research in California cities to offer a sympathetic critique of these leading edges of progressive urbanism, arguing that advocates’ overwhelming focus on the local creates a scalar mismatch between the horizon of political action and the problems they hope to address. Even as supporters of gardening and cycling understand themselves as implicitly allied with struggles for the right to the city, their work to produce local space is often blind to, and even complicit in, racialized dynamics of accumulation and exclusion that organize metropolises. The result is a progressive urbanism largely disconnected from broader left struggles for spatial justice.     

Between coercion and consent: the politics of “Cooperative Governance” at a time of “Austerity Localism” in London

At a time of “austerity localism”, this paper explores how local authorities in London, England, are simultaneously addressing the dual pressures of delivering fiscal retrenchment and of enrolling citizens in new participatory public service arrangements, asking whether “these trends pull against one another, in opposite directions, or whether they are the tough and tender dimensions of a singular process: austerian management” Drawing on empirical research into the London Borough of Lambeth’s Cooperative Council agenda, as well as Foucauldian and Gramscian critiques of participatory network governance theories and practice, this paper shows how participatory forms of governance can be folded into the logic of hierarchy and coercion through various governmental technologies of performance and agency (consent), and through tactics of administrative domination (coercion). As budget cuts continue to affect local government in England, this paper concludes that although small experiments in participatory governance may persist, the dominant mode of governance is likely to shift towards more hierarchical and coercive forms.     

The border as an engine for mobility and spatial integration: A study of commuting in a Swedish–Norwegian context

The purpose of the study was to analyse how cross-border commuting differed from intranational commuting in Sweden, and how cross-border mobilities affected spatial integration. The authors analysed patterns and spatial flows of cross-border commuting by comparing them with characteristics of intranational commuting. In the article, they explore the assumption that the border constitutes an ‘engine’ for work-related mobility, which affects processes of spatial integration in cross-border areas. The empirical material comprised data from surveys of commuting from the Swedish county of Värmland to Norway and commuting within Värmland. The findings showed that cross-border commuting shared common features with intranational commuting, including how the frequency of commuting was dependent on distance. The motives for commuting differed, and the reasons for working in Norway were economic rather than professional. In terms of spatial integration, cross-border commuting was mainly one-directional, from Sweden to Norway, while leisure mobility and migration tended to be in the opposite direction. The authors conclude that the border region is characterised by integration through specialisation, which involves a permanent state of ‘transient’ mobility. Thus, a win-win situation can be distinguished, in which the border serves as a resource and an ‘engine’ for cross-border integration, mobility and economic activities.     

Spatial chromatic model in high-dimensional spaces and the uniqueness of chromatic code: a new perspective of geographic entity–space relationship

The abstraction, representation, and computation of entity–space relationship are keystones of geographic information science (GIS). The newly proposed spatial chromatic tessellation (SCT) provides a novel model to explore this relationship. SCT has demonstrated a variety of potential applications in GIS, such as reasoning spatial topology, point pattern analysis, and Voronoi diagrams. This study aims to theoretically investigate SCT by focusing on two aspects: (1) extending SCT to higher dimensional spaces. Results show that cells missing in lower dimensional spaces are hidden in higher dimensional spaces; (2) exploring the uniqueness of chromatic codes, particularly the chromatic codes of 2-cell and 3-cell clusters: their codes are proved to be unique. In a mathematical perspective, the observed phenomena from the above two aspects bring some new thoughts into the first law of geography and spatial heterogeneity. Based on these new understandings of entity–space relationship, SCT is replaced by spatial chromatic model (SCM) in which spaces are created by entities themselves rather than by partitioning the space preexisted. This makes a change from an absolute geographic space to a relative geographic space.     

A new map of the Mitdluagkat glacier—a preliminary report

Hasholt, Bent: A new map of the Mitdluagkat glacier—a preliminary report. Geografisk Tidsskrift 87: 19–21, Copenhagen June 1987.

A new map covering the whole Mitdluagkat Glacier has been elaborated. The map is based on air photos from Geodetic Institute in scale 1:150,000 taken July 30, 1981. The scale of the new map is 1:20,000 with 10-m contour intervals. Preliminary field tests indicate that the map is so accurate that it might be used for comparative studies of long-term variations in mass balance of the glacier.     

The population of the southern Alps: a new equilibrium?

Recent demographic trends in the Alpine areas of France are examined. It is found that a shift of population away from the Cote d'Azur has occurred since 1975. The importance of tourism for population growth in the Alpine areas is noted.     

Neoliberal subjectivities or a politics of the possible? Reading for difference in alternative food networks

Recent research on alternative food networks has highlighted the centrality of place-embeddedness as a strategy in constructing alternatives to conventional agri-industrial food systems, and has illustrated the political nature of these strategic localisms. Recently, critical human geographers and sociologists have drawn on relational theory to criticise the localism of alternative food networks as representing a politics of place which is unreflexive or defensive. Furthermore, some readings of alternative food networks argue that they reproduce the very neoliberal subjectivities that they seek to oppose. This article argues that agri-food scholars should be aware of the ways in which their readings of alternative food networks can guide and reproduce alternative food network practice. Drawing on Gibson-Graham's technique of 'reading for difference', I argue for a reading of alternative food networks that sees difference beyond the discursive field of neoliberalism. The article explores recent debates around governmentality as the mechanism through which neoliberal subjectivities are reproduced, and draws on a preliminary discussion of the alternative food network practice of the 100 Mile Diet in order to illustrate the arguments made .     

Palaeoenvironmental developments in the central Scandinavian mountains during deglaciation – a discussion

Data from different disciplines are integrated and used to propose an alternative hypothesis regarding the Upper Weichselian environmental developments in the central Scandinavian mountains. This hypothesis, which tries to integrate new and controversial finds and explain them in a new light, is far from proven and needs much further research. It is proposed that parts of the mountains have been glacio-isostatically more depressed than previously thought and that the glacial dynamics could have been much more pronounced than traditionally assumed. As a consequence, it is proposed that Baltic-Bothnian water crossed temporarily ice-free areas with low-altitude thresholds across the Scandinavian mountain range, sporadically allowing drainage towards the Atlantic Sea, and even that Atlantic water could temporarily have entered into Sweden from the west. Such land-water scenarios could have resulted in a water transport system that steered floating tree seeds and sprouts, transported by rivers from central Europe and/or by seawater from the Atlantic, into the mountain range. There, high isostatic rebound rates during early deglaciation phases could quickly have made coastal areas become land, allowing plants to start their life cycle almost immediately.     

China’s food security situation and key questions in the new era: A perspective of farmland protection

As the world’s largest developing country, the ability of China’s agricultural resource utilization to effectively support the current and future food security goals has been affected by a variety of factors (e.g., transformed supply channels, tightening international situation and frequent emergencies) in recent years and has attracted extensive attention from the academic community subject to multiple factors. This study uses literature review, statistical analysis, and spatial analysis methods to systematically explore China’s food security situation in the context of farmland resource constraints. It is found that the demand-side pressures such as demographic changes, social class differentiation, and dietary structure adjustments derived from economic growth and rapid urbanization have placed extremely high expectations on food supply. However, the quantitative restrictions, utilization ways, and health risks of farmland resources on the supply side constitute a huge hidden concern that affects the stability of food production. Although China’s farmland protection system is undergoing a transition from focusing on quantity management to sustainable use, the matching and coordinating demand pressure and supply capacity for food security is unbalanced. Therefore, facing uncertain future development scenarios, policymakers should focus on building a resilient space for China’s farmland protection to withstand the interference of major emergencies. The existing farmland protection space policy can be integrated by establishing a national farmland strategic reserve system (based on resilient space), and further development of targeted use control measures for zoning, grading, and classification will help realize sustainable China’s farmland resources use.     

Surface textures of quartz grains from a core at the Prydz Bay,Antarctica

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Urban investment and development corporations,new town development and China’s local state restructuring – the case of Songjiang new town,Shanghai

This article seeks to understand China’s new urban space production and associated state space rescaling through a microscopic investigation of urban investment and development corporations (UIDCs), based on a case study of Shanghai’s Songjiang New Town Development Corporation (SNTDC). It argues that the introduction of UIDCs as both developers and managers of designated urban regions is a creation of institutional reformation to accomplish customized place- and scale-specific spatial projects under the state strategy of new urban spatial development, playing an essential part in the rescaling of state space. UIDCs are economically independent of other social groups, politically bonded with the local government, and assume entrepreneurial and administrative functions within designated areas, acting as intermediary agents to enable local states greater capacity in governing new urban space production, engineering social change, and propelling economic development.     

Towards a potential research agenda to guide the implementation of Spatial Data Infrastructures—A case study from India

Recently, Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) has been a rapidly expanding field and broadly assumed to underpin the development of information society and the knowledge economy. In this paper, we argue that the anticipated benefits of SDIs have largely not yet been generally realized in practice due to a lack of a robust theoretical framework as well as insufficient empirical research to guide the implementation efforts. We posit that learnings from the allied discipline of Information Infrastructures, which has matured during the 1990s in response to the proliferation of distributed, complex, and heterogeneous networked systems, can provide a useful theoretical lens to inform the emerging domain of SDIs. We focus on three key concepts identified in the domain of information infrastructure theory, viz. the installed base, reflexive standardization, and cultivation approach to design, to develop a theoretical framework, which is then applied to analyse the ongoing initiative to establish National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) in India. This analysis helps us to provide the basis to articulate a potential research agenda—for both theory and practice—which, we believe, offers the promise to better conceptualize and implement SDIs, particularly in developing country settings like India.