Euro-politics of scale: competing visions of the region in eastern Germany

As John Agnew (Political geography: a reader, 1997) has argued, political and economic change often occasions competing visions of the scales that are appropriate for organizing particular political and economic activities. Nowhere is this more evident than in the European Union, and eastern Germany offers compelling evidence of the contested nature of contemporary scalar politics. Yet a recent debate in human geography (see, e.g. Marston et al., Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 30:416–432, 2005) calls into question the very concept of scale and rejects its hierarchical conceptualization. In light of this debate, it is appropriate to draw on real-world case studies to examine the ways in which geography figures into policy. Drawing on field work in Saxony, evidence is offered in the form of competing visions of regionalism in the EU context. The evidence presented complicates both hierarchical and flat notions of scale. The current process of querying space to identify those scales that are best-suited for the globalized economy offers insights into both the socially constructed nature of scale as well as the ways in which scalar lenses help to illuminate the geographical aspects (and consequences) of strategies for coping with structural changes.     

Spatial contestation? – The theological foundations of Carl Schmitt’s spatial thought

Carl Schmitt’s work on the political is extensively used as an intellectual point of departure in contemporary academic debates about political contestation. More precisely, Carl Schmitt’s friend versus enemy-distinction is invoked as an essential figuration of political contestation. At the same time, the past few years have seen the attention paid to the spatial thought of Carl Schmitt increase. However, references to the work of Carl Schmitt fail to take the embeddedness of his theories in a complex theological–political–spatial triangle into account. This article aims at joining these readings of Schmitt with regard to the current debate about contestation and space by analyzing the idiosyncratic connection between Carl Schmitt’s Catholic faith, especially in the figure of the katechon, his theory of the political and his conceptualization(s) of space. The underlying logic of his worldview becomes explicit by reviewing his concepts of (a) the nomos, (b) land and sea, (c) the Großraumordnung, as well as (d) the Partisan, which form the benchmarks of his work between the 1930s and the 1960s. Against this background we analyze the value of Schmitt’s work for the ongoing debate about contestation and space. Our core argument is that his understanding of the spatial–political nexus and his metaphysical worldview stand in contrast to contemporary conceptualizations of spatial–political relationships.     

Introducing the concept of tactile space: Creating lasting social and environmental commitments

This paper introduces into the literature the concept of tactile space. In tactile space, forms of representational and non-representational knowledge are exchanged, resulting in the decentering of the subject/objective dichotomy as well as the senses. In doing this, tactile space helps to instill within individuals a greater sense of relationality with others and the environment, which leads to long lasting attitudinal and behavioral changes (versus the superficial changes provided by, say, financial dis/incentives). To help clarify the concept, two different cases are examined. The first example looks briefly at the Sunnyside Environmental School, located in Portland, Oregon (US). The purpose of this first case is to provide some real world flesh to the concept of tactile space. A more detailed conceptual discussion of tactile space takes place in the following section. Here, attention focuses on an in depth study of two cases of community supported agriculture in Iowa (US). The paper concludes by reflecting upon the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead as we further develop our understanding of tactile space and the relations, sensations, and non-representational knowledges it helps to bring forth.     

Fair Trade market creation and marketing in the Global South

Fair Trade emerged to commercialise Southern products in the Global North on terms overtly beneficial to Southern producers. However, a contemporary phenomenon is the development of Fair Trade consumer markets within the Global South itself: and the paper explores this as a contribution to the evolving geographies of ethical consumerism. Data was captured from secondary sources and field visits that included in-depth interviews and participant observation. Analysis is informed by theories of market creation developed in economic geography and economic sociology. As such we focus on understanding (1) the architecture, or networks and institutions, of commercialisation, governance and certification and (2) the marketing practices and strategies, designed to resonate with and develop cognitive association amongst consumers. Given the alternative geographies of South–South vis-à-vis South–North Fair Trade, we deepen the geographical focus by applying frameworks emerging from the concept of ‘geographical entanglement’. Findings identify the similarities and differences of both Southern Fair Trade market creation and marketing compared to the European experience. In some cases, the place-based ‘othering’, often used to develop sympathetic cognitive frames in Northern marketing, is identified, but this time operates around alternative geographical binaries. In other cases, we highlight instances that avoid such divisive place-making, and which instead draw on inclusive, rather than divisive, imagined geographies, overlaid with the collective aspiration for development, pride and dignity. These findings therefore inform the nature of geographical entanglement followed by ethical market creation, as well as contributing to the wider theoretical understanding of moral geographies endogenous to the Global South.     

Greening as strategic development in industrial change - Why companies participate in eco-networks

Networking between companies and other regional key actors has grown into a widespread instrument for economic development since the 1990s. Participatory networks have formed the concept for many activities of Local Agenda 21. Simultaneously, economic geography has focused on network theories to explain innovation in and the economic success of regions.This article focuses on the reasons why individual actors participate in environmentally oriented information networks. The questions approached are: Does the concept of learning within networks influence a firm’s development? How do the participants interact with each other? What effects do the networks have on their environment (arenas)?The changing arenas of a firm are analysed with regard to environmental concerns. These changes need to be anticipated for reliable strategies. To gain information and knowledge about current behaviour and activities, the functions of networks as learning platforms are discussed. Drawing upon arguments from different network theories, the motivations of participating in a network are threefold: actor and firm oriented, network internal (inter-firm), and network external. From these, a generic target cube of network motivations and actions is set up.The concept is reviewed by examining 12 ‘regional environmental information-oriented corporation networks’ (RUN) in the Greater Munich Area. The empirical material reveals that this type of network does not provide a guarantee for significant improvements in a firm’s environmental behaviour. However, participants learn about best practices while pursuing explicit or implicit aims as to influence their arenas.     

Schumpeterian perspectives on entrepreneurship in economic development: a commentary

The unique relationship between the Schumpeterian entrepreneur and the process of innovation is examined in the first part of this paper. Because innovation is the result of an innate ‘unlearned act of insight’ by this Schumpeterin entrepreneur, contemporary theorists are unable to incorporate such a person into formal analytic theories of innovation and economic development. Nevertheless, it is shown that Schumpeter's perspectives on entrepreneurship remain the major seminal source of creative explanatory frameworks for the process of industrial change. The greater part of this paper provides a commentary on selected contemporary research efforts, at micro- and macroeconomic levels, which appear to strengthen certain weaknesses in Schumpeter's theory of the role of innovation in economic development.     

Social formation and settlement network in Greece

Social geography needs to obtain a coherent theoretical framework of a sociological nature. Using such a framework derived from historical materialism, this article defines a series of concepts and indices for the study of the regional space and the settlement network of Greece since the foundation of the modern state in 1827. The article finds that as Greek society passes from feudalism to capitalism, there is a continuous increase in the complexity and hierarchical organization of the national settlement network and a sharpening of spatial polarization, as a consequence of the economic development of the country. A similar phenomenon is repeated today in the contemporary regional structure of the country. Our study thus shows that spatial organization derives from the socio-economic structure of society.     

HIV and AIDS in Africa: a geographic analysis at multiple spatial scales

This study offers an alternative method rooted in GIS techniques and spatial analysis to estimate HIV/AIDS prevalence over space from an incomplete surveillance data set and explain the variation of those estimates. The results clearly show that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is complex and that it is interconnected with other geographic, historical, economic and cultural phenomena which help explain its spatial spread and variation. The regression models which were developed in this paper illustrated that variables which measure the historical context of colonialism such as resource exploitation and labor migration, gender, culture, contemporary global forces, poverty and disease burden have all contributed variously to the rapid spread of this disease both in space and time. The policy implication is that concentrating on behavior change or therapy alone may not turn the epidemic around. The attack needs to be multifaceted and interdisciplinary taking into consideration the context and the economic and social realities at multiple spatial scales.     

Economic Hotspots: Visualizing Vulnerability to Flooding

We simulate a large-scale flooding in the province of South-Holland in the economic centre of the Netherlands. In traditional research, damage due to flooding is computed with a unit loss method coupling land use information to depth-damage functions. Normally only direct costs are incorporated as an estimate of damage to infrastructure, property and business disruption. We extend this damage concept with the indirect economic effects on the rest of the regional and national economy on basis of a bi-regional input output table.We broaden this damage estimation to the concept of vulnerability. Vulnerability is defined as a function of dependence, redundancy and susceptibility. Susceptibility is the probability and extent of flooding. Dependency is the degree to which an activity relates to other economic activities in the rest of the country. Input–output multipliers form representations of this dependency. Redundancy is the ability of an economic activity to respond to a disaster by deferring, using substitutes or relocating. We measure redundancy as the degree of centrality of an economic activity in a network. The more central an activity is, the less it encounters possibilities to transfer production and the more vulnerable it is for flooding. Vulnerability of economic activities is then visualized in a GIS. Kernel density estimation is applied to generalize point information on inundated firms to sectoral information in space. We apply spatial interpolation techniques for the whole of the province of South-Holland. Combining information of sectoral data on dependency and redundancy, we are able to create maps of economic hotspots. Our simulation of a flood in the centre of Holland reveals the vulnerability of a densely populated delta.     

Regional geography considered from the systems' approach

The main critiques of the term ‘region’ were directed in the 1950s against the ‘uniqueness’ of the region: being not repetitive, it was considered not to be of general value. In the author's opinion the term ‘uniqueness’ was misinterpreted: a region is made unique by the unique relationship between natural, cultural, economic, political and social elements existing in it. However, as these relationships are repetitive, or some at least can be repeated, regional geography is of general value. If the geographical study of a region invests its efforts and interests in functions, processes and relationships between the elements existing in a region, the concept of a region becomes, in fact, a concept of a system, with epistemological and methodolgical consequences. A model of ‘region as a system’ is the approach taken in this paper. Such an approach can resolve some basic problems of geography: the dichotomy between natural and anthropic elements of the region, which cannot be treated except by a systems approach; the tension existing between ‘space’ and ‘place’, which is perpetuated by the dichotomy between regional and systematic geography. Through a systems approach, the choice of a scale appropriate to a particular study can be directed by a distinction between system and subsystem; inclusion or exclusion of an element in the study of a region is not an arbitrary one, but depends on its relevance to the processes within the region. Perhaps the ‘personality of the region’, so often misinterpreted by scorners of regional geography, can be accepted as a legitimate part of the regional output.     

从地层记录的时空有序性解读地层学发展

自20世纪70年代以来,随着多重地层划分理论的提出和各种测试方法、手段的应用,一系列地层学分支学科开始出现。众多的地层学的分支学科极大地开阔了地层学研究领域,使地层学理论百家争鸣,向着多侧面、多层次和多尺度的方向发展,但较为专一的研究对象也使其趋向碎片化。因而,重新回顾地层学的发展历程,发现依据不同特征和属性建立的地层单位之间的关联,将趋向碎片化的地层学作为一个整体进行思考很有必要。就此从时空有序性的角度,系统总结和梳理了地层记录的不完备性、穿时性、旋回性、非渐变性和不可逆性。发现在地层记录中,尽管岩性变化、生物变化、物理变化和化学变化并不是严格地统一到时间变化中,但它们在时间和空间中的分布是有序和有规律的,是虽然不具备等时性但具备时间秩序性的沉积体。从下老上新的斯坦诺地层三定律,到空间上毗邻关系可以转化为时间上相随历史的瓦尔特相律,地层学不仅用上、下、左、右表达空间概念,也揭示其时间属性;不整合刚提出时仅仅是一个构造概念,是褶皱幕或造山幕导致的地层关系在空间上的不协调,但现今却包含了更多的时间属性,定义为地层记录的长时间缺失;地层旋回一开始是对地层重复性的描述,但随着第四纪米兰科维奇旋回的研究,证实它与沉积层序都是天文节律（时间）的产物。在复杂的地层记录中发现和恢复其有序的时空关系,揭示地层记录的时空有序性成为了地层学所有分支学科共同面临的主题,也使其相互交融。     

基于风险的地质环境承载力评价

资源环境承载力是国民经济和社会发展规划中必须考虑的基本要素之一。科学地量化评估资源环境承载力已成为多个领域交叉研究的前沿课题,资源环境承载力的概念、评价原理、评价方法、评判标准等基本问题尚有待深入研究。通过引入风险管理的理念,基于风险理论、国土空间三生功能理论、地质环境理论、边际分析理论等交叉融合,开展基于风险的地质环境承载力理论与技术方法探讨。以人类活动带来的生命、财产和健康风险是否可接受及接受程度为切入点和判别标准,提出基于风险的地质环境容许承载力和极限承载力概念,将承载力状态判别为安全承载、容许超载和不可接受超载3个等级,发展地质环境承载力理论。构建地质环境承载力评价流程和评价技术方法,包括确定研究范围、识别地质环境问题、基于生命风险、财产风险和健康风险分析的地质环境承载力单因素评价、承载力综合评价等。探索确定地质环境承载力评价阈值。为地质环境承载力评价提供新的理论与关键技术,为国土空间开发"三条红线"划定提供依据。     

Revisiting the orogenic energy balance in the western Taiwan orogen with weak faults

Orogens at convergent margins must meet the energetic requirements necessary to lift rocks against gravity, allow for frictional sliding along basal detachments and accommodate internal deformation processes. The combination of critical taper and kinematic wedge theories predicts the partitioning between these energy sinks as a function of both fault and crustal strengths. Integrating contemporary estimates of both crustal pore fluid pressures and the coefficient of friction on major faults, we find that work associated with internal deformation processes is the dominant energy sink in the western Taiwan orogenic wedge. These processes consume 54% of the total work budget, while the dissipation rates associated with frictional sliding on the basal detachment and lifting rocks against gravity are lower, requiring only 11% and 35% respectively. These results suggest a mechanical dichotomy in orogenic wedges where the faulting dominates the kinematic deformation budget, but internal distributed deformation processes dominate the energy budget.     

Using economic geography to reinvigorate land-change science

In this paper we review the implications of neoclassical economic framings within the interdisciplinary field of land-change science. We argue that current pressing global environmental problems, such as land grabs, loss of critical carbon sinks and the increasing importance of corporate actors in land-use decision-making, necessitate a reconsideration of neoclassical conceptualizations of what the economy is, who economic actors are and how they make decisions, and how environment–economy linkages operate in a globalized world. We argue that concepts from economic geography can help land change science move beyond neoclassical framings. The first concept is that the economic (including markets, commodities, and rational decision-makers) is neither separate nor universal, but is historical and socially embedded. The second is to use these notions to understand the spatial organization of economic activity. The framework of global production networks, in particular, will help land change scientists conceptualize and represent teleconnections. Using economic geography to move beyond neoclassical economic framings will bring a fresh approach to economic change that holds much promise for invigorating land change science.     

Socio-Economic Perspectives on Ecological Problems

Human activities are the main and root cause of ecological problems, while human activity is socio-economic activity. Therefore, ecological problems must be examined from the perspective of socio-economy. The identification of the Anthropocene concept in the international academic community and the implementation of IHDP and the Future Earth show the importance of socio-economic perspective on contemporary ecological problems. Ecological problem is essentially socio-economic issue, and it needs understanding from a socio-economic and political point of view. As a result, political ecology, theories of the tragedy of the commons and socio-ecosystem analysis have emerged. Examining the institutional factors of ecological problems and the reconstruction of degraded ecosystems from a socio-economic perspective indicate that the research on the socio-economic aspects needs to be strengthened so as to obtain the fundamental solutions. In this way, the development of social economy will be promoted and the degraded ecosystems can go on the right track of natural recovery. For these purposes, the study of ecological problems should seek solutions at three levels: institutional and political reform, development model transformation and scientific and technological innovation.     

Growth and change and the innovative firm

Regional economic development is largely influenced by technical progress, and innovative manufacturing firms are important in this context. Large, fast growing, innovative firms contribute significantly to growth by direct and indirect employment and income-generating impacts, and these are likely to be extended through time if the firms are capable of developing new product lines and markets. Unfortunately, ‘orthodox’ theories of the firm provide a poor basis for understanding ‘how’ and ‘why’ innovative firms come into existence, grow, change, and operate over time and geographic space. Behavioral—managerial notions, on the other hand, do appear to provide a useful basis for conceptualization. This paper examines some of these concepts and goes on to provide a framework for understanding growth and change in innovative, multiproduct, multiregional firms.     

Downtown office location dynamics and transformation of central Seoul, Korea

In recent years, central Seoul has been experiencing a dynamic transformation. In the process of reorganization of the urban industrial structure including tertiarization and quaternarization of the economic base of Seoul, business services are growing very rapidly and large scale urban renewal projects are quickly implemented. Downtown office activities become a nucleus for economic performance of Seoul and high-rise office buildings steer the landscape transformation of central Seoul. Even though there appears to exist some evidence that office districts have dispersed to several subcenters, major office activities are still concentrated in central Seoul. This paper redefines office industry in a narrow sense comprising only relevant economic sectors and office buildings as office activity-functioning units. It then explores the industrial networking and territorial specialization of office activities focusing on the dual process of concentration and dispersion in Seoul. The changing characteristics of the downtown linkages of office activities in this post-industrial era transforms the spatial economy of central Seoul into a more flexible and volatile system, while territorial concentration of power and control functions are fortified at the same time. Finally, the paper addresses the development of manufacturing- tertiary-quaternary industrial complexes, which can be regarded as emerging industrial clusters, producing the cultural economy of urban space and images for clients and customers, in relation to urban competitiveness and territorial specialization of large metropolitan areas. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Britons abroad or European citizens? The negotiation of (trans)national space and citizenship by British migrants in France

This paper uses the concept of ‘ordinary citizenship’ (Staeheli et al., 2012) to explore the relationship between mobility, citizenship and political space in the European Union. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Britons living in South West France, the paper examines the ways in which citizenship is meaningful to migrants as a complexity of legal frameworks, normative structures and everyday activities. While EU citizenship has been advanced to underpin the formation of a closer Union, we demonstrate that contemporary forms of citizenship among these lifestyle migrants are shaped to a large extent by performances of national belonging, and individual interactions with other people at the local or community level. We argue that a bi-national structure of citizenship, or one based on domicile better accounts for the experiences of these migrants than supranational EU citizenship.     

网络信息空间的城市地理学研究：综述与展望

20世纪90年代,互联网飞速发展,不仅深刻地影响了我们的社会系统和经济结构,同时也重构了全球城市的物理和虚拟空间结构形式。近几年,在西方发达国家,网络信息空间的相关研究已经成为多学科研究的热点,有关城市网络信息空间的地理学研究也不断涌现。从技术与经济的角度入手,在已有文献资料基础上,对西方地理学界关于网络信息空间与城市发展的研究进展进行了评述。首先界定网络信息空间的概念及其相对于物理空间的各种特征,然后总结城市学者研究网络信息空间的几种理论方法,并从三个空间层次分别评述现有的实证研究成果。在此基础上,对网络信息空间的测量方法和关于城市地理学的研究内容进行了进一步展望。     

含煤系统

从煤地质学和系统论结合的基础上提出含煤系统的概念。含煤系统的基本要素有:物源、聚煤环境、地下热流。有关的成煤作用包括:泥炭的原地堆积—异地搬运作用、地壳旋回运动所引起的埋藏作用和成煤阶段的热变质作用。这些基本要素和成煤作用必须在时间空间上相配置,才有可能形成有工业价值的煤层。含煤系统在时间上可以分为物质来源子系统、物质堆积子系统、埋藏变质子系统。在空间上可以分为若干低一级的与此含煤系统特征相似的含煤子系统