WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT IN CHESHIRE*

ABSTRACT. The purchase and subsequent demolition of Cheshire, Ohio‐located in the shadow of the General James M. Gavin Power Plant‐has attracted national attention. According to a New York Times report, “the deal … is believed to be the first by a company to dissolve an entire town.” In this article we consider historical precedents for the case, explore the thirty‐year history of community‐plant relations in Cheshire, and recount the series of incidents that ultimately led to the town's sale. We discuss the impact that the town's sale has had on the local community and the larger implications of American Electric Power's actions.     

Consumption,ageing and identity: New Zealander's narratives of gifting,ridding and passing on

Consumption practices involving disposal can provide important insights into how ‘being’ is accumulated. Analysis of 36 semi‐structured interviews with 13 individuals aged 59–70 in the Manawatu, Kapiti, Rangitikei and Horowhenua regions of the North Island in New Zealand illustrates how practices of gifting, ridding and passing on goods as legacy contribute to the production of familial and individual subjectivities. The research revealed that practices of disposal are performative, with both the absent presence of the objects placed away and the practices by which this occurs having agentic effects. The places that objects were assumed to occupy in the real and imagined lives of others and the moving of things away contributed to older adults' identities as caring parents, productive citizens and individuals of significance. Disposal practices consequently enabled participants to stabilise and order parent and child relations and one's relative position in the life course.     

IDENTITY AND SPACE: THE CASE OF TURKISH AMERICANS*

ABSTRACT. Until recently, Muslim Americans have often been overlooked in studies on immigration, ethnicity, and race. Their loyalty to America and their integration into the larger culture have frequently been questioned by the media, and academia's interest has mostly been limited to establishing links between Muslims, fundamentalism, and terrorism. Muslim American experiences‐their social, political, and cultural institutions and spaces in the United States‐have drawn little attention from geographers. But stereotypes play an important role in intergroup relations and public‐policy making. Thus, it is important to understand Muslim ethnic‐group experiences of immigration and their place‐making activities in the United States. Based on research in the greater New York metropolitan area, this study explores one facet of the Muslim experience in the United States by investigating Turkish American identity‐construction spaces and their role in the preservation and reformation of Turkish American identity; that is, how these spaces emphasize and shape particular identities and discourage others.     

CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND THE NARRATION OF NATION*

Captain Britain Weekly (1976–1977) was the first comic book specially created for the British market by New York‐based Marvel Comics. The title character was created as an analogue to Captain America, the legendary American nationalist hero of the so‐named comic book, but with key differences meant to resonate in the British context. I utilize visual and textual discourse analysis to study the narrative and imagery used to introduce this character to British comics fans, and I discuss readers' letters to the editor to evaluate audience response to the character and story lines. Attention is drawn to the hero's origin, which fuses science and magic to construct a paradoxically primordial, yet modern, British identity. Villains in these story lines provide hints about “un‐British” behavior and provide lessons for young readers, with direct moral connections to, and contrasts with, the narratives found in Captain America.     

HUMAN GEOGRAPHY OF THE AMERICAN TROPICS: A FORTY-YEAR REVIEW

For a decade or so after World War II, human geographers working in the American tropics found socio-political conditions and resultant research topics little changed from those before the war. This was in contrast to the Old World tropics where decolonization processes and the demands of economic development and new nation building produced divergent research currents, For the first half of the period under review, the American tropics continued to be the province largely of geographers with culturalhistorical questions grounded in natural historical bases. The legacy is Humboldt's; the practitioners most notably students of Carl Sauer or German counterparts such as Carl Troll. French and British regionalist approaches, strong in the region before World War II, survived less successfully. By the 1980s, however, broad pan-tropical currents of geographic discourse and debate had become established. New practices and theories were formulated and tested as North Atlantic geographers borrowed from antipodean innovators and others working in the Asian and African tropics. Since the 1980s, there have been greater efforts at dialogue and collaboration with host country colleagues. As might be expected in this era of ‘globalization’, national research styles and agendas have become less evident. This paper offers a highly selective map of research nodes within tropical Americanist geography since the early 1950s. The selection of examples includes qualitative criteria, but more importantly, research that signify stasis or intensification as well as turning points and departures in the overall development of this literature. The contours of this history suggest some highly evolved, even idiosyncratic enterprises, but in the main, it is an unfolding that suggests broad congruencies with human geographic work elsewhere in the tropics.     

PROMOTIONAL IMAGERY OF GLACIER NATIONAL PARK*

ABSTRACT. The Great Northern Railway vigorously encouraged visitation to Glacier National Park between 1911 and 1930. We reconstruct the railway's promotional imagery of Glacier through an assessment of 796 photographs used by the company to publicize park landscapes and activities. Seven themes in the photographs—Native Americans, scenery, recreation, wildlife, the Wild West, park management, and personalities—reveal a useful portrait of how Glacier National Park was marketed with images of the American West mass distributed for decades by one of the nation's most influential corporations.     

ETHNIC AND NATIONAL IDENTITIES OF AFRICANS IN THE UNITED STATES*

ABSTRACT. The emerging scholarly literature on contemporary African migration to the United States has primarily focused on populations concentrated in large urban areas. In contrast, this study considers the experiences of African university students living in two distinctly different places, Eugene, Oregon, and Washington, D.C., to examine how the context of the local host community shapes ethnic and national identities. Specific contextual variations under consideration are the extent to which newcomers have contact with coethnics/conationals and access to material and nonmaterial culture. Results based on thirty‐six in‐depth interviews show that, despite easy access to coethnics, some students in the Washington metropolitan area readily identified with conationals. Likewise, in the absence of coethnics in Eugene, many students described strengthening national identities; and, in the absence of conationals, they have constructed panethnic African identities. Additional research into the experiences of newcomers in various host‐community contexts is needed.     

THE IDEOLOGY OF EMPIRE IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE'S COVERAGE OF THE PHILIPPINES, 1898–1908

ABSTRACT. Between 1898 and 1908 the National Geographic Magazine reported copiously on the territorial acquisition and U.S. colonial administration of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War. The pages of the magazine provide an intriguing window on connections between the emergence of geography as an organized profession and the expanding sphere of U.S. control of overseas territories. The overall picture reveals a shift from bold calls for direct economic exploitation of the natural resources and labor power of the Philippine Islands to more platitudinous justifications for U.S. control, based on moral responsibility and the ostensibly objective imperatives of “scientific” development.     

Finding the Southern Part of Cyberspace: Using the Internet to Teach the South

Abstract

This article suggests how teachers can approach the Internet conceptually and use it practically as they teach about the American South. Because of its information, communication, and cultural dimensions, the Internet represents a “place” where students and teachers can appraise the South from multiple, alternative perspectives. The article offers lesson strategies and resources for both on-computer and off-computer classroom settings. By finding the southern part of cyberspace, the authors illustrate that regions can and do have a place in a medium often represented as spaceless and devoid of geographic boundaries.     

Energy solution or future pollution? Applying an energy justice perspective to coal seam gas in New South Wales

ABSTRACT

The emergence of an unconventional extractive industry of coal seam gas (CSG) in New South Wales, Australia has caused a range of social tensions. Although the industry has generally received strong support from state-level governments across Australia, an eclectic social movement has arisen in opposition. Critical questions of justice have emerged in these debates about CSG, particularly about the ‘winners' and ‘losers' that would emerge should large-scale CSG extraction be introduced into New South Wales. However, the question of justice in relation to CSG extraction is not altogether so simple. Actors on all sides of CSG development have mobilised the language of justice in their claims about this energy source in sophisticated ways and at different scales. In this paper, we draw upon ‘energy justice’ scholarship to tease out different energy justice dimensions of the CSG debate in New South Wales. We show how there are significant issues that will likely intensify regarding the recognition of different forms of knowledge, the access citizens have to forms of decision-making, and the risks that span geographic and temporal scales. We argue that it is vital to appreciate the significant and interrelated injustices faced by those challenging the industry.     

THE GREATER MIDDLE EAST AND REFORM IN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S IDEOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

ABSTRACT. In pursuit of its foreign‐policy goals, the administration of President George W. Bush has attempted a dramatic reshaping of the vision of the Middle East in the American mind. References to the “new” or “greater” Middle East now include countries far outside traditional concepts of the region, including those in West Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia. The administration argues that this region is defined not by cultural (Arab) or religious (Islam) characteristics but by a lack of democracy; hence a grand strategy is needed to execute reform. This article examines current U.S. efforts to achieve reform in the region, the components of the ideological construction of the New Middle East, the perceived role of Iraq, Turkey's potential role as a “model” for the region, and responses from the region to current U.S.‐led reform efforts.     

Writing a Successful Fulbright Group Projects Abroad Grant: Voices from a Journey to South Africa

Abstract

The authors share a successful Fulbright Group Projects Abroad grant award. The purpose of the grant was to enhance American educators' experience and knowledge of South Africa, in particular, and sub-Saharan Africa more generally. Toward that end, participants experienced a multifaceted view of South Africa's geographical diversity, both physical and cultural, through visiting three provinces and four major cities. Participants experienced people and places associated with reconciliation, segregation, and creolization, making comparisons with the U.S. historical experience. The program required participants to attend an orientation, participate in predeparture readings and to develop curriculum units that were shared at a national conference.     

PALESTINIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY AND THE ISRAELI LABOR MARKET: Q-ANALYSES

The proposition that geopolitical adjustments in Israel following the 1967 war recreated and fostered the Palestinian national identity is examined and quantified with Q-analysis of the street labor markets for Palestinian workers in Israel. These street labor markets played an important role in creating an interaction and communication network among Palestinians from distant districts, and thus in recreating their national identity. Our Q-analyses show that at least two years before the intifada, a global communication system existed among Palestinian workers through the street labor markets in Israel. Such a global system was a precondition for the outbreak of the intifada.     

Maps the Blind Can See

Abstract

The Thrifty Geographer Like previous reviews in this series, the eighth Thrifty Geographer examines MS/PC-DOS software that costs less than $51.00. New programs reviewed below deal with one of the staples of geography, maps. We also give an update on an atlas program that was first reviewed in 1992. AUTOMAP EUROPE, Automap Inc., Building C-113, 9831 South 51st Street, Phoenix, AZ 85044. $49.50.

AUTOMAP EUROPE, Automap Inc., Building C-l13,9831 South 51st Street, Phoenix, AZ 85044. $49.50.

Water Resources Management: In Search of an Environmental Ethic by David Lewis Feldman Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. 247 pp.

The Hispano Homeland by Richard L. Nostrand Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992. xiv and 281 pp., maps, illustrations, tables, appendixes, index, and bibliography. ISBN 0-8061-2414-8. $29.95.

Volcanoes by Rodman Snead Lincoln, Nebraska: National Council for Geographic Education/Great Plains National. 1993. 60 slides, annotations, bibliography. $70.00.     

Geographical reflections on Sir Edmund Hillary (1919–2008)

Abstract: During the past year, the media, public and officialdom have focused on Sir Edmund Hillary, his achievements, and what they mean to New Zealand. In this commentary, we reflect on how they relate to human geography. Although we acknowledge the obvious tensions that exist between adventuring and the contemporary concerns of the discipline, we also illustrate how Hillary's life and actions resonate with many of the discipline's current hopes, aims and challenges. Specifically, we discuss thematic overlaps in the fields of geopolitics and national identities, colonial histories and resistances, as well as the emerging public geography. We posit that ‘Hillary's geography’ is closer to human geography than is realized or at least acknowledged by geographers.     

FORTY YEARS OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY IN THE JOURNAL

Up to June 1993, 207 articles on physical geography have been published in the Malayan Journal of Tropical Geography (MJTG) (1953–57), Journal of Tropical Geography (JTG) (1958–79) and the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography (SJTG) (1980–93). These articles are examined initially in terms of their sub-fields (Biogeography, Climatology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, and Soils), area of focus (the tropics, Africa, America, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia excluding Malaysia and Singapore, Malaysia, Singapore, and Southwest Pacific) and the area of origin of the authors. The more significant papers in the sub-fields are indicated. Various factors influencing the contributions to the Journal and some insights on the contributions of local staff (Singapore and Malaysia) are also given. The significance of the Journal as an avenue for local and foreign authors and for papers on physical geography in the tropics is briefly evaluated.     

Authorship,Collaboration, and Gender: Fifteen Years of Publication Productivity in Selected Geography Journals

In academia, publication productivity, defined as the number of peer-reviewed articles published and the frequency of citations, is a primary factor in the assessment of tenure and promotion. One of the most cited gender differences in academia is the “productivity puzzle,” which suggests that women publish less than men, thereby affecting every aspect of a woman's academic career. Peer-reviewed articles published in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers (Annals) and The Professional Geographer (PG) between 1995 and 2006, and in four subdisciplinary journals between 2005 and 2009, as well as citation reports, were used to explore whether gender differences are present in publication productivity. Gender differences were evident in the proportion of women authors, the frequency of collaboration, and the number of citations across a broad range of prestigious geographic journals. For all journals studied, women were underrepresented, especially in the authorship positions that equate to notions of respect and merit. Although the number of collaborative articles increased during the study period, single-authored papers are the dominant mode of publication for both men and women for most geographic journals. The authorship patterns for frequently cited articles generally mirror those for all articles. Because the frequency of collaborative publication was high for women, the dual trends of a general increase in publication collaboration and increasing participation of women in academic geography bodes well for increased female productivity as it relates to publishing. Nevertheless, it is important to note that, currently, males as lead or single authors represent the predominant voice of geography within the journals examined in this study.     

MOZAMBIQUE,NEOLIBERAL LAND REFORM,AND THE LIMPOPO NATIONAL PARK*

ABSTRACT. Central to its transformation from a state‐centered to a neoliberal, free‐market economy, in 1997 the Mozambican state passed a radical new land law that guarantees the rights of individuals and communities to occupy land and transfer land‐use titles, a move seen as necessary for attracting private investment. By comparing how the land law has been applied to the Limpopo National Park and several adjacent villages, I show how it has led to geographically uneven land reform. More specifically, outside the park, the law has enabled the semiprivatization of community lands, in theory protecting community land rights. However, the application of the law within the park has resulted in the further nationalization of this space, which is leading to land dispossession for communities within the park's borders. I thus show how neoliberal land reform is giving rise to a seemingly contradictory type of “neoliberal state space.”     

WRITING THE MIDWEST: HISTORY,LITERATURE, AND REGIONAL IDENTITY

ABSTRACT. In this article I discuss the function of history in constructing regional identity and explore the ways in which the American Midwest differs from other widely recognized regions—New England, the South, and the West—in the kinds of historical figures and narratives that create a regional distinctiveness in the eyes of residents and writers. Whereas other regions tend to locate identity in a limited number of well-known figures and events from the past and to generalize them to the region as a whole, in the Midwest meaning is discerned on a more limited, place-by-place basis, in terms of more strictly local events and personages. This understanding of a particular kind of historically based identity is made especially clear in contemporary nonfiction from the Midwest, which collectively creates a dense mosaic of local meanings in a landscape conventionally seen by outsiders as largely empty of interest and significance.