Developing Contradictions: Women's Participation as a Site of Struggle Within an Indian NGO*

Women are being hired in increasing numbers by development projects to facilitate women's participation components. Once employed, however, women often find themselves marginalized within their organizations. In this paper, I find that the women's participation component of an Indian drinking water project has enabled the exclusion of women fieldworkers employed by the project. Drawing on the work of Bakhtin, I show participatory approaches as multiple, partial, and contentious. Moves to thwart women fieldworkers and women's participation give rise to struggles over development geography. Analysis of project records, interviews with staff, and observation of staff activities provide evidence for results.     

COMMUTING DISTANCE AND GENDER AMONG NONMETROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY EMPLOYEES*

The applicability of metropolitan-derived explanations of gender differences in worktrip lengths is examined based on a sample of 435 university employees in the nonmetropolitan town of Blacksburg, VA. Women's worktrips are found to be longer than men's in contrast to metropolitan findings. This pattern results from the interaction of spatial structures of housing and employment with women's lower incomes, gender segregation of employment, and the tendency for married women to find jobs after their residence is established. Upward trends in female labor force participation rates and in nonmetropolitan growth require continued analysis of their joint impact on women's spatial behavior.     

CIVIL SOCIETY PARTICIPATION IN THE DECENTRALISATION OF BRAZIL'S WATER RESOURCES: ASSESSING PARTICIPATION IN THREE STATES

Decentralisation, the transfer of powers to a lower level of government, is thought to encourage more efficient and equitable management of natural resources. Participation of civil society organisations (CSOs) is considered critical to create positive outcomes of decentralisation. Here we examine aspects of civil society participation in decentralised management using the case of Brazil's water resources management. Several Brazilian states have enacted reforms mandating watershed committees in which the participation of civil society is either encouraged or required. However, actual participation of civil society is not yet well understood. To assess participation, we collected qualitative data on watershed districts in three Brazilian states (Bahia, Paraná and São Paulo). Our findings reaffirm the importance of the state in establishing a transparent legal framework to encourage participation and in defining “civil society”. The ability of civil society leaders to obtain and deploy local environmental knowledge, which frames environmental issues in new geographical scales, is useful to achieve the efficiency and efficacy objectives of decentralisation. However, by “upscaling” political activities beyond decentralisation's new territories, CSOs could make decentralisation irrelevant to local environmental issues.     

社会交换视角中的权力、信任对居民参与旅游发展的影响效应分析——以北京前门社区为例

从社会交换视角探讨社区权力、社区信任对居民参与旅游程度的影响效应具有重要意义。以北京前门社区为例,通过建立数据模型,检验了社区中的权力、社区居民信任对旅游社区居民参与程度的影响效应。研究表明:社会交换过程中的社区权力和社区信任是影响旅游社区参与的重要因素。社区权力对社区信任和社区参与旅游程度有直接显著的正向影响效应,社会交换中的旅游收益感知与旅游成本感知通过对居民参与旅游程度产生间接的影响效应。而社区信任与旅游收益感知之间存在双向影响效应,将直接与间接地影响居民参与旅游程度。     

Reading Lanyu's tourism landscape: Hybridity and identity on Orchid Island,Taiwan

This article analyses the creation and implications for cultural identity of a hybrid tourism landscape on Taiwan's Orchid Island (Lanyu). It particularly argues that Lanyu's native Tao people have begun to gain a somewhat stronger cultural identity and autonomy through this landscape. Orchid Island underwent rapid modernization within the past 60 years. The article not only shows how tourism was imposed by Taiwan's government, but also how the Tao have made greater use of tourism's landscape over time for their own purposes. Not without sociocultural problems and contradictions, Lanyu's tourism landscape has been polysemic enough to allow for gradually improving relationships between Taiwanese and Tao and for gradually increasing Tao participation in modernity on their own terms.     

The Steamer Parish: The Rise and Fall of Missionary Medicine on an African Frontier

In the past decade, the women's employment rate has increased in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states as a result of improved female educational attainment and the expansion of the local market economy. A significant gender gap in labor force participation (LFP) rates has emerged, however, compared to other countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The main aim of this article is to model the spatial variations of female LFP rates across the northeastern part of Oman. A geographically weighted regression (GWR) technique, within the geographic information system platform, is used to address how the relationships between Omani female LFP rates and a set of explanatory variables vary across Omani subnational boundaries. GWR is a powerful approach that can facilitate the identification of areas with lower or higher female LFP rates and help in better understanding the predictors that are associated with women's employment in specific locations. In so doing, this work attempts to fill the gap in the geographic literature regarding the modeling of local spatial patterns of female employment in developing countries. The results show that the female LFP rate is significantly associated with different spatial measures and particularly the geographic distribution of female education. Interestingly, the percentage of female jobs in the public sector is found to have a substantial negative effect on female LFP rates, especially in urban areas. This can be attributed to the propensity of Omani women to work in governmental jobs and reduce their participation in private and other business sectors. The findings of this research analysis not only offer a more nuanced examination of female LFP rate patterns but also provide empirical evidence in support of locally tailored policies pertaining to the female labor force, which might help in increasing women's participation trends in the local economy across local communities.     

The Paradoxical Black Rock City: All Cities Are Mad

Since 1986, Burning Man has evolved from an obscure bohemian San Francisco solstice celebration into the world's largest intentional community, anchored by annual burns on a playa in Nevada's Black Rock country. Participants embrace an ethos that radically challenges mainstream culture through Black Rock City's yearly (re)formation, negotiation, immolation, and deconstruction. Voicing curiosity, as humanists, in who we are, what we do, and why we do it, we examine rituals associated with this transitory yet international‐scale event. Such happenings imply a human need to seek clarity, dwell in close confines, and engage with a utopian desire for concerted communal participation. Yet, there exist historical‐cultural paradoxes associated with Burning Man, including steep entry barriers that reinforce an elite homogeneous population no longer representative of Burning Man's distinctive California roots.     

MapStats for Kids: Making Geographic and Statistical Facts Available to Children

Abstract

Concern about the health of American democracy mounts as a result of the large body of literature documenting chronically low levels of voter turnout among young people in particular. A volunteer, nonprofit organization called “Kids Voting, USA” was formed in the late 1980s to try to tackle the specific problem of encouraging young adults to vote. In cooperation with school districts, the program includes some grade-specific curricula and culminates on Election Day with kids voting in polling booths set up alongside official ones. Existing assessments of the program's impact have been very positive. Particularly hopeful is one study that concludes that the program's strongest effects are found in mobilizing those least advantaged in terms of the customary correlates of political participation. Our ecological analysis, based on the actual turnout rates in the Kids Voting elections for participating schools in Erie County, NY (N = 222), suggests that such conclusions are perhaps overly optimistic. Patterns in the geography and social ecology of participation in Kids Voting elections unfortunately look quite similar to those related to variations in the official electoral process. Although Kids Voting programs may have a salutary effect stimulating political involvement among the young, further reforms seem necessary if they are to reach their full potential.     

Does carbon finance make a sustainable difference? Hydropower expansion and livelihood trade‐offs in the Red River valley,Yunnan Province,China

The Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a carbon credit trading scheme intended to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and promote ‘sustainable development’. Hundreds of CDM‐sponsored hydroelectric dams have been constructed in southwest China's Yunnan Province, where carbon finance contributes substantial financial incentives to hydropower expansion. This article investigates whether riparian Handai farmers settled near the Madushan hydropower plant on the Chinese section of Red River have experienced positive outcomes from this project's participation in the CDM. I assess how Handai individuals' access to core livelihood assets has been modified following dam completion and probe how the CDM reconfigures scalar relations among the various stakeholders involved in hydropower governance in Yunnan. Though the CDM facilitates hydropower expansion, it fails to produce development that is more sustainable than ‘business as usual’ from a local perspective. Rather, the CDM consolidates hydropower governance in the same way as it unfolded in Yunnan before the province became an active participant in this scheme. The CDM also facilitates a national development campaign fostering specific socio‐economic modernization patterns in China's western provinces.     

We Are All Makers: The Method of Keyword Selection in Teaching and Learning Human Geography

Abstract

Geographers continue to engage in public debate “inside the Beltway” by participation within and through federal agencies and through the National Research Council. Several examples illustrate the level and kind of this engagement, which has been concentrated on environmental and spatial data and analysis themes. Most professional geographers have the opportunity to engage in this form of public debate through participation in the activities of the National Research Council. The level of this participation has been surprisingly strong, given the small size of the community of professional geographers, and has helped to shape both U.S. and international research agendas relevant to geographic research. Participation, however, is concentrated in a few programs and individuals, raising questions about the sustainability of geography's voice in this public activity.

     

Climate change scenario planning in Alaska's National Parks: Stakeholder involvement in the decision-making process

This article studies the participation of stakeholders in climate change decision-making in Alaska's National Parks. We place stakeholder participation within literatures on environmental and climate change decision-making. We conducted participant observation and interviews in two planning workshops to investigate the decision-making process, and our findings are three-fold. First, the inclusion of diverse stakeholders expanded climate change decision-making beyond National Park Service (NPS) institutional constraints. Second, workshops of the Climate Change Scenario Planning Project (CCSPP) enhanced institutional understandings of participants' attitudes towards climate change and climate change decision-making. Third, the geographical context of climate change influences the decision-making process. As the first regional approach to climate change decision-making within the NPS, the CCSPP serves as a model for future climate change planning in public land agencies. This study shows how the participation of stakeholders can contribute to robust decisions, may move climate change decision-making beyond institutional barriers, and can provide information about attitudes towards climate change decision-making.     

Geography's Profile in Public Debate “Inside the Beltway” and the National Academies*

Geographers continue to engage in public debate “inside the Beltway” by participation within and through federal agencies and through the National Research Council. Several examples illustrate the level and kind of this engagement, which has been concentrated on environmental and spatial data and analysis themes. Most professional geographers have the opportunity to engage in this form of public debate through participation in the activities of the National Research Council. The level of this participation has been surprisingly strong, given the small size of the community of professional geographers, and has helped to shape both U.S. and international research agendas relevant to geographic research. Participation, however, is concentrated in a few programs and individuals, raising questions about the sustainability of geography's voice in this public activity.     

Biodiversity,land degradation,and climate change: Participatory planning in Romania

This paper considers the role of stakeholder participation in drawing together the three Rio Conventions, exploring how participatory activities to combat desertification in southern Romania can both support and hinder efforts to conserve biodiversity and mitigate the effects of climate change. It suggests that Romania's growing civil society sector has a potentially vital role to play in promoting synergy through participation, and that participatory processes act as an important mechanism for harnessing multiple benefits. The paper argues that participation needs to be further institutionalised within the Romanian context and in doing so, should emphasise empowerment, equity, trust and learning, integrating different knowledge bases to allow the development of sustainable and synergistic environmental solutions.     

EVALUATING THE STABILITY OF OUTDOOR RECREATION PARTICIPATION MODELS*

Application of forecasting models reveals that parameter estimates vary substantially among regions reflecting spatial variation in consumer preferences and behavior. We present a simulation methodology to evaluate the stability in performance of recreation participation models between different regions. The sample data consisted of 632 household interviews obtained via random digit dialing techniques as part of Oklahoma's 1980 statewide survey of outdoor recreation demand. Three variables, the age of the head of the household, the number of household members, and distance to the facility were consistently accurate predictors of participation; the performance of other variables depended directly upon unknown attributes of the specific region.     

Electoral Geography of the Sino-Thai in Thailand's National Elections, 1979–1995

Comparison of Thai and Sino-Thai participation and success rates from the seven elections taking place since 1979 show Sino-Thai participation comparable to their proportion in the country's population. Assimilationist government minority policy and electorate acceptance have served to integrate this group into the mainstream political system. There is no pattern of support for a particular political party and there are no indicators of a separate Sino-Thai political element. Their highest success rates, however, occur in regions of the country that have historically had small Sino-Thai populations. This appears to be the result of factional politics and of monetary and organizational resources needed to garner votes at the provincial level.     

(Anti?) Colonial Women Writing War

This paper examines the wartime literature of Sarah Selwyn, Mary Ann Martin, and Caroline Abraham, all wives of prominent church and government men in colonial Aotearoa/New Zealand. Along with their husbands these women became leading participants in the “pamphlet war” surrounding the justice and legality of the colonial government's survey and confiscation of Māori land at Taranaki, c. 1850–1860. I analyze the socio‐spatial frameworks of these colonial women, linking them with their protest narratives of the Taranaki confiscations and ensuing war. The anti‐colonial position articulated by these women must be viewed within the context of ideological constraints on women's participation in public life, but also within the context of expanded social and spatial boundaries of such high‐placed colonials, the gendered space of the episcopal residences during wartime, the women's networks of communication, and their material and discursive links to public arguments taking place in England over colonial conflicts.     

Human Capital and the Structural Integration of Polish Immigrants in Australia in the First,Second and Third Generations

The Polish diaspora is one of the largest in the world. Australia's 2011 census identifies 48 611 born in Poland and 170 000 claiming Polish ancestry. Using the census, we assess the structural (socio-economic) and spatial integration of the first (Poles who arrived in the post-World War II period as largely displaced persons and refugees), second (their children) and third (grandchildren) generations, and compare the first generation with another cohort: the skilled first-generation (‘Solidarity') immigrants who arrived in the 1980s and early 1990s. Key OECD indicators of integration—education attainment, proficiency in English, employment status and occupational progression, home ownership, naturalisation, return rates and patterns of residential distribution—are examined. Results point to their successful integration, with high levels of labour market participation, earnings, and naturalisation, levels of spatial integration as exemplified in a Melbourne case study (where the highest proportions of those of Polish birth or ancestry reside), return migration and language retention, and levels of owner-occupied housing (the ‘middle-class dream') higher than among Australians generally.     

Insights from past and present social science literature on the (unequal) development of New Zealand's rural communities

A review of social research on rural New Zealand undertaken as part of the National Science Challenge (NSC 11) “Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities” allows a fresh look at rural development within the context of New Zealand's colonial history. The research suggests that government development programmes and legislation privileged those responsible for producing the bulk of New Zealand's export income. Cultural attitudes, structural inequalities and a failure to understand how the character of, and social relations in, rural areas have changed has impeded particularly Māori economic growth, the participation of women, and non‐farm sectors of rural society, to the detriment of all.     

SELF‐DETERMINATION AND THE DIFFICULTY OF CREATING NATION‐STATES: THE TRANSYLVANIA CASE*

ABSTRACT. In the lead‐up to the World War I Paris Peace Conference the United States convened The Inquiry‐a group of leading scholars‐to propose equitable terms, including new borders, for the final peace settlements. In many areas throughout Europe, among them Transylvania, coming to a settlement that fully accounted for Woodrow Wilson's principle of self‐determination proved difficult. Hungary's populace comprised many nationalities, some very hostile toward Romania, the state that eventually acquired the entire region. In this article I analyze how the American plan differed from that finally adopted at the conference and how closely The Inquiry's plan for Transylvania followed the principles laid out by President Wilson in his famous “Fourteen Points,” which provided the basis for American participation in World War I. The ethnic mix within Transylvania made it an especially difficult region in which to apply Wilsonian principles.     

Beyond technical details: The stalled Kwabenya Engineered Sanitary Landfill Project in Accra,Ghana

Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography 111(2):169–179, 2011

The development of a modern, sustainable system of waste management in developing countries is frequently delayed (and in some cases stalled) by causes that cannot be directly attributed to technical or economic reasons. One such project is the Kwabenya Engineered Sanitary Landfill Project which was conceived in 1991. This paper examines why the project was not actualized though the technical details and financial component were duly secured. Using mainly a qualitative research method, the study revealed that the authority's poor governance practices spelt the doom of the project. Neither were the direct occupants of the land consulted during the project formulation stage nor were the host community's fear of environmental reprisals addressed. This paper maintains that successful implementation of projects like a landfill demands the collective participation and acceptability of all stakeholders.