The RGS, exploration and Empire and the contested nature of surveying

In 1879, the RGS started courses in practical surveying based on the methods used by navigators. Subsequently, RGS courses, increasingly under the influence of former members of the Survey of India, changed in character. At the same time as the nature of appropriate surveying was being negotiated within the RGS, the debate over the academic nature of geography also took shape. The development of the 'new' geography reflected the conflicts within the RGS Council over the meaning of scientific geography.     

Reflections on a White Discipline

Utilizing a partially autobiographical format, this article considers the practice and study of race within geography. I argue that the overwhelmingly white composition of the discipline has very real implications for both individual experiences and our intellectual production and disciplinary culture. I explore these issues by drawing on my own experiences as a Chicana within geography, and by examining the extent to which one area of research, environmental justice, has engaged questions of race and the consequences of that engagement. I conclude with some general remarks on what it might take to significantly diversify geography.     

Life After Death

Predictions of the death of impoverished and actively marginalized racial and ethnic communities are premature. Many core African American societies have been devastated by the state, capital, and cultural policies of the last two decades. Simultaneously, geography and the other social sciences have been mobilized in order to prevent a fuller understanding of these communities and of the need for social equity. The further development of several approaches is required to open geography and the other disciplines up for community‐building, rather than community destruction. The incorporation of research in the following areas holds out the promise of revitalizing both: human rights; the ethnic movements underlying restructuring; the social construction of regions; the reproduction of social power; building ethnic alliance; and indigenous knowledge systems.     

The Permeable City: Toronto's Spatial Shift at the Turn of the Millennium

This article presents an analysis of the relationship between urban governance restructuring, and global, national, and local action through a case study of the Toronto city‐region. The Toronto city‐region recently underwent a massive reorganization of its governance structures, functions, and jurisdictional boundaries. This restructuring raises questions about why these changes occurred at this particular juncture in the region's history. Why did the city that had always been known in the academic and political discourse as the “city that works” stop “working”? What global and national forces might have accounted for such a radical restructuring? And what did local action contribute? These questions are explored in both historical and contemporary contexts by drawing on insights from regulation theory, urban regime theory, and an analysis of Canada's changing fiscal federalism. This approach informs the role that institutions — regardless of their origin or territorial scope — play in sustaining a local accumulation system, and how this “local” accumulation grounds a national regulatory mode and regime of accumulation. The approach also explores the relationship between regime and regulation theories in the context of policy formation and institution building. The study concludes that the current policy set is incapable of resolving the region's crisis tendencies. Notwithstanding external forces, the current policy set is not inevitable. Globalization does not predetermine all spatial‐economic outcomes.     

BELGIAN SETTLEMENT AND SOCIETY IN THE INDIANA RUST BELT*

ABSTRACT. At first glance the industrial city of Mishawaka, near the northern border of Indiana, appears to be ethnically homogeneous. Closer examination, however, reveals the rich ethnic heritage of Mishawaka, as it does in so many other Rust Belt cities from Pittsburgh to Chicago. One of the most fascinating of these immigrant stories is the rise of Belgian Town, on Mishawaka's southwest side. This study examines residential, commercial, and social patterns of this evolving ethnic community during the first three decades of the twentieth century. Although industrial jobs attracted immigrants to the city, creation of a Flemish Catholic church provided the foundation on which to build a tightly knit Belgian community.     

依靠科技进步加快经济发展

河南省煤田地质局经济的持续快速发展,得益于不断推进科技进步。表现为着力巩固发展地勘优势,使核心技术得到不断升级和创新,形成强势竞争力。科技进步的核心问题是人。尊重人才的关键是改革用人机制,用事业留人,用待遇留人,用感情留人。     

北京城地域沿革及发展思考

位于华北平原北部的北京,东西北三面环山,形如海湾,中间为一小平原,是地质历史演变成的一块风水宝地。自春秋战国时期作为燕都蓟城,经秦、汉、晋、隋、唐、五代、宋(辽、金)等历代变迁,于金贞元年建都,至其后的元、明、清,多作为都城,先后定名为中都、中都永安府、大都、大都路总管府、北平府、北京、京师顺天府。自辽代起北京城范围比今北京大。北京城地域演变是社会经济发展和人们生活需求自然形成的,它应对现今城市规划布局、人才建设具有重要的参考价值。     

拓展国际合作的视野--出席第23届IUGG大会有感

第23届IUGG大会一个突出的特点就是学科间的交叉和融合，充分反映了新世纪地球科学以实现全球变化的预测为目标，进行多学科综合研究的发展趋势。文章从IUGG内部跨学科的合作研究，IUGG与国际科联(ICSU)各专业委员会之间的合作交流，以及IUGG与政府间组织和其他国际机构的合作三个层面，简要介绍了IUGG在全球范围内开展国际合作研究的概况。在此基础上，结合我国的实际，就拓展国际合作领域，提高我国地球科学研究水平，扩大我国的国际影响等提出了相应的建议。