Introductory Human Geography Textbook Representations of Africa

This article analyzes representations of Africa found in ten introductory human geography textbooks. Recent research in communications studies cites the common tendencies of the U.S. media to represent Africa in rhetorical tropes of disaster that are ahistorical and rife with geographical abstraction and misrepresentation. The main textbooks in geography tend to avoid ahistorical and geographical simplification, yet they often repeat stereotypes and misleading media imagery concerning Africa. A broad body of works by geographers in the last decade that offers critical scholarly analysis of both African crises and African everyday life is generally underrepresented in the discipline's introductory textbooks, although some encouraging exceptions do exist to that generalization. It is suggested that geographers need to critically re-examine the ways in which African examples are utilized to teach fundamentals of human geography.     

COMMENTS ON “SPATIAL VARIATION OF HILLSLOPE PROFILES IN THE CUMBERLAND PLATEAU,KENTUCKY” BY EDMUND B. WOOOS

Book Reviewed in this article:

Main Street: Northeastern Oregon: The Founding and Development of Small Towns. Barbara Ruth Bailey.

Food Politics: The Regional Conflict. David N. Balaam and Michael J. Carey, eds.

The International Economy and Industrial Development: Trade and Investment in the Third World. R. Ballance, J. Ansari and H. Singer.

Neighborhoods in Urban America. Ronald H. Bayor, ed.

The English Heartland. By Robert Beckinsale and Monica Beckinsale.

Regional Dimensions of Industrial Policy. Michael E. Bell and Paul S. Lande, eds.

Tension Areas of the World. D. Gordon Bennett, ed.

Latin America: an Introductory Survey. B. W. Blouet and O. M. Blouet, eds.

Integration and Division: Geographical Perspectives on the Northern Ireland Problem. Frederick W. Boal and J. Neville H. Douglas, eds.

Energy and Land Use. Robert W. Burchell and David Listokin, eds.

Slopes and Weathering. Michael Clarke and John Small.

Alaska's Rural Development. Peter G. Cornwall and Gerald McBeath, eds.

The Politics of Park Design: A History of Urban Parks in America. Galen Cranz.

World Congress on Land Policy, 1980, Proceedings. Matthew Cullen and Sharon Woolery, eds.

Oregon Divided: A Regional Geography. Samuel N. Dicken and Emily F. Dicken.

Urban Food Marketing and Third World Rural Development. T. Scarlett Epstein.

South Africa: Spatial Frameworks for Development. T. J. D. Fair.

Institutions and Geographical Patterns. Robin Flowerdew, ed.

Industrialization of U.S. Agriculture, An Interpretive Atlas. Howard F. Gregor.

Planning Theory: Prospects for the 1980s. Patsy Healy, Glen McDougall and Michael J. Thomas, eds.

Neighborhood Mobilization: Redevelopment and Response. Jeffrey R. Henig.

The American Urban System: A Geographical Perspective. R. J. Johnston.

Climate, History and the Modern World. Hubert H. Lamb.

Climate and History: Studies in Past Climates and Their Impact on Man. T. M. L. Wigley, M. J. Ingram and G. Farmer.

China: Railways and Agricultural Development, 1875–1935. Ernest P. Liang.

A Desirable Energy Future—A National Perspective. Robert S. Livingston, T. D. Anderson, T. M. Besmann, M. Olszewski, A. M. Perry, and C. D. West.

Topothesia: Essays Presented to T. S. Ó Máille. B. S. Mac Aodha, ed.

Transportation for the Poor: Research in Rural Mobility. Hal S. Maggied.

Land Uses in American Cities. Harold M. Mayer and Charles R. Haves.

Industrial Organisation and Location. Philip McDermott and Michael Taylor.

Human Adaptability: an Introduction to Ecological Anthropology. Emilio F. Moran.

Regional Analysis and the New International Division of Labor. Frank Moulaert and Patricia W. Salinas, eds.

The Nuclear War Atlas. Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada:

Urbanization and Environmental Quality. Isao Orishimo.

The Garden of Eden: The Botanic Garden and the Re-Creation of Paradise. John Prest.

Earthfire, The Eruption of Mount St. Helens. Charles Rosenfeld and Robert Cooke.

Contest for the South China Sea. Marwyn S. Samuels.

The Future of the Wetlands: Assessing Visual-Cultural Values. Richard C. Smardon, ed.

Tucson: the Life and Times of An American City. C. L. Sonnichsen.

The Geography of Multinationals. Michael Taylor and Nigel Thrift, eds.

Impact of Marine Pollution on Society. Virginia Tippie and Dana Kester.

Reviving the Industrial City: the Politics of Urban Renewal in Lyon and Birmingham. Jerry A. Webman.

Andean Reflections: Letters from Carl O. Sauer While on a South American Trip under a Grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, 1942. Robert C. West, ed.

Cartographic Drawing with Computers. P. Yoeli.     

EUROPE AND AMERICA: THE REORIENTATION IN GEOGRAPHICAL COMMUNICATION IN THE POST-WAR PERIOD∗

The effects of intra-farm distance on farm income have not been previously tested in North America. European studies are inconclusive as they use data taken from bookkeeping accounts for the farm as a whole. This paper calls for field-to-field farm analyses that combine internal movement costs with costs of production, yields, and farm-gate prices. In a study applying this method to Manitoba grain farms, it was found that adjustments in the organization and intensity of farming offset the effects of distance on net income.     

THE PATTERN OF PROPERTY-TAX EXEMPTIONS IN A METROPOLITAN FISCAL SETTING

The fiscal-disparities approach to understanding the fiscal problems of many older American central cities neglects the role of property-tax exemptions. This paper, grounded in the metropolitan fiscal setting of Onondaga County and Syracuse, New York, outlines an argument that emphasizes the link between property-tax exemptions, city age, and regional centrality. Central cities are seen as suffering from fiscal burdens imposed partly by their growth as regional centers. It is concluded that, when the financial problems of central cities are being examined, these cities should not be treated as fiscal equivalents to other metropolitan political units but that due regard should be given to their particular historical development.     

城市地质学理论创新与北京城市地质工作实践发展

城市地质工作,已成为未来地质工作的重要方面。然而,近年来城市地质问题越来越多。亟需城市地质学理论创新。本文创新了城市地质学理论,提出城市地质工作理念发展之路,谋划了未来10～15年北京城市地质工作,探讨了非正常情况下城市地质安全危机管理战略。北京城市地质工作应努力实现从问题推动型向理念发展型转变,在调查型地质工作基础上广泛开展监测型和信息服务型地质工作。重点做好正常型城市地质工作,严防非正常型城市地质安全危机事件发生。进一步提升战略资源和地质环境承载能力,为北京城市可持续发展提供地质保障。     

海水加载引起的厦门台相对重力变化

针对厦门台具体地理位置的特点,提出了计算相对重力变化的海水加载模型,运用有关弹性理论知识与一定的数学方法,定量地计算了海水加载引起的厦门台相对重力变化。结果表明：①相对重力变化对近距离的加载极为敏感,随着离观测点距离的增加,加载的影响程度逐渐减弱,超过一定的范围,这种影响就可以忽略不计了;对厦门台来说,海水的有效加载范围约为940 m;②经过扣除各种可能的误差后,由理论模型计算所得的结果与实际观测结果较为吻合,进一步证实了计算模型的正确性。     

空间与经济地理学理论构建

空间是地理学的核心概念之一,长期以来在地理学的研究中占据核心地位。地理学对于空间的认识由于受到多学科的影响和启示也在不断演变和发展,其中哲学和社会学对空间的理解对地理科学的影响极为深刻。经济地理学作为地理学的重要分支学科之一,短短百年历史就经历了数次研究思潮的变迁和学科地位的崛起。这一切都离不开经济地理扎根于空间。空间是经济地理理论创新的源泉。本文通过对地理学中的空间概念与经济地理发展脉络的对应阐释,进一步印证了上述观点。同时,本文指出空间不能被沦落到和地方、区位、区域等概念并列的地位,空间包含着后者,须进一步强化空间的第一位性。但是也不能忽略经济地理学中的方法论的创新,每一次空间理解的突破都伴随着研究方法的创新,但是方法的创新始终是第二位的。因为方法创新的背后隐含着空间理解的改变。     

郭子章地理学著述成就述论

明万历朝的军事家、政治家郭子章,战功卓著,政绩突出,也是一位成就出色的大学者,其地理学尤其是历史人文地理方面的著述极为丰富。渊博的知识、非凡的经历,加上严谨的治学精神,造就了其地理学著述的价值。其地理学著述中,《郡县释名》是我国历史上最早的一部专门注释地名渊源的著作,在地名学史上占有重要地位;《黔记》、《豫章书》等大量方志,涉及江西、贵州等省之自然、人文地理内容;此外,郭子章在西南民族地区行政区划方面的探索与实践也在《黔草》等地方文献中多有体现。这些地理学著述为研究郭子章地理学思想、历代地名沿革、明代西南地区自然和人文地理提供了宝贵的资料。     

西方城市环境议题及其研究述评

基于英文文献的搜集和整理,从以下几方面对西方城市环境议题展开综述:环境议题的兴起;城市环境议题的主要研究主题和进展;城市环境议题的主要特点和城市地理学视角研究的述评.研究发现:城市环境问题具有历史性、尺度性、综合性,城市-自然/环境二元观被现有研究打破,发展中国家城市环境问题具有特殊性且一度被忽略;城市地理学可以充分发挥学科优势,借助技术方法革新和学科交叉的机遇参与和推动上述研究;未来环境议题将成长为城市地理学领域的重要研究方向.