‘A place for everything’: Moral landscapes of ‘swiftlet farming’ in George Town,Malaysia

This paper is based on 6 months of ethnographic, multi-sited research in Malaysia, and investigates the relatively recent phenomenon of edible birds’ nest farming in urban areas (‘swiftlet farming’). Swiftlet farms are typically converted shophouses or other buildings which have been modified for the purpose of harvesting the nests of the Edible-nest Swiftlet (Aerodramus fuciphagus). I use the controversy over urban swiftlet farming in the Malaysian city of George Town, Penang, to examine discourses used by key stakeholders to shape debates over the place of non-human animals in cities. By considering everyday experiences of urban swiftlet farming, I explore how this burgeoning industry is perceived amongst residents, and how it is deemed to be (in)appropriate within the political, economic and cultural landscape of George Town. Yet, I also consider how farmers have sought to contest these discourses on ideological and normative grounds. In so doing, I place the cultural animal geographies literature in conversation with emergent literature on landscape and urban political ecology. Such a framing allows for a critical evaluation of the controversies surrounding this case, and their implications for human-animal cohabitation in cities. The paper reflects on the implications of this case for how we regulate human-animal relations and live in contemporary cities, and the crucial role of animals in altering urban form, aesthetics and everyday life, particularly in non-Western contexts.     

Dark side of the planet: hidden dimensions of urban agglomeration

ABSTRACT

This intervention probes the hidden, political dimensions of planetary urbanization. Drawing on political theory, it approaches its analysis through the analytic of ‘the political,’ the dimension in which antagonism performs a constitutive function in the social order. In doing so the intervention throws into relief the ways in which group-based differentiation, conflict, and exclusion establish the conditions of possibility for ongoing transformations of urban agglomeration. It then develops a case for further exploring intersections of the political and capitalist agglomeration to generate new knowledge about current mutations in urban economies of space.     

长江三角洲南部“大城市圈振兴”理论的质疑

工业发展和城市化的传统理论，对亚洲的某些具有较高生产力水平，且还在发展中的“大城市圈”不能充分地解释，本文对长江三角洲南部空间经济转为的“大城市圈振兴”理论进行了批判地评论，根据最新的现场调查结果，从根本上对“转为过程”的假说提出质疑，并且提出了更适当的的区域发展战略，此外还证明，关于亚洲大城市带的一般结论，必须建立在对地方性经济变革认识的基础之上。     

GIS与历史地理学

本文初步分析了传统历史地理学存在的缺陷,GIS的快速发展为历史地理学提供了机遇;阐述了GIS在历史地理学中应用取得的成效、存在的问题和发展趋势,并就GIS与历史地理学如何更好的结合提出了几点对策。     

FARMING THE FOREST EDGE: VULNERABLE PLACES AND PEOPLE AROUND KIBALE NATIONAL PARK,UGANDA

ABSTRACT. Subsistence farmers near Kibale National Park, Uganda, fear and resent many wildlife species. In this article I compare records of crop damage by wildlife and livestock with local complaints about the worst animals and the most vulnerable crops. I discuss the concordance and discrepancies in complaints versus actual damage in light of physical parameters of risk and of social factors that shape perceptions and vulnerabilities. Crop losses were greatest at the edge of the forest, where immigrants are disproportionately represented. State proprietorship of wildlife amplifies local vulnerability and constrains traditional coping strategies, such as hunting.     

Exploring Chile: Identities and Their Relation with the Environment through the Film Football Stories

Cinema can be considered a useful tool for understanding different geographic concepts, showing physical and human factors and the interactions between them. Andres Wood's film Football Stories explores the Chilean territory allowing the observation of the differences between the north and south of the country. Geographic components such as landscapes, architectures, the impact of anthropogenic activities, social inequalities, ways of life, and city and countryside differences are analyzed, as well as the importance of location, the spatial environment, and cinematic narration. The study of geography through films could contribute to understanding of our world and to spatial knowledge.     

论新时期农村聚居模式研究

在准确把握新时期农村发展形势的背景下,基于当前农村聚居模式研究的理论与实践意义,构建了由农村聚居模式研究理论与方法体系、农村聚居模式的类型、农村聚居模式的功能与结构、农村聚居模式的发展过程与机理、农村聚居模式的调控与优化等五个方面组成的农村聚居模式研究框架体系,探索了从人地共生、城乡统筹、地域协调、社会和谐等不同视角对农村聚居模式进行研究的总体思路,提出了从地理学方法的应用与创新、多学科方法的融贯综合等两个方面对农村聚居模式研究方法体系进行完善的建议。     

物流地理学研究进展与展望

以国内地理学视角物流活动研究为基础,梳理了中国物流地理学的发展脉络和理论进展。通过文献研究方法,分析了国内物流地理学的研究背景,对主要研究领域进行了综述,进一步理清了地理学研究与物流学研究的边缘学术衔接点,映射了20 年来中国学术背景下的物流地理学的研究进展和规律,列举出了各研究板块的代表性文献,对国内物流地理学研究的深化开辟了新的理论途径。研究表明,中国学术界物流地理研究宏观属性相对明显,地理学视角研究极大地丰富了物流活动研究的理论基础和方法论体系,已形成了物流运输地理研究、区域物流地理研究、港口场站物流地理研究、物流地理信息系统研究和物流地理综合性方法论研究等主要研究板块。最后,依托国内物流地理学研究的基本态势和现实经济社会发展的需求,探讨了未来中国物流地理学研究的基本趋向。     

A Spatial Variant of the Basic Reproduction Number for the New Orleans Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878

A spatial variant of the basic reproduction number (R₀), here defined as the number of subsequent deaths attributed to an initial mortality, can be used to identify geographic variation within an epidemic. A spatial R₀ was calculated at the neighborhood level, here defined by a 50‐m buffer surrounding an index case, for mortality data from the 1878 yellow fever epidemic of New Orleans. The highest number of secondary mortalities linked to a neighborhood index case was twelve, with a further eighty‐seven extrapolated morbidity cases. Results also highlight the importance of multideath residences and cultural contacts in neighborhood‐level disease spread.