Economic transformation, locality and policy in eastern Germany: A comparison of two Länder

Economic transformation in post-socialist eastern Germany revealed inherent inequalities in development opportunities, which had been disguised during the socialist ancien régime. Using local examples from the two contrasting Länder of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Saxony, this paper explores how market forces not only exposed these differences, but further entrenched them at the regional and local scales. Local economies demonstrate the differential development very clearly, exposing the significance of regional economic context and raisons d'être of local economic structures. This is genuine locational advantages vis-à-vis activities imposed through ideology rather than economy-driven decrees by the old GDR regime. Many of these state-decreed activities lacked local, and regional, embeddedness, rendering the respective local economies most vulnerable to market operation. They will continue to rely on state support. The problems were exacerbated in those localities lacking support from a regional economy, as in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Conversely, market-favoured, economically attractive regions, like Saxony, generally help localities develop their new economic roles, including those with few indigenous advantages. These fundamental differences in opportunities, illustrated here for six cities, are reflected in local policy-making, especially the role of localness and utilization of local identity.     

Job-Rich but Housing-Poor: The Dilemma of a Western Amenity Town*

Sedona, Arizona, an amenity town that trades on intangible quality-of-life attributes like spectacular scenery, the arts, and its nonmetropolitan location, has a conflict between low-wage employment catering to its tourist sector and expensive housing for its affluent residents. Many of those who work in Sedona do not live in the community. This study, based on a survey of 286 employees, shows that workers who live in Sedona do not have incomes that are significantly higher than commuters from the outside, but they live in housing that is almost twice as expensive. Employees who live in Sedona pay dearly for housing in order to be near jobs, natural beauty, and the cultural ambience of an amenity town. Commuters, on the other hand, incur high travel costs but enjoy cheaper housing and the lifestyle of small towns and rural areas. The emergence of amenity environments and long-distance commuting in Sedona is symbolic of the increased differentiation of nonmetropolitan landscapes.     

发展多种经营的若干政策取向

本文针对地矿系统发展多种经营中的问题,提出了进行综合治理的方针和产业政策。     

The Science of Dystopia: A Retrospective on Nuclear Winter Modeling*

This essay questions the effectiveness of nuclear winter modeling as a means of impacting nuclear policy and changing public attitudes about nuclear issues. In nuclear winter modeling, humanistic concern over the possibility of global environmental destruction is cloaked in the ostensibly neutral language of science. Nuclear winter modeling attempts to apply rational argument to an issue that is rooted instead in human affect and morality. The implications of this misappropriation are discussed in terms of the dehumanizing nature of the images conjured up by nuclear winter, its attention to the effects of nuclear weapons rather than deeper structural problems, and its political ambiguity as a function of unresolvable uncertainty in model results.     

A Depletion Protocol for Non-Renewable Natural Resources: Australia as an Example

This paper examines the implications of statements by Australia’s Minister of… Resources that Australia’s exports of coal are growing rapidly and that Australia’s coal will last “110 years at current rates of production.” If one assumes that coal production P(t), follows a Gaussian curve (similar to a Hubbert curve) one can construct a family of Gaussian curves showing possible future paths of P(t) which are consistent with the cited “110 years.” Each curve reaches a maximum after which P(t) declines toward zero. Knowledge of the present value of dP/dt allows one member of the family to be identified as the most probable future path of P(t). Families of curves and tabular data are presented for resource quantities that would last 50, 100 and 200 years “at current rates of production.” If, instead, Australia’s P(t) follows a declining exponential curve (exp(−kt)) with k = (1/110) per year, the stated quantity of coal will allow production to continue forever, with P(t) declining with a half life of 76 y. This and more rapidly declining exponential paths are the only paths that can be said to be sustainable. The envelope of the family of Gaussian curves divides the (P, t) plane into “allowed” and “forbidden” areas. The declining exponential curve divides the “allowed” area into an upper area that is “terminal” and a lower area that is “sustainable.” These facts, coupled with Australia’s expectations of rapid growth of its population, suggest that Australia’s present resource policies are “anti-sustainable” and that the people of Australia need to rethink their present policy of rapidly exporting their fossil fuels.     

'Gluttony or sloth': critical geographies of bodies and morality in (anti)obesity policy

In many countries, obesity is high on public health policy agendas, and geographical research has begun to engage with obesity. However, obesity is a highly contested term, and recent debates about geographers' engagement with policy, and critical discussions of the presence of bodies in medical geography, bear great relevance for developing a critical perspective on dominant 'obesity discourse'. Through a critical reading of a recent UK policy document, this paper considers the presence of bodies in (anti)obesity campaigns, calling for a more critical approach to the medicalization of body size to be central to future geographical work on obesity.     

The unauthorized city: Late colonial Lusaka and postcolonial geography

This paper uses a case study of Lusaka, Zambia, to interrogate several aspects of the literature on postcolonial geography. I deploy two concepts from African postcolonial studies – the idea of exclusionary democracy and the concept of the domestication of difference – and assess the continuity in their applicability to Lusaka. More specifically, I examine the contention that both the political and the planning dynamics of the last years of colonialism are foundational to state–society relationships in contemporary Lusaka. Distinguishing two spheres for in-depth discussion – urban government and housing policy – I concentrate on the final years of colonialism, moving through to the contemporary setting, to examine if the roots still show for the processes creating exclusionary democracy and domesticating difference. I also examine the ambivalent and incomplete character of those processes. I close with an assessment of the broader meaning inherent in understanding Lusaka in postcolonial terms.