A multi‐dimensional analysis of the impacts of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme: A tale from Tamil Nadu

This paper provides a multi‐dimensional analysis of the impacts of the Indian Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme using a case study from rural Tamil Nadu. Drawing on structured interviews in households and semi‐structured interviews with local employers and officials, we analyse the effects of the workfare scheme when it is widely and properly implemented. We distinguish between different conceptualizations of the work scheme as a means of welfare provision, labour market policy and intervention directed towards other objectives. We found that the goals of the scheme were fulfilled unevenly in the given context. Among other findings, we show that positive effects on the welfare of participating and non‐participating households were accompanied by adverse effects on the local economy and negligible impact on out‐migration for work.     

Village-level multidimensional poverty measurement in China: Where and how

Village is an important implementation unit of national poverty alleviation and development strategies of rural China, and identifying the poverty degree, poverty type and poverty contributing factors of each poverty-stricken village is the precondition and guarantee of taking targeted measures in poverty alleviation strategies of China. To respond it, we construct a village-level multidimensional poverty measuring model, and use indicator contribution degree indices and linear regression method to explore poverty factors, while adopting Least Square Error (LSE) model and spatial econometric analysis model to identify the villages’ poverty types and poverty difference. The case study shows that: (1) Spatially, there is obvious territoriality in the distribution of poverty-stricken villages, and the poverty-stricken villages are concentrated in contiguous poverty-stricken areas. The areas with the highest VPI, in a descending order, are Gansu, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Hunan, Qinghai, Sichuan, and Xinjiang. (2) The main factors contributing to the poverty of poverty-stricken villages in rural China include road construction, terrain type, frequency of natural disasters, per capita net income, labor force ratio, and cultural quality of labor force. The main causes of poverty include underdeveloped road construction conditions, frequent natural disasters, low level of income, and labor conditions. (3) Chinese poverty-stricken villages include six main subtypes, and most poverty-stricken villages are affected by multiple poverty-forming factors, reflected by a relatively high proportion of the three-factor dominant type, four-factor coordinative type, and five-factor combinative type. (4) There exist significant poverty differences in terms of geographical location and policy support, and the governments still need to carry out targeted poverty alleviation measures according to local conditions. The research can not only draw a macro overall poverty-reduction outline of impoverished villages in China, but also depict the specific poverty characteristics of each village, helping the government departments of poverty alleviation at all levels to mobilize all kinds of anti-poverty resources.     

The Fate of Inner Suburbs: Evidence From Metropolitan Baltimore

This paper analyzes the transformation of Baltimore's inner suburbs from 1980 to 2000. After developing a geographic definition of inner suburbs, we then spatially analyze them using census place-level data. The analysis shows evidence of socioeconomic decline in Baltimore's inner suburbs, but the extent of this decline varies among these suburbs. Since 1980, many declining inner suburbs had difficulty attracting new residents, White flight was the prevailing trend, and the housing stock was outdated relative to the outer suburbs. The analysis suggests three major influences on decline among the inner suburbs of Baltimore: labor market restructuring, the nature of the local housing market, and income and racial segregation. This paper concludes with a classification of Baltimore's inner suburbs based on our understanding of the processes of suburban decline in the region.     

Rocky desertification poverty in Southwest China: Progress,challenges and enlightenment to rural revitalization

Journal of Geographical Sciences - Rocky desertification poverty (RDP) refers to rural poverty triggered or exacerbated by rocky desertification, which deprives farmers of opportunities for...     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Aerial Photography and Remote Sensing. Terrain Analysis and Remote Sensing . JOHN R. G. TOWNSHEND , ed. Environmental Data Use in Computer-assisted Data Handling Systems: The Results of a Survey of Applications in the Pacific Northwest States . KENNETH E. GORDON . Applied Land Use: A Spatial Approach . JOHN F. LOUNSBURY , LAWRENCE M. SOMMERS , AND EDWARD A. FERNALD , eds. The Second Battle of New Orleans: A History of the Vieux Carre Riverfront-Expressway Controversy . RICHARD O. BAUMBACH , JR. AND WILLIAM E. BORAH . Cultural Environmental Archaeology . MYRA SHACKLEY . The Immoral landscape: Female Prostitution in Western Societies . RICHARD SYMANSKI . life Among the Poor in Cairo . UNNI WIKAN , translated by Ann Henning. Women, Work and Property in Northwest India . URSULA SHARMA . The Domestication of Women: Discrimination in Developing Societies . BARBARA ROGERS Economic Optimization in Locational and Transport Analysis . A. G. WILSON , J. D. COELHO , S. M. MACGILL , H. C. W. L. WILLIAMS . New Tools for Economic Development: The Enterprise Zone, Development Bank, and RFC . GEORGE STERNLIEB AND DAVID LISTOKIN , eds. Regional Wage Inflation . R. L. MARTIN , ed. Finding A Place For Energy-Siting Coal Conversion Facilities . FRANK J. CALZONETTI WITH MARK S. ECKERT . Environmental Management, Resources, and Systems Environmentalism. Second Edition . T. O'RIORDAN . Countryside Conservation . BRYN GREEN . Medical Spatial Diffusion: An Historical Geography of Epidemics in an Island Community . A. D. CLIFF , P. HAGGETT , J. K. ORD , AND G. R. VERSEY . Philosophy and Geographic Thought Order and Skepticism: Human Geography and the Dialectic of Science . RICHARD SZYMANSKI AND JOHN A. AGNEW . Measurement of Subjective Phenomena . D. F. JOHNSTON , ed. Conceptions of Space in Social Thought: A Geographic Perspective . ROBERT DAVID SACK . The Association of American Geographers: The First Seventy-five Years: 1904-1979 . PRESTON E. JAMES AND GEOFFREY J. MARTIN . The Life and Thought of Isaiah Bowman . GEOFFREY J. MARTIN . Physical River Basin Planning: Theory and Practice . SURANJIT K. SAHA AND CHRISTOPHER J. BARROW , eds. Soils and landforms: An Integration of Ceomorphology and Pedology . A. I. GERRARD Climatic Change and Society. Consequences of Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide . WILLIAM W. KELLOGG AND ROBERT SCHWARE . Political Political Redistrictings and Geographic Theory . RICHARD L. MORRILL . Population Studies in Spanish American Population History: Dell Plain Latin American Studies NO. 8 . DAVID J. ROBINSON , ed. Population Redistribution in the Midwest . CURTIS C. ROSEMAN , ANDREW J. SOFRANKO , AND JAMES D. WILLIAMS , eds. Geographical Perspectives on the Elderly . A. M. WARNES , ed. Regional Perspective On the American South . MERLE BLACK AND JOHN SHELTON REED , eds. The Prairies and Plains: Prospects for the 80s . JOHN R. ROGGE , ed. Rural Rural Settlement in an Urban World . MICHAEL BUNCE . Social Accident at Three Mile Island: The Human Dimensions . DAVID L. SILLS , C. P. WOLF , AND VIVIEN B. SHELANSKI , eds. The American Small Town: Twentieth-Century Place Images . JOHN JAKLE . Urban A House of My Own . SUSAN LOBO . The City: Patterns and Processes in the Urban Ecosystem . CHRISTOPHER H. EXLINE , GARY L. PETERS , AND ROBERT P. LARKIN . Movement in Cities . P. W. DANIELS AND A. M. WARNES . Urbanization and Urban Planning in Capitalist Society . MICHAEL DEAR AND ALLEN J. SCOT , eds.     

Poverty and prosperity among Sama Bajo fishing communities (Southeast Sulawesi,Indonesia)

Over recent decades, sustained economic growth in Indonesia has lifted many millions of Indonesians out of poverty. But despite these developments, 28 per cent of the population still live below the official poverty line and many more remain vulnerable to falling into poverty. Coastal and fishing communities represent some of the poorer populations across Indonesia, their livelihoods increasingly threatened by deleterious environmental impacts and overfishing. This paper draws on an analysis of household surveys from two Sama Bajo fishing settlements in coastal Southeast Sulawesi. A predominantly maritime language community, Sama Bajo livelihoods are shaped by seasonal patterns of fishing and marine based harvesting and trading. Using a modified poverty survey instrument, the paper explores comparative patterns of poverty and prosperity in these two communities with a focus on livelihood dynamics, seasonality effects, and the enduring patron‐client relationships that sustain their market‐oriented way of life. Key findings highlight the vulnerability of female headed households given the highly gendered access to fishing success, and the significance of relational co‐dependencies between patron‐client networks that sustain the current patterns of fishing livelihoods. The paper highlights the need for more focussed livelihood research among vulnerable populations in Indonesia and smallholder fishing communities in particular.     

基于可持续生计的精准扶贫分析方法及应用研究——以四川凉山彝族自治州为例

可持续生计框架是辩证思考贫困的影响因素及其形成过程的理论总结,有助于对精准扶贫进行规范化和系统化的研究。本文以可持续生计框架为蓝本,构建基于可持续生计的精准扶贫分析框架,并从影响农户生计的内因和外因视角,讨论精准扶贫的多维贫困识别指数(MPII)的基本构成。以四川省凉山州作为案例区域,建立具有本土特色的MPII指标体系;识别出420户贫困户,其中80.48%(338户)的建档立卡户与识别结果重叠;与建档立卡农户相比,所识别贫困农户在各单个维度和综合维度都几乎处于更劣势的水平,识别效果更加精准。根据贫困原因的相似性,可将贫困农户划分为人力资本贫困型、基础型资本贫困型、社会资本贫困型、多维资本贫困型、生计环境恶劣型等五种类型,并针对不同的贫困类型提出相应的帮扶措施。     

城市元胞自动机扩展邻域效应的测量与校准研究

城市元胞模型由于在定量分析与预测城市动态的潜力而受到众多研究者的持续关注.邻域规则是主导城市元胞模型模拟过程的关键组件.研究表明,不同土地利用组合间存在显著的邻域效应,且邻域效应具有惯性、排斥和吸引等影响.然而,传统城市元胞模型主要考虑的是特定分辨率下较小窗口的邻域范围.本文尝试刻画更大窗口的邻域效应及其对元胞模型的影响.基于测量的扩展邻域因子,应用粒子群优化算法校准大窗口邻域规则,并创建了考虑扩展邻域效应的城市元胞模型.为验证模型有效性,将其应用于模拟厦门市1995-2010年期间的城市扩张动态.与3×3摩尔邻域的逻辑回归模型相比较,1995-2010年期间的建设用地模拟精度从80.7％提高到83.9％,总体精度从87.8％提高到89.6％,Kappa系数从70.0％提高到74.5％,表明考虑扩展邻域效应的城市模型取得了更好的模拟效果.     

四川少数民族自治区域旅游开发与贫困缓解

四川少数民族自治地区是一个贫困面大、贫困程度深的区域。但它有着非常丰富的自然生态和民俗风情旅游资源,旅游业有着其他产业所无法比拟的资源优势。近年来,旅游业已成为区域新的经济增长点和国民经济的先导产业,将旅游开发与扶贫有机结合应该成为缓解贫困的有效的途径。但旅游扶贫功效的发挥是有条件的,并不是所有的旅游形式都具有同等的扶贫功效。为此文章论述了有利于贫困缓解的旅游发展战略。