A Regionally Based Energy End‐Use Strategy: Case Studies from Centre County,Pennsylvania*

The production and use of fossil fuels and nonrenewable electricity creates many forms of environmental degradation. To reduce degradation, this research suggests an energy strategy based on energy end‐use analysis and regional geography. Energy end‐use analysis and regional geography are used to match renewable energy resources with site‐specific, end‐use needs. Fieldwork conducted within Centre County, Pennsylvania, demonstrates that small‐scale solar, wind, and micro‐hydropower resources could displace a proportion of household electricity use. Such an approach meets energy end‐use needs, while conserving fossil fuels and reducing environmental degradation.     

三清山风景名胜旅游区规划与设计1)

从区域旅游发展的角度,对大型山岳旅游地的空间规划与设计案例国内外不乏枚举,但都是从研究对象中进行具象剖析,还没有系统地对某一山岳风景旅游地进行既全面又具体的方法论及其依据理念的总结。本文以江西上饶三清山风景名胜旅游地为例,对涉及旅游空间规划与设计的基础内容进行剖析,力图总结出大型山岳风景旅游地规划与设计系统的空间分析方法及模式。主要空间规划与设计内容与方法:①三清山旅游资源、旅游地景观结构、形象设计;②三清山旅游区旅游规划与设计的基础理念;③三清山旅游区旅游空间规划与设计;④实现三清山旅游区规划布局的空间手段。     

'Muddy glee': rounding out the picture of women and physical geography fieldwork

Fieldwork in geography has come under close scrutiny from feminist and postcolonial scholars in recent years. In relation to physical geography, commentators have pointed to a range of practices and images (notably the 'heroic', masculinist 'ideal') that have acted to deter and exclude women, from undergraduates to senior academics. For some, fieldwork is one of the key sites of gender discrimination for women in physical geography. This paper starts from a position of agreement with many of these critiques, but also seeks to 'reclaim' some more positive accounts and perspectives on the subject. In doing so, it aims to critique and disrupt the dominant image of physical geography fieldwork as essentially a masculinist endeavour, and encourage a wider view of the challenges and pleasures of fieldwork for women in physical geography.     

Re-scaling collective bargaining: union responses to restructuring in the North American auto industry

Historically, political struggles to define the geographical scale at which labour relations and collective bargaining will be conducted have been of crucial significance to the labour movement. Today, workers and their unions face very difficult challenges. In many manufacturing industries changes in the organizational structure of production at different geographical scales have undermined the effectiveness of the organizing and collective bargaining strategies associated with traditional industrial unionism. This paper focuses on collective bargaining strategies developed by North American autoworkers’ unions to respond to the extensive restructuring of the automotive industry that took place during the 1990s. These strategies include innovations in the structure and content of collective bargaining and efforts to redefine the scale at which collective bargaining takes place. Following a brief discussion of the challenge posed by the integration of Mexico into a continent-wide production system, the analysis focuses on the strategies devised by the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union during the 1996 and 1999 rounds of collective bargaining to address issues raised by outsourcing and modular manufacturing. With outsourcing, the automakers are not so much eliminating jobs as they are deciding who gets to do them, at what price, and under what working conditions. With modular manufacturing, the organizational boundaries between firms are blurring and the terms and conditions of work in one firm arguably are becoming dependent upon management decisions made in another firm. The CAW’s response has been to develop new collective bargaining strategies including the concepts of ‘work ownership’ and ‘satellite bargaining’ which involves redefining the traditional geographical extent of the bargaining unit. While the empirical focus is on the North American automobile industry, the general issues related to the re-scaling of production, and especially outsourcing and modular manufacturing, are common across a range of manufacturing industries.     

Boundaries and transborder relations,or the hole in the prison wall: On the necessity of superfluous limits and boundaries

Boundaries can be seen as barriers or as places of contact. It has been suggested that we are “prisoners of borders”, of all kinds of borders (political, religious, social, cultural, linguistic etc.). While this statement appears to be somewhat exaggerated, it holds some truth. Boundaries are elements in spatial organization, and they influence daily life in many ways (not only for people living right along them). The paper addresses the question if we must call ourselves “prisoners” or if we simply have to live with all kinds of borders. Departing from theoretical observations, the paper discusses the various aspects boundaries assume in the European context before looking at a few concrete Swiss examples. They reveal that even regions at a certain distance of the state border will feel its effects (the case of Zurich airport), but the most important benefit can been drawn by people living in the border area itself (through price differences between the two countries, as exemplified by the Swiss-Italian border). There may be asymmetry on state borders, but this asymmetry can also swing around: the advantages often lie on both sides. The paper concludes by pointing to the persistence of the boundary concept. They are a necessity for the organization of space and society, but they are not absolute. There are always holes in these prison walls, and the examples where boundaries were impermeable are probably rare.     

长江三峡区域地理研究综述

以文献法为主要研究方法，利用网络资源检索出相关专业论文，选取了其中的150多篇为研究基础，并参考了部分专著，在回顾以长江三峡为特定区域的地理研究的历史进程的基础上进行了综合评述。认为三峡区域地理研究大致经历了3个发展阶段：古代、近代、现代，每个阶段各具特色。然后以1990年以来的相关文献为重点，概括了该阶段地理研究的主要成果，总结了20世纪末至21世纪初这一时段的主要研究特点：（1）研究视角的空间宏观性；（2）研究目标的应用性；（3）研究方法的综合性；（4）研究领域的多元性；（5）研究成果分布的脉冲性；（6）研究主体的地方性。并在此基础上就长江三峡区域地理研究在自然地理、人文地理、综合研究方面的未来趋向进行了展望。     

Geographic Perspectives of Air Transportation

Past, present, and future research directions and advances in this highly dynamic research area of air transportation are reviewed with an eye toward geographers' contributions to the air transportation industry. The study of air transportation within the field of transportation geography and the larger discipline of geography is important as geographers use air transportation to help describe concepts such as connectivity and linkages, development patterns at various scales, and the global economy. This article takes three approaches in exploring geographers' contributions to research in the field: historical, publication outlets, and topic focus. The goal of the article is to commemorate the contributions of pioneer and current researchers in the field, and open to discussion future research paths in air transportation.     

Effect of Mothers' Exposure to Electronic Mass Media on Knowledge and Use of Prenatal Care Services: A Comparative Analysis of Indian States*

The Government of India considers prenatal care programs as a priority activity for promoting safe motherhood and child survival. It relies heavily on electronic mass media, including radio, television, and cinema to educate mothers—two‐thirds of whom are illiterate—about prenatal check‐ups and timing, iron prophylaxis, and tetanus toxoid injections. This study evaluated the effect of mothers' exposure to electronic mass media on knowledge and use of prenatal care services, using data from India's 1998–1999 National Family Health Survey. Multivariate logistic regressions were used to estimate the effects of media exposure by calculating odds ratios of each of the four response variables (complete prenatal care services, prenatal check‐ups, tetanus toxoid injections, and iron prophylaxes) for exposure to mass media. The results indicated that exposure to mass media is related to the use of prenatal care services even when other likely causes of the relationships are statistically controlled at their mean. The effect also showed a north‐south divide among the Indian States, being stronger in northern states as compared with southern states.     

RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION IN THE UNITED STATES*

ABSTRACT. Levels of alcohol consumption are a major public health issue. This study aims to gain a better understanding of how geographical patterns of religious affiliation in the United States relate to geographical patterns of alcohol consumption. We explored state‐level correlations between alcohol consumption and religious adherence. Although we found no statistically significant correlation between overall religious adherence rates and current or binge drinking rates, states with higher adherence rates were significantly more likely to have high proportions of binge drinking among current drinkers. Yet, regionally, we found a strong inverse correlation in the Southeast and a strong positive correlation in the Midwest and Northeast between adherence rates and current and binge drinking rates. These geographical differences were largely explained after stratifying by major religious denominational groupings. States with high Catholic adherence rates tended to have higher drinking rates, whereas states with high Evangelical Protestant adherence rates tended to have lower drinking rates. These findings suggest that the relationship between religion and alcohol may be denomination‐specific and challenge the lay perception that religious adherence per se is associated with less alcohol consumption and less excessive drinking among those who drink.     

Opportunities for geography in the New Zealand senior secondary school in the context of current curriculum developments

Abstract:  Current curriculum developments will provide a new framework for the teaching of social sciences, including geography, in New Zealand secondary schools. This article outlines recent challenges faced by the subject, and the development and likely nature of the new curriculum. Some ways in which teachers can plan and implement innovative programmes within the framework of the existing syllabus and the new curriculum are suggested.