Geographical Perspective (geographical + perspective)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Humanities and Social Sciences


Selected Abstracts


Space, Scale, Governance, and Representation: Contemporary Geographical Perspectives on Urban Politics and Policy

JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2003
Deborah Martin
First page of article [source]


Threatened Peripheral Populations in Context: Geographical Variation in Population Frequency and Size and Sexual Reproduction in a Clonal Woody Shrub

CONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 3 2007
SARAH B. YAKIMOWSKI
especies en riesgo; límites de distribución; poblaciones periféricas; reproducción sexual; Vaccinium stamineum Abstract:,Geographically peripheral populations of widespread species are often the focus of conservation because they are locally rare within political jurisdictions. Yet the ecology and genetics of these populations are rarely evaluated in a broader geographic context. Most expectations concerning the ecology and evolution of peripheral populations derive from the abundant-center model, which predicts that peripheral populations should be less frequent, smaller, less dense, and have a lower reproductive rate than central populations. We tested these predictions and in doing so evaluated the conservation value of peripheral populations for the clonal shrub Vaccinium stamineum L. (Ericaceae, deerberry), which is listed as threatened in Canada. Based on 51 populations sampled from the center to the northern range limits over 2 years, population frequency and size declined toward the range limit, but ramet density increased. Sexual reproductive output varied widely among populations and between years, with many populations producing very few seeds, but did not decline toward range margins. In fact seed mass increased steadily toward range limit, and this was associated with faster germination and seedling growth, which may be adaptive in seasonal northern environments. Our results did not support the prediction that clonal reproduction is more prevalent in peripheral populations or that it contributed antagonistically to the wide variation in seed production. Peripheral populations of V. stamineum are as productive as central populations and may be locally adapted to northern environments. This emphasizes the importance of a broad geographical perspective for evaluating the ecology, evolution, and conservation of peripheral populations. Resumen:,Las poblaciones geográficamente periféricas de una especie de amplia distribución a menudo son el foco de conservación porque son raras localmente dentro de jurisdicciones políticas. Sin embargo, la ecología y genética de estas poblaciones son evaluadas poco frecuentemente en un contexto geográfico más amplio. La mayoría de las expectaciones relacionadas con la ecología y evolución de las poblaciones periféricas se derivan del modelo centro-abundante, que predice que las poblaciones periféricas son menos frecuentes, más pequeñas, menos densas y menor tasa reproductiva que poblaciones centrales. Probamos estas predicciones y al hacerlo evaluamos el valor de conservación de poblaciones periféricas de una especie de arbusto clonal (Vaccinium stamineum L., Ericaceae), que está enlistada como amenazada en Canadá. Con base en 51 poblaciones muestreadas del centro hacia los límites norteños de su distribución durante 2 años, la frecuencia y tamaño poblacional declinó hacia los límites de su distribución, pero la densidad de rametos aumentó. La reproducción sexual varió ampliamente entre las poblaciones y entre años, con muchas poblaciones produciendo muy pocas semillas, pero no declinó hacia los límites de su distribución. De hecho, la masa de semillas incrementó sostenidamente hacia los límites, y esto se asoció a una acelerada germinación y crecimiento de plántulas, lo cual puede ser adaptativo en ambientes norteños estacionales. Nuestros resultados no sustentaron la predicción de que la reproducción clonal es más prevaleciente en poblaciones periféricas o que contribuye antagónicamente a la amplia variación en la producción de semillas. Las poblaciones periféricas de V. stamineum son tan productivas como las poblaciones centrales y pueden estar adaptadas localmente a ambientes norteños. Esto enfatiza la importancia de una perspectiva geográfica amplia cuando se evalúa la ecología, evolución y conservación de poblaciones periféricas. [source]


Making Space for the Economy: Live Performances, Dead Objects, and Economic Geography

GEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 5 2008
Trevor J. Barnes
The article explores the usefulness of the recent literature on markets and performativity for economic geography. The article is divided into two main sections. The first reviews work on performativity, the idea that our statements and representations actively produce reality rather than being mere faithful copies of it. Writers in science studies, in particular, have taken up this notion and used it to understand the making of economic markets. The second argues that economic geography usefully amends the work on performance and economic markets by adding a geographical perspective that plays out in at least four registers: the performance of spatial theory; the geographical performance of economic theory; the spatial performance of market constitution; and the political performance of spatial markets. [source]


,Amsterdam is Standing on Norway' Part II: The Global North Atlantic in the Ecological Revolution of the Long Seventeenth Century

JOURNAL OF AGRARIAN CHANGE, Issue 2 2010
JASON W. MOORE
,Amsterdam is standing on Norway', this was a popular saying in the Dutch Republic of the seventeenth century. There was more than one inflection to the phrase. Amsterdam was, in the first instance, built atop a subterranean forest of Norwegian origin. But southern Norway was also a vital resource zone, subordinated to Amsterdam-based capital. This paper follows the movement of strategic commodity frontiers within early modern Europe from the standpoint of capitalism as world-ecology, joining in dialectical unity the production of capital and the production of nature. Our geographical focus is trained upon the emergence of the Global North Atlantic, that zone providing the strategic raw materials and food supplies indispensable to the consolidation of capitalism , timber, naval stores, metals, cereals, fish and whales. I argue for a broader geographical perspective on these movements, one capable of revealing the dialectical interplay of frontiers on all sides of the Atlantic. From its command posts in Amsterdam, Dutch capital deployed American silver in the creation of successive frontiers within Europe, transforming Scandinavian and Baltic regions. The frontier character of these transformations was decisive, premised on drawing readily exploitable supplies of land and labour power into the orbit of capital. We see in northern Europe precisely what we see in the Americas , a pattern of commodity-centred environmental transformation, and thence relative ecological exhaustion, from which the only escape was renewed global conquest and ever-wider cycles of combined and uneven development. [source]


Spatial segregation, segregation indices and the geographical perspective

POPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE (PREVIOUSLY:-INT JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY), Issue 2 2006
Lawrence A. Brown
Abstract What could be more inherently geographical than segregation? However, the richness of the spatial variations in segregation is seldom captured by the dominant genre of empirical research. Returning the ,geography' to segregation research, we argue that local areas need to be given considerably more attention, using measures that explicitly reveal the spatial fabric of residential clustering along racial/ethnic lines. We first critique global measures such as the Dissimilarity Index and its spatial counterparts. Attention then turns to local measures such as the Location Quotient and Local Moran's I, applying them to Franklin County, Ohio, the core of Columbus MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area). Our interpretation of the findings also employs local knowledge concerning neighbourhood characteristics, ongoing urban processes, historical occurrences, and the like. Thus, while local indices based on secondary data expose the terrain of clustering/segregation, follow-up fieldwork and/or secondary data analysis in a mixed-methods framework provides a better understanding of the ground-level reality of clustering/segregation. Tangible evidence of the gain from this approach is provided by our evaluation of conventional frameworks for understanding racial/ethnic aspects of residential patterning , assimilation, stratification and resurgent ethnicity , and in our proposal for a new framework, ,market-led pluralism', which focuses on market makers who represent the supply side of housing. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Cities and the Geographies of "Actually Existing Neoliberalism"

ANTIPODE, Issue 3 2002
Neil Brenner
This essay elaborates a critical geographical perspective on neoliberalism that emphasizes (a) the path,dependent character of neoliberal reform projects and (b) the strategic role of cities in the contemporary remaking of political,economic space. We begin by presenting the methodological foundations for an approach to the geographies of what we term "actually existing neoliberalism." In contrast to neoliberal ideology, in which market forces are assumed to operate according to immutable laws no matter where they are "unleashed," we emphasize the contextual embeddedness of neoliberal restructuring projects insofar as they have been produced within national, regional, and local contexts defined by the legacies of inherited institutional frameworks, policy regimes, regulatory practices, and political struggles. An adequate understanding of actually existing neoliberalism must therefore explore the path,dependent, contextually specific interactions between inherited regulatory landscapes and emergent neoliberal, market,oriented restructuring projects at a broad range of geographical scales. These considerations lead to a conceptualization of contemporary neoliberalization processes as catalysts and expressions of an ongoing creative destruction of political,economic space at multiple geographical scales. While the neoliberal restructuring projects of the last two decades have not established a coherent basis for sustainable capitalist growth, it can be argued that they have nonetheless profoundly reworked the institutional infrastructures upon which Fordist,Keynesian capitalism was grounded. The concept of creative destruction is presented as a useful means for describing the geographically uneven, socially regressive, and politically volatile trajectories of institutional/spatial change that have been crystallizing under these conditions. The essay concludes by discussing the role of urban spaces within the contradictory and chronically unstable geographies of actually existing neoliberalism. Throughout the advanced capitalist world, we suggest, cities have become strategically crucial geographical arenas in which a variety of neoliberal initiatives,along with closely intertwined strategies of crisis displacement and crisis management,have been articulated. [source]


Environmental strategies and green product development: an overview on sustainability-driven companies

BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 2 2009
Vito Albino
Abstract To respond effectively and efficiently to the environmental sustainability challenge, an important role can be played by companies, through appropriate strategies and operations, such as green processes and product development. In this paper, we investigate whether the development of green products is supported by the environmental strategic approaches adopted by sustainability-driven companies, and whether there are economic sector or geographical area specificities. To this purpose, first we develop a taxonomy of environmental strategies and we define measurable proxies for both the environmental strategic approaches identified and the green product development. Then, we study a sample represented by the companies included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSWI). The methodology used is based on the content analysis of companies' websites and relevant documents, such as environmental and sustainability reports. The main result is that the levels of adoption of different environmental strategic approaches are higher for green product developers than for green product non-developers. Moreover, the most implemented strategic approaches for green product developers vary depending on the economic sector, while a more homogeneous behaviour is found from the geographical perspective. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]


Climate policy implementation: geographical perspectives

AREA, Issue 4 2007
Ian Bailey
No abstract is available for this article. [source]