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Geplante BeitrŠge
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(Band 87 / 1999
bis Band 90 / 2002)
John A. Agnew: Disputing the nature of the international in political geography. The Hettner-Lecture in Human Geography (Band 89/2001, S. 1): Political geography has paid scant attention to theorizing the Ôinternational.Õ Indeed, systematic thinking about geographical scale is very recent in geography as whole. But the changing nature of power, as manifested today in the rise of non-state actors and transnational flows, challenges a continuing focus on the international as the scale par excellence of world politics. In their research, political geographers tend to reproduce either realist or constructionist conceptions that do precisely that. The former characterizes spatial geopolitics (exemplified here in a 1986 paper of J. OÕLoughlin) and the latter critical geopolitics (represented here by a 1994 paper of G. î Tuathail). Though frequently opposed to one another as theoretical alternatives, in fact they share common metaphysical roots in privileging epistemology (how is something known?) over ontology (what exists?). What both lack is a focus on the historical sociology of action. After critically reviewing the two positions and the two papers, an alternative historical geopolitics is proposed in which the international is construed as historically contingent and emergent rather than a fixed feature of world politics.
Susanne Albrecht: Regionale ArbeitsmŠrkte und Flexibilisierungsprozesse (Band 90/2002, S. 180): The following paper focuses on the significance of atypical (i.e. non-standard), the so-called ÔnewÕ or flexible forms of employment in regional labour markets, a question which has rarely been considered until now. One of the reasons for this is the lack of data precise enough in detail at a regional level dealing with non-standard forms of employment. The research focus is on the restructuring processes within regional labour markets and gender-specific labour markets given the increasing presence of flexible forms of employment. Another question raised by the author is to what extent an increasing segmentation of regional and firm internal labour markets can be observed in this context. Firstly, the article discusses a concept of regional labour markets based on regulation theory which facilitates the study of flexibilisation and segmentation processes on a regional level. In this concept it is assumed that labour market flexibility, determined in its basic framework by state regulation, the national welfare system and gender-related arrangements, is always a product of the local social and regulatory milieu in which it is embedded. The region of Stuttgart has been selected as a regional case study. As examples, the paper focuses on the increasing significance of temporary employment (fixed-term contracts and agency contracts) in industry and on the development of part-time employment in banking.
John Anderson:
The Politics of Gambling and Ambivalence: Struggles over Urban Policy in
Copenhagen (Band 89/2001,
S. 135): The Danish UDP embodies larger transitions of urban governance in
Copenhagen. Up until the 1970s urban policy was characterised by top-down
rational planning. The post-war "Welfare City" rested on a strong
centralised planning system and a powerful Social Democratic leadership. During
the 1970s the efficiency and legitimacy of the regime was challenged by i) a
weakened urban economy due to industrial decline and demographic changes, ii)
and successful mobilisation from new urban movements. In the beginning of
the1980s a situation of political and institutional dislocation of the regime
fused with a financial crisis. This in turn increased the conflicts over
additional grants with the state. From the late 1980s and onwards the state
initiated pressure for a Metropolitan strategic growth policy became manifest
and a gradual shift towards an "Entrepreneurial City" strategy
emerged. In this strategy the Orestads project became the flagship-project of
the cross-border Oresunds region in the 1990s.
Guy Baeten:
Urban Regeneration, Social Exclusion and Shifting Power Geometries on the South
Bank, London (Band
89/2001, S. 104): This paper seeks to explain the persistence of inner-city
deprivation in spite of sustained regeneration efforts, through demonstrating
how urban regeneration policies are embedded in peculiar
political-institutional power dynamics that actually contribute to the further
disempowerment of the already disempowered groups in inner cities, while the
urban elites have been further empowered by the political-institutional
settings of post-war urban regeneration policies. Throughout the regeneration
process, the definition of ÔcommunityÕ and its involvement in regeneration
projects have been substantially altered. Special attention will be paid to the
rise and fall of the South BankÕs prominent era of community-based development
and how the local power geometry has been reworked in the process. The paper
discusses the pros and cons of contemporary Ôpartnership planningÕ on the South
Bank.
Gerhard
Bahrenberg: Globalisation and Regionalisation: the âdespatialisationÔ of
regions (Band 90/2002, S.
52) : The self-description of human geography is based on the concept of
region. Traditionally regions were conceived of as co-existing regional
societes. With the emergence of one world society this view became obsolete.
Nowadays regions can only be understood as the result of internal processes
within world society. If one goes beyond the trivial observation that world
society does not necessarily lead to greater homogeneity in social and spatial
terms but reinforces existing and/or creates new social disparities at all
levels of spatial scale (local, âregionalÔ, continental) the question arises as
to how regions come into being. Of course this question makes sense only for
âfunctionalÔ regions, i.e.regions that show some degree of relative autonomy
indicated by a higher degree of intra-regional societal communication and
weaker communication ties to outlying centers. Fundamentally to this idea is
the assumption of the friction of (spatial) distance in societal communication.
A critical examination of empirical studies on regionalisation processes in two
societal subsystems (science, economics) can show that the importance of
spatial proximity for regionalisation processes is probably smaller than assumed
– if it exists at all. The paper argues instead that the most important
element in regionalisation processes is the territorial structure of the
political system and the interdepency between the political system and other
functional systems of society.
Yoram Bar-Gal:
German Antecedents of the Department of Geography at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem: Historical Perspective (Band 88/2000, S. 112): From its beginning (1925) up to early
fifties, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem was an island of academic culture
in Palestine. The structure of the university was of a German kind. Besides
some "pure sciences" (mathematics, physics and philosophy) there were
other departments and research institutes working under the
"Zionist/Hebrew National goals" (a) Judaism: Biblical and Jewish
studies, Hebrew language, ancient archeology and history of the Near East; (b)
Land of Israel: sciences for the study of the nature of Palestine: climatology,
geology, botany and zoology departments. Up to 1949, an academic geography was
not existent. But there were attempts at introducing geography as an academic
discipline. When Horst Kallner (David Amiran) and some other colleagues
emigrated to Palestine they found a German academic culture and a
Zionist-nationalist academic structure. Only in the departments of archeology
and Biblical Studies seminars were given which bore the word
"geography" in their titles. David Amiran and others can be
identified as the "German" group and as the founders of a geography as
an academic subject in Israel. Amiran was asked in 1949 to found the
Geographical Institute at the Hebrew University. The only academic experience
Amiran had, however, was that which he brought with him from Germany. The
author of this paper therefore concludes that it was this experience which
guided Amiran in setting up research and teaching agendas at the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem between 1950 and 1965.
Harald Bathelt
und Johannes GlŸckler: Economic Geography in relational perspective: The
argument of the second transition (Band 90/2001, S. 20): Economic geography has reached a stage
where a shift towards a new paradigm is taking place. In the context of German
geography, we view this shift as a second transition in economic geography
following the first transition in the 1970Õs from descriptive LŠnderkunde to
regional science. Our argument starts with unraveling the limits of the
factor-centered approach in regional science. It is shown that this spatial
science fails to provide a deeper understanding of localized economic and
social processes and neglects the real actors. Economic actors are capable of
creating their own regional environments to support their goals, based on
previous experience. As a consequence, we argue for a need to reconceptualize
economic geography based upon an integration of both, economic and social
theory. A relational view rests on three basic propositions. First, from a
structural perspective economic actors are situated in contexts of social and
institutional relations. Second, from a historical perspective economic
processes are path dependent to the extent that present action is constrained
by past development. Third, economic processes are contingent in that
contextual action is never fully determined and new development paths may always
be chosen. Drawing on StorperÕs âholy trinityÔ, we define four âionsÔ to
provide an analytical framework for economic geography: organization,
evolution, innovation and interaction. As part of this, we apply a particular
spatial perspective to economic processes. Economic organization and innovation
are dependent upon localized institutions which constitute a common framework
for economic interaction along territory-specific, yet contingent development
paths.
Christian
Berndt und Martina Buchs: Geographie der Arbiet. PŠdoyer fŸr ein
disziplinŸbergreifendes Forschungsprogramm (Band 90/2002, S. 157): Following the conceptual
reorientation within economic geography since the 1980s, Anglo-American
scholars have started to move questions of employment centre stage. In
particular, calls for a "Labour Geography" have emphasized the role
played by workers in actively shaping the landscape of capitalism, not least
through the necessity of social reproduction. This introductory paper argues
for a similar effort within German-language geography, an effort which should
be sensitive to previous work within traditional German-language "Labour
market geography", yet adopting a wider notion of work and including
perspectives hitherto neglected. We start with an overview of the shift towards
a "Labour Geography", giving a broad outline of the themes and issues
covered by scholars working from this perspective. The second part seeks to put
the changes into a wider disciplinary context, situating the heterogeneous research
conducted under the label "Labour Geography" within two different
heterodox research paradigms. Arguing that "Labour Geography"
constitutes a field of enquiry that reaches beyond the traditional disciplinary
boundaries of human geography, the paper concludes with an editorial summary of
the individual contributions to this theme issue.
Christian
Berndt: An der "Peripherie" global vernetzter Produktionswelten:
Soziale Landschaften der Arbeit in Ciudad Ju‡rez, Chihuhua: The early 1980s mark a decisive break in
the way labour relations are conceptualised in the management and organisation
literature. According to the new management paradigm successful companies
apparently owe their success to particular "corporate cultures" which
provide meaning for workers and help them to identify with their jobs. Arguing
that the "corporate-culture-discourse" (CCD) permeates every corner
of our global world of production, I critically engage with its various
promises through the eyes of managers and workers. Drawing from company
case-studies in Ciudad Ju‡rez, Chihuahua, I argue that workers make the values
and norms on offer "their own" and use them to constitute specific
work identities. However, this process of appropriation is simultaneously
accompanied by extensive regimes of bodily discipline and control. In my view,
efforts to make this ambivalent picture coherent, whether from a CCD- or from a
more traditional political-economic perspective, are unsatisfactory and also
unproductive. Instead I conclude that it is more appropriate to conceptualise
these processes as being contextually contingent and Mexican workers as
constituting situated identities within the parameters of the CCD. Workers
appropriate the roles and subject positions offered in heterogeneous ways. In
so doing, they may variably reproduce, change and indeed challenge the
hegemonic order. This allows an open perspective on the maquiladora industry in
Ciudad Ju‡rez: a fragmented social landscape, constructed by differently
situated actors.
Marc Boeckler:
Deterritorialization, the ÔorientalÕ entrepreneur and culture as diacritical
praxis (Band 87/1999):
Edward SaidÕs âorientalismÕ, the globalization discourse and the âcultural
turnÕ within the social sciences constitute important challenges to geographers
who focus their research on the âOrientÕ. Having traditionally positioned
themselves within an empirically orientated subdiscipline, scholars need to
develop approaches which go beyond essentialism, methodological territorialism
and scientific realism. This paper advances a perspective of dealing with
cultural processes which starts from cultural hybridity as a radicalized way of
viewing the social world and links this with an empirically manageable notion
of culture through the introduction of transculturality as a heuristic
intermediate concept. In this view culture is understood metaphorically as a
daily practice of separating, differentiating and distancing, that is, as a diacritical
practice. Syrian
entrepreneurs are in this vein conceptualized as hybrid actors living in the
betweenness of different worlds, the empirical emphasis being put on the
entrepreneurial practice of symbolic and material âborderingÔ as well as
imaginary and bodily territorialization. In the âglobal ageÕ it is to a large
extent through their diacritical practice that Syrian entrepreneurs contribute
to the construction of the âOrientÕ, a process which is considered to be a
âconsequence of modernityÕ.
Hans Bšhm:
Magie eines Konstruktes. Anmerkungen zu M. Fahlbusch "Wissenschaft in
Dienst der nationalsozialisitschen Politik?" (Band 88/2000, S. 177): This article
provides a critical review of a voluminous recent monograph by M. Fahlbusch on
German "Volksdeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaften" during the Nazi
dictatorship. The book is based on systematic research in archives and
documentation centres. The author claims that during this period an academic
brains trust existed which was directly involved in planning the war of
extermination. However, this thesis is not adequately supported by the evidence.
The author identifies several academic and political networks, yet these are
inadequately explained and insufficiently contextualised.
Gernot Bšhme:
Landscape physiognomics
(Band 87/1999): This article reconstructs a tradition of Human Geography which
can be traced back to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In order to give a fair
account of this tradition a new concept of physiognomy is necessary.
A.v.Humboldt, C.G.Carus and Herbert Lehmann are discussed as main
representatives of this tradition.
Elisabeth BŸhler:
Formen der Vereinbarkeit von ErwerbstŠtigkeit und Familie. Strukturen und
Entwicklungstendenzen in der Schweiz (Band 90/2002, S. 167): The subject of
reconciliation of paid work and family labour is at present one of the most
important and contested issues of labour market, family and gender equity
policy in Switzerland. This article begins by outlining the central elements of
the gender-arrangement approach that is considered as an adequate theoretical
base to analyse the issue of reconciliation of paid work and family labour. The
paper presents a secondary statistical analysis of structures and developments
of family-arrangements in Switzerland. The results show that continually
smaller proportions of mothers with small children are not in gainful
employment. In contrast fathers have only marginally changed their working
behaviour and the full time working father is still dominating. However,
family-arrangements in Switzerland show significant differences between the
linguistic regions. These differences can be related to different regional
cultural values as well as to different institutional and economic regional
contexts.
Hans-Joachim
BŸrkner, Maike Bruse, Frank Jassens, Karin Proell und Stephan Sauerland:
"Interethnic" conflicts in urban neighbourhoods. Ethnisation and
culturalism as a framework for interpreting conflicts between residents and
migrants (Band 87/1999):
New immigration into urban neighbourhoods has been followed by conflicts
between established residents and newcomers recently. In public opinion these
conflicts tend to be viewed as interethnic conflicts. Accordingly, political
attempts to moderate these conflicts on a local level are made under the
assumption that they have been caused by "ethnic" or "cultural"
differences of the groups involved. This paper presents some selected results
of a qualitative analysis of individual interpretations of conflicts made by
participants of a local non-governmental institution engaged in political
moderation processes in a West German city. It puts particular accent on the
question to what extent these interpretations have been affected by thinking in
terms of ethnisation and culturalism.
Gordon L.
Clark, Paul Tracey, and Helen Lawton Smith: Agents, Endowments, and
Path-Dependence: A Model of Multijurisdictional Regional Development (Band 89/2001, S. 166): In this paper, we
emphasize the links between agent-centred decision-making and the role and
status of the context in which decision-making takes place. Our problem is
simple yet complex: how can we explain the acknowledged importance of
path-dependence while allowing for agents to step away (even defect) from local
imperatives in the light of European integration and globalisation? To answer
this question requires adding-on three conceptual building blocs to our
previously introduced framework. Beginning with a critique of W. B. ArthurÕs
notion of path dependency and drawing upon the work of Herbert Simon, we
introduce a contingent
model of rationality and decision-making. We then suggest how and why social
customs and norms–relational capital–may be important
place-specific endowments at worst constraining, perhaps neutralising, sometimes enabling,
and at best promoting agentsÕ decision-making. Given a multi-jurisdictional
environment, the third
piece of the analysis concentrates on the process whereby agents may take
advantage of the possibilities offered by other jurisdictions (a common-scale
process of competition and differentiation) and other levels of governance and
regulation (an up-scale or down-scale process of competition and
differentiation). Implications are drawn for the role and status of
place-specific relational capital in the context of accelerating European
integration. While recognising the empirical reality of path-dependence, we
dispute the necessity of its persistence.
Andrea
Debernardi und Enrico Gualini: The geography of logistics services in the Milan
metropolitan area: structural change and actual planning challenges (Band 87/1999): The Milan metropolitan
area, traditionally a central place in the Italian geography of production and
of the movement of goods, is undergoing noticeable transformations in terms of
both its sectoral and territorial pattern of regional integration. As such, its
strategic role for the country as a commercial hub connecting Europe and the
Mediterranean is changing. The possible future role of Milan in Europe with
regard to logistics hinges on its ability to develop as an international
logistics platform as well as to offer logistics services at the level of
integration required by current trends in industrial production and markets.
The challenges for the improvement of the logistics function of the Milan
metropolitan area are discussed in light of these transformations, stressing
the contradictions represented by a traditional mismatch between the rationale
of transportation policies and the requirements of a strategic development
perspective for logistic services, and raising questions on the viability of
actual planning approaches towards a decentralised pattern of integration
between infrastructures for transportation and for logistics.
Gerard Oude
Engberink and Frank Miedema: Governing Urban Regeneration: the Case of
Rotterdam (Band 889/2001,
S. 114): Governance of urban regeneration in the city of Rotterdam is guided by
a political myth in the anthropological sense of the term: a charter for action
to realize a vision of a bright urban future of the city as a well-balanced
mainport to and from the European Union. The charter, frequently reformulated
in new terms by the city council, proclaiming the intrinsic interconnectedness
between economic and social development, legitimates on a high level of
abstraction primarily the traditional activities of the citiesÕ economic and
technical departments, which acting on the basis of their professional Ôcommon
sense expertiseÕ and Ôtime-worn problem categoriesÕ, are accustomed to large
scale projects in planning and implementation for the physical city. These
projects are sector-oriented activities, characterised by technocratic,
piecemeal planning and practice, continuously adapting to real life situations
and changing circumstances. They possess no intrinsic relation with the
policies in the social field. The political vision of urban regeneration as guided
by a masterplan of urban regeneration, meant to balance economic and social
development, stays without consequence. The result is a widening gap between
successful economic revitalisation and lagging social development.
Anton Escher:
Let the foreign remain foreign! Pragmatic strategies for understanding agency
in social geographic research in the "Islamic Orient" (Band 87/1999): This article pleads for a
pragmatic strategy of transcultural understanding as a dialogic concept of
insight in social geographic research in the "Islamic Orient".
Transcultural understanding is interpreted as a process of assimilating
different systems of meaning, norms, and values of subjects on the one hand,
and discourses on how those systems fit together on the other hand (cf.
Schwemmer 1996). Understanding is organized by scientifically working out
common connections respecting and recognizing foreign codes. As it were, social
geographic research needs to generate theoretical frames on a common basis in
order to take the differences between cultures as a theme afterwards. In
preparation of the argument, the concept of the "gelebten Raum" (Baier 1996), and the post-modern
understanding of space in social geography respectively (Claval 1999) is
shortly presented. Additionally, a differentiation of the "Islamic
Orient" is outlined, as are the problems of understanding everyday life
and social scientific problems of understanding agency.
Heike Egner:
Leisure as a platform for individualization. A systems theory approach to the evolution
and diversification of sports oriented leisure activities (Band 90/2002, S. 89): Leisure activities
such as mountain biking, rock climbing, snow boarding, windsurfing, or bungee
jumping are developments of the last three decades. Their evolution and
diversification is mainly restricted to western-industrialized societies, i.e.
societies differentiated by their functions. The appearance and the progression
in the diversification of modern outdoor sports as well as the strongly
increasing demand for these kinds of activities is analyzed and interpreted
based on system theory as developed by Niklas Luhmann. The two important
elements of these leisure activities – recourse on the body and risky
conduct – is interpreted with respect to their social meaning. By this
means, modern outdoor sports can play an important role in the search for
identity of individuals in functionally differentiated societies.
Anton Escher
und Stefan Zimmermann: Geography meets Hollywood. Die Rolle der Landschaft im
Spielfilm (Band 89/2001,
S. 227): The postmodern understanding of world and geography, as conceived by
Soja (1989), facilitates the meeting of social geography with virtual media.
This was academiaÕs reaction to the changes occurring in the reality of our
everyday lives, which is increasingly shaped and changed by all media. In
addition, feature films considerably shape peopleÕs behaviour and their
everyday perception of landscape. Landscape should be a part of the movieÕs
geography since the roles of landscapes in feature films are diverse and
lasting. Thus, the authors can isolate the following functions of landscapes in
movies: landscape as setting, landscape as guarantor for credibility and
authenticity, landscape as metaphor or symbol, landscape as myth, landscape as
actor, landscape as location, and landscape as destination of location tourism.
In order to analyze landscape in feature film, this essay takes up theoretical
conceptions from English-speaking countries. Methodically it refers to ideas
pertinent to the New Cultural Geography. The authors hope to open an additional
chapter of geographic research in Germany with this article.
Michael
Fritsch und Michael Niese: Der Einflu§ der Branchenstruktur auf das
GrŸndungsgeschehen — Eine Analyse fŸr die westdeutschen
Raumordnungsregionen 1983-1997 (Band 88/2000, S. 234): In our contribution we analyse business
start-ups in West German planning regions for the 1983-97 period. The data was
generated on the basis of social insurance statistics. During that period
start-up activities have increased in most of the regions with a rising share
of new service firms. According to a shift-share analysis the impact of a
regionsÕ industrial structure on the number of start-ups is, on average, rather
low. However, for some regions the calculated structural and locational impact
is rather strong indicating a significant potential effect of policy measures
aimed at stimulating start-up activities.
Martina
Fromhold-Eisebith: Eine asiatische Technologieregion als neue Variante des kreativen
Milieus? (Band 88/2000,
S. 147): The concept of creative milieus, originating in the Western
industrialized world, tries to explain the successful development of spatial
clusters of innovative firms by the information-rich interaction of local key
agents from various organizations, leading to an outstanding collective
creativity and innovativeness. Three elements have been identified as
essential, all of which propel regional economic development: a dense regional
fabric of interpersonal relationships of information exchange, a highly social
and informal character of these linkages inducing learning processes and
innovations, and a common image and sense of belonging of this group of actors.
The central question is whether these features can also characterize newly
emerging, late-developing technology regions, such as the Asian information
technology (IT) ÔboomtownÕ of Bangalore, India. Its strong dependency on
imported know-how and inward foreign direct investment as well as its low
functional position in the international division of labor represent crucial
barriers to an endogenous, collaborative industrial innovativeness. In spite of
these impediments the region is increasingly distinguished by interpersonal
relationships, the exchange of information and common objectives of technology
agents, promoting BangaloreÕs IT-image. This milieu shows effects of collective
creativity. However, the interaction mainly targets the improvement of the
overall framework of the firmsÕ activities at the location, while their
innovativeness widely remains within corporate boundaries. Therefore, Bangalore
can only be called a creative milieu if the conception of this term is
broadened, including collectively created solutions apart from industrial
innovativeness.
Dietrich FŸrst
und Herbert Schubert: Regionale Akteursnetzwerke zwischen Bindungen und
Optionen. †ber die informelle Infragstruktur des Handslungssystems bei der
Selbstorganisation von Regionen (Band 89/2001, S. 32): The research results in this paper focus
on the significance of (political and economic) actor networks in a region for
the development of that region. The region of Hanover was selected as the
region under study. In terms of its economic development, this region lies in
mid-field with respect to other German regions and it reflects the development
management of metropolitan regions. A heuristical differentiation was made
between "topic-oriented" and "purpose-open" networks:
Purpose-open networks do not pursue specific objectives. Rather they primarily
serve as a platform for communication which also meets socio-emotional needs in
relationships. They tend to exhibit more club character. Topic-oriented
(purpose-directed) networks pursue relatively clearly defined objectives. They
often exhibit the same characteristics as project groups. Purpose-open network
structures – such as Rotary, Lions Clubs, riflery clubs, homeland clubs
– are not actively involved in regional politics. However, they can be
indirectly influential as arenas for relationship options in the early stages.
The existence of purpose-open networks or at least networking can be a
significant prerequisite for the development of common projects: because people
know each other and as a result, can estimate how a new idea will be accepted.
Additionally, the transaction costs required to get the project off to a good
start are relatively low, as four examples indicate. The promoters of
purpose-directed networks are able to take advantage of purpose-open networking
or even networks: there were persons who were easy to approach because they
knew each other and who had already known one another before the project
started. They launched the project because they can expected a positive
response. Purpose-open networking plays a role as a seed-bed for project
initiatives (regional governance).
Jorg
G٤efeldt: Zur Interdepentdenz von wirtschaftlicher Entwicklung und
StŠdtesystem (Band
89/2001, S. 195): While even now some German Geographers appear to be dreaming
of counterurbanization in the USA our own mass media report of the
"bomburbs" there. In this paper it is shown that since 1850 no
counterurbanization has taken place, but, like in other industrialized
countries, the logistic growth path of urbanization is about to achieve a level
of saturation. By a detailed analysis of population and economic data two
hypotheses are supported: The first is derived from BerryÕs theory of the
overlay of endogenous and interdependent economic growth cycles: Economic
growth cycles cause different sizes of the city system. The second hypothesis
is deduced from KrugmanÕs considerations: The size and organization of the city
system brings about increasing returns and thus give rise to economic
development. One may confer from this that the propositions of the hotly disputed
"New Economic Geography", despite their
"Greek-Letter"-Preferences, may be the basis of empirical relevant
hypotheses. Unfortunately it is currently not possible to quantify the
interdependence of the two hypotheses due to the high degree of autocorrelation
of the used variables.
W. T. S.
Gould: Global — Local Issues in Formal Schools Systems in Developing
Countries (Band 88/2000,
S. 94): Changing perspectives within Geography and in the global economic and
social system allow geographers to offer new perspectives on schools systems.
The discussion focuses on the competing roles of schooling to generate both
international homogeneity and international diversification, at the global and
local scales. Schools can create a labour force for the global economy,
accelerating international as well as internal migration of skilled workers.
The study of schools systems can contribute to wider debates in Geography on
the importance of the ÕlocalÕ, on Regulation Theory, and on a sense of place.
Johannes GlŸckler: Zur Bedeutung von Embeddedness in der Wirtschaftsgeographie (Band 89/2001, S. 211): Debate in organisation theory has shifted focus from market and intra-firm types of economic exchange towards hybrid and network forms of organisation. This paper reviews the concept of embeddedness and its consequences for research in economic geography by distinguishing four conceptual levels of embeddedness: First, the idea of embeddedness is reconstructed as a critique of the neo-classical rationale of transaction costs put forward by neo-institutional economics. It introduces the specific meaning of social context and social structure in economic exchange and sets out a relational view of economic action. Second, trust and reputation are discussed as fundamental social mechanisms creating relational and structural aspects of embeddedness at the level of empirical phenomena. Third, exemplary research is discussed in order to explore the effects of empirical embeddedness of firm relations on economic performance. Fourth, in this context metaphorical and regional reductionism are criticised in the current use of embeddedness in economic geography. Instead, a refined concept is suggested as a basis for research in economic geography. The paper closes by formulating prospects for future research and application of embeddedness for the understanding of economic action in a spatial perspective.
Susan Hanson:
Geographical and Feminist Perspectives on Entrepreneurship (Band 91/2003, S.1): I undertake a
feminist geographical analysis of entrepreneurship; this entails a critical
rethinking of most of the core concepts employed in studies of
entrepreneurship. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with business owners in
Worcester, Massachusetts and Colorado Springs, Colorado, I tackle six questions:
(1) Who can be an entrepreneur and what counts as entrepreneurship? (2) What is
innovation; what counts as innovation? (3) How should we think about
entrepreneurial context? (4) What geographical factors enter into the
motivations for entrepreneurship? (5) How might we look anew at location
decisions? and (6) What insights about entrepreneurship can we gain from
looking at the relationship between entrepreneurship and place? The analysis
shows how geography and the geography of everyday life are completely
intertwined with peopleÕs decisions to launch businesses and with the
strategies they employ to ensure the success of those businesses.
Hartmut
HŠussermann und Katja Simons: Developing the New Berlin: Large Projects - Great
Risks (Band 89/2000, S.
125): Large-scale urban redevelopment projects are the most visible
revitalisation strategies pursued by cities in search of economic growth and
competitiveness. In view of a profound socio-economic change they have become
an important policy tool in the new Berlin. Large projects strive to recreate
the image of the city and to induce private-sector investment. Town planners
actively engage in co-operation with private partners who take charge of
managing the development of large urban areas. Strong public sector support is
necessary in the initial stages, clearing and preparing the sites and building
the basic infrastructure. This is illustrated by the Berlin-Adlershof
development project. The aim is to create a "new city" of science and
economy. The case study examines how the urban revitalisation project is
embedded in the institutional framework and the socio-political dynamics of the
city. Large projects are a high-risk endeavour because they make political
control more difficult and they constitute a challenge to the public budget.
They gather momentum in their own specific way. If implementation runs into
trouble, the projects are hard to modify. Here we discuss why large projects
quickly reach the "point of no return". Self-binding models,
financial dependencies, and complex webs of relations keep the
"machine" running. The case study demonstrates that urban development
policy, which attempts to take advantage of the market, can drift into troubled
waters.
Bettina
Hamann: Impacts of the reform policy on Kazakh pastoral farming in China - a
survey carried out along the Southern Border of the Dsungarian Basin/ Xinjiang (Band 87/1999): The Kazakh minority in
China mainly lives in the North of the Autonomous Region of Xinjiang,
North-West China, in and around the area of the Dsungarian Basin. Most of the
Kazakhs living in this region are involved in pastoral farming, which is partly
carried out in a semi-nomadic fashion. In the paper findings on the impacts of
the Chinese reform policy on Kazakh pastoralism will be presented. The study
area lies at the Southern border of the Dsungarian basin and forms part the
transition zone between agriculture carried out by the Chinese statefarms and
the semi-desert areas, which are used as pastures by Kazakh animal-owners. The
study shows that the Chinese reform policy results in an increase of livestock
numbers, which has lead to generally increased incomes amongst Kazakh
animal-owners. However, one of the negative effects of this growing in
livestock numbers is the fact that overgrazing is worsoning, often resulting in
growing signs of soil erosion.
JŸrgen Hasse:
Overlooking the emotional domain in human geography (Band 87/1999): Emotions are an intrinsic
part of the human being. In the paradigmatic structure of Human Geography this
kind of emphatic perception only finds random attention. The paper highlights
the reasons for the under-representation of the emotional domain. It
illustrates important results of research on emotions from the point of view of
various disciplines (neurophysiology, psychiatry, epistemology, philosophy and
phenomenology). It is demonstrated that mainstream Human Geography is very
distanced towards feeling, emotion and feeling-body (Leib). Because of this
Geography fails to take notice of an essential part of man, acting in time and
space. Comparing three paradigmatic domains (structuration and action theory,
humanistic approach and human ecology) the paper explores how to best connect
the individual approaches and human emotions. As a result, it seems that human
ecology expresses the greatest sensibility to emotional behaviour. The paper
concludes by pointing at the evidence of emotions in different actual
relationships between man and environment. This is demonstrated by examples of
nature, city and virtual spaces.
JŸrgen Hasse:
On the relationship between space and emotion in Human Geography. Introduction
to the theme issue. (Band
87/1999): The scientific innovation of human geography which commenced around
the middle of the 20th century encompassed new approaches and it included a new
kind of seeing the world as a real and relevant subject matter for geography.
The new view also entailed a rationalistic direction which meant that the
specific, the idiographic was cast aside. This lead to a contradictory
"enlightened blindness": geography suffered the loss of a theoretical
awareness of the importance of peopleÔs biographies, local places and
especially the emotional in human behaviour. The article argues that human
geography needs to take a fresh look at traditional roots in theory, taking
into account current structures in society and science. Doing so geography
could find new ways of exploring human behaviour in complex environments
including emotions as an important part of the latter. This issue is dedicated
to probing the challenging relationship between (peopleÔs) emotion on the one
hand and space and place on the other. It is an interdisciplinary patchwork of
articles. Taking into account a broad array of theoretical perspectives, such
as phenomenology, philosophy of nature, sociology of the city, human ecology
and theory of media these articles offer a new and innovative way of
integrating the emotional domain of behaviour in geography in order to provide
a better understanding of being (and acting as) human in this world.
Markus Hesse:
The changing structure of merchandise management and logistics and its effects
on urban development
(Band 87/1999): The paper focuses on the interaction between freight
distribution, logistics and urban development processes. It is suggested that
the role of cities is being transformed from that of a traditional point of
goods-transshipment to a mere link in long-distance commodity chains. As a
result of the introduction of new logistics concepts within companies, and
depending on specific functional requirements, suburban and peripheral
locations tend to be preferred locations of logistics centres and distribution
functions. Thus far, the rationalisation of logistics and the locational
behaviour of firms have had spatial impacts not only in terms of freight
traffic, emissions and demand for space but also in terms of challenging
traditional urban functions. Against this background further perspectives of
urban development are discussed with respect to the spatial implications of
modern logistics.
Britta Klagge:
Lokale Arbeit und BewŠltigung von Armut — eine akteursorientierte
Perspektive (Band
90/2002, S. 194): The normative position local work for local people is the starting point for conceptual
considerations about the spatial proximity of home and work. A typology of work
and other income-generating options forms the basis for a geographical
discussion of their availability and conditions of access. Recent studies on
poverty and unemployment in German cities show that the availability of these
options varies with regard to types of neighbourhoods. It is argued that the
significance of neighbourhood characteristics and spatial proximity for the
access to the different types of work and income-generating options depends on
how the relevant social relationships between household and external actors are
shaped. These are conceptualized using three ideal-type coordination principles
or modes of governance — market, state, and solidarity — and with
regard to the role of trust. Based on a distinction of social and spatial
opportunity structures conclusions are drawn as to how area-based policies can
support coping with poverty.
Helmut KlŸter:
Raum und KompativilitŠt
(Band 90/2002, S. 142): The projection of economic and social structures onto
space and territories (as surveyed space) must be seen as a complicated,
technically and financially costly operation. The output of spatial abstraction
includes / ¥ the spatial orientation of other social systems, / ¥ the co-ordination
of activities within large organisations, the storage of information in a
framework of space-time co-ordinates, and / ¥ the compatibility within society.
Compatibility among formal organisations can be supported by binding property
— together with mobile structures (such as persons) — to immobile
pieces of land. The acceptance of territorial borders as limitations of
unusual, risky activities, the communication, the modes of co-ordination and
the final institution of compatibility rules in society determine the patterns
of spatial structures and their reflections as regions. Thus, global society is
not only characterised by global information, finance, and trade flows, but
also by a universal acceptance of spatial borders limiting all this. Spatial borders
guarantee the compatibility of social systems with contradictory structures or
contents. Spatial compatibility allows privatisation of technical,
informational and organisational advantages. Under the conditions of a growing
complexity of programming formal organisations the process of spatial planning
turns from linear objective to functional planning, and then to compatibility
oriented planning. Compatibility oriented planning is seen to be successful
even if a problem is not solved but delayed or transferred to another region:
the "anti-sustainability axiom" of modern spatial planning. This kind
of planning stabilises centre-periphery differences and other forms of
stratification in society. Thus, compatibility oriented planning can be regarded
as a survival strategy for public planning, especially in agglomerations, but
not as an alternative to spatial planning guaranteeing equal living conditions
and the development of democracy in space.
Benedikt Korf:
Geographien der Gewalt. Handlungsorientierte geographische
BŸrgerkriegsforschung in politisch-škonomischer Perspektive (Band 91/2003, S. 24): Political violence
and civil war have become a widespread phenomenon at the beginning of the new
millennium and substances of violence, conflict and anarchy affect the life of
many people. While the dominating political economy paradigm on civil wars has
stressed the dichotomy of greed versus grievances as explanatory variables for the incidence and
protracted duration of civil wars, this paper argues for a more contextual
approach that investigates the nexus of greed and grievance in its space-time relation. An
institutionalist political economy perspective can provide important insights
into understanding the institutional logic of warfare and violence in its local
context. I introduce two different approaches in the new institutionalism,
namely the contract (transaction costs) and the distributional school of
thought. Based on empirical studies from the war zones of Sri Lanka, I
delineate the comparative advantages of the contractual and the distributional
theory of institutional change in explaining âreal-lifeÔ phenomena on conflicts
over property rights to local resources.
Knut
Koschatzky: The "new economic geography": Really a "new"
economic geography? (Band
90/2002, S. 5): This paper aims at a critically scrutinizing the "new
economic geography" derived from the new growth and new trade theory and
to illuminate its spatial understanding more closely. On the basis of models
which deal with the generation and diffusion of innovation, an attempt will be
made to sketch a new, innovation- and technology-oriented economic geography,
which is oriented towards the level of discussion about the spatial dimension
of the creation of new knowledge.
Stefan KrŠtke:
Institutionelle Ordnung und soziales Kapital der Wirtschaftsregionen: zur
Bedeutung von Raumbindungen im Kontext der Globalisierung (Band 89/2001, S. 145): This contribution
concentrates on new approaches to economic geography which might position this
field of work as part of a transdisciplinary social science. The article gives
an outline and a critical discussion of institutionalist concepts in economic
geography. The institutionalist approach is being developed by different
streams of regional research, which are partly overlapping and might complement
each other: the concept of industrial districts, the concept of innovative
milieux and learning regions, the concept of regional production systems and
the regulation approach, and the concept of regional production clusters.
Particular attention is paid to the notion of "social capital" and
its possible significance within the institutionalist perspective of economic
geography. This perspective is particularly valuable for understanding the
geography of a "knowledge society" and it might clarify the status of
spatial ties and regional embeddedness in the context of globalisation.
Stefan KrŠtke:
Gobal interlinkages of media centres. On the diversity of geographies of
globlaisation (Band
90/2002, S. 103): Based on a relational approach to urban and regional research
which emphasizes the internal and external interlinkages of locational centres
and regional production clusters, this article presents an analysis of the global interlinkages of media centres. The analysis
deals with the shape of large media firmsÕ global networks and their most
important anchoring points within the international urban system. Different
components of the global media firmsÕ organisational network are highlighted
with regard to their major geographic nodes and their different geographic
"arenas" of activity. This contribution reveals the global
interlinkages between metropolitan media clusters and concludes that we have to
be aware of the different geographies of globalisation, particularly with
regard to the different major nodes of the global media business as compared to
the major nodes of global producer service firmsÕ organisational network.
Thomas Krings:
Zur Kritik des Ahel-Syndromansatzes aus der Sicht der Politischen …kologie (Band 90/2002, S. 129): The syndrome
concept represents a research topic on Global Environmental Change developed by
the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) and the Potsdam Institute
for Climate Impact Research in the aftermath of the UNCED Conference on
Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro (1992). In analogy to complex
diseases in human medicine syndromes of Global Change are understood as typical
sets of clusters or trends and their interactions. The Sahel Syndrome is one of
16 syndromes of Global Change. Its key characteristic is described as the
over-use of marginal agrarian landscapes by a poor or impoverished rural
population living in a context of action offering little or no alternative
livelihood opportunities — thus leading to the further degradation of
their environment. Particular attention is paid to the deconstruction of the
Sahel Syndrome concept. The analysis reveals that the central assumption is
based on an orthodox neo-malthusian view interpreting land degradation as a result
of population pressure, agricultural intensification etc. The main
methodological deficiencies of the concept consist in an unreflected adoption
of theories of "vicious circles" and tautological argumentations .
The paper presents a wide range of empirical data which falsify central
assumptions of the Sahel Syndrome concept. The main short-coming of the concept
is the negligence of an actor-oriented perspective contrasting to the ideas of
Political Ecology which analyses land degradation from a multi-layered
actor-oriented perspective in the context of unequal power relations. Land
degradation should be understood as a process and result of political
decisions, actions and omissions on different levels of action.
Peter Lindner:
"Orientalism", imaginative geography and the family action space of
Palestinian industrial entrepreneurs (Band 87/1999): Edward SaidÕs work contains powerful assertions
as to the relevance of spatial categories as constituting elements of the
discourse of orientalism. He ultimately argues that "all the latent and
unchanging characteristics of the Orient stood upon, were rooted in, its
geography" (Said 1995, S. 216). Provocative as these assertions are for
geographers, the meaning of key terms like "space" or
"geography" and their role within orientalist discourse are not
clearly defined in SaidÕs work. They are used in multiple context and sometimes
contradictorily. Nonetheless, as the first part of this paper suggests, there
are three areas in which the construction of orientalist discourse rests on a
certain mutual articulation of space and the social sphere: a) the
essentialisation of culture, b) the homogenisation of culture, c) a static
understanding of culture. Departing from these assumptions on the role of
spatiality in orientalist discourse the second part of the paper examines the
use of the concept of "family business" in empirical research. It is
argued that the "family business" has been interpreted in terms of
the conceptual matrix of the oriental "family", as a constituting and
stable element of Middle Eastern societies which is ubiquitously characterized
by the same set of typical norms, revolving around age, gender, origin and so
on. As a result, family businesses are generally understood as bounded and
static spatial units which determine the legitimacy of fixed patterns of social
action. Empirical research on Palestinian entrepreneurs shows that, in contrast
to this image, the space of the family business is shaped by complex
articulations of traditional norms of the family and requirements of successful
management which are fraught with ambiguity and conflict. The "family
business" should be understood as a dynamic space which is acted upon and
modified in relationship to globally available models of business administration.
The example of the notion of "family business" shows the broader
value of discourse analysis ˆ la Foucault for geography by critically assessing
taken-for-granted concepts of space, and assumptions about the way that
spatiality structures social worlds.
David N.
Livingstone: Tropical hermeneutics and the climatic imagination (Band 90/2002, S. 65): By focussing on
the idea of ÔtropicalityÕ, this essay seeks to bring some of the insights of
hermeneutics to bear on the understanding of the climatic imagination. Through
an investigation of philosophical and climatological texts, travel narratives,
medical treatises, hygienic and other bodily practices, and cartographic and
artistic representations, some of the ways in which Ôthe tropical worldÕ and its
peoples have been constructed, portrayed, and brought into cultural circulation
in the West are disclosed. Running through these various representations of
tropical climate is a marked tendency to employ the vocabulary of moral
evaluation. The moral constitution of tropicality, I contend, continues to cast
its shadow over todayÕs cultural politics.
Patrick
Loftman and Alan Middleton: Emasculating Public Debate and Eroding Local
Accountability: City Promotion of Urban Development Projects in Birmingham (Band 89/2001, S. 85): This paper aims to
consider the governance dynamics and political decision-making processes, which
facilitated the development of BirminghamÕs two city centre prestige urban
development projects (UDPs): the 171 million International Convention Centre
and the UKÕs first purpose-built 57 million National Indoor Arena. In
particular, the paper highlights: the background to the development of the
prestige UDPs; the public rationales utilised by Birmingham City Council to
justify support for the cityÕs investment in, and promotion of, the UDPs; the
impact of local authority financing of the UDPs; the ÔopennessÕ of the
policy-making and decision-making processes associated with the two prestige
UDPs; and the extent and nature of public debate regarding the local
authorityÕs investment in the cityÕs urban development projects.
Julia Lossau:
Gegenwartsdiagnosen als Problem der Sozialwissenschaften (Band 89/2001, S. 237): The spread of
catch-phrases like risk society, network society, or surveillance society reflects the popularity that analyses of
the present are enjoying today. In searching for the "most
appropriate" representation of the present, the recurring question used to
be: are we still living in the modern era or have we already entered the
postmodern age? While in this question the postmodern appears as a
ready-to-define epoch, this paper makes a different case. Some forms of
postmodern thinking, it will be argued, rule out all attempts of universally
labelling the society that "we are presently living in". In adopting
this point of view, an epistemological problem can be highlighted that too
often seems to escape the attention of many researchers. To achieve this goal,
the problems inherent in any social scientific representation of the present
will be explored in the second, and rather theoretical, section. Since these
remarks, coming from an "in-between space", will remain abstract,
they will be illustrated by a critical examination of Anthony GiddensÕ
"consequences of modernity" (section three). After having debunked
the discourse of globalisation as a mere discourse of globalisation, it will
become possible to carefully consider the question of why analyses of the
present are so popular these days.
Pierangelo
Maset: Lifeworld and virtual space (Band 87/1999): With the concept of the »Lebenswelt« (lifeworld)
Edmund Husserl tried to overcome the Cartesian perspective of the modern
Western civilization. He put the stress on the prereflective variations of
everyday life prior to the episteme of science. HusserlÕs concept was very
influential and it still is. However, under the conditions of the vast
technological developments of the late 20th century everyday life itself
becomes virtualised. The hegemony of the technological world transforms our
experience, and more and more we live in a »virtual lifeworld«. Is it possible
to dilute the immanence of the digital data system by pedagogical measures?
Doreen Massey:
Philosophy and politics of spatiality: some considerations. The Hettner-Lecture
in Human Geography (Band
87/1999): The paper proposes a conceptualisation of space: as a product of
relations, as integral to the possibility of multiplicity, and as open.
Moreover, it is argued that this view of space accords with an emerging
approach to politics which stresses anti-essentialism, a concern for
difference, and a notion of the future as radically undecided. This view of
space is contrasted with others which have held sway in the past and which are
still important: in particular, the conceptualisations held by Bergson, by the
structuralists, and within a modernity of grand narratives and partitioned
spaces. It is argued, however, that the view of space proposed in the paper,
while not making a claim to ÔtruthÕ, can enable us, in the current conjuncture,
to open up, formulate and address certain important political questions.
Frank Meyer:
Methodological reflections on comparative cultural geography or: In search of
the Orient (Band
87/1999): The concept of culture has significantly gained in importance in the
humanities in recent years. In German-speaking geography however, an opposite
trend can be observed. Today, classical cultural geography only plays a minor
role. However, a solely consumption-oriented understanding of culture in
sociological and urban geographical lifestyle research is not sufficient in
order to explore the everyday discourse of people (and regions) who are
perceived as foreign. The following contribution is meant to enliven the
discussion on culture and geography. On the one hand, the "classical
German geographical view of the Orient" as an example of the academic
treatment of foreign cultures will thereby be critically presented. On the
other, specific suggestions for a comparative cultural geography will be presented,
drawing on recent research in German cultural sociology as well as
English-speaking anthropology and the "new cultural geography". An
alternative understanding of culture is central to this endeavour, according to
which cultures are not to be represented as ontological descriptions of a
status quo. The definition of cultures rather takes place as a process of
comparison in the encounter of cultures. Cultures are constituted in a
reciprocal process of "translation" between the familiar and the foreign,
i.e. as an exchange in cultural differences. Cultures are both discursive and
concrete. Through actions and communication, cultures have a character always
currently manifest and permanently constructive in nature.
Ivo Mo§ig:
Lokale Spin-off-GrŸndungen als Ursache rŠumlicher Branchencluster. Das Beispiel
der deutchen Verpackungsmaschinenbau-Industrie (Band 88/2000, S. 220): The German
packaging machine industry forms an export-oriented, small to medium-sized
industry, whose mode of production is primarily based on crafts. The locations
of these companies are not evenly distributed over Germany, but heavily
concentrated in several areas. The aim of this paper is to explain the
emergence of this spatial clustering of the packaging machine industry. Taking
the concept of "Windows of Locational Opportunity" by Storper/Walker
(1989) as a starting-point, the paper tries to extend dynamic-evolutionary
approaches by analysing the paths of formation and development of individual
companies. For this purpose, comprehensive surveys in the form of systematic
interviews of experts were used in the main regions of the packaging machine
industry. The results show that local spin-offs in particular have contributed
to the spatial concentration of the packaging machine industry. The fundamental
characteristic of a spin-off is that people who establish their own business
make use of the knowledge that they have gained while working in previous
capacities. On the basis of empirical findings the ways in which the spatial
branch clusters in the main regions emerged are highlighted. Finally, the
essential requirements for as well as the characteristics and the causes of
local spin-offs in the packaging machine industry are illustrated.
Frank
Moulaert, Erik Swyngedouw and Arantxa Rodriguez: Lage Scale Urban Development
Projects and Local Governance: from Democratic Urban Planning to Besieged Local
Governance (Band 89/2001,
S. 71): This article analyses the interaction between social exclusion in the
city, the implementation of large-scale development projects and changes in
urban governance. The first part of the article analyses the evolution in urban
restructuring tendencies and its consequences for social exclusion.and
integration mechanisms. The relationships between urban restructuring and
changes in urban public policy are reflected in the rise of the New Urban
PolicyÕ that has provided increasing freedom of action to urban developers and
public-private ventures in which the market logic predominates. The remainder
of the article focuses on specific features of urban policy and governance as
they appear from the case-studies covered in this issue: the physical bias of
urban policy, the challenge of mainstream policy by integrated approaches to
neighbourhood development, the rise of ÔexceptionalityÕ procedures in urban
planning, and the threat of New Urban Policy to the good working of local
democracy.
Martina
Neuburger: The vulnerability of smallholders in degraded areas. The political
ecology of frontier processes in Brazil (Band 88/2000): The investigation of the interrelations between
socio-economic and political structures on the one hand and ecological
processes on the other is gaining increasing significance in geographic
development research, especially in the field of political ecology. In the case
of the study presented here, the concepts of vulnerability, fragility and
criticality are used. In studies of rural areas, the so-called land manager
represents the main focus of interest. This is due to the fact that the land
manager forms the nexus between ecology and socio-economy at the local level.
In this context, pioneer frontiers serve as refuge areas for displaced groups.
However, with their incorporation into the national economic and social
structures this function is rapidly lost again. In this paper, the decisive
factors and processes of the development of the frontier are investigated by
taking a case-study from the Brazilian Mid-West as an example. Ecological
processes of degradation in the areas of the pioneer frontiers of the Amazon
region can be understood as the result of global, national and regional-local
structures due to which particularly vulnerable groups — in this case
peasants — are displaced into ecologically fragile areas in the course of
time. The survival-oriented exploitation of the natural resources in this
refuge area corresponds with the peasantsÕ logic of action. This logic, which
must be seen as a survival strategy, is based on decisions governed by
vulnerability and constraints in the actual everyday situation.
Herbert Popp:
Theoretical reflections on socio-geographic research in the Islamic-Oriental
World. Some introductory remarks (Band 87/1999): As a consequence of the turn from the classical
approach of human geography to social geography in the research done on the
Islamic-Oriental World (Middle East and Northern Africa) some fundamental
methodical and theoretical questions have come up which need to be discussed
and resolved. Against this background this introductory paper puts up five
theses for discussion. First: Socio-geographic research on the Islamic-Oriental
World is theoretically more sensitive and more informed than some critical
voices would have it. Second: Methodical and theoretical considerations
concerning socio-geographic research on the Islamic-Oriental World are
applicable to other regions with foreign cultures. Third: In conformity with
the wide variety of interesting aspects distinctive of socio-geographic
research on the Islamic-Oriental World — which is grounded in a new concept
of culture — a plurality of approaches can be determined. Fourth: The
results and concepts of classical human geographical research on the
Islamic-Oriental World have to be reconsidered and — where necessary
— revised. Fifth: The paradigmatic "territorialisation" of
culture needs to be reviewed and reassessed.
Paul Reuber:
Postmodern and action-based approaches in Political Geography —
Anglo-American concepts and recent fields of research (Band 88/2000): The political and
economic upheavals during the past two decades have led to a new social and
political organization of space on all scales. In order to come to grips with
the obvious changes political geography had to rethink its traditional
concepts. Transcending its long taken-for-granted approaches Anglo-American
geography developed two conceptional paths: First, a new awareness of regional
differences in political action and culture; and second, a new, postmodern
awareness of the instrumentalization of geographical discourses for
geopolitical purposes (critical geopolitics). Basing on these theoretical
concepts political geography examines a number of traditional and new fields of
research; some of them have hardly been represented in the German-language
literature so far. Their heterogeneity is once again evidence of postmodern
diversity and difference. They are characterized by both a new awareness of
differentiation and a widening of traditional viewpoints in three respects:
They are transcending the traditional topics of political action, the traditional
political actors and the established levels of scale of politics. Based on the
current literature some major perspectives of political geography can be
outlined, that are closely interlinked: a) ecological politics and resource
conflicts, b) territorial conflicts and boundaries, c) geopolitics and the
politics of identity, d) the representation of political power, e)
globalization and new international relations, f) regional conflicts and new
social movements.
Tilman
Rhode-JŸchtern: The blue line — About the significance of spatial signs (Band 87/1999): Activity space is
superficially constructed as an order of visible signs accepted in behaviour
patterns or as rules of conduct (for example traffic lights). At the same time,
signs are generated in individual actions as well. Most of the time, both forms
of constructed order corresponds to each other; deviations are seen or defined
as "disorder". In fact structuration develops in two directions:
between structure and action, following certain rules and power resources, cf.
GiddensÔ theory of structuration, the struggle for influence in space
(Bourdieu), the ability to reverse the symbolic meaning of signs in space
(Foucaults "heterotopia").- A model of activity space should be more
than a black box or a mere description of the surface. Therefore a model of
regulation is outlined which essentially consists of two strands:
"structure"/ "system" on the one hand and
"action"/ "Lebenswelt" on the other (the original meaning
of Lebenswelt is
difficult to translate; it is conceptualised as a view of the world embedded in
"naturalness" and without reflection. However, this conceptualisation
of Lebenswelt is not identical with the world of everyday life), following the
philosophies of JŸrgen Habermas, Edmund Husserl and Alfred SchŸtz. An
interrelation between the categories of colonisation and domestication is constructed in the hope to fathom some
of the depth of structuration processes.
Eike W.
Schamp: Evolution and Institution as Basics for a Dynamic Economic Geography:
The Meaning of Increasing Returns for the Explanation of Geographical
Concentration (Band
90/2002, S. 40) : The analysis of economic geographical processes requires
appropriate theoretical tools. This paper makes a plea for the combination of
evolutionary economics and âoldÔ institutionalism in the explanation of
geographical concentration. A crucial issue in evolutionary economics refers to
increasing returns to scale resulting in the lock-in of technological and
regional processes of selection. This paper discusses the various forms of
external economies of scale. Institutionalism is explored to contribute to the
debate by emphasizing untradable regional conventions. In fact, many economic
geographers have begun to employ these concepts. Nevertheless, it is argued
that neither regional institutions nor their external effects are always given
in geographical agglomerations. Further research both on theory and evidence is
suggested to more deeply understand the spatial concentration of economic
activities.
Christoph
Scheuplein: RŠumliche Produktionssysteme in der škonomischen Theorie (Band 89/2001, S. 17): Approaches of
spatial production systems developed over the last 15 years are, on the whole,
only loosely connected with economics. With the exception of Alfred Marshall,
localized industries do not seem to be a particularly worthy topic for
economists. This article, conversely, introduces numerous unknown treatments of
spatial production systems. In the pre-Ricardian classical theory, for
instance, geographical concentrations of industries had already been dealt
with. And the process of industrialization as well as the discourse on the
Machinery Question ("Fabrikdiskurs") of the 1830s in Great Britain
have highlighted the significance of the geography of production even further.
Additional important sources are the German Historial School and the late
classical economists. These various lines of ideas converge in MarshallÕs
contribution which defined spatial production systems as self-reproducing
economic units and incorporated them into MarshallÕs price theory. This papers
tries to show that the various descriptions of the spatial structure are
associated with different concepts of economic equilibrium. These findings in
the field of history of economic theory ought be utilized by current
practitioners of economic geography in order to clarify the relationship of the
discipline with economics. In addition, these findings could help analyzing
structural changes in spatial production systems.
Antje Schlottmann:
Zur Verortung von Kultur in kommunikativer Praxis — Beispiel
"Ostdeutschland"
(Band 91/2003, S. 40): In the wake of the âcultural turnÕ calls are being made
for new socio-spatial concepts for an equally ÔnewÕ cultural geography. The
ÔoldÕ representational patterns of territorial bonding seem to be outdated or
at least wanting as regards contemporary social reality. In this article,
however, it is argued that traditional signifying practices of localizing
culture are not obsolete at all, but tend to get out of academic sight as new
or more adequate conceptions are being sought. This is why it is suggested in
this paper to treat alleged new conditions of the world, such as ÔglobalisedÕ,
ÔintegratedÕ or ÔdeterritorialisedÕ, as alternative symbolic appropriations. These alternatives understandings do not
replace previous signifying patterns; however, they tend to be antagonistic to
them. In this perspective, the ambivalent role of the media becomes obvious:
They are both cross-bordering machines of globalisation
and mediators of
chorological taken-for-granted images. The case of ÔEast-GermanyÕ illustrates,
why traditional Ôgeographical imaginationsÕ seem to be both, indispensable and
problematic, and to
conclude, why there is a need for continuous reflexive socio-geographic
research into everyday localising practices.
Einhard
Schmidt-Kallert: Bodenrechtliche Konflikte an der Grenze zwischen Plantagen und
bŠuerlichem Land — Eine Fallstudie aus Malawi (Band 88/2000, S. 161): The agricultural
sector in Malawi is characterised by "dualism" to a much greater
extent than is the case in many other postcolonial African societies. On the
one hand there are plantations whose land rights are safeguarded by hereditary
leasehold deeds and on the other there are small farmers whose access to land
is ruled by customary land tenure. Following MalawiÕs rise to democracy in 1994
many people asked whether land law in the country should be fundamentally
reformed. A series of studies was commissioned to form a basis for political decisions.
One of these studies was the Customary Land Utilisation Study that is presented
in this article. A particularly interesting aspect of the study comprised
investigations into the processes and conflicts between farming land and
plantations on the micro-level. The study examined interaction and disputes
between both systems on seven sites employing methods used in Participatory
Rural Appraisal. Contrary to occasional claims made in literature there is no
symbiotic relationship between both systems. Violent disputes about land
utilisation are by no means an exception. It is difficult to solve these
conflicts because they occur on the border of two legal systems that are
incompatible, each having a specific world view. Despite this the study did not
recommend changing customary land use. On the contrary: Traditional customary
land tenure is stable and allows the farmers permanent authorised land use.
Recommendations were therefore made on a different level; for example it was
suggested that a mediation body be set up to settle legal disputes relating to
farming land and plantations.
Thomas
Schmitt: "Quality tourism"— a sustainable alternative to the
development of tourism on Mallorca? (Band 88/2000): The main concern of this paper is to show whether
or not the so-called quality tourism initiative which has recently been
launched on Mallorca and which is intended as an alternative to mass tourism,
does in fact represent a sustainable form of tourism on the island as promised
by the former balearic government. The four branches of "quality
tourism", i.e. golf, nautic, residential and agro-tourism are described
and their economic dynamism and advantages as well as their — partly
disastrous — ecological consequences are identified. In sum, with the
exception of agro-tourism, the so-called quality tourism is not a sustainable
alternative to mass tourism. In contrast to official statements the term
"quality" until now does not refer to the inclusion of concerns
towards nature and landscape conservation in tourism planning but obviously
only to the prestige and the financial power associated with this form of
tourism. In effect golf tourism, nautic tourism and residential tourism in the
way they are practised all lead to a continued, very aggressive consumption of
landscape and resources — and this very often in parts of the island
which had not been involved in touristic development before. An inquiry carried
out by the author amongst the local population of Mallorca shows that many of
the Mallorcans are against golf tourism (rejected by 67%) and nautic tourism
(rejected by 44%) because of the visible and well known destroying effects on
the environment of the latter.
Hermann
Schmitz: Emotional space among other types of space (Band 87/1999): Space is not only a system
of places which determine each other by location or distance. By explicating
the concept of place it can be shown that space in that sense (the space of
relative places) is possible only as grounded in the space of spontaneous
bodily movement and rest. This space is constituted by irreversible directions
but without relative places. Moreover, there are other types of space with a
similar structure, e.g. the space of sounds and the space of emotions. By means
of a set of examples and viewpoints, the author shows that emotions are
atmospheres, expanded into a space without relative places but being furnished
with wideness and irreversible directions. Such emotions can be felt as powers
grasping the body, or they can be perceived within the physiognomie of any form
(be it seen, heard, touched, smelled), i.e. landscapes. The paper explores the
ways in which these manifestations of feelings are encoded in different forms.
Katrin
Schneeberger und Paul Messerli: Das LohnverhŠltnis und seine duale Regulation. Gewinner
und Verlierer der Flexibilisierung auf dem Arbeitsmarkt der Schweizer
Hotellerie und Gastronomie
(Band 89/2001, S. 52): In this paper weÕre going to discuss a key factor in the
entrepreneurial and regional capacity of innovation and competitiveness. By
basing our arguments on regulation theory we will consider changes in the
domestic and foreign wage relation and its regulation as an expression and a
reflection of flexible accumulation. In doing so the discussion of the labour
market orientated towards innovation and competitiveness will incorporate a
"critical" perspective. This perspective focuses on the winners of
the modernisation process as well as on possible losers of the flexibilisation.
WeÕre going to analyse the trend by using the hotel and catering industry as an
example of an industry, which takes a pioneering role as far as the
flexibilisation of the labour market is concerned. The Swiss example represents
a national "development path", which is greatly challenged by the new
conditions of competitiveness and for which reason there is a strong call for a
reduction in barriers that stand in the way of flexibilisation. The empirical
discussion is the result of qualitative interviews with key representatives of
the hotel and catering industry as well as with employers and employees. It
shows that the changes are characterised firstly by an increasing diversity of
labour relations and secondly by an accentuated lower ethnic stratification of
the labour market, which is represented by the "asylum seeker", who
is a loser in this process. Thirdly, on the regulative level, the increasing
diversity is represented in a new, more liberal global employment contract and
the ethnic stratification is reflected in the intensified restrictive asylum policy.
Fourthly, the analysis, which focuses on the relationship between foreign and
domestic labour, leads to an expanded notion of regulation. This notion not
only focuses on the regulation of the conflict line between capital and labour,
but also on the regulation of the conflict line between ethnicities or
nationalities (the dual regulation system). Finally the scope of regulation
theory will be critically examined in so far as the coexistence of Fordist and
Postfordist labour relations can be shown. It follows that from the point of
view of wage relations the periodisation in Fordism and Postfordism is too
rigid.
Fred Scholz:
Perspectives of the "South" in the era of globalisation (Band 88/2000): This paper seeks to
introduce an additional aspect into the established theoretical discourse on
the problem of the "South". The globalisation debate has shed new
light on the question of how to look upon the South: the well-known
modernization and dependency concepts of the past are just as obsolete as are
the positive or negative effects globalisation is supposed to take on the
countries of the South. The notion of a metropolitan or peripheral capitalism that underpins these concepts
has been replaced by the notion of globalised capitalism. This is why the assumption
that developing countries could catch up loses whatever there was left of its credibility. Rather,
globalisation — in the sense of unbounded competition — leads to manifold processes of
fragmentation. They may in principle offer prospects of participation and
advancement to everyone and everywhere. Yet, in the global context, they also
trigger off at least as many processes of social and spatial exclusion.
Consequently, global competition and its blessings are not accessible to
countries or to people per se, but only to certain localities/regions and only
to certain sections of their inhabitants. As a result, the era of globalisation
puts an end to the earlier fixation on "North" (rich) and
"South" (poor). The excluded residual world, the "new
South", is omnipresent. It has assumed a global dimension.
Walter Siebel:
Is urbanity a utopia?
(Band 87/1999): European urbanity is associated with a certain image of the
City, with a specific way of life, and with the hope of emancipation. The
author contends that the "Gestalt" of the City cannot be preserved,
and that urbanism as a way of life is no longer bound to the city. Only the
emancipatory elements of urbanity are still valid, though in the form of
utopian hopes: the emancipation from uncultivated nature, the liberation from
the necessities of labour (MarxÕ "realm of necessity"), the
overcoming domination in democratic self government, the City as place of
individualisation and integration of strangers.
Pierre
Signoles: Concepts of the analysis of social reality in the countries of the
Middle East and Northern Africa — reflections from a French point of view (Band 87/1999): For quite a long period
there have been schools in human geography about the Islamic-Oriental World in
Germany and in France which have had a high international reputation. In this
contribution it is shown how far the schools in the two countries have similar
characteristics (for instance a great importance attached to fieldwork, to
observation, to empirical analysis and to cartographic representation of the
results) and how far they have obviously different qualities (in France a
spatial concentration on the Maghreb countries; in Germany on Turkey and the
Middle East). In a second step the impact of the paradigmatic revolution in the
context of the advance of social geography in France is shown: a research
approach with a stronger formalisation and a stronger emphasis on theories.
This approach has led to the construct of cultural areas ("aires
culturelles"). The
discussion about these "aires culturelles" shows a wide diversity reaching
from a rejection of this construct to the plea for a stronger emphasis on
cultural dimensions (and not only for overseas regions). It is shown that
inspite of all the difficulties these two positions need not be antagonistic.
On the one hand, a geographer may be able to do serious and innovative research
work in exotic regions, even though he does not reflect methodological
questions of his discipline. In those studies the cultural dimension has often
been neglected or only been included in an insufficient way. This is especially
true for French human geography and for studies which were published until
recently. But on the other hand the cultural dimension should not be
overemphasized or even be seen as the only important aspect of analysis. For
"culture" is always only one dimension among others which can
contribute to an explanation of the spatial organisation of societies, and this
is true not only for the industrial countries but for the developing countries as
well.
Dieter
Steiner: To be or not to be, or on the power of existential feeling. A human
ecological sketch (Band
87/1999): The existence of an ecological crisis demonstrates the futility of
the idea prevailing in Western society to organize our lives on the basis of
rational principles exclusively. Accordingly there is a growing interest in the
meaning of emotions. This would seem to be of major importance also for the
relationship between humans and their life spaces. In this paper a radical
position is taken in that it is claimed that we must find new roots by opening
ourselves to mystical experiences. To set the stage a summary of BuberÕs
philosophy of "I and Thou" is presented first. Next, trinities of
relationship, of rationality and of consciousness are compared to each other
and serve to position the main topic of the paper. This is followed by a
discussion of the uprooting caused by a unique reliance on propositional
thinking and of the necessity of our reattachment through implicit knowledge and,
especially and most basically, mystical experience. The paper is concluded by a
list of ensuing recommendations for the discipline of geography.
Rolf
Sternberg: GrŸndungsforschung — Relevanz des Raumes und Aufgaben der
Wirtschaftsgeographie
(Band 88/2000, S. 199): Start-ups are one of the most relevant current subjects
in wide sections of academia, business and, in particular, in politics. This is
due to many factors, some of which relate to new technological developments and
their economic implications, to a general structural change and to the
increasing importance, despite globalisation, of very small enterprises. This
paper sets forth arguments sustaining the thesis that the determinants for the
establishment of start-ups are not neutral in spatial terms. Rather, spatial
differentiation can be identified, systematised and, in principle, quantified
with regard to the causes as well as the economic effects of start-ups.
Economic geography in particular as an academic discipline is confronted with
numerous new research tasks in the areas of theory, empirical research and
policy. Economic geography has comparative strengths over other disciplines who
also explore start-ups, which should be emphasised more emphatically and with
more self-confidence than to date.
Karl
Vorlaufer: Tourism and cultural change in Bali (Band 87/1999): One of the main negative
effects of tourism, especially in developing countries is the possible
destruction of the culture of the host societies. A cultural (and ecological)
sustainable development for Bali based on tourism is endangered by the quantity
of tourists visiting the country. Complete commercialisation, it is feared,
will lead to the destruction of Balinese culture — one of the major
assets making Bali attractive to tourists. Many aspects of Balinese culture are
being rapidly changed by the effects of tourism, such as the increasingly
tourist oriented arts and crafts sector. This study shows, however, that this
has not led to the destruction but rather to a vitalisation of important
cultural goods. The Balinses were able to maintain their ccultural identity, in
part due to the fact that they were able to protect their type of Hinduism from
commercialisation and profanation. To a large degree, the cultural change which
has been brought on by tourism only affects the superficial structure whereas
it is hard to detect a negative impact of tourism on the cultural basis, i.e.
the religion.
Michael J.
Watts: Development at the millennium: Malthus, Marx and the politics of
alternatives (Band
88/2000, S. 67): Development is a highly contested term and set of practices at
the beginning of the new millennium. This paper explores both the state of
development and poverty from the vantage of the present and offers a
constructive critique of the so-called alternatives to development school by
returning to the classical debates of Malthus and Marx over the "Great
Transformation". While each does so from a different theoretical vantage
point and in a very different political register, Malthus and Marx struggled
over what I call popular radicalism and a deepened sense of deliberative
democracy. Using the case of food security I explore the links between rights,
governance and deliberative democracy as a way of exploring some of the
prospects for development.
Wolfgang
Zierhofer: United Geography
(Band 88/2000, S. 133): Within the subfield of social geography based on
phenomenological action theory, the old geographical problem of how to
represent mankind and space has been resolved by a variant of the dualism
between mind and matter: here a physical world was opposed to a subjective and
a social world. In this view, modern categories of thinking, in particular the
dichotomy of nature and culture, were taken into account. Within modernity the
social sphere is taken for granted as a realm of exclusively human
interactions. As a consequence, nature is opposed to society as an independent
object, which may be utilized without necessarily considering the consequences
for human interactions. During the last two decades several scientific and
philosophic debates have fundamentally questioned the nature / culture
dichotomy. A-modern approaches argue that any division of the world into
separate spheres rests upon decisions that serve specific ends. Other distinctions
may serve other purposes. By consequence, also the division between human
geography and physical geography is not taken for granted but rather conceived
as a modern outcome of a basically contingent academic division of labor. A
language-pragmatic and a-modern version of action theory offers an opportunity
to represent the world without a priori categories. In this context it provides
a new foundation for reformulating the unity of Geography as a scientific
discipline.