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Books > Earth & environment > Geography > Human geography > Political geography
This book analyses the development of geography as a scientific discipline in Brazil, highlighting how the established partnerships with French geographers have helped shape scientific progress in the country. It connects economic development and politics with the study of geography in Brazil. The author, Jose Borzacchiello da Silva, includes interviews with renowned French geographers, documenting their insight into the French contribution to geography in Brazil. The research partnerships established have been significant to the foundation and growth of the discipline in the country.
The 2012 presidential elections represented the second consecutive defeat for the Republican Party, and its fourth defeat out of the last six presidential elections. In recent years both Republican and Democratic strategists and pundits have spoken of an emerging Democratic Party "lock" on the Electoral College and speculated that even in the wake of Republican victories in Congress, presidential candidates are still at a major disadvantage due to the party's increasing demographic and geographic isolation. In Altered States, Thomas Holbrook looks at change in party fortunes in presidential elections since 1972, documenting the magnitude, direction, and consequences of changes in party support in the states. He finds that the Democrats do not have a "lock" on the Electoral College, but that their position has improved dramatically over the past forty years in a number of formerly competitive or Republican-leaning states in the Northeast, Southeast, and Southwest. Republican candidates have made many fewer gains, mostly improving their position in "misplaced," formerly Democratic states, such as Kentucky and West Virginia, or in already deeply Republican states in the Plains and Mountain West. Holbrook looks at the ways that changes in the racial and ethnic composition of the state electorates, internal (state to state) and external (foreign born) migratory patterns, and changes in other key demographic and political characteristics drive these changes. Additionally, he explores the ways in which increasing partisan polarization at the national level has altered group-based party linkages and contributed to changes in party support at the state level. These factors, along with an increasingly inefficient distribution of Republican votes, have converted what was once a Republican edge in electoral votes to an advantage for Democratic presidential candidates.
Of the thirty miles of Lake Michigan shoreline within the city
limits of Chicago, twenty-four miles is public park land. The crown
jewels of its park system, the lakefront parks bewitch natives and
visitors alike with their brisk winds, shady trees, sandy beaches,
and rolling waves. Like most good things, the protection of the
lakefront parks didn't come easy, and this book chronicles the
hard-fought and never-ending battles Chicago citizens have waged to
keep them forever open, clear, and free.
This book examines the implications of geographical change for maritime jurisdiction under the law of the sea. In a multistranded intervention, it challenges existing accounts of the consequences of climate-related change for entitlement to maritime space, maritime limits, and international maritime boundaries. It also casts new light on the question of whether a loss of habitable land and large-scale population displacement will precipitate a loss of territorial sovereignty and the legal 'extinction' of affected States. This study of the legal significance of geographical change is grounded in an in-depth study of the role of geography in the law of the sea. As well as offering a new perspective on the pressing question of how climate change will affect maritime jurisdiction, territorial sovereignty, and statehood, the book contributes to the scholarship on maritime delimitation and international boundaries generally (on land and at sea). It includes an analysis of the principle of intertemporal law that suggests a useful framework for considering questions of stability and change in international law more broadly. This rigorous and original study will be of value to anyone concerned with the implications of climate-related change for maritime jurisdiction, territorial sovereignty, and statehood. Its broader analysis of the existing law and engagement with a range of doctrinal debates through the lens of the question of geographical change will be of interest to scholars and practitioners of the law of the sea, the law of territory, and the law relating to international boundaries.
Climate change is real, and extreme weather events are its physical manifestations. These extreme events affect how we live and work in cities, and subsequently the way we design, plan, and govern them. Taking action 'for the environment' is not only a moral imperative; instead, it is activated by our everyday experience in the city. Based on the author's site visits and interviews in Darwin (Australia), Tulsa (Oklahoma), Cleveland (Ohio), and Cape Town (South Africa), this book tells the story of how cities can lead a transformative pro-environment politics. National governments often fail to make binding agreements that bring about radical actions for the environment. This book shows how cities, as local sites of mobilizing a collective, political agenda, can be frontiers for activating the kind of environmental politics that appreciates the role of 'nature' in the everyday functioning of our urban life.
The study centers on the presentation of the North American borderlands in the works of Canadian Native writer Thomas King's Truth & Bright Water (1999), American writer Howard Frank Mosher's On Kingdom Mountain (2007), and American writer Jim Lynch's Border Songs (2009). The three authors describe the peoples and places in the northeastern, middle and northwestern border regions of the USA and Canada. The novels address important border-oriented aspects such as indigeneity, the borderlands as historic territory and as utopian space, border crossing and transcendence, post-9/11 security issues, social interaction along the border, and gender specifics. The interpretation also examines the meaning of border imaginaries, border conceptualizations, and the theme of resistance and subversion.
Models of Immigrant Political Incorporation brings together a multidisciplinary group of scholars to consider pathways by which immigrants may be incorporated into the political processes of western democracies. It builds on a rich tradition of studying immigrant incorporation, but each chapter innovates by moving beyond singular accounts of particular groups and locations toward a general causal model with the scope and breadth to apply across groups, places, and time. Models of Immigrant Political Incorporation addresses three key analytic questions: what, if anything, are the distinctive features of immigrants or immigrant groups? How broadly should one define and study politics? What are the initial premises for analyzing pathways toward incorporation; does one learn more by starting from an assumption of racialization and exclusion or from an assumption of engagement and inclusion? While all models engage with all three key analytic questions, chapters vary in their relative focus on one or another, and in the answers they provide. Most include graphical illustrations of the model, as well as extended examples applying the model to one or more immigrant populations. At a time when research on immigrant political incorporation is rapidly accumulating - and when immigrants are increasingly significant political actors in many democratic polities - this volume makes a timely and valuable intervention by pushing researchers to articulate causal dynamics, provide clear definitions and measurable concepts, and develop testable hypotheses. Furthermore, the wide array of frameworks examining how immigrants become part of a polity or are shunted aside ensure that activists and analysts alike will find useful insights. By including historians, sociologists, and political scientists, by ranging across North America and Western Europe, by addressing successful and failed incorporative efforts, this handbook offers guides for anyone seeking to develop a dynamic, unified, and supple model of immigrant political incorporation.
Models of Immigrant Political Incorporation brings together a multidisciplinary group of scholars to consider pathways by which immigrants may be incorporated into the political processes of western democracies. It builds on a rich tradition of studying immigrant incorporation, but each chapter innovates by moving beyond singular accounts of particular groups and locations toward a general causal model with the scope and breadth to apply across groups, places, and time. Models of Immigrant Political Incorporation addresses three key analytic questions: what, if anything, are the distinctive features of immigrants or immigrant groups? How broadly should one define and study politics? What are the initial premises for analyzing pathways toward incorporation; does one learn more by starting from an assumption of racialization and exclusion or from an assumption of engagement and inclusion? While all models engage with all three key analytic questions, chapters vary in their relative focus on one or another, and in the answers they provide. Most include graphical illustrations of the model, as well as extended examples applying the model to one or more immigrant populations. At a time when research on immigrant political incorporation is rapidly accumulating - and when immigrants are increasingly significant political actors in many democratic polities - this volume makes a timely and valuable intervention by pushing researchers to articulate causal dynamics, provide clear definitions and measurable concepts, and develop testable hypotheses. Furthermore, the wide array of frameworks examining how immigrants become part of a polity or are shunted aside ensure that activists and analysts alike will find useful insights. By including historians, sociologists, and political scientists, by ranging across North America and Western Europe, by addressing successful and failed incorporative efforts, this handbook offers guides for anyone seeking to develop a dynamic, unified, and supple model of immigrant political incorporation.
The universe of militant groups in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), near the Afghan border, is far more complex and diverse than is commonly understood. While these groups share many ideological and historical characteristics, the militants have very different backgrounds, tribal affiliations, and strategic concepts that are key to understanding the dynamics of this dangerous, war-torn region- the main safe haven of al-Qaeda and the gateway to fighting in Afghanistan. This volume of essays, edited by Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann and produced in connection with the New America Foundation, explores the history and current state of the lawless frontier of "Talibanistan," from the groups that occupy its various sub-regions to the effects of counterinsurgency and military intervention (including drone strikes) and the possibility of reconciliation. Contributors include MIT's Sameer Lalwani, NYU's Paul Cruickshank, Afghan journalist Anand Gopal, and Brian Fishman of the New America Foundation.
Tourism Geography develops a critical understanding of how different geographies of tourism are created and maintained. Drawing on both historical and contemporary perspectives, the discussion connects tourism to key geographical concepts relating to globalization, mobility, new geographies of production and consumption, and post-industrial change. The new edition has been fully updated to have an international focus, with global case studies and broader based content.
Succeeding in the art of contemporary policymaking involves designing policies which reflect the deeply interconnected nature of political space. Nevertheless, policy continues to be articulated through age-old categories and hierarchies of scale. This book asks why scale occupies this enduring position of privilege in policymaking, highlighting how scales are far from 'natural' features of policy and that they are instead essential to the armoury of policy practice. Drawing on empirical data from the field of education governance, the book traces how scales are crafted and mobilised in policymaking practices, demonstrating that 'scalecraft' is key to understanding the production of hegemony.
We live in the era of the knowledge-based economy, and this has major implications for the ways in which states, cities and even supranational political units are spatially planned, governed and developed. In this book, Sami Moisio delves deeply into the links between the knowledge-based economy and geopolitics, examining a wide range of themes, including city geopolitics and the university as a geopolitical site. Overall, this work shows that knowledge-based "economization" can be understood as a geopolitical process that produces territories of wealth, security, power and belonging. This book will prove enlightening to students, researchers and policymakers in the fields of human geography, urban studies, spatial planning, political science and international relations.
Since colonial rule, the island of Java served as Indonesia's imagined centre and prime example of development, while the Outer Islands were constructed as the state's marginalised periphery. Recent processes of democratisation and regional autonomy, however, have significantly changed the power relations that once produced the marginality of the Outer Islands. This book explores processes of political, economic and cultural transformations in Indonesia, emphasizing their implications for centre-periphery relations from the perspective of the archipelago's 'margins'. Structured along three central themes, the book first provides theoretical contributions to the understanding of marginality in Indonesia. The second part focuses on political transformation processes and their implications for the Outer Islands. The third section investigates the dynamics caused by economic changes on Indonesia's periphery. Chapters writtten by experts in the field offer examples from various regions, which demonstrate how power relations between centre and periphery are getting challenged, contested and reshaped. The book fills a gap in the literature by analysing the implications of the recent transformation processes for the construction of marginality on Indonesia's Outer Islands.
Vladimir Putin's intervention into the Georgia/South Ossetia conflict in summer 2008 was quickly recognized by Western critics as an attempt by Russia to increase its presence and power in the "near abroad", or the independent states of the former Soviet Union that Russia still regards as its wards. Though the global economic recession that began in 2008 moved the incident to the back of the world's mind, Russia surged to the forefront again six years later when they invaded the heavily Russian Crimea in Ukraine and annexed it. In contrast to the earlier Georgia episode, this new conflict has generated a crisis of global proportions, forcing European countries to rethink their relationship with Russia and their reliance on it for energy supplies, as Russia was now squeezing natural gas from what is technically Ukraine. In Near Abroad, the eminent political geographer Gerard Toal analyzes Russia's recent offensive actions in the near abroad, focusing in particular on the ways in which both the West and Russia have relied on Cold War-era rhetorical and emotional tropes that distort as much as they clarify. In response to Russian aggression, US critics quickly turned to tried-and-true concepts like "spheres of influence" to condemn the Kremlin. Russia in turn has brought back its long tradition of criticizing western liberalism and degeneracy to grandly rationalize its behavior in what are essentially local border skirmishes. It is this tendency to resort to the frames of earlier eras that has led the conflicts to "jump scales," moving from the regional to the global level in short order. The ambiguities and contradictions that result when nations marshal traditional geopolitical arguments-rooted in geography, territory, and old understandings of distance-further contributes to the escalation of these conflicts. Indeed, Russia's belligerence toward Georgia stemmed from concern about its possible entry into NATO, an organization of states thousands of miles away. American hawks also strained credulity by portraying Georgia as a nearby ally in need of assistance. Similarly, the threat of NATO to the Ukraine looms large in the Kremlin's thinking, and many Ukrainians themselves self-identify with the West despite their location in Eastern Europe.
Developed out of the author's own substantial teaching experience,
this introduction to political geography approaches its subject
matter from the standpoint of political economy and the politics of
difference. Unlike other similar texts, it incorporates critical
approaches to human geography that have emerged over the past
thirty years, such as the impact of cultural studies, those
emphasizing the role of capitalist development, and work on the
theory of the state. The text covers all the central issues in the field, including identity politics, state territoriality, and the way geography makes a difference in the form of attachments and commitments to place in contexts of interdependence. Students are introduced to ideas about how the geography of politics has been interpreted and can be studied in clear and accessible language. Numerous fascinating and relevant examples are used throughout in order to sustain reader interest.
Greenland and the International Politics of a Changing Arctic examines the international politics of semi-independent Greenland in a changing and increasingly globalised Arctic. Without sovereign statehood, but with increased geopolitical importance, independent foreign policy ambitions, and a solidified self-image as a trailblazer for Arctic indigenous peoples' rights, Greenland is making its mark on the Arctic and is in turn affected - and empowered - by Arctic developments. The chapters in this collection analyse how a distinct Greenlandic foreign policy identity shapes political ends and means, how relations to its parent state of Denmark is both a burden and a resource, and how Greenlandic actors use and influence regional institutional settings as well as foreign states and commercial actors to produce an increasingly independent - if not sovereign - entity with aims and ambitions for regional change in the Arctic. This is the first comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of Greenland's international relations and how they are connected to wider Arctic politics. It will be essential reading for students and scholars interested in Arctic governance and security, international relations, sovereignty, geopolitics, paradiplomacy, indigenous affairs and anyone concerned with the political future of the Arctic.
On October 1, 2009, the People's Republic of China (PRC) celebrated the 60th anniversary of its founding. And what an eventful and tumultuous six decades it had been. During that time, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), China was transformed from one of the world's poorest countries into the world's fastest growing major economy, and from a weak state barely able to govern or protect its own territory to a rising power that is challenging the United States for global influence. Over those same years, the PRC also experienced the most deadly famine in human history, caused largely by the actions and inactions of its political leaders. Not long after, there was a collapse of government authority that pushed the country to the brink of (and in some places actually into) civil war and anarchy. Today, China is, for the most part, peaceful, prospering, and proud. This is the China that was on display for the world to see during the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The CCP maintains a firm grip on power through a combination of popular support largely based on its recent record of promoting rapid economic growth and harsh repression of political opposition. Yet, the party and country face serious challenges on many fronts, including a slowing economy, environmental desecration, pervasive corruption, extreme inequalities, and a rising tide of social protest. Politics in China is an authoritative introduction to how the world's most populous nation and rapidly rising global power is governed today. Written by leading China scholars, the book's chapters offers accessible overviews of major periods in China's modern political history from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, key topics in contemporary Chinese politics, and developments in four important areas located on China's geographic periphery: Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
European cities are at the centre of social, political and economic changes in Western Europe. This book proposes a new research agenda in urban sociology and politics applying primarily to European cities, in particular those that together make up the urban structure of Europe: a fabric of older cities of over 100,000 inhabitants, regional capitals and smaller state capitals. The contributors develop an analytical framework which views cities as local societies, and as collective factors and site for modes of governance. The three parts of the book examine the economics of cities, the social structures, and the modes and processes of governance. Each chapter comprises a comparison across several countries and examines critically the book's central theoretical perspective. This is not a book about the making of a Europe of cities but rather about how some cities can take advantage of their changing global and European environment.
European cities are at the center of social, political and economic changes in Western Europe. This book develops a new analytical framework in urban sociology and politics, and examines the economics of cities, their social structures, and the modes and processes of governance. Each chapter comprises a comparison across several countries and examines critically the book's central theoretical perspective. This is not a book about the making of a Europe of cities but rather about how some cities can take advantage of their changing global and European environment.
The global demand for tourism continues to increase as economic growth creates opportunities for its consumption as a lifestyle option across cultures. The spatial reach of recreational tourism into remoter environments reflects a desire to reconnect to nature that is partially created by the global trend toward urbanisation. At the same time, anthropogenic created environmental problems have led us to re-evaluate our relationship to nature and the values that are held by the environment. This third edition ofEnvironment and Tourism incorporates additional material on environmental philosophies and ontologies of nature and how these influence our understanding of tourism’s relationship with the natural environment. In an epoch representing a critical juncture for the future well-being of the planet based on our relationship to nature, the text has been updated to reflect the growth in significance of the interaction between tourism and the natural environment as a part of this discourse. It communicates a range of key conceptual debates on the ethics and economics of the consuming nature for tourism and relates these to real world examples whilst evaluating environmental planning, and management responses. The book seeks to highlight the relevance of the significance of tourism for nature within the framework of society, as a system of inter-connected places across space and time, exploring the relationship of the environments of where tourists come from with the ones that they travel to.
What are the causes and consequences of the crisis in Ukraine, and what has been the nature of local, national, and external actors' involvement in it? These are the questions that the authors examine in this comprehensive analysis of the situation in Ukraine. The crisis evolved from peaceful protests to full-scale military conflict and to an unstable ceasefire frequently interrupted by, at times, intense clashes between government forces and separatist rebels. Tracing the emergence of two new de-facto state entities in the post-Soviet space-the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics-from the chaos of the early days after Russia's annexation of Crimea in Spring 2014 to the second Minsk Agreement in February 2015, and focusing on the actions of the immediate conflict parties and their external backers, the authors investigate the feasibility and viability of several prominent 'scenarios' for a possible future settlement of the conflict. As an in-depth case study of the complex dynamics of the conflict at local, national, regional, and global levels of analysis, the book complements and advances existing scholarship on civil war and international crisis management and also provides insights for the policy community and the wider interested public.
The New Europe is one of the most dynamic, complex and fascinating regions of the world. Eastern and Central Europe are striving to come to terms with the fall of communism and the dictates of the market, whilst Western Europe, suffering high unemployment and weakened economic impetus, has still to be reconciled to the consequences of restructuring and globalisation. The New Europe provides an unrivalled range of in-depth studies of issues central to the development of Eastern and Western Europe, to the major contrasts which still exist between them and to the problems facing the effective reintegration of this long-divided region. Highly accessible and uniquely authoritative, The New Europe is an indispensable text for students of contemporary Europe.
What Kind of Regionalism? seeks to explore the value basis of regionalism in two northern European regions. By investigating two less favoured, politically defined regions, the author tries to complement previous accounts of regionalism in western Europe, many of which have revolved either around 'ethnic' regions, known for hosting sub-nationalist demands, or around affluent regions in the economic and political centre of Europe. A fundamental assumption in the study is that regionalism can be studied as an instance of a political ideology. The author has compared the political debate in Norrbotten (Sweden) and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Germany) from the mid-1990s up to the present, bringing out the norms, values and demands on which regionalism in these two regions rests. Drawing on extensive empirical material from the two regions, the author seeks to challenge any notion that modern-day forms of regionalism differ from previous ones in an absence of ethno-culturalist elements. The author adopts a critical approach towards treating regional identities, cultures and images primarily as desirable factors for regional economic growth.
Our world of increasing and varied conflicts is confusing and
threatening to citizens of all countries, as they try to understand
its causes and consequences. However, how and why war occurs, and
peace is sustained, cannot be understood without realizing that
those who make war and peace must negotiate a complex world
political map of sovereign spaces, borders, networks of
communication, access to nested geographic scales, and patterns of
resource distribution. This book takes advantage of a diversity of
geographic perspectives as it analyzes the political processes of
war and their spatial expression.
The austerity crisis has radically altered the economic landscape of Southern Europe. But alongside the decimation of public services and infrastructure lies the wreckage of a generation's visions for the future. In Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, there is a new, difficult reality of downward mobility. Grassroots Economies interrogates the effects of the economic crisis on the livelihood of working people, providing insight into their anxieties. Drawing on a wide range of ethnographic material, it is a distinctive comparative analysis that explores the contradictions of their coping mechanisms and support structures. With a focus on gender, the book explores values and ideologies, including dispossession and accumulation. Ultimately it demonstrates that everyday interactions on the local scale provide a significant sense of the global. |
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