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Full-Text Articles in Geography

Violence As An Obstacle To Livelihood Resilience In The Context Of Climate Change, Beth Tellman, Ryan Alaniz, Andrea Rivera, Diana Contreras Dec 2014

Violence As An Obstacle To Livelihood Resilience In The Context Of Climate Change, Beth Tellman, Ryan Alaniz, Andrea Rivera, Diana Contreras

Ryan C. Alaniz

Central America continues to be a violent region and is prone to increasing climatic shocks and environmental degradation. This paper explores the non-linear feedback loop between violence and climate shocks on livelihood resilience in El Salvador and Honduras, two countries experiencing high rates of violence. The nature of this complex feedback loop is examined by analysing case studies on the community scale, which include challenges in reconstructing community social capital post-Hurricane Mitch (1998) in Honduras and the importance of social capital in community resilience to Hurricane Ida (2009) in El Salvador. We conclude that social capital is central in communities …


A Line In The Tar Sands: Struggles For Environmental Justice, Toban Black, Stephen D'Arcy, Tony Weis, Joshua Russell Sep 2014

A Line In The Tar Sands: Struggles For Environmental Justice, Toban Black, Stephen D'Arcy, Tony Weis, Joshua Russell

Stephen D'Arcy

(Edited Collection.) The fight over the tar sands in North America is among the epic environmental and social justice battles of our time, and one of the first that has managed to marry quite explicitly concern for frontline communities and immediate local hazards with fear for the future of the entire planet. Tar sands “development” comes with an enormous environmental and human cost. But tar sands opponents—fighting a powerful international industry—are likened to terrorists; government environmental scientists are muzzled; and public hearings are concealed and rushed. Yet, despite the formidable political and economic power behind the tar sands, many opponents …


Cumulating Evidence About The Social Animal: Meta-Analysis In Social-Personality Psychology, Blair T. Johnson Dr., Marcella H. Boynton Dr. Aug 2014

Cumulating Evidence About The Social Animal: Meta-Analysis In Social-Personality Psychology, Blair T. Johnson Dr., Marcella H. Boynton Dr.

Blair T. Johnson

Like most scientific fields, social-personality psychology has experienced an explosion of research related to such central topics as aggression, attraction, gender, group processes, motivation, personality, and persuasion, to name a few. The proliferation of research can be a monster unless it is tamed with the scientific review strategy of meta-analysis, literally analyses of past analyses that produce a quantitative and empirical history of research on a particular phenomenon. The purpose of this article is to outline the basic process and statistics of meta-analysis, as they pertain to social-personality psychology. Meta-analysis involves: (i) defining the problem under review; (ii) gathering qualified …


Management Regimes And Its Impact On The Wetland Fisheries Management In Assam, Ganesh Chandra Aug 2014

Management Regimes And Its Impact On The Wetland Fisheries Management In Assam, Ganesh Chandra

Ganesh Chandra

Assam is endowed with copious aquatic wealth in the form of beels, swamps, ponds and rivers. The floodplain wetlands (beels) extending over one lakh hectare, constitute the most important fishery resource of the state. The beels are considered as one of the most productive ecosystems owing to their characteristic interactions between land and water system. These wetlands are the common property resource and under different management regimes. These wetlands are under various management regimes, i.e., private management (individuals and groups), fishermen cooperative management, Community-based fisheries management (decentralized management, Government works as facilitator) and open access. Most of the unregistered beels …


A Tale Of Two Cities: Residential Segregation In St. Louis And Cincinnati, Sungsoon Hwang Jul 2014

A Tale Of Two Cities: Residential Segregation In St. Louis And Cincinnati, Sungsoon Hwang

Sungsoon Hwang

This chapter explores spatial patterns and processes of residential segregation in St. Louis and Cincinnati using spatial analytical methods. Mapping Blacks by the location quotient and local Moran’s I shows that Blacks are more spatially clustered in St. Louis, and are more concentrated in Cincinnati. Spatial housing submarkets, local market segments with the distinct preference structure, are delineated using multivariate techniques; results demonstrate that St. Louis has more divided and polarized housing markets than Cincinnati. Spatially varying impacts of factors underlying housing market segmentation were examined using geographically weighted regression. It was shown that a premium for life cycle (or …


Theorising The ‘Fifth Migration’ In The United States: Understanding Lifestyle Migration From An Integrated Approach, Brian Hoey Jun 2014

Theorising The ‘Fifth Migration’ In The United States: Understanding Lifestyle Migration From An Integrated Approach, Brian Hoey

Brian A. Hoey, Ph.D.

This chapter is an empirically-informed discussion of relevant social theory for examining the phenomenon of lifestyle migration in the United States in both rural and urban settings. Specifically, the chapter explores key explanatory models born of research into so-called non-economic migration occurring since the early twentieth century—models that may be characterized as primarily either production or consumption oriented in their emphasis—as a context for outlining an integrated approach. The author then highlights changes in how some Americans appear to calculate personal and collective quality of life as engendered by an emerging economic order—based on principles of flexibility and contingency—whose affects …


Rural Waste Generation : A Geographical Survey At Local Scale, Florin C. Mihai, Ana M. Oiste, Dan A. Chelaru May 2014

Rural Waste Generation : A Geographical Survey At Local Scale, Florin C. Mihai, Ana M. Oiste, Dan A. Chelaru

Florin C MIHAI

The paper examines the per capita waste generation rates from from rural areas of Neamț County (Romania) using thematic cartography. Geographical approach of this issue is difficult because the lack of a geostatistic database at commune scale. Spatial analysis of waste indicators reveals several disparities between localities. Comparability of data between communes located in various geographical conditions must be carrefully made according to local waste management systems. Several dysfunctionalities are outlined in order to compare these results, on the one hand, between localities and on the one hand, between recent years. Geographical analysis of waste generation rates is imperative for …


Your Friends And Neighbors: Localized Economic Development And Criminal Activity, Matthew Freedman, Emily Owens Mar 2014

Your Friends And Neighbors: Localized Economic Development And Criminal Activity, Matthew Freedman, Emily Owens

Matthew Freedman

We exploit a sudden shock to demand for a subset of low-wage workers generated by the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) program in San Antonio, Texas to identify the effects of localized economic development on crime. We use a difference-in-difference methodology that takes advantage of variation in BRAC’s impact over time and across neighborhoods. We find that appropriative criminal behavior increases in neighborhoods where a fraction of residents experienced increases in earnings. This effect is driven by residents who were unlikely to be BRAC beneficiaries, implying that criminal opportunities are important in explaining patterns of crime.

Forthcoming in the …


Border Militarizonaion And Health: Violience, Death And Security In Mexico And The United States, Jeremy Slack, Daniel E. Martinez, Scott Whiteford, Alison Lee Jan 2014

Border Militarizonaion And Health: Violience, Death And Security In Mexico And The United States, Jeremy Slack, Daniel E. Martinez, Scott Whiteford, Alison Lee

Scott Whiteford

Authors examine violence as a health issue on the U.S./Mexico border, with a special focus on border enforcement and security.


The Paradoxes Of Africa's Development: African Union's Contributions To Africa's Recent Achievements, 2005-2014, Amadu Jacky Kaba Jan 2014

The Paradoxes Of Africa's Development: African Union's Contributions To Africa's Recent Achievements, 2005-2014, Amadu Jacky Kaba

Amadu Jacky Kaba

This paper focuses on Africa's paradoxes pertaining to meeting its development goals. The paper claims that while one can present a number of examples showing serious challenges confronting countries on the continent in meeting their development goals, one can also present many examples of these same countries making important development achievements, especially in the past decade. For example, the paper shows that the average life expectancy in Africa in 2006 was 53.3 years; in 2014, it increased to 61 years. The average infant mortality rate in Africa in 2006 was 73.5 deaths per 1000; in 2014, it declined to 53 …


Risk Interpretation And Action (Ria): Decision Making Under Conditions Of Uncertainty, Emma H. Doyle, Shabana Kahn, Carolina Adler, Ryan Alaniz, Simone Athayde, Kuan-Hui Lin, Todd Schenk, Fabiola Sosa-Rodriguez, Victoria Sword-Daniels Jan 2014

Risk Interpretation And Action (Ria): Decision Making Under Conditions Of Uncertainty, Emma H. Doyle, Shabana Kahn, Carolina Adler, Ryan Alaniz, Simone Athayde, Kuan-Hui Lin, Todd Schenk, Fabiola Sosa-Rodriguez, Victoria Sword-Daniels

Ryan C. Alaniz

The paper reports on the World Social Science (WSS) Fellows seminar on Risk Interpretation and Action (RIA), undertaken in New Zealand in December, 2013. This seminar was coordinated by the WSS Fellows program of the International Social Science Council (ISSC), the RIA working group of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) program, the IRDR International Center of Excellence Taipei, the International START Secretariat and the Royal Society of New Zealand. Twenty-five early career researchers from around the world were selected to review the RIA framework (Eiser et al., 2012) under the theme of ‘decision-making under conditions of uncertainty’, and …


Justice And Immigrant Latino Recreation Geography In Cache Valley, Utah, Jodie Madsen, Claudia Radel, Joanna Endter-Wada Jan 2014

Justice And Immigrant Latino Recreation Geography In Cache Valley, Utah, Jodie Madsen, Claudia Radel, Joanna Endter-Wada

Joanna Endter-Wada

Latinos are the largest U.S. non-mainstreamed ethnic group, and social and environmental justice considerations dictate recreation professionals and researchers meet their recreation needs. This study reconceptualizes this diverse group’s recreation patterns, looking at where immigrant Latino individuals in Cache Valley, Utah do recreate rather than where they do not. Through qualitative interviews and interactive mapping, thirty participants discussed what recreation means to them and explained their recreation site choices. Findings suggest that recreation as an activity done outside the home, for fun with others, leads participants to seek spaces with certain characteristics. Reconceiving recreation more broadly and framing it from …


Paradoxes Of Democratisation: Environmental Politics In East Asia, Mary Alice Haddad Dec 2013

Paradoxes Of Democratisation: Environmental Politics In East Asia, Mary Alice Haddad

Mary Alice Haddad

This chapter examines environmental politics in four polities that run the full spectrum of political regimes: mainland China (authoritarian), South Korea and Taiwan (newly democratic), and Japan (mature democracy). The chapter argues that variation in environmental politics in each place resulted primarily from the timing of their environmental movements, with subsequent movements learning from predecessors and gaining increasing access to global NGO networks. Paradoxically, when environmental movements became linked to democratization movements (in South Korea and Taiwan), they also became linked to political parties, which hindered access to government policymaking when non-allied parties were in power.