Search results for " Geography"

An Interview with Zygmunt Bauman: How to Turn the Word into Flesh

2017

Deceased in January this year, the Polish-British sociologist Zygmunt Bauman has left an extremely rich scholarly legacy. In one of his last academic interviews, he refers to the key issues which had been the subject of his in-depth analysis for many years. Bauman starts with reflections on the gap between political authority and power. Next, given his long-standing research into ‘liquid modernity’, he focuses on the vitality of capitalism, which has now adopted a lighter, consumer form. Another thread of the interview is Bauman’s own research attitude, which he refers to as ‘sociological hermeneutics’. It is characterized by his reluctance to use any ‘-isms’ and a profound mistrust of all…

Market potential estimates in history: a survey of methods and an application to Spain, 1867-1930

2014

New Economic Geography (NEG) models stress the importance of access to demand as a key driver of the spatial and temporal distribution of economic activity (Krugman, 1991). Therefore, in order to test the theoretical predictions emanating from NEG a sound measure of accessibility is required. In line with Crafts (2005b), this paper constructs market potential estimates for Spain at the province level (NUTS3) between 1867 and 1930 using Harris’s (1954) equation. This period is particularly appealing as it was during these years that the Spanish market became integrated thanks to the fall in transport and trade costs. A number of key processes, including the substitution of traditional transp…

On international spillovers

2012

Abstract This study investigates the role of international spillovers in generating productivity gains for a panel of 24 OECD countries during the period between 1971 and 2004. We use recent techniques developed in a common factor framework to characterize the global interdependence implied by international spillovers and the diffusion mechanisms involved. Consistently with some recent studies in this field, the evidence suggests that there are substantial cross-country spillovers mainly related to R&D and human capital variables, which contribute significantly to productivity.

Testing the Home Market Effects in a Multi-country World: The Theory

2004

We extend the two-country model by Krugman (1980) to a multi-country set-up and show that the `home-market effect' highlighted with two countries does not readily extend to such a more general setting. In particular, we prove that the most important result, namely the disproportionate causation from demand to supply, generalizes only under the fairly implausible assumption of pairwise symmetric trade costs between all countries. We argue, therefore, that the implications of product differentiation for the structure of world trade are better characterized in terms of spatial (`accessibility') and non-spatial (`attraction') effects, and we provide a theory-based specification that suggests ho…

Social capital formation across space: proximity and trust in European regions

2013

An extensive economics and regional science literature has discussed the importance of social capital for economic growth and development. Yet, what social capital is and how it is formed are elusive issues, which require further investigation. Here, we refer to social capital in terms of “civic” capital and “good culture,” as rephrased by Guiso, Sapienza, and Zingales and Tabellini. The accumulation of this kind of capital allows the emerging of regional informal institutions, which may help explaining differences in regional development. In this article, we take a regional perspective and use exploratory space and space–time methods to assess whether geography, via proximity, contributes…

Ayman Shihadeh, Doubts on Avicenna: A Study and Edition of Sharaf al-Dīn al-Masʿūdī’s Commentary on the Ishārāt

2018

A Geography of Coloniality: Re-narrating European Integration

2019

AbstractTurunen discusses how the “European significance” of the European Heritage Label (EHL) sites has been narrated through interconnections of European values and European integration. She argues that, in the context of the EHL, integration is intricately linked to the notion of spreading common values, which in turn is entangled with Eurocentrism. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the geography of coloniality: the underlying spatial structure that makes the coloniality of European cultural heritage and related hierarchies more visible. Ultimately, the chapter shows how the concept of coloniality enables us to analyse the ways Eurocentrism is also embedded in ideas about Europe…

Time-space of possibilities: translocal geographies of Latvians in Guernsey

2014

Promocijas darba autore radoši izmanto laika ģeogrāfijas perspektīvu, izveidojot translokālu modeli, ar kura palīdzību tiek analizēti migrācijas veidi no vienas puses un klātbūtnes/prombūtnes pieredze no otras puses. Pētījuma pamatu veido kvalitatīvās metodes: intervijas, novērojumi un ģeogrāfiskās mobilitātes līdzdalīgais novērojums no 2010. gada līdz 2012. gadam. Šis ir pirmais detalizētais pētījums vienā no Lielbritānijas salām – Gērnsijā, kas pēdējo 20 gadu laikā piesaistījusi migrantus no Latvijas. Ģeogrāfiski norobežotas vietas mērogs kopsaistē ar Eiropas Savienības pilsoņu brīvas pārvietošanās iespējām veido īpašus ierobežojumus un iespējas laiktelpā, kurā īslaicīga migrācija pārtop …

FRAMMENTI DI PAESAGGIO CULTURALE: I RUDERI DI GIBELLINA

2020

The present contribution intends to propose an epistemological reflection on the links relationships that interweave the map, cultural heritage, landscape, and places. We have indentified an interpretative horizon that intersects the scientific geographic debate with the literary subject and we have proposed a specific reading of the site of Old Gibellina, in Sicily, where reality and representation seem to converge. In 1968 Gibellina was razed to the ground by a seism. The artist Alberto Burri covered the ruins with the concrete realising the “Grande Cretto”. In our perspective, the Cretto represents a unique place: it is a full size map, it is landscape, it is world at the same time. What…

3D survey in complex archaeological environments: An approach by terrestrial laser scanning

2018

Abstract. The survey of archaeological sites by appropriate geomatics technologies is an important research topic. In particular, the 3D survey by terrestrial laser scanning has become a common practice for 3D archaeological data collection. Even if terrestrial laser scanning survey is quite well established, due to the complexity of the most archaeological contexts, many issues can arise and make the survey more difficult. The aim of this work is to describe the methodology chosen for a terrestrial laser scanning survey in a complex archaeological environment according to the issues related to the particular structure of the site. The developed approach was used for the terrestrial laser s…