Search results for "050703 geography"
showing 10 items of 345 documents
Economic moralities in self-organised alternative economies : the Finnish cases of ridesharing and timebanking
2020
PurposeThis paper explores economic moralities in self-organised alternative economies and argues that the diverse economies approach is particularly useful in elaborating the self-understandings of such economic communities. The analysis focuses on two types of alternative economies in Finland: ridesharing and timebanking.Design/methodology/approachThrough qualitative data, the paper looks into moments of negotiation where economic moralities of self-organised alternative economies are explicitly debated. The main research data consists of social media conversations, supplemented by a member survey for the participants of the studied timebank. The data are analysed through theory-guided qu…
Reflections on conspicuous sustainability: Creating Small Island Dependent States (SIDS) through Ostentatious Development Assistance (ODA)?
2020
Abstract It is frequently noted that small islands, including Small Island Developing States (SIDS), receive hugely disproportionate levels of aid or official development assistance (ODA) relative to other states and territories. However, the precise relationship between 'islandness' and aid remains underexamined. This paper uses the concept of 'conspicuous sustainability' as a framework for understanding the propensity for aid to be directed toward small island territories. We argue (1) that aid donors have reasons for preferring engagement in development projects that are particularly conspicuous, irrespective of actual development outcomes and (2) that small island territories are except…
Placing resilience in context: Investigating the changing experiences of Finnish organic farmers
2018
Understanding how farmers are resilient is critical for effective government and individual\ud management responses in an increasingly uncertain world. Through an inter-temporal focus on\ud Finnish organic farmers, we explore changing identities, attitudes and practices, and reflect on\ud ramifications for farming resilience. Despite the essentialising binaries perpetuated by discussions of\ud conventionalisation and bifurcation in the organic movement, organic production systems are, and\ud always have been, heterogeneous. This paper offers a nuanced analysis of the fluctuating and mixed\ud practices and identities that compose the sector. Considering the experiences of both ‘pioneer’ and\…
Eurocity London: a qualitative comparison of graduate migration from Germany, Italy and Latvia
2016
This paper compares the motivations and characteristics of the recent migration to London of young-adult graduates from Germany, Italy and Latvia. Conceptually the paper links three domains: the theory of core–periphery structures within Europe; the notion of London as both a global city and a ‘Eurocity’; and the trope of ‘crisis’. The dataset analysed consists of 95 in-depth biographical interviews and the paper’s main objective is to tease out the narrative similarities and differences between the three groups interviewed. Each of the three nationalities represents a different geo-economic positioning within Europe. German graduates move from one economically prosperous country to another…
Diversification of diversity: Migrations, cultural pluralism and urban transformations in Palermo (Italy): a case study
2021
Italy experienced the transition from a country of emigration to a country of immigration only in the last decade of the 20th century. The extreme heterogeneity of the Italian scene – from the distribution and variety of productive sectors and local economic dimensions, to the geographical, cultural and linguistic varieties – results in an incredibly differentiated background on which the phenomenon of migrations fits as multiplier of diversity. But there are some particular fields in Italy where the challenges of superdiversity appear to be more prominent: the impact on the school system, in terms of linguistic-cultural pluralism; the change in religious belonging and identities; the dynam…
Ethnographic Knowledge in Urban Planning:Bridging the Gap between the Theories of Knowledge-Based and Communicative Planning
2021
Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. ‘Knowledge-based’ approaches have recently made a breakthrough in urban planning. How to develop balance in knowledge-based planning between abstract and scientific knowledge, on the one hand, and ‘local knowledge’ on the other hand has been long debated. To this debate, we add a form of knowledge with potential for sustainable urban planning, i.e. ethnographic knowledge that could transmit an understanding of urban dwellers’ daily practices and values to planning organisations. Theoretical literature is the foundation of our argument, which we illustrate with a case study involvin…
Fractal geometry for measuring and modelling urban patterns
2007
Urban growth generates nowadays patterns, which look rather irregular. Planning policy regrets the lack of compactness and density of these agglomerations, but controlling urban sprawl turns out to be difficult. Obviously a new type of spatial organisation emerges, which is rather the result of a self-organisation process to which a high number of social agents contribute. In the present contribution we focus on the use of fractal geometry which turned out to be a powerful instrument for describing the morphology of these patterns. After an introduction about the context of research, fractal models are presented, which serve as reference models for better understanding the spatial organisat…
Imaginary Numbers of Climate Change Migrants?
2019
Within the extensive scientific and policy discussions about climate change migrants, detailed analyses continue to highlight the lack of evidence thus far for climate change directly causing migration. To understand better how climate change might or might not lead to migration, this paper explores possibilities for developing a robust, repeatable, and verifiable method to count or calculate the number of people migrating or not migrating due to climate change. The discussion starts by examining definitions of &ldquo
In-Between ‘Smart’ Urban Growth and ‘Sluggish’ Rural Development? Reframing Population Dynamics in Greece, 1940–2019
2020
Multifaceted demographic dynamics have shaped population growth in Mediterranean Europe, reflecting a metropolitan cycle from urbanization to re-urbanization. To assess the distinctive impact of economic downturns on population dynamics, the present study illustrates the results of an exploratory analysis that assesses urban expansion and rural decline at various temporal scales in Greece, a peripheral country in southeastern Europe. Statistical analysis based on multivariate exploratory techniques outlined the persistent increase of regional populations, evidencing the distinctive role of agglomeration/scale with urbanization and early suburbanization phases (1940&ndash
Changes in the Intra-Metropolitan Location of Producer Services in Ile-de-France (1978-1997) : do information technologies promote a more dispersed s…
2003
Because of their intensive need for face-to-face contacts, producer services have, historically, been found at the core o f CBDs. However, it has been suggested that advances in information technologies could lead to the erosion o f the CBD’s economic base, rendering face-to-face contacts obsolete and enabling producer services to suburbanize. Although a considerable amount o f empirical work has been done on the suburbanization o f these activities in North-America, the same is not true of France. In this paper, we adopt an original methodology to study the role played by face-to-face contacts in the spatial distribution of producer services in the Ile-de-France region between 1978 and 199…