Vol. 51, No.1 , Spring/Summer 2013- "Geopolitics of Asia"
AN “AZERBAIJANI SPRING”? CIVIL DISCOURSE, DISCORD, AND DISSENT
(pp. 4 - 23)
Jeremy Tasch
Department of Geography and Environmental Planning
Towson University
Towson, Maryland
Weiwei Tasch
The Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science
Department of Economics
George Mason University
Washington, D.C.
Abstract
The institutional space between the state and the market has remained largely understudied in Azerbaijan. Social scientists—including geographers— interested in the region have attempted to combine regional analysis, particularly in politics, demography, and urbanization, with macro-economic studies, mostly oriented to resource and trade economics. In complement with these types of studies, however, more on-the-ground investigation can contribute to a clearer understanding of how civil society builds and reproduces itself, and perhaps can eventually produce a counterweight to the powerful one-party government that is largely controlled by a single family empowered by immense national oil wealth. Against the backdrop of widening social and political unrest in advance of the October 2013 presidential election, this exploration offers some of the ground level context that often does not come through the macro-scale resource curse studies, while at the same time it identifies some of the antecedents for the
emerging disquiet.
LAND PRIVATIZATION VERSUS “SELLING OF THE HOMELAND”: SOME RESULTS OF FIELD RESEARCH IN JORDAN, 2008
(pp. 24 - 41)
Ghazi-Walid Falah
Department of Public Administration and Urban Studies
The University of Akron
Akron, Ohio
Abstract
This paper is about my own experience in leading an expedition to Jordan in 2008, as both an Ohio-based geographer and an Arab national familiar with the cultural, social, and political environment of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. It serves to highlight a thorny issue that is taking place in Jordan in the wake of successive attempts by the Jordanian government to encourage economic growth by means of privatization of assets by the state. Generalization in this paper is mainly based on extensive field research carried out during the summer of 2008. Field research notes have also been updated with current literature and published reports over the past five years.
(pp. 42 - 72)
Sya Buryn Kedzior
Department of Geography and Environmental Planning
Towson University
Towson, Maryland
Abstract
Environmental awareness is often assumed to be one of the greatest factors influencing resource use activities. This justifies the emphasis on awareness across institutions working to protect the environment. But what happens when conservation efforts fail? Nearly thirty years of pollution abatement efforts in India’s Ganges River Basin have failed to improve the river’s status as one of the most polluted waterways in the world. Politicians and activists alike blame this failure on a lack of environmental awareness among the general public. This study investigated this claim, finding that a majority of water users demonstrate intimate knowledge of river water pollution and its associated risks. Discussion of these findings examines the use of “environmental awareness” as a discursive construct employed by state officials and local NGOs, finding both that increased awareness does not necessarily translate into changed resource use or political activity, and that awareness-raising activities are a powerful tool in the struggle over natural resource governance.
(pp. 73 - 85)
Wesley R. Skeeter
Department of Geography and Geosciences
Salisbury University
Salisbury, Maryland
Abstract
Radar composite storm total precipitation estimates of every cold front to impact the mid-Atlantic region of the United States between April and October from 1997 to 2011 were created using data from three regional radars. The radar composites were used to calculate the average precipitation difference for each front between the Western and Eastern Shores of the Chesapeake Bay. The significance of these differences was tested for each month in the study period. Correlation analysis was run to test the relationship between the differences and sea surface temperatures of the Chesapeake Bay.
THE GEOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA: A SCHOLARLY BIBLIOGRAPHY, PART 2.
(pp. 86 - 107)
Dr. Thomas A. Rumney, Professor Emeritus
Plattsburgh State University
Plattsburgh, New York
Abstract
The following is the second section of the previously presented bibliography of the geographical study of Pennsylvania. This section includes the works done on the economic and historical geographies of the state. Organized the same as the first section, alphabetically by author’s last name, and where there are more than one entry per author chronologically from the earliest to the most recent, this collection continues the presentation of the works done by geographers that was published previously.