Vol. 51, No.1 , Spring/Summer 2013- "The Pennsylvania Geographer"

AN “AZERBAIJANI SPRING”? CIVIL DISCOURSE, DISCORD, AND DISSENT

Jeremy Tasch

Department of Geography and Environmental Planning

Towson University

Weiwei Tasch

The Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science

Department of Economics

George Mason University

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.

IS ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS THE KEY TO CHANGING RESOURCE USE AND POLITICAL ACTIVITY? EXPLORING FAILED

EFFORTS TO CLEAN INDIA’S GANGES RIVER

Sya Buryn Kedzior

Department of Geography and Environmental Planning

Towson University

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. 

LAND PRIVATIZATION VERSUS “SELLING OF THE HOMELAND”: SOME RESULTS OF FIELD RESEARCH IN JORDAN, 2008

Ghazi-Walid Falah

Department of Public Administration and Urban Studies

The University of Akron

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.

USING RADAR COMPOSITES TO DETECT VARIANCES IN PRECIPITATION FROM COLD FRONTS ACROSS THE CHESAPEAKE BAY: APRIL THROUGH OCTOBER FROM 1997 TO 2011

Wesley R. Skeeter

Department of Geography and Geosciences

Salisbury University

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.