The Geographical Journal articles from July 1997

The Geographical Journal archives from July 1997

Environmental transformations in developing countries: hybrid research and democratic policy.
July 1, 1997... Burning forests, eroding farmland, advancing deserts: images such as these once conjured up a picture of environmental crisis in the developing world, where growing populations, entrenched poverty, and fragile, uncontrollable ecosystems presented...

The sustainability principle in global agendas: implications for understanding land-use/cover change.
July 1, 1997... 'Sustainability' appears to be the guiding principle for a global society entering the new millennium, superseding almost all others within the environment and development communities (IIASA, 1993; Kidd, 1992). 'Sustainable development',...

Security and solidarity: an anti-reductionist framework for thinking about the relationship between us and the rest of nature.
July 1, 1997... This paper condenses, in non-technical language, a line of argument that runs through five much longer papers (Price and Thompson, 1997; Thompson and Trisoglio, 1997; Thompson, 1997a; 1997b; 1997c). Much policy analysis rests on the assumption...

Agricultural intensification and flexibility in the Nigerian Sahel.
July 1, 1997... There is a considerable literature on links between population growth and environmental degradation in semi-arid sub-Saharan Africa. Although simplistic narratives of desertification driven by human and livestock population growth are now widely...

The dynamics of soil fertility change: historical perspectives on environmental transformation from Zimbabwe.
July 1, 1997... Soil fertility is increasingly being recognized as an important issue for African agriculture. Poor, degraded soils, it is argued, are hampering an agricultural recovery across the continent. The solutions offered are large-scale investments in...

After the flood: local initiative in using a new wetland resource in the Sourou Valley, Mali.
July 1, 1997... There is concern among development funders and environmental lobbyists that the decentralization of land and water management, a strategy favoured in many development projects and environmental programmes, is seldom matched by a clear...

Rain forest extraction and conservation in Amazonia.
July 1, 1997... Daily news reports in the 1980s of an unparalleled onslaught on the Amazon rain forest by cattle ranchers, colonists, dam builders and gold miners, and the accompanying violence against indigenous peoples, prompted global concern about the fate...

Social capital and rural intensification: local organizations and islands of sustainability in the rural Andes.
July 1, 1997... This paper addresses two themes running through this issue of The Geographical Journal: the deconstruction of environmental orthodoxies and histories, and the role of civil society actors in environmental transformations. It combines: 1 a...

Fewer people, less erosion: the twentieth century in southern Bolivia.
July 1, 1997... A recent study of the Machakos region in Kenya was entitled More people, less erosion (Tiffen et al., 1994). In that study, it was shown how a degraded semi-arid landscape in the 1930s was, by the 1980s, transformed by a range of conservation...

Pollution patterns during the industrial transition.
July 1, 1997... This paper examines the literature for evidence of systematic pollution patterns during the industrial transition from a traditional economy (which is predominantly subsistent, low productivity and rural-based) to a developed economy (in which...

Environmental transformations in cities as they get larger, wealthier and better managed.
July 1, 1997... This paper has two aims. The first is to question the assumption that environmental problems are more serious in large cities or become more serious as countries urbanize; the evidence suggests that many environmental problems lessen as cities...

The Tropical Rain Forest.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1997... By any standard this is a formidable piece of work, which brings up-to-date the author's 1952 book of the same title, which has long been a classic. Like the original, it is wide-ranging, well-written, clearly illustrated, supported by an...

Regional Surveys of the World: Africa South of the Sahara 1996.
July 1, 1997... This, the twenty-fifth edition of this annual encyclopaedic review, is a mine of useful - and occasionally not so useful - information about Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole and about the individual countries that are taken to comprise it,...

Contemporary Rural Iran.
July 1, 1997... Iranian village life and its change under the impact of agrarian reform has been a recurring subject of interest to academics both indigenous and foreign. New contributions to the literature need to offer additional evidence or a convincing...

In the Place of the Forest: Environmental and Socio-economic Transformation in Borneo and the Eastern Malay Peninsula.
July 1, 1997... This book is associated with the Clark University/United Nations University Project on Critical Environmental Situations and Regions, which attempts to trace the transition, in selected regions, from 'impoverishment', through 'endangerment', to...

The Viking Historical Atlas of the Earth: a Visual Exploration of the Earth's Physical Past.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1997... It is very rare that those working in any area of scientific research find themselves caught up in an episode of such rapid and fundamental change that external observers use terms such as 'scientific revolution' to describe their perception of...

Centres of Plant Diversity: a Guide and Strategy for Their Conservation (Volume 1: Europe, Africa, South West Asia and the Middle East)(Brief Article)
July 1, 1997... Designed to enable international and national organizations and governments to fulfil their obligations entered into under the Convention on Biological Diversity (Rio 1992), this volume - together with two additional regional volumes - identifies...

Coasts and Seas of the United Kingdom: Region 9. Southern England: Hayling Island to Lyme Regis.
July 1, 1997... This book is one of a series of 17 that attempt to provide a comprehensive digest of the salient biophysical characteristics and management frameworks of the coastal zone of the United Kingdom. Its main aim is to create a topically-organized and...

Ethnicity and Development: Geographical Perspectives.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1997... Ethnicity is a highly visible international issue, yet it has been long-neglected in studies of development and modernization. Its visibility is apparent in the reporting of armed conflicts; its invisibility stems from the higher profile of...

Concepts in Human Geography.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1997... Many books designed for adoption as course texts patronize students and disempower teachers, but this collection does neither. Instead, it succeeds in achieving exactly what this reviewer looks for and rarely finds in a text book, a book to work...

Interpreting Environments: Tradition, Deconstruction, Hermeneutics.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1997... The inaccessibility of contemporary theory that environmental researchers and professionals experience is principally due to the interpretative methodologies' diffusion patterns and overwhelmingly linguistic emphasis. Robert Mugerauer's timely...

The Language of Environment: a New Rhetoric.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1997... There has been so much written about 'the environment' and 'environmental issues' in recent years that a book such as this is overdue for publication. This is an impressive compendium of knowledge about 'knowledge'. It takes an original approach,...

Charts and Surveys in Peace and War: the History of the Royal Navy's Hydrographic Service 1919-1970.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1997... This succinct reference book by a former Hydrographer of the Navy illuminates the individual talents of the men and women who have brought the Admiralty's charts, associated publications and contributions to maritime safety to international...

Andree, Stieler, Meyer and Co. Handatlanten des deutschen Sprachraums (1800-1945). Bibliographisches Handbuch.
July 1, 1997... Here is a work of over 400 pages dealing with an important cartographic product - the sort of general world atlas which dominated 19th century commercial map production, especially in Germany - which gets no treatment in Cartographical...

Printed Maps of Lincolnshire, 1576-1900: a Carto-bibliography; With Appendix on Roadbooks, 1675-1900.
July 1, 1997... The historic counties have been a potent symbol in the identity of the English people over the centuries. Despite the steady erosion, since 1974, of their status as units of local government, their hold on the loyalties of their inhabitants has...

Maps and Civilization: Cartography in Culture and Society.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1997... This is the second edition of Professor Thrower's Maps and Man: an examination of cartography in relation to culture and civilization (1972). The new edition has allowed an expansion of the original scope to take account of recent research on...

Regional Satellite Oceanography.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1997... This book moves away from the global perspective of many recent texts, and looks at the issues involved in local scale marine research using satellite and GIS technology. Serge Victorov has spent three decades working in this field in the former...

The Mapping of the Heavens.(Brief Article)
July 1, 1997... By the author's own admission this is not a technical book but it is a beautifully illustrated and lucid one containing 100 colour images, with just one of Jean de Selve, reversed. Beguiled by the artistic attraction of medieval European...