Applications of Mathematics to Population Geography

Three levels of application of mathematics are considered in order of increasing complexity. The first level involves measurements of processes and phenomena, the second the derivation of empirical relationships, and the third the construction of deductive models reflecting the basic mechanism of processes and phenomena. Examples of the three levels are given: Boyce's city-shape index illustrates the first; and Clark's formula for population density within cities is given as an example of the second. The second level is also illustrated by Medvedkov's procedure for forecasting the interplay of natural and mechanical movement of population, involving the use of matrix algebra. On the third level, Medvedkov constructs models of flows of pedestrians doing their shopping on their way home from work to determine an optimal distribution of retail outlets.     

Managing 'civilian deaths due to war operations': Yorkshire experiences during world war II

Air raid precautions prior to and during the Second World War included guidance on the burial of civilians who had been killed by enemy bombardment. The Ministry of Health Circular 1779 was published before the start of the war, on the understanding that 'scheme-making' authorities would need time to prepare for the interment of mass fatalities. As the Blitz got underway, tensions emerged between the state's pragmatic concerns to restrict the cost and resources afforded to burial, and the wish of many local authorities to secure decent burial for their citizens. Key issues on which there was disagreement included the state-proposed use of shrouds instead of coffins, and mass interment. These practices carried overtones of the much-hated pauper funeral and ran counter to the political imperative to present civilian death as 'heroic'. This local study is placed in the wider context of the history of death and burial, and provides an indicator of the strength of attachment to customary funerary ritual during the middle of the twentieth century.     

Applications of Mathematics to Some Problems in Economic Geography

The author, a staff member of the Institute of Scientific Information of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, discusses some aspects of the use of mathematics in research on settlement geography. He develops a number of methods originated abroad, such as the nearest-neighbor distance and the Zipf rule on city-size distribution, and applies them to the study of patterns of urban settlements and the size and spacing of cities in national and regional systems.     

Italians at war: war and experience in Fascist Italy

This article examines Fascist violence in war from the perspective of the strategies employed by the Italian army. Focusing on the military’s use of violence from the re-conquest of Libya to the civil war in Italy, the article argues that Fascism systematically employed forms of violence that were both typical and original.     

An Introductory Lecture to First-Year Geography Students

The author describes a lecture in which he attempted to introduce new Moscow University students to geography. He stressed that geography had reached a turning point toward a more constructive approach, with greater practical applications, and he said that the new approach also required a new content and new methods, which are still being resisted by conservatives.