The Geography of Population and the Geography of Services

In discussing a methodology for a geography of services, a new branch of Soviet geographic research, the authors propose geographically meaningful classifications of services, the use of value and labor-input indicators, the problem of a typology of service regions, and other aspects of research in this new discipline. The geography of services is found to be closely related to population geography because of the correlation between the distribution of services and the distribution of population.     

Country Music and the South: A Cultural Geography Perspective

Cultural geographers have failed to examine one of the most significant culture items unique to the American South— country music. Examination of the history, folklore, and sociology literature provides data on the area of origin and diffusion routes of the vocal and instrumental characteristics of early country music. The mixing of musical cultures in the South led to the origin and evolution of seven substyles of country music during the twentieth century: traditional, singing cowboy, western swing, honky tonk, bluegrass, country pop, and country rock. Despite recent cultural homogenization in the United States, country music continues to maintain its regional association with the American South.     

黄绍伦教授与华人研究：一个社会学家的观点

本文是第一篇全面介绍黄绍伦教授在华人研究方面成果的文章。在探究了黄绍伦学术志趣的形成和学术经历之后,文章主要介绍和评价了他在华人企业家族主义、文化传统与东亚现代化、移民潮与香港的稳定与繁荣三个领域的主要理论和观点,最后扼要介绍了他领导开展的其他学术活动。作者认为,作为一个社会学家,黄绍伦所强调的理论取向和广博视野,对于提升华人研究的理论层次,更好地与社会科学的理论脉络和发展趋势相衔接,具有重要的参考价值。     

The Place of Population Geography in the System of Population Sciences

The area of research that is considered the proper domain of population geography is defined. In addition to an areal approach to the analysis of various aspects of population, such as growth, structure, migration and settlement patterns, there is great need for synthetic regional population studies, integrating all aspects of population within a particular territory. Causal relationships must be explained and the study of population must be related to the study of economic location.     

The State of the Art in Modeling Migration in LDCS: A Comment

Early research on migration in LDCs, initially motivated by labor market postulates offered by Harris and Todaro, built upon general equilibrium models of interregional trade. In contrast, recent research on migration (such as Brueckner and Kim in this issue) builds upon a partial equilibrium analysis that is based on an urban land model. There are subtle differences between these models that complicate intermodel comparisons. The current paper, motivated by this complexity, has three purposes: (1) a mathematical explication of the state of the art in migration modeling, (2) a provision of further insights into the Todaro paradox, and (3) a suggestion for future research predicated on melding the urban land and interregional literatures.     

Demographic Cycle Effects on Migration Timing and the Delayed Mobility Phenomenon

This paper examines the effect of a cohort's size and position in the demographic cycle on the timing of migration during the young, labor force years. Previous literature has shown that demographic cycles are highly influential in determining the level of migration: migration propensities of young adults tend to be lower for large cohorts due to competitive labor markets and depressed job opportunities. This study argues that demographic cycles can also influence the timing of migration, and proposes a methodology that separates the examination of migration levels from that of migration timing. Analyses using Current Population Survey data show that members of small cohorts tend to move earlier on in their life cycle than members of large cohorts. Reconstructed age-schedules of migration for large and small cohorts support the existence of “delayed mobility” among baby boomers.     

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.     

Identity and Image of Indian Geography: The People's Perspective

Geography is among the late beginner subjects at higher education level in India. As revealed in scholarly writings, this discipline had been subjected to discrimination for colonial reasons and continues to lurch even today. There have been many academic writings on Indian geography. This paper is an attempt to look at the discipline from the people's side. Against the backdrop of a brief history of Indian geography and current debates therein, various issues are discussed as revealed by ordinary people during a questionnaire-based survey across different sections of society and also focused informal discussions.     

The Geography of Knowledge Spillovers Between High-Technology Firms in Europe: Evidence from a Spatial Interaction Modeling Perspective

The focus in this article is on knowledge spillovers between high-technology firms in Europe, as captured by patent citations. The European coverage is given by patent applications at the European Patent Office that are assigned to high-technology firms located in the EU-25 member states (except Cyprus and Malta), the two accession countries Bulgaria and Romania, and Norway and Switzerland. By following the paper trail left by citations between these high-technology patents we adopt a Poisson spatial interaction modeling perspective to identify and measure spatial separation effects to interregional knowledge spillovers. In doing so we control for technological proximity between the regions, as geographical distance could be just proxying for technological proximity. The study produces prima facie evidence that geography matters. First, geographical distance has a significant impact on knowledge spillovers, and this effect is substantial. Second, national border effects are important and dominate geographical distance effects. Knowledge flows within European countries more easily than across. Not only geography, but also technological proximity matters. Interregional knowledge flows are industry specific and occur most often between regions located close to each other in technological space.     

Prospects of Population Migration in the USSR

The author offers a methodology for estimating inter-regional population flows in the USSR for the next quarter of a century. The method is based on expected regional manpower needs related to a model of the future distribution of production. Corrections are made for expected regional differences in the need for live labor [depending on the level of mechanization], in rates of natural increase and in the degree of mobility of the population of certain regions.     

Basic Trends in the Population Geography of Contemporary Cuba

Population changes in Cuba are analyzed on the basis of differential growth rates in provinces and urban centers. Three types of areas are distinguished: (1) those where population continues to be concentrated as a result of high growth rates exceeding the national average (notably major industrial towns and ports and rapidly developing agricultural areas); (2) areas recording absolute population increases, but at lower rates of growth than the national average; (3) areas in which population is declining.     

The Planning of the Distribution of Production in Population Centers and Some Problems in Population Geography

A government official outlines some of the Soviet problems of settlement to which answers are expected from population geographers. They include: restrictions on excessive growth of large cities; promotion of industrial plant location in small and medium-size cities suffering from underemployment; prediction of ultimate population of large cities; determination of the optimal size and type of rural population centers. Population geographers are called upon to study large cities with a view to determining where further concentration of industry should be prohibited, and to select small cities suitable for plant location.