Soviet Geographers at the 19th International Geographical Congress

Reviewing the contribution of Soviet geographers at the Stockholm congress, the author makes a plea for more papers on economic geography and on integrated problems in geography. He denies that a trend toward greater emphasis on specialized disciplines is characteristic of Soviet geography. He criticizes some Soviet geographers for preparing what Saushkin considers misleading summaries of papers presented by foreign geographers.     

The Development of International Contacts in the Field of Geography and Preparations for the 20th International Geographical Congress

The authors review international contacts of Soviet geographers in the last four years and describe a volume of Soviet contributions prepared for the London congress. Soviet Geography, its editor, and David Hooson of the University of British Columbia are criticized for their coverage of the Soviet ideological dispute over the “unified geography” concept. A Soviet proposal for greater timeliness and activity in the work of the IGU is offered.     

Problems in the Theory of Geography in the Section on Geographic Theory and Model Building at the 22d International Geographical Congress

The chairman of Leningrad University's Geography Faculty presents a critical review of the section on geographic theory and model building at the International Geographical Congress in Montreal, in which he participated. He finds the section to have been poorly integrated, with no common focus between the papers on theory and on models. [Some of the author's comments on individual papers appear based on misreading or misinterpretation of the English texts, and the most salient differences have been noted in brackets.—Editor, S. G.]     

The International Geographical Congress (Stockholm)

Following are excerpts from a report read by Professor Salishchev on October 14, 1960, at a meeting of the Council of the Geography Faculty of Moscow University. The omitted part of Professor Salishchev's report is substantially the same as the report of the National Committee of Soviet Geographers, printed in Soviet Geography, April 1961, pp. 40–46. Professor Salishchev's report on the work of the Commission of National Atlases, of which he is chairman, is translated in full.     

International Economic History Congress

Abstract

Elda Pavan Cecchele was an Italian hand-weaver who began by producing household linen at the end of the 1930s. She produced hand-woven fabrics for firms such as Salvatore Ferragamo in the early 1950s and Roberta di Camerino from the 1950s to the 1960s; these designers were active on both the Italian and international fashion scene. These fabrics were used in clothing, accessories and furnishings. This article examines Cecchele’s significant contribution to the creation of important fashion items and collections. Like many other artisans, her contribution proved decisive but she worked in the background and had no public recognition. Surviving records from Cecchele’s workshop, including samples, design notebooks, designs and documents, are now in a private archive. Access to this material, together with numerous interviews with her former customers and collaborators, have enabled her abilities to be rediscovered and the re-evaluation of her artistic contribution to Italian fashion.     

The Results of the 21st International Geographical Congress

A review of the New Delhi meetings notes the significance of the congress for the development of the science of geography in India as well as the growing participation of geographers from developing countries. Abstracts of papers are analyzed statistically by subject and by country of origin. The geography of agriculture and urban geography are found to be more heavily represented than at most congresses (except the 18th in Rio de Janeiro), reflecting the significance of these two research areas for developing countries. Papers from socialist countries are found to be underrepresented in biogeography (especially medical geography) and the geography of agriculture, industry, and transportation. The hope is expressed that the Montreal congress in 1972 will break away from the traditional thematic breakdown and organize sections around interdisciplinary problem areas.     

The Place of Regional Economic Geography in the System of Geographical Sciences

The author holds that regional geography cannot be regarded as an independent geographic discipline because it lacks its own system of laws, such as the natural laws that operate in physical geography and the social laws that operate in economic geography. He agrees with the view that both physical and economic geography fall into theoretical and regional departments, and that regional studies test the localized application of the general laws formulated by the theoretical departments of the two great divisions of geography.     

Forecasting in Economic Geography

Economic-geographic forecasting is intended to predict the dynamics of the interplay between nature and society and to serve as the basis for economic development plans. Because of the large number of variables involved, probability analysis may be expected to play an important role in economic-geographic forecasts. One approach suggested is the analysis of chain reactions involved in various energy-and-production cycles, the name given to integrated economic-geographic systems based on the use of a given set of energy and raw-material sources.     

Recent Doctoral Dissertations in Human and Economic Geography at Nordic Universities

Ivarsson, I. (1996), Integrated International Production. A Study of Foreign Transnational Corporations in Sweden     

Recent Doctoral Dissertations in Human and Economic Geography at Nordic Universities

Hermelin, Brita (1997), Professional Business Servic., Conceptual Framework and a Swedish Case Study
Molina, Irene (1997), Stadens rasifiering. Etnisk boendesegregation i folkhemmet (Racialization of the City. Ethnic Residential Segregation in the Swedish Folkhem)     

Resolution of the Fifth Congress of the Geographical Society USSR

A 1978 collection of articles devoted to geocybernetics, a subfield of geography concerned with spatial aspects of management, focuses on the problem of administration of the Soviet economy through a system of socio-economic regions at three levels–macro, meso and micro levels. The reviewer examines critically some of the basic ideas of regionalization underlying the proposed new discipline. He questions, in particular, what he considers an exaggerated research emphasis on problems of middle–level and lower–level regionalization without adequate attention to the issue of the Soviet Union's macroregions.     

Methodological Problems in Economic Geography

The author uses the techniques of paleogeography and archeology to trace climatic fluctuations in inner Asia and the rise of nomadism in the 1st millennium B. C. replacing a settled mode of stock herding and agriculture. Previous papers in this series appeared in Soviet Geography, June 1964 and February 1966.     

The Local Shape of Revolution: Reflections on Quantitative Geography at Cambridge in the 1950s and 1960s

The "quantitative revolution" in human geography which swept across so many universities in the 1950s and 1960s had its main diffusion centers in a few locations which were to have global significance. Two critical early centers were the University of Washington in the Pacific Northwest and Lund University in southern Sweden. But the experience of change was different in different locations as the general forces of perturbation sweeping around academia were translated into local eddies with local repercussions. Here, small and somewhat random quirks at the outset, led eventually to fundamental divergences between adoption and rejection. The theme is illustrated by reference to changes which occurred at Cambridge, one of England's two oldest universities, as seen from the perspective of someone who—as undergraduate, graduate student, and later, faculty member—was caught up in these changes and took some small part in propagating them. Special attention is given to the role of two environmental scientists, Vaughan Lewis and Richard Chorley, in introducing changes and the way in which later developments in human geography drew on preceding experiences in physical geography. The reasons behind the "Cambridge variant" and the questions of how intellectual DNA is passed across the generations are discussed.