REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT,ECONOMIC ACCOUNTABILITY,AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

The author argues in favor of redoubled efforts at improving access to transportation and communications as the most effective means of government intervention promoting a “level playing field” for disparate territorial units under “regional khozraschet.” He maintains that such an approach does not remove incentives for innovation and productivity at individual enterprises, but helps eliminate the disadvantages of peripheral production enterprises relative to those of “central” areas. A scheme is proposed whereby increasing overall (intermodal) transportation accessibility would be the objective, rather than maximizing narrowly based microeconomic efficiency criteria for various transportation ministries. Translated by H. L. Haslett, Leamington Spa, UK from: Territorial'naya organizatsiya obshchestva i problemy mezhnatsional'nykh otnosheniy: Materialy k IX s'yezdu Geograficheskogo Obshchestva SSSR. Leningrad: Geograficheskoye Obshchestvo SSSR, 1990, pp. 9-13.     

GLOBAL WARMING AND THE AGROCLIMATIC RESOURCES OF THE RUSSIAN PLAIN

Possible future USSR agricultural productivity, given a global warming scenario, is assessed on the basis of paleoclimatic reconstructions for optima of the Holocene and Mikulino interglacial, which may be analogs of the man-modified warm climate of the future. The calculations were made using a dynamic model of grain yields for 94 territorial units, for the most part coincident with the boundaries of oblasts. Three different indicators, which suggest that the warming trend of climate will be generally favorable for agriculture in the European USSR, are analyzed. The paper also provides insights into current spatial patterns of agricultural productivity. Translated by Larry Richardson, Glendale, CA 91202 from: Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, seriya geograficheskaya, 1990, No. 6, pp. 29-38.     

SOCIAL INJUSTICE AND INTER-NATIONALITY RELATIONSHIPS IN THE USSR

The deteriorating economic situation Kyrgyzstan provides an argument against the past selective development of republic economic profiles and for the need for a rational pricing system for raw materials and manufactured goods. The authors maintain that once realistic prices of Kyrgyzstan's products are established and republic authorities have the opportunity to make its production structure more rational, the republic could represent a net income donor to an all-Union budget. Thus, the paper provides a good synopsis of the concerns of the “weaker” republics in the currently more competitive situation evolving upon the weakening of central authority. translated by H. L. Haslett, Leamington Spa, UK, from: Territorial'naya organizatsiya obshchestva i problemy mezhnatsional'nykh otnosheniy: Materialy k IX s'yezdu Geograficheskogo Obshchestva SSSR. Leningrad: Geograficheskoye Obshchestvo SSSR, 1990, pp. 17-20.     

ON THE CONTENT AND THE TASKS OF HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY (AS THE HISTORY OF NATURE MANAGEMENT)

A Pleistocene geologist calls for a totally new approach to the study of geography as the basic discipline concerned with the man-nature relationship, or what he terms nature management (Russian, prirodopol'zovaniye). He views the basic study object of an essentially unified geography as natural-technical territorial complexes (biotechnocenoses or geotechnocenoses), requiring investigation in three time dimensions—the past (historical geography), the present (dynamic geography) and the future (predictive geography). In keeping with the proposition that historical geography should be a separate, unified discipline, a distinctive historical-geographic periodization is proposed, differing from the periodizations in use in paleogeography, anthropology, archeology and history.     

PERESTROYKA AND THE ECONOMIC REGION IN STATE MANAGEMENT AND PLANNING

The concept of region-based planning and management bodies, which flourished for a time during Khrushchev's sovnarkhozy reforms, is resurrected, this time under the guise of promoting decentralization and enhancing territorial versus sectoral planning under perestroyka. More precisely, the authors argue for devolution of meaningful planning and management functions to a network of smaller and more numerous economic regions, with “regional economic councils” serving as bodies for planning and coordinating the activities of smaller spatial units within these regions. A scheme describing how such a network might function within the current Soviet bureaucratic structure and economic environment is presented (translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005).     

STALINISM AND GEOGRAPHY

Impacts of Stalinist repression on geographic thought and practice in the USSR are described. These include the persecution and untimely deaths of a number of geographers, the abandonment of certain lines of research, the shift in emphasis from political and economic to physical geography, and the simplification, elimination, or falsification of theoretical paradigms. Translated by Elliott B. Urdang, Providence, RI 02906 from: Territorial'naya organizatsiya obshchestva i problemy mezhnatsional'nykh otnosheniy: Materialy k IX s'yezdu Geograficheskogo Obshchestva SSSR. Leningrad: Geograficheskoye Obshchestvo SSSR, 1990, pp. 60-61.     

AN APPRAISAL OF THE SOVIET CONCEPT OF THE TERRITORIAL PRODUCTION COMPLEX

The paper, contributing to one of the research goals of the Commission on Industrial Systems, International Geographical Union, provides an appraisal of the Soviet approach to spatial organization of the economy known as the territorial production complex. The authors review the genesis of the concept, definitional criteria, and its practical formation and operation, making occasional comparison with Western approaches to spatial economic organization. An unresolved problem for Soviet planners is the provision of a coordinating administrative authority for each territorial complex that would integrate the activities of individual industrial ministries involved in the creation of the complex; the current thinking of Soviet planners is illuminated by a recent statement appended to the paper. (For a previous Western view of Soviet regional development models, see G. A. Huzinec in Soviet Geography, October 1976.)     

ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS IN THE YEREVAN REGION

The articles describes the extent of environmental pollution in Greater Yerevan (pollution of air, water, and soil, noise pollution). Conflicts of nature management are revealed, the state of the environment is analyzed, and measures for resolving environmental protection are outlined. Among the interesting revelations are the fact that pollution from chloroprene rubber production in the city remains a major problem, in spite of the fact that production has switched from a calcium carbide-based to a butadiene-based technology and that nearly half of the basin's rayons (5 of 11) are reported to lack wastewater treatment facilities. Translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005 from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, seriya geograficheskaya, 1990, No. 1, pp. 55-65.     

PROSPECTS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRODUCTION AND SE'ITLEMENT IN THE NORTHERN YENISEY REGION

A long-range regional planning forecast of economic development and settlement in the North Yenisey region of Siberia, up to the year 2000, envisages the formation of several territorial production complexes based on the development of mineral resources (the nickelcopper-platinum reserves of the Noril'sk district, aluminum raw materials, iron ore, oil and gas and graphite) and hydroelectric development (hydro stations at Osinovo, Stony Tunguska, Maygunna, Kureyka and Khantayka, and ultimately Igarka and Lower Tunguska). The basic urban centers, in addition to Noril'sk, would be Osinovo, Novoturukhansk and Igarka. Urban population is expected to increase from 220,000 in 1970 to 480,000, and rural population from 40,000 in 1970 to 300,000.     

CAUSES OF ARAL SEA LEVEL VARIATIONS IN THE PAST

The history of variations of the level of the Aral Sea from the most ancient times is reviewed and much useful information presented on natural regimes of the Aral's tributary rivers, the Amudar'ya and Syrdar'ya; the natural high- and low-water cycles of the Aral; and historical episodes where natural or human events diverted the Amudar'ya's flow westward into Lake Sarykamysh, which served as a kind of “alternative Aral” during these situations. Thus, the present decline of the Aral and growth of Sarykamysh can be viewed as just one cycle (albeit man-modified) of an Amudar'ya-Aral-Sarykamysh drainage system. Translated by Edward Torrey, Alexandria, VA 22308 from: Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, seriya geograficheskaya, 1990, No. 1, pp. 78-86.     

Mapping Illegality: The i‐Map and the Cartopolitics of “Migration Management” at a Distance

Cartographies for “migration management” are part and parcel of controversial border practices far from conventional borderlines. Focusing on the i‐Map, this study renders how the European Union's current practices of remote border control are visualised among migration policy circles and expert security actors through a “mapping migration matrix”. The lines portraying migration flows in recurrent maps generate a shared expert language and a common geographical imaginary reinforcing practices of contention and classification of those assumed to move toward the European Union irregularly. It is argued that illegality is constructed in ways that target border crossing long before any border is crossed, making someone illegal at the very moment and place where s/he might decide to migrate. This paper analyses the cartopolitics and limits of cartographic expertise in the production of a “routes thinking” able to legitimise extra‐territorial interceptions and practices of remote border control.     

Modeling life expectancy and surplus production of dynamic pre-contact territories in leeward Kohala, Hawai‘i

Hawaiian territoriality evolved in response to the ecodynamics of changing populations set within shifting socio-political structures. Modeling agricultural surplus production and life expectancy of various prehistoric and protohistoric territorial configurations in the leeward Kohala dryland field system identifies the costs and benefits associated with dynamic territorial units. The results of the modeling indicate that if people lived autonomous lives within their territories the 18-km long landscape containing the field system would have been optimally divided into 14 territories. The archaeological and ethnohistorical data suggest that at European contact the area was divided into 32 generally smaller territorial units. This configuration, while lowering average life expectancy and increasing levels of spatial variability in surplus production, maximized average yearly surplus and reduced its temporal variability. Dividing the field system into 32 units provided opportunities for elite managers to monitor production and control the redistribution of resources. The modeling and archaeological data suggest selection occurred differentially among social units, with certain segments of society having enhanced fitness in terms of agricultural resources at the expense of others, while maximizing the potential for surplus generation and possible redistribution.     

21世纪国土规划的理论探讨

该文结合国土规划性质及地位的探讨,针对国土规划的特点,笔者认为,进行跨学科的综合研究是解决国土规划重大问题的现实途径,其中,国土资源安全理论和城乡融合理论以及动态规划理论等是进行国土规划的理论支柱。在此基础上,指出国土规划的目标应是一个多层次、多目标的目标组合,应采取理论指导、专家论证与实践相结合的技术路线,最后提出了未来国土规划的研究趋向。     

国家级新区的空间生产与治理尺度建构

国家级新区是近年来备受瞩目的新国家空间类型。首先,论文从新国家空间的理论视角出发,认为国家级新区是我国新时期国家空间选择偏好从城市内部空间转变为城市群体空间的产物,是国家为参与全球城市竞争和承接全球产业转移而在城市-区域尺度上构建的新地域组织。其次,论文研究了国家级新区的空间生产,发现其在微观尺度上具有多尺度行政区跨界联合的特征,并且表现出自上而下和自下而上相结合的机制。然后,基于空间生产与尺度重组的密切联系,论文同时研究了国家级新区治理建构的情况。通过分析不同类型的国家级新区空间治理结构,发现影响国家级新区尺度重组进程的关键因素,是新尺度与原有行政区划的耦合程度。最后,在上述研究的基础上,论文对国家级新区未来治理改革提出了政策建议。     

ECONOMIC REGIONS,ADMINISTRATIVE REGIONS AND TERRITORIAL PRODUCTION COMPLEXES

Three types of integral economic regions are distinguished in the USSR: (1) economic regions at various levels, performing strictly economic functions; (2) administrative-economic (or simply administrative regions), which perform both economic functions and the functions of government administration; (3) territorial production complexes, which combine interlinked economic activities within a particular area from the economic-geographic point of view. Because of the differences in functions, there can be no complete identity between economic and administrative regions although their boundaries often coincide. Production complexes are not a substitute for economic regions because the complexes encompass only interlinked activities while economic regions encompass all economic activities. However, production complexes are elements that give rise to both economic and administrative regions. Economic planning in the USSR proceeds along three lines: (a) within the system of economic regions; (b) within the system of administrative regions; (c) within the system of sectoral or branch administrations, which are now being replaced by corporation-type industrial associations.     

THE SIMBIRSK,PENZA, AND SYZRAN' ABATIS

On the basis of field work (excavation and observation), as well as archival documents and travel accounts, the author reconstructs the orientation and fortifications of three abatis designed to thwart incursions by Kuban' and Nogay Tatars via north-south trails across Muscovy's expanding southern frontier through the uplands between the Don and Volga Rivers. (The translation was prepared by James R. Gibson of York University, Toronto). From: Ya. Ye. Vodarskiy, ed., Problemy isotricheskoy geografii Rossii (Moscow: Institut Istorii Akademii nauk SSSR, 1982), No. 1, pp. 146-164.     

TERRITORIAL STRUCTURES OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMY AND THEIR PARAMETRIZATION

The systems approach is applied to the study of economic-geographic objects with a view to elaborating a parametrization of the territorial structures of the national economy. Four basic parameters are distinguished: territorial concentration, territorial differentiation, territorial integration and territorial composition. Each parameter, in turn, is broken down into subparameters and into aspects. The parameter of territorial differentiation and its aspects (fineness of subdivision, contrastivity, zonality, etc.) are discussed in detail, and some measures are suggested.     

中国城乡协调发展研究综述

通过长期关注改革开放以来中国城乡协调发展的历史与现状,本文从城乡协调发展研究起源出发,对中国城乡协调发展的内涵、目标、动力机制、模式、制约因素、措施对策进行综述,探究这些研究的贡献和研究中存在的问题,并对今后的研究趋势进行展望,试图通过这项工作为城乡协调发展研究及城乡协调发展规划打下良好的基础。     

The Construction of Economic Models of Regional and Local Territorial-Production Complexes

A discussion of the use of economic models for the planning of new industrial enterprises or changing the specialization of existing enterprises within industrial complexes. Despite some differences in N. N. Kolosovskiy's definition of a territorial production complex and Walter Isard's definition of an industrial complex, Isard's method of building economic models is found applicable to Soviet conditions.     

ON THE POPULATION DENSITY DISTRIBUTION ACROSS SPACE: A PROBABILISTIC APPROACH

Working within a Bayesian parametric framework, we develop a novel approach to studying the distribution of regional population density across space. By exploiting the Gamma distribution, we are able to introduce heterogeneity across space without incurring an a priori definition of territorial units. Our contribution also permits the inclusion of an approximation of individual preferences as a further driving force in location choices. We perform an empirical application to the case of Massachusetts. Our results demonstrate that a subjective measure of distance performs well in replicating the population distribution across Massachusetts.