Alan Wilson – contributions to research on population and migration

ABSTRACT

This article reviews Alan Wilson's research on population and migration in the 1970s and the 2010s, which supplements his principal contribution - mathematical modelling of urban and regional systems. In the 1970s, drawing on input-output models of economies and working with Philip Rees, Wilson established the accounting basis for Andrei Rogers' multi-regional projection model, adding international migration. Innovative methods were developed to complete demographic accounts, where there were data gaps. In the 2010s, working with Adam Dennett, Wilson systematized methods for estimating migration flows between regions in Europe, employing his family of spatial interaction models. The key aim of both research strands was to ensure that no information was ignored to ensure consistency in population and migration models. The influence of Wilson's contributions to research on population and migration is traced through a survey of subsequent research.     

The royal society: National committee for geography

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Causes of Climate by J. G. Lockwood. 24 × 16, 10 + 260 pp. 22 photos, 102 diagrams, 34 tables, index (to text only), glossary. Edward Arnold, 1979. £5.95.

Humanistic Geography: Prospects and Problems. Edited by David Ley and Marwyn Samuels, i‐viii. 23 × 16, 337 pp. Croom Helm, London, 1978. £11.95.

South America. By Arthur Morris. 25 × 19, 271 pp., 59 maps and diagrams, 43 plates, appendices, bibliography, index. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1979. Paper, £5.45.

The Fur Trade of the American West, 1807–1840. By D. J. Wishart. 22.5 x 14.5, 237 pp. Illustrations, references, bibliography, index. Croom Helm, London, 1979. £12.95.

Outlook Geography: Worldscapes. A. Ayres et al. 25 × 19, 136 pp. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1978. £2.45.

The Changing Geography of Britain. By W. E. Marsden. 25 × 19, 196 pp. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1978. £2.50.     

The landed properties of northern Scotland

Progress in Agricultural Geography. Edited By Michael Pacione. 22 × 14, 267pp. Croom Helm, Beckenham, 1986. £27.95.

URBAN

Regional Cities in the U.K. 1890–1980. By G. Gordon (ed.). 23 × 15, 252 pp., Harper &; Row, London, 1986. £7.95.

Shopping Centre Development: Policies and Prospects, By John A. Dawson and J. Dennis Lord (editors), 269pp, Croom Helm, London, 1985. £19.95.

BIOGEOGRAPHY

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EDUCATIONAL

Inequality and Development. By Andrew Reed. 18.5 × 24.5, 96 pp., Man and Environment Series, Bell &; Hyman, London, 1985. £3.95.

Recreation and Tourism. By G. J. Ashworth. 18.5 × 24.5, 96 pp., Bell &; Hyman, London, 1984. £3.95.     

Step lightly,then move forward: exploring feminist directions for northern research

I discuss the methodological challenges that research with Aboriginal women poses in historical geography, especially in Northern Canada. Drawing a parallel between historical geography and contemporary Northern studies, I explore how the predominance of climate change as a framework for funding Arctic research creates an environment where women's specific ways of knowing and connecting with the land are not adequately captured. A gender approach that is sensitive to the issues women face in their communities reveals that their experience of climate change, as well as the concerns they have about it, are inseparable from the other economic and social issues they face. I argue for the development of a feminist research agenda in the North that allows Aboriginal partners to locate themselves in the frameworks that are constructed for producing knowledge. At times letting the project ‘fail’ may be the surest way to enable the emergence of a locally‐driven agenda that addresses the present and future needs of Northern Aboriginal Peoples.     

The prehistory of northern Chile: A synthesis

Northern Chile, part of the south central Andes, consists of two main ecological subareas: extreme northern Chile, including the western valleys, and the Atacama Desert and oases. Different ecological conditions obtain in each subarea: puna, altiplano, and precordillera in the highlands; valleys, the desert, and oases in the intermediate zone; and coastal environments along the Pacific shores. In prehistoric times, all these environments were very interconnected. There are three different cultural traditions in the local prehistory: the early hunting and gathering tradition (10,000–4000 B.P.), the Chinchorro Tradition (7500–2500 B.P.), and the Altiplano or Andean Tradition (3000–0 B.P.). This proposed sequence is described, with emphasis on the early Chinchorro adaptations, including the important patterns of mummification, and its possible relation to tropical forest groups of the Amazon basin; and the Pre-Tiwanaku and later Tiwanaku and Inca developments, in relation to the circum-Titicaca region. The data presented in the paper are further developed to explore ideas and hypotheses for future research.     

Virtual zooarchaeology: building a web-based reference collection of northern vertebrates for archaeofaunal research and education

Osteological reference collections are a crucial tool in archaeofaunal analysis, but few are comprehensive; most lack a broad range of taxa or multiple individuals per taxon. This problem is especially prominent in arctic zooarchaeology, where difficulty in obtaining, transporting, and processing northern taxa has led to a dearth of appropriate reference collections. The Virtual Zooarchaeology of the Arctic Project, or VZAP, seeks to develop a comprehensive virtual comparative assemblage for the skeletons of northern vertebrates. VZAP (http://vzap.iri.isu.edu) is designed to assist with identifications in the lab or field and provides significant educational value, for both classroom demonstration and personal consultation. The VZAP website presents high-resolution digital photographs and 3D models of skeletal elements via an intuitive graphical user interface, designed to mimic the visual experience of working with a real comparative collection. This custom-built interface, the Dynamic Image Engine, represents a new way to present heritage media in an interactive and engaging format. VZAP also implements unique 3D scanning protocols to increase the realism of 3D models, and delivers them on a platform that allows for point to point measurements, cross-sections, morphological labels, and anatomical orientations.     

The Stone Age of northern Scandinavia: A review

Throughout most of the Stone Age, which covers the time period between ca. 10,000 and ca. 3500 B.P., the majority of groups in northern Scandinavia was hunter-fishers with a strong orientation toward the coastal environments. Three areas, southwestern and northern Norway and northern Sweden, have been singled out for more detailed discussions of the social and cultural developments in different types of marine environments. Differences can be discerned between the societies in the southern and those in the northern regions, as the northern groups seem to have developed more complex social and cultural systems than in the south. These differences have been related partly to a greater emphasis on maritime sea hunting in the north. Agriculture was introduced twice. The first time, in the early Neolithic, agriculture was tried but apparently did not manage to compete with better-adapted local hunting-fishing practices. The second time, in the late middle Neolithic, agriculture resulted in drastic social, economic, and cultural changes.     

The challenge facing population geography

The current status of the study of population geography is examined, with some reference to the situation in the United Kingdom. The authors note that whereas the volume of studies in this area indicate its healthy growth, the subdiscipline has become increasingly distant from mainstream geography and runs the risk of being absorbed into general demography. The authors suggest that "population geographers, while taking a serious interest in the methods and philosophy of the neighbouring discipline of demography, should look elsewhere to find direction for their subdiscipline."