Measuring Spatial Autocorrelation of Vectors

This article introduces measures to quantify spatial autocorrelation for vectors. In contrast to scalar variables, spatial autocorrelation for vectors involves an assessment of both direction and magnitude in space. Extending conventional approaches, measures of global and local spatial associations for vectors are proposed, and the associated statistical properties and significance testing are discussed. The new measures are applied to study the spatial association of taxi movements in the city of Shanghai. Complications due to the edge effect are also examined.     

Behind the Façade of the Rites Controversy: The Intriguing Contrast of Chinese and European Theism

The Chinese rites controversy of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries has been often studied, but hitherto mostly as a quasi-linguistic-and-technical dispute between the followers of Matteo Ricci, the legendary founder of the Jesuit China mission, and his many different enemies in the Catholic Church. In reality the involved debate was much more complex than that at every turn. To show this and more, this article takes a close look again at how and why Chinese terms and customs came to figure in Ricci's proselytising work in China, how they were challenged both inside and outside the Jesuit China mission, how the Chinese reacted and why, and what the debate revealed about the intriguing contrast of Chinese and European theism.     

方志所见宋代记文补遗

方志为一地史事之渊薮,其中所载宋代学记为研究宋代官学、书院等教育组织的重要文献,不过因其分散保存在不同方志中,使用起来十分不便。曾枣庄、刘琳主编的《全宋文》收录了宋代绝大部分的记文,对宋代研究颇有助益,然此浩大工程难免挂一漏万。如《长洲县学记》为迄今所见宋人俞掞唯一存世文章,徐鹿卿《罗必元故宅记》等记文对宋代书院、祠堂、家族研究具有较高的参考价值,《全宋文》皆失收,今据相关方志对此9篇文章进行补遗,以期为宋代相关文献研究提供新的史料。     

Capturing gains by relocating global production networks: the rise of Chongqing’s notebook computer industry, 2008–2014

In 2008 a new notebook manufacturing cluster was established in Chongqing in western China. By 2013 it accounted for some 25% of world output by volume. Chongqing’s ability to attract this manufacturing supply chain was driven by several factors that permitted strategic coupling: the existence of complex networks of cooperation and economies external to the firm but internal to contemporary global production networks; changed conditions in southeast and east China; and the creation by Chongqing Municipal People’s Government with central state support of hard and soft infrastructures and externalities that drove down logistic and production costs and permitted constant product innovation.     

The journey as a transcultural experience for international students

An international two-year Erasmus Mundus MA, Transcultural European Outdoor Studies (TEOS), uses the journey as a central metaphorical concept, the “peregrinatio academica”, and experiential pedagogy. Students study human nature interactions through the lens of outdoor education and recreation while travelling for a semester at a time in three European countries: England, Norway and Germany. We argue that the transcultural concept is facilitated by the diverse nationalities of the student cohort and the concept and experience of the journey. Empirical evidence from student feedback, course discussions, and staff reflections is used to explore the ways in which the programme elucidates ideas of expert and Eurocentric knowledge of landscape and learning by valuing individual knowledge constructions and new research. Simultaneously, we argue that the typical European “gaze” on the “other” somehow is reversed as “others” gaze at European cultures, and, to some degree, contribute to destabilizing culturally taken-for-granted knowledge. This offers new opportunities for a more nuanced transcultural exploration of human nature interactions in diverse landscapes and cultures. We conclude that the knowledge and skills developed by this programme supports the development of “transculturalized” students with the enhanced capacity to shift between and discuss diverse positions and ways of viewing and knowing.     

徐兆奎先生的生平及其历史地理学贡献

徐兆奎是一位在历史地理学、地名学、地理学史及地理教育上做出重要贡献的历史地理学家。本文梳理了徐兆奎的生平,分析了其在上述领域的主要贡献,希冀引起学界的重视,以此缅怀这位前辈知名学者。     

Insecure bodies/selves: introduction to theme section

This short piece introduces a three-paper theme section on the theme of ‘Insecure bodies/selves’, growing out of a conference session held in 2012. Using the brief example of a brain-injured soldier's ‘shattered world’, creating a thoroughly ‘unsecured’ self/body, attention is given to how contemporary human geography has gradually opened itself to engaging with the multiple spaces of insecure bodies/selves. The three papers are then formally outlined and situated within these new currents of geographical and trans-disciplinary scholarship.