Auf den Spuren einer Wachstumsbranche

Zusammenfassung Immer mehr Geographinnen und Geographen sind in der Consultingbranche t?tig. Dipl.-Geogr. Dr. Manfred Miosga ist auf diesem Markt seit einigen Jahren selbstst?ndig. Zusammen mit seinem Kollegen und Firmengründer Wolfgang Grubwinkler ist er Vorstand der „IDENTIT?T und IMAGE Coaching AG“ mit Sitz im niederbayrischen Eggenfelden. Die Firma hat seit 2001 die Betriebsform einer kleinen Aktiengesellschaft; im Aufsichtsrat führt Prof. Dr. Günter Heinritz von der Technischen Universit?t München den Vorsitz. Das Unternehmen besch?ftigt sieben Mitarbeiter, au?erdem bietet es gelegentlich Praktikumspl?tze. Dr. Manfred Miosga sprach mit Dipl.-Geogr. Ute Christina Bauer über seine eigenen beruflichen Erfahrungen und die Chancen von Geographinnen und Geographen in der Beraterbranche.     

„Geo“ erlebbar machen

Zusammenfassung  Geoparks sind ausgewiesene R?ume, in denen die Bedeutung geologischer und geomorphologischer Prozesse für die Gestalt der Erdoberfl?che, für die Verteilung natürlicher Ressourcen, aber auch für die Landnutzung sowie die Wirtschafts- und Kulturgeschichte bewusst und erlebbar gemacht wird. Für Deutschland hat es die GeoUnion übernommen, sogenannte Nationale GeoParks zu begutachten und zu zertifizieren. Mit der Geologin Dr. Ulrike Mattig, Vorsitzende der Expertengruppe für Nationale GeoParks Deutschland, sprach Dipl.-Geogr. Ute Christina Bauer über das Geopark-Konzept und seine Umsetzung.     

The effect of vacant building demolitions on crime under depopulation

The costs of demolishing a vacant building are often justified on the grounds of crime reduction. I explore this claim by estimating the spatial and temporal effects of demolitions on reported crime in the city of Saginaw, Michigan. To do so, I estimate a model that uses within‐block group variation to compare crime after a demolition occurs to before the permit for that demolition was issued. Results indicate that demolitions reduce crime by about 8 percent on the block group in question and 5 percent on nearby block groups, with the largest impact concentrated one to two months after the demolition occurs.     

HLO1‐south: An Early Neolithic site in Wadi al‐Hilo (Sharjah,UAE)

Site HLO1 (Sharjah, UAE), situated in a particularly favourable geographical position, has provided an extraordinary range of anthropogenic radiocarbon dates, spanning before 8000 to Zero BCE. The Neolithic is represented by finds from the eighth to the fifth millennium BCE. Apart from the dated fireplaces, however, there are almost no typical artefacts of this period. Small stone structures appear to have been early Neolithic graves. A middle Neolithic grave consisted of a large rounded stone heap which was reused as a grave during the Late Bronze Age. The site is interpreted as a campsite of nomadic herders, used throughout the Neolithic period. After a break in the fourth millennium BCE, the site became a Bronze Age smelting site which continued to be settled until the Late Iron Age.     

Site formation processes in caves: The Holocene sediments of the Haua Fteah,Cyrenaica, Libya

Caves have yielded some of the most globally important archaeological sequences, but often their interpretation has suffered from assumptions about cave sedimentary processes. Caves contain distinctive sedimentary environments: this has major implications for the understanding of contained archaeological materials. This paper describes and analyses the Holocene sediments in the Haua Fteah, a sequence regarded as essentially continuous by the original excavator. 50 years after it was first excavated, the Haua's Epipalaeolithic to post-Classical chronological range and rich finds make it still the key Holocene archaeological site in North Africa. The reassessment shows, however, that the sequence is strongly discontinuous and this has major implications for the reinterpretation of the site, as the highly-resolved archaeological record is thus likely to reflect a series of brief occupations, rather than continuous human activity. As with many caves, the sedimentary record in the Haua Fteah is an extremely sensitive indicator of environments and processes in the wider landscape. Secure understanding of sedimentary process, from analysis of the highly individual records found in caves, is essential for full understanding of their contained archaeology.     

Experimental examination of animal trampling effects on artifact movement in dry and water saturated substrates: a test case from South India

This paper presents the motivation, procedures, and results of an experiment that examines short episodes of animal trampling in dry and water saturated substrates in South India. While horizontal artifact displacement was similar to that modeled by other trampling experiments, vertical artifact displacement in water saturated substrates was greater than any reported experiment to date. The toolstone used in this experiment, a silicious limestone, exhibited minimal damage after trampling. Artifact inclination patterning appeared to be a potentially diagnostic middle-range marker of trampling in water saturated substrates. Given the abundant number of Paleolithic sites that are located on flat, open surfaces near water-bodies, or experience monsoonal climatic regimes, we propose that future excavations should measure artifact inclination on a regular basis.     

Persistence and Change of Regional Industrial Activities: The Impact of Diversification in the German Machine Tool Industry

The paper investigates the stability and change of regional economic activities in the long run. As the unit of analysis, we selected the machine tool industry in West Germany for the years 1953–2002. We spot a strong variance in the activities between different regions. These differences are relatively stable over time, and the regional activities are rather path-dependent. Nevertheless, the paper also identifies changes in the level of activities. As the main driving factors for these developments, we examine the effect of changing regional degrees of diversification over time. We find that those regions which generally broaden their scope of activities have a higher likelihood to grow than regions which are specializing. Furthermore, diversification into totally new technological and product fields is only beneficial under specific circumstances based on technological and market developments. Hence, in most cases, a broad diversification is superior to one focusing on new state-of-the-art technological fields.