THE MAPPING OF TRAVEL TIME IN EDMONTON, ALBERTA

T ime - distance is defined as the time required to travel a specific distance. Consider the time-distances among n places. They are tabulated in an n by n matrix and it is assumed that each element of the square array represents the minimum travel time to go from one place to another. Usually the matrix will be non-symmetrical with all diagonal elements equal to zero. Imagine a graphic representation of those places in a two-dimensional space. Theoretically it is possible to determine two configurations, one arising from trip i to j , the other from trip j to i , such that the locations of all n points approximate the n ( n -1)/2 time-distance relations.¹ In practice, however, the geographer will not be satisfied with a solution that does not preserve geographic neighbourliness. He will argue that geographical order is a necessary ingredient to the understanding of place relations. In most cases, a total solution that reconciles the geography with the metric is unattainable and only segments of the time-distance matrix are mapped. On polar isochronic maps, for instance, places are located according to their geographic azimuth and their time-distance with respect to one single origin. Therefore only one row or one column of the original matrix is plotted. The number of maps required for representing the entire data would be twice as large as the number of observations.     

Canadian feminist geography in the 21st century

Abstract

In this country report, I offer a resident-outsider’s perspective on the recent history and current landscape of Canadian feminist geography. I highlight the institutional framework that showcases Canadian feminist geography: the Suzanne Mackenzie Memorial Lectures, the biennial events put on at the Canadian Association of Geographers meeting with the support of the Canadian Women and Geography Study Group/Groupe d'étude sur les femmes et la géographie (CWAG). I discuss recent community-building efforts, including the Great Lakes Feminist Geography Collective, and scholarly workshops, and point to the creative outputs that have emerged from these collective workspaces. I point to a variety of Canadian feminist geographers who have laid the groundwork for the diverse field that exists today, as well as some who are re-making the field through the use of other ontological and methodological frameworks. I conclude with a commentary on the importance of community- and alliance-building, especially in the face of challenges like structural injustice, generational transition, and even physical distance.     

Regional urbanization and the selective growth of towns in North American regions

Despite the extensive discussion of urbanization in the North American past, the processes of selective growth among the various towns and cities, which comprise a regional urban system, remain obscured by the use of oversimplified explanations that neglect either functional and locational variations among the centres or the changing conditions of regional development. A generalized model of selective urban growth in newly settling regions is proposed which distinguishes three periods of development by characteristics of circulation and export activity. It emphasizes the changing implications of town locations (their nodality) as settlement expands and the bases of urban growth shift from commercial and local services to increasingly manufacturing. Discussion of the literature on regional urbanization, organized under five categories of traditional and more recent explanations of selective growth, not only points to the temporal and locational deficiencies which the model addresses, but also reveals the need for closer examination within a developmental framework of both the interdependencies of central place and mercantile bases of urban growth and the relationships between the emergence of manufacturing and city sizes.