An interpretation of geertz

Clifford Geertz. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books, 1973. ix + 470 pp. Acknowledgements and index. $15.00.     

Diversity and employment growth in Canada, 1971–2001: can diversification policies succeed?

In this paper, we explore the link between diversity in the local economy, the process of diversification and employment growth. To do so, we first examine diversification trends between 1971 and 2001 across 382 Canadian areas (urban and rural). We then examine whether or not the more diversified areas display faster employment growth. Over some periods and for some types of area they do, but over other periods they do not. Furthermore, there is no clear link between the process of diversification and growth. Also, proximity to a large diversified economic unit (metropolitan areas) tends to be associated with growth; thus, it is not only the local characteristics of regions that determine their growth levels. Our evidence suggests that economies associated with diversity can occur concurrently with economies associated with specialisation. In the light of these complex relationships, we conclude that diversification policies are difficult to justify on the grounds of employment growth and would in any case be difficult to implement successfully due to the overall inertia observed in diversity levels.     

From 'black‐balling' to 'marking': the suburban origin of redlining in Canada, 1930s–1950s

Redlining occurs where institutional mortgage lending is the norm and where lenders decline to loan in specific areas. The term originated during the 1930s in the United States, where it was promoted by federal agencies and acquired racial connotations. Recently, redlining has been uncommon in Canada, but contemporary reports, archival records and parliamentary debates show it was widespread from the 1930s to the 1950s. Contemporaries distinguished the 'black‐balling' of remote areas, where it was impossible to make loans, from the 'marking' of districts in urban areas where companies could lend but chose not to do so. Only the latter can be regarded as redlining. As defined by Canadian housing agencies, most 'marked' areas were in unregulated, owner‐built suburbs that lacked services. The suburban origin of redlining in Canada had little to do with the distribution of ethnic minorities. As long as it lasted, roughly until the late 1950s, it perpetuated social class diversity in Canadian suburbs.     

Breaking the Convention: Researching the "Illegal" Migration of Refugees to Europe

The study of refugees by geographers and other social scientists is, almost by definition, framed around a series of legal categories, which provide us with more or less neat categories of types of involuntary migrants. Yet the process of migration emerges in relation to legal categories and is not simply dictated by them. Thus, as legislation on migration in general and the interpretation of the 1951 Geneva Convention in particular have become more restrictive, patterns of migration have increasingly emerged that manipulate, circumvent or simply break existing legislation.
This paper examines the responses by researchers in geography and related disciplines to asylum–seeking and other forms of migration that are increasingly categorised as "illegal" as a result of recent European policy developments. Specifically, the potential for participatory and/or emancipatory research in such circumstances is explored, through comparative analysis of the ethical issues involved in radical research on a range of "trafficking" scenarios. The interaction of such research with public policy–making is also examined.