On Trial—Social Relations of Map Production in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Britain

ABSTRACT

This article examines the social relations of map production in mid-nineteenth-century Britain with reference to moments when maps and their makers were ‘on trial’—legally in court in Edinburgh in 1853 and by public opinion in London in 1854 following a lecture. The principal protagonists include Alexander Keith Johnston of the map firm W. & A. K. Johnston, the German cartographer August Petermann, the mapseller Trelawney Saunders and John Bartholomew junior of the Bartholomew map firm. The article draws upon Thomas Gieryn’s idea of the ‘truth spot’ and on Matthew Edney’s call for studies in processual map history.     

Exploring the Transition: Coursework to Research‐Based Study in the Geography Honours Year

The transition from coursework study to independent research is a component of many geography Honours programs in Australian tertiary institutions. Despite being canvassed at the 2003 annual meeting of the Australian Heads of Geography Units, it is a topic that has, to date, received relatively little academic attention. This paper developed from a review of the Geography Honours program at the University of Sydney, conducted by the authors in early 2004. The paper aims to help address the perceived deficiency of research into Honours study. Three topics, related to the Honours year transition, are discussed. These are: the rationale for the Honours year transition from undergraduate coursework to research‐focussed study; the composition and rationale behind coursework programs for geography Honours students, and student‐supervisor relations and their impact on independent Honours research. In the process of examining these issues this paper offers suggestions as to how tertiary geography schools can look to develop their Honours year programs. These recommendations are made with the understanding that all tertiary Honours programs are unique and that issues such as staffing levels and departmental structure will influence what suggestions are appropriate for individual institutions. It is hoped that this paper will encourage more discussion about the nature of the Honours year. It is through such communication that the value of the Honours year in student development can be enhanced     

Developing trainee teacher practice with geographical information systems (GIS)

There is general agreement that geographical information systems (GIS) have a place within the geography classroom; they offer the potential to support geographical learning, exploring real-world problems through student-centred learning, and developing spatial thinking. Despite this, teachers often avoid engaging with GIS and research suggests that the lack of GIS training in initial teacher education is partially to blame. In response to this, this article explores how 16 trainee geography teachers were supported to develop their use of GIS across a one-year, postgraduate teacher training course in England. The project, an interpretive case study underpinned by a constructivist epistemology, used questionnaires and interviews to elicit trainees’ understandings of the nature of GIS, and to explore their engagement with it across their training year. Results suggest a programme of embedded training developed in trainees a more nuanced understanding of the value of GIS for supporting geographical learning and, thereby, increased self-efficacy towards and engagement with it in their teaching practice. However, not all trainees embraced GIS as a pedagogical tool and the study raised several key issues for geography teacher education, including the knowledge culture within schools in the teacher training partnership, and the importance of trainee self-efficacy towards GIS.     

The Leeds and Yorkshire Geographical Society c. 1902–17

The Leeds and Yorkshire Geographical Society was one of ten 'provincial' geographical societies in England and Scotland established between 1884 and 1910, of which five were in the North of England. It was conceived in about 1902, formally founded in 1908, but had ceased to exist after 1917. Virtually nothing has been discovered hitherto of the Leeds society's history, functions and contexts. This essay examines the evidence for its conception, inauguration, programmes of activity, and the broader local/civic, national and global contexts within which it operated. Its brief history sheds light upon: the need for commercial information to promote trade in an imperial context; the development of geographical thought in Britain and Western Europe; finally, popular curiosity about new geographical information and ideas promoted by geographical exploration and discovery. Comparison is made with the activities of other English ‘provincial’ geographical societies, particularly those in the North of England. The new evidence derives from papers in the West Yorkshire Archive Service Leeds, the archives and publications of the Royal Geographical Society, and the programmes of meetings promoted via the Society itself and the Leeds Institute, housed in Leeds Central Library, together with reports and advertisements in local newspapers.     

陕西乡村聚落分布特征及其演变

本文在探讨陕西三大地区乡村聚落宏观分布的基础上,对各地区传统的农业乡村聚落的形成及发展的空间类型、原因作了比较研究,同时,总结了目前乡村聚落的一些空间演变趋势。     

Autobiographische Darstellung des Lebensganges und des wissenschaftlichen Lebenswerkes 1

ABSTRACT

Few maps mirror the history of the twentieth century as closely as the International Map of the World (IMW). A proposal for a map of the entire globe on a scale of 1:1 million, using standard conventional signs, was presented at the Fifth International Geographical Congress in Berne in 1891 by the German geographer Albrecht Penck. More than two decades later, the final specification was finally published shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, a crisis that brought a halt to the international collaboration on which the project depended. The IMW’s fortunes waxed and waned over the next three decades, necessitating a major review of its continuing value after the Second World War. A new IMW Executive Commission under the chairmanship of John Kirtland Wright, Director of the American Geographical Society, was established at the 1949 Lisbon conference of the International Geographical Union. Drawing on Wright’s correspondence in the AGS archives, this paper examines the debates between the national cartographic agencies and related societies involved in the future of the IMW, with particular reference to the transfer of the project’s Central Bureau from the British Ordnance Survey in Southampton to the United Nations in New York in the early 1950s. This discussion, which focused mainly on the need to combine the IMW with an internationalized version of the US-dominated 1:1 million World Aeronautical Chart, reveals the on-going tensions between the ideals of scientific internationalism embodied in the IMW’s original proposal and the harsh realities of national self-interest in the early years of the Cold War.     

当前高校教师职称评聘工作存在的问题与对策

高等院校教师职称的评聘是关系到学校师资建设的重要工作,也是高校内部管理体制改革的重要环节。随着职称改革的不断深入,当前高校教师职称评聘中存在的主要问题有:评审体系有失科学性,评审材料有失真实性,评审程序有失公正性。解决高校教师职称评聘中这些问题的对策是:评审条件要进一步硬化,监控机制要进一步强化,约束措施要进一步细化,评聘重心要进一步弱化。     

明末清初嘉湖平原的专业化桑园及其生态经济环境

明末清初的嘉湖平原由于内部微地形条件的差异,形成了以崇德、桐乡为中心的专业桑园集中区域,产生了适应当地生态环境的专业化桑园经营模式。专业化桑园的形成,是高度繁荣的蚕业经济对嘉湖平原内部地理环境适应的结果。专业化桑园经济的发展对当地的地貌景观带来很大程度的改变。     

THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR DATA-BANK

Several countries have made large investments in building historical Geographical Information Systems (GIS) databases containing census and other quantitative statistics over long periods of time. Making good use of these databases requires approaches that explore spatial and temporal change. The authors use a variety of visualization and spatial analysis techniques to explore population change in Ireland during and after the Great Famine of the late 1840s. Importantly, the techniques allow differences over space and time to be explored, thus stressing the diversity between places, rather than making all places appear the same, a common criticism of many statistical approaches. The authors demonstrate the potential of these techniques to explore geographical and temporal variations in large quantitative GIS datasets.