The structuring of political territory in early printed atlases

Abstract

The atlas emerged as a cartographic and bibliographic response to early modern Europeans’ search for geographical order in a rapidly changing world. In particular, atlases were mediators in the restructuring of European ideas about political territory which culminated in the emergence (by the end of the eighteenth century) of the territorial state and its progeny, the nation‐state. For more than two centuries atlases defined political territories ever more precisely for their readers and expressed hierarchical relationships among those territories, while giving form to the political territoriality and geopolitical orientations of particular nations.     

The Southwest Michigan Historic Landscape Project: Exploring Class, Gender, and Ethnicity from the Ground Up

The Southwest Michigan Historic Landscape Project was initiated in 1994 to examine how the cultural landscapes and associated material culture of the region became transformed since the pioneer settlement of the early 19th century (ca. 1830s). Thus far we have used various methods to investigate four sites in Allegan, Calhoun, and Jackson counties at varying levels of intensity. From these initial efforts we have begun to compile comparative information on the built environment. Here we present the theory and methods used in the project and discuss how class, gender, and ethnic identities are expressed in the material record of the region.     

关于西安历史文化名城保护的战略思考

首先将西安的历史文化资源放置在中国和世界性文化保护的背景下进行评价,提出丰富的历史文化遗产是西安城市发展的战略资源。文章从城市个性保持和古都特色塑造的角度,对西安历史文化名城保护工作的定位、存在的矛盾、重点课题、政策环境等提出了战略性的思考。     

从东西方历史建筑的差异看东西方文明

东西方历史建筑在建筑材料、建筑类型、空间布局、发展演变和留存时间等诸多方面存在差异。究其原因,二者在自然环境、经济模式、宗教思想、社会意识和自然观方面的不同特点是造成这些差异产生的主要原因,而这些差异也体现了东西方文明的不同风格。     

Images of the third world: teaching a geography of the third world

Abstract

This paper focuses on how to teach undergraduate students to analyse critically various received images of the Third World. This is achieved through the use of a detailed practical exercise which is based on poster, newspaper and map representation of the Third World. The concepts of identity, positionality and representation are reviewed and there is a discussion of how an awareness of these concepts should help students understand the influencing power of stereotypical images of distant others.     

The Map,the Other and the public visual image

This article explores the connection between Cartography and Otherness, and intersects map and visual studies with the question of racial/ethnic identity. With the aim of making arguments through images, a visual/verbal text is staged to reflect on the ‘Map-Other’ connection in past and present times. Inspired by the epistemological turn from representation towards practice currently experienced within map theory, the article interrogates the various creative ways in which art, advertising, public communication and related fields enable post-representational ways of portraying maps. Public visual images of cartography can be read not only as an exposure of the firm, ideological meaning of maps, but also as illustrations of how maps work as shared, embodied and empowering objects. The treatment of maps as socialised, performed and relational thereby results in an involvement of Others as protagonists rather than subjects.     

The Changing Geography of Violence in Russia's North Caucasus, 1999-2011: Regional Trends and Local Dynamics in Dagestan,Ingushetia, and Kabardino-Balkaria

Three U.S. geographers analyze the temporal and spatial trends of 17,438 violent events in Russia's North Caucasus region from August 1999 to July 2011, demonstrating that the diffusion of conflict away from Chechnya intensified during the period 2007-2011, as levels of violence rose in neighboring republics. An increasing number of casualties are civilians in Dagestan, Ingushetia, and Kabardino-Balkaria, the three republics that are the focus of the paper. Employing multiple methods of spatial pattern analysis and geographically sensitive regression models, the authors examine the spatial fragmentation of violence from the perspective of rebel groups operating in the three republics. The analysis documents how the incidence of violence varies dramatically over space (i.e., reflecting the influence of urbanization, strategic location, and physical geographic factors such as elevation and extent of forest cover). Although violence in the North Caucasus region as a whole has declined in absolute terms over the past four years, the authors show how new geographies of violence are developing in the region, underscoring the emergence of republic-based insurgent operations against the various organs of the Russian state. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: H560, H770, O180. 9 figures, 3 tables, 1 appendix, 103 references:     

A Life in Maps: Leo Bagrow,Imago Mundi,and the History of Cartography in the Early Twentieth Century

ABSTRACT:

This essay provides a critical commentary on the life of Leo Bagrow (1881–1957), the founding editor of Imago Mundi, drawing on previously unused correspondence from the journal’s archive, recently catalogued by the British Library in London. Bagrow’s experiences in the three European cities in which he lived and worked (St Petersburg, Berlin and Stockholm) are examined afresh and new insights are provided about the complex intellectual and sometimes political objectives and motivations of Bagrow and his fellow map dealers, map collectors and map historians. Particular attention is paid to the productive but often strained relationships between Bagrow and the expanding global network of map historians with whom he collaborated while establishing and editing Imago Mundi between 1935 and his death. This network was divided into four distinct and to some extent rival constituencies (university academics, map librarians, map collectors and map dealers). The essay examines how Imago Mundi, under Bagrow’s often confrontational editorship, emerged as the central co-ordinating forum through which these constituencies communicated with each other and within which the foundations for the modern discipline of map history were established.     

Problematising the Historic Environment Record: Comments on Persistent Issues in England and Sweden

ABSTRACT

As a mainstay of local and national cultural heritage management, historic environment records play an effective role in the dissemination of data, particularly in the modern development control process. However, despite their functionality and sustained professional use, these inventories are not unproblematic, particularly in regards to informal usage. Based on the author’s professional experience this article will discuss some of the issues which convolute the delivery of historic environment data. These issues can be grouped thematically beneath the banners of fragmentation, interoperability, and accessibility. Underpinning these three topics is the relationship between historic environment records as institutions and digitality as both a cognitive process and a distribution mechanism. From a critical perspective, the extent to which these issues reoccur and inhibit the flow of data will be highlighted by examining the historic environment practice in England and Sweden in the hope that these insights can inform the contemporary approach.     

Epistemological paradigms in the perception and assessment of vernacular architecture

The current situation of vernacular architecture is a result of the different perspectives of agents who have some sort of direct or indirect relationship with the architecture of the past which has influenced attitudes and ways of thinking, thus guaranteeing its assessment and survival. Therefore, this article reviews recent currents of thought and theories encapsulating the increased value of vernacular architecture. In the eighteenth century, this architecture made the romantic ideals of rural society synonymous with its surroundings, territory and country. In the twentieth century, a select few modernist intellectuals carried out in-depth studies of this architectural type in relation to its formal values. Now, in the twenty-first century, it has become the object of technological and scientific analysis for many experts. The current situation still presents many unresolved problems, which are perhaps the result of little thought having been put into specific aspects of the process of vernacular architecture.