Recent Doctoral Dissertations in Human and Economic Geography at Nordic Universities

Ivarsson, I. (1996), Integrated International Production. A Study of Foreign Transnational Corporations in Sweden     

TOWARDS UNIFICATION OF THE SOCIO‐ECOLOGICAL SCIENCES: THE VALUE OF COUPLED MODELS

The major environmental problems of the twenty‐first century, including climate change, water scarcity, pollution and resource exhaustion, represent a new category of crisis and highlight the desperate need for an integrated science of socio‐ecological phenomena. To help establish the foundations of such a science, we explore three traditions of mathematical theory: the Lotka–Volterra interactions of ecological theory, niche construction models of population genetics, and theory from the gene–culture coevolution tradition. We review the theoretical tools of each of these traditions in explaining cultural articulation with the environment. Although the theoretical core of the science we propose does not exist, cultural evolutionary theory supplies useful tools to analyse endogenous culture, cultural dynamics, and deeply rooted behavioural links to the environment. We also present a coupled model for demonstration, and suggest that coupled socio‐ecological models can provide a formal theory to help address the emergent socio‐ecological problems of the future.     

STORY MAKES HISTORY,THEORY MAKES STORY: DEVELOPING RÜSEN'S HISTORIK IN LOGICAL AND SEMIOTIC DIRECTIONS

This essay will argue that the traditional opposition between narrative and theory in historical sciences is dissolved if we conceive of narratives as theoretical devices for understanding events in time through special concepts that abridge typical sequences of events. I shall stress, in the context of the Historical Knowledge Epistemological Square (HKES) that emerged with the scientization of history, that history is always narrative, story has a theoretical ground of itself, and scientific histories address the need for a conceptual progression in ever‐improved narratives. This will lead to identification of three major theoretical levels in historical stories: naming, plotting (or emplotment), and formalizing. We revisit Jörn Rüsen's theory of history as the best starting point, and explore to what extent it could be developed by (i) taking a deeper look into narratological knowledge, and (ii) reanalyzing logically the conceptual strata in order to bridge the overrated Forschung/Darstellung (research/exposition) divide. The corollary: we should consider (scientific) historical writing as the last step of historical research, not as the next step after research is over. This thesis will drive us to a reconsideration of the German Historik regarding the problem of interpretation and exposition. Far from alienating history from science, narrative links history positively to anthropology and biology. The crossing of our triad name‐plot‐model with Rüsen's four theoretical levels (categories‐types‐concepts‐names) points to the feasibility of expanding Rüsen's Historik in logical and semiotic directions. Story makes history, theory makes story, and historical reason may proceed.     

Postcolonial theory and globalized empathy: from development to difference

ABSTRACT

Postcolonial theory, with its focus on epistemological difference, material subversion, and cultural hybridity, is said to be at odds with the emotional and cognitive takeover implied in empathy. My paper will, to the contrary, suggest that the critique of political developmentalism and the turn towards a preference for cultural difference that inaugurated postcolonial studies as we know it may have actually helped to forge a relation between the perspectives of postcolonial theory and empathy. This relation is based on the ultimately individual focus that both imply through their rejection of abstract rational politics, which politically limits them to humanitarianism. My reading of Indra Sinha's Animal's People will show how this novel performs the heavy impact of this entanglement between postcolonial otherness, empathy, and humanitarianism by arguing that the novel ironically restructures its plot and political imaginary to suit the needs of humanitarian empathy that governs the global market for postcolonial literatures.     

Feminist historical geographies: doing and being

Abstract

As part of GPC’s 25-year anniversary celebrations, this article explores possibilities and prospects for feminist historical geographies and geographers. Here I define feminist historical geography as scholarship which asks geographical questions of historical material and is informed by feminist theories, approaches and methodologies. Its empirical subject matter is necessarily expansive and diverse, but often has a particular focus on the lives of women and other marginalized groups, and on the ways gender and space were co-constituted. This essay interrogates recent developments within this broad terrain, specifically articles and books published in the period from around 2000 onwards and either appearing in geography journals or written by those self-identifying as geographers. The main exception is work by historians and archaeologists interested in gender, space and place, which is cited here in an attempt to open up new research directions for feminist historical geographers. In what follows, we shuttle across spaces and between scales, roaming from the sites of empire to the intimate geographies of the home, from landscapes and buildings to personal possessions like clothes and letters. Doing so is a deliberate act intended both to demonstrate the liveliness of feminist historical geographies broadly conceived and to counter hierarchical readings of space, society and history with their inherent danger of privileging the public over the private, and the exceptional over the everyday and mundane.     

二十一世纪西方“比较城市研究”进展与述评

进入21世纪以来,伴随南半球城市快速发展,以及全球尺度的区域和城市间经济、社会、政治联系的加强,全球城市化景观持续重构,展现出多元发展特征,对传统城市理论的解释范式提出了新挑战。在此背景下,西方的比较城市研究开始复兴,尤其关注南半球城市经验,探索城市理论与研究范式的转型与建构,并成为城市研究的热点。为了把握国际城市研究前沿,本文通过详细解读相关文献并结合CiteSpace引文空间分析,全面梳理了21世纪西方比较城市研究的最新进展,评述和解析比较城市研究的概念、发展进程、研究方向和理论成果。希望以此拓展国际视野,为中国城市理论建设提供参考和借鉴。     

空铁型综合交通枢纽地区空间演化特征——以上海虹桥枢纽为例

空铁型综合交通枢纽是将航空枢纽和高铁枢纽有机整合而形成的航空高铁一体化综合交通枢纽,具有较强的经济社会带动作用,对区域空间演化产生重要影响。根据复杂适应系统理论,选取上海虹桥综合交通枢纽地区为案例地,分析了空铁型综合交通枢纽地区地域空间演化阶段性特征。结果表明：交通枢纽地区地域系统通过多个适应性主体之间非线性相互作用形成复杂适应系统,该地域系统演化过程可划分为枢纽地区空间形成阶段、枢纽地区空间生长阶段和枢纽地区空间涌现阶段。上海虹桥综合交通枢纽地区在三个阶段特征不同,配套设施建设、要素集聚与流动、城市功能形成与发展、区域品牌形成等方面不断深化。研究有助于认知综合交通枢纽地域系统空间演化规律,为深化研究和实践发展提供科学借鉴。     

旅游目的地形象认知过程——基于扎根理论的探索性研究

在对旅游目的地形象作为系统整体进行认识的基础上,以网络游记文本为数据来源,采用扎根理论的方法探索旅游目的地形象要素的认知过程,建立旅游目的地形象要素认知过程模型,采用统计方法对旅游目的地形象要素认知过程的维度差异进行研究。结果发现,旅游目的地形象要素的认知过程包括信息获取、认知加工和要素变化等3个过程。其中,信息获取过程是旅游目的地形象要素认知过程的基础环节,包括感官体验、人际互动和信息搜寻等3种获取方式;认知加工过程是形象要素认知过程的核心环节,包括对比和聚类等2种方式;形象要素变化过程是认知过程的最后阶段,包括强化、调整和新建等3种变化方式。旅游目的地形象不同维度的形象要素认知过程中,信息获取方式和变化方式存在维度差异,认知加工方式不存在明显维度差异。     

The modernity of nations. A tribute to Walker Connor

To fully appreciate Walker Connor's contribution to the foundation of the contemporary study of nationalism, two main factors must be taken into account. First, the context of positivist behavioural political science within which in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, he articulated his critique of the concept of nation‐building. In this context, Connor emerged as a critic of the limitations and the naivité of positivist modernization theory. His dissenting voice called for critical rethinking and revision of the central concepts of the theory of political development, some of which enjoyed almost doctrinal status. Second, despite his criticism of modernization theory, Connor retained a strong conviction that nations and national sentiment were the products of modernity; indeed, in his judgement, they formed the primary content of modernity. This too was a critical stance within the rising tide of nationalism studies since 1989–1990, when ideology and wishful thinking influenced to a considerable extent the interpretation of nationalism. Walker Connor's intellectual legacy should thus be understood as a heritage of critical thought that is informed by a noteworthy awareness of the moral responsibilities of scholarly analysis.