Conceptions of place: approaching space,children and physical activity

In this paper, we argue that place mapping is useful for approaching children's conception of place and that this is of relevance when designing physical activity interventions. We contend that socio-material factors influence children's perception and use of places, and are crucial to understand in relation to their use of local neighbourhoods for physical activity. A place mapping of children's understandings and everyday use of their local neighbourhood in suburban Copenhagen was conducted with a fifth grade elementary school class. The mapping and subsequent analysis resulted in three categories of relevance to children's conceptions of place; located social experiences, experiences of the unknown, and children's contested spaces. We argue that such knowledge can provide useful information in the development and evaluation of activities that promote physical activity in urban spaces.     

Human Capital in Low-Tech Manufacturing: The Geography of the Knowledge Economy in Denmark

Abstract

An essential feature associated with the rise of the knowledge economy has been the increasing focus on the importance of human capital as a precondition for economic growth. Human capital has been found to have a positive impact on the economic growth of high-tech industries, however, the influence of human capital on the development of low-tech industries is yet to be analysed. This paper provides such an examination of low-tech industries based on an analysis of employment data within manufacturing industries in Denmark in the period 1993–2006. The findings highlight, first, that human capital appears to be equally important for economic development in low-tech industries and, second, that the divide between the large urban regions, especially Copenhagen, and the rest of the country plays the primary role in explaining the geography of human capital. These findings stress the relevance of a broad conception of the knowledge economy which goes beyond high-tech industries.     

Urban Form,Sustainability and Health: The Case of Greater Oslo

Several studies have shown dense urban structures to be favourable in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport, limit energy consumption in buildings and protect farmland and natural areas in the surroundings of the city. There may, however, be some tensions between such a compact urban developmental strategy and considerations of public health in urban planning. This paper reviews findings from international research on the relationships between urban form and health and illustrates some of these effects by comparing statistics on life expectancy and the frequency of heart attacks among inhabitants of different urban districts in the Norwegian capital Oslo. Since we have only had access to aggregate figures at the level of urban districts, the results must be interpreted with caution. The currently available results do, however, suggest that the densification strategies often recommended for reducing the ecological footprints of cities might be encumbered with some important drawbacks, seen from a public health perspective. Based on the findings, some dilemmas and perspectives for sustainability- and health-oriented urban planning are discussed.     

Exploring a Strategic Turn: Case Study of Innovation and Organizational Change in a Productivist Dairy

Some firms within the conventional agri-food processing industry change their business strategy by trying to innovate towards alternative foods, like regional foods. For firms which are part of a larger organization or integrated in a group of companies this is a special challenge. The purpose of this paper is to explore what happens when a firm within a large and complex organization tries to turn from a productivist strategy to a differentiated strategy. This exploration uses a case study from the Norwegian dairy industry. The case shows that powerful industrial conventions and lack of suitable organizational conditions can be a hindrance for organizational change. Organizational capabilities to change routines and conventions have significant influence on the result of the innovation process.     

The application of numerical techniques to insect assemblages from the site of Stóraborg,Iceland

The problems of interpretation of many overlapping species lists of fossil assemblages are discussed using the example of insect faunas from a late medieval farm site in southern Iceland. Numerical techniques were employed, principally those available within the CLUSTAN package, and it was concluded that a considerable refinement in interpretation was achieved. Such quantitative procedures are suitable for groups other than fossil insects but their employment cannot be regarded as a substitute for, rather than an adjunct to, a sound ecological approach.     

Shared rivers and conflict – A reconsideration

Neomalthusians have regularly predicted "water wars" while cornucopians have argued that there is no inherent water scarcity and liberal institutionalists have seen cooperation as a more likely outcome of competition for limited water resources than violent conflict. Three earlier studies have found a positive statistical relationship between shared rivers and low-level interstate conflict. Based on a more comprehensive dataset, an improved model of conflict, and a more appropriate control for geographical opportunity, we argue that these results are spurious and that we cannot establish a conflict-inducing effect of shared rivers over and beyond contiguity itself. In fact, the new dataset presented here makes it clear that nearly all neighbors in the international system share at least one river. This calls for a different approach to investigating interaction in shared river basins. This notwithstanding, freshwater and other shared resources may still provide a mechanism to explain why contiguity is robustly associated with conflict, so the water-conflict scenario cannot be dismissed. Indeed, our results show that among river-sharing states, basins with an upstream/downstream configuration increase the risk of conflict. The article finally discusses how river interaction should be further investigated based on these results and what new data are needed to enable such research.