A missing link? Network analysis as an empirical approach for critical physical geography

Critical physical geography (CPG) calls for integrative research on material landscapes and the socio-political dynamics of scientific knowledge production. Network analysis, a rich tradition of tools and approaches for analyzing relational information, has seen little use in the CPG literature to date. This represents a fruitful opportunity, as many of CPG's core interests—knowledge politics, histories of scientific concepts, and ecosocial relations—can be effectively analyzed using network techniques. In this article, I argue for adapting network approaches to CPG. First, I provide an overview of various network concepts, approaches, and their origins. I then discuss bibliometric network techniques for “science mapping” including co-word, co-authorship, and citation analyses. Next, I describe discourse network analysis, a recent mixed-method approach from political science. Finally, I discuss overlaps with emerging approaches from qualitative and visual network analysis. In each section, I provide existing and hypothetical examples, as well as software and visualization techniques, that demonstrate how network approaches could add new insights to CPG and related scholarship. Linking CPG with the diverse traditions of network analysis has the potential to produce new empirical understandings and bring the field into conversation with a growing body of research that spans the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities.     

边疆地理名称与晚清川藏边务——以“川边”、“西康”概念为考察中心

晚清是近代中国边疆政治地理发生巨大变动的转折时期。随着边疆危机日趋深重,晚清时人逐步意识到慎重命名地理名称的重要性。川藏交界区域地理名称的生成、运用,经历了"炉边"、"川疆"、"川边"等名称混用,以"川边"为过渡性名称,到弃用"川边"、强调"西康"名称的过程。地理名称的变更与晚清川藏边务密切相关,特别是对"边"、"藏"界域之争的有力回应。探讨边疆地理名称多歧性、竞争性,则是本文将历史地理学研究与概念史方法相结合的一种尝试。     

An analysis of spatial patterns of toponyms in Guangdong,China

The unique geographical environment and the historical waves of immigration of the northern Han Chinese to the Lingnan region have contributed to the development of a complex and unique culture in Guangdong Province. Four ancient ethnic groups, the Zhuang, Cantonese, Hoklo and Hakka, have resided in this area for centuries. As an important part of local culture, toponyms often survive changes in history and can reveal the temporal differences between the past and present in landforms and the spatial differences in the distribution of different ethnic group populations. In this study, two goals were sought: (1) the adoption of spatial smoothing and interpolation methods to reveal the spatial patterns of the Zhuang, Cantonese, Hoklo and Hakka toponyms based on comparisons among the proportions of those who speak various languages and (2) the investigation of the differences among toponymic layers under regional environmental conditions and the influences of geographic factors using an independent samples t-test and a binary logistic regression.     

Biomechanics of coaching maximal instep soccer kick for practitioners

Kicking in soccer has been the subject of scientific research for more than 40 years yet review articles summarizing the biomechanical fundamentals of kick optimization as a guide to coaching are scarcely to be found. The current review article aims to bridge the gap between scientific research into the maximal instep kick (including studies employing 3D motion capture and full-body biomechanical modelling) and the application of such research in coaching. It does so by supplying a scientifically founded, coaching-friendly article explaining identifiable characteristics and motor control sequencing that define this skill. Relevant biomechanical factors are identified in a way that should help coaches better develop training programmes and, at the same time, foster better understanding of the skill among athletes. Such information will contribute to both accelerated skill acquisition and, by concomitant gains in skill efficiency, the development of programmes that minimize risk of injury to athletes during training.     

两晋南北朝与隋唐官僚特权之比较——从赃罪、除免官当的视角

魏晋南北朝是门阀士族获得重大政治、经济、文化和社会特权的时代,但是东晋南朝与北朝的情况不尽相同。从法制层面对赃罪量刑和除免官当的考察表明,在法令的规定上北朝对待官僚较东晋南朝更为宽松,在法令的贯彻上北朝却相对严格。由此我们看到,尽管江左士族享有更多特权,但这些特权多在法令规定之外,不属于正常官僚政治的范畴。而北朝士族却积极在律令框架内寻求自身的权益保障,其努力所获得的丰厚成果为隋唐帝国的官僚所继承,从而为官僚政治的理性发展作出了贡献。     

试论日本古代国家官僚制度

五位以上的有位贵族依据"官位相当制",在官僚机构内部担任高官,并在服制即朝服和礼服方面与六位以下官人相区别。有位贵族在政治、经济、法律和受教育方面具有很大的特权,享有一系列的优惠待遇。官人的出身资格大体分为五位以上官人的子孙的荫子孙、六、七、八位官人之子的位子和除此之外的白丁三种。荫位制,是五位以上的有位贵族子孙的主要出身之路。日本的学校与官吏出身制度的联系不是很密切,日本的学校的功能与其说是培养任用官吏的机构,不如说是在培养专家的同时,以使五位以上贵族子孙广泛了解经学为目的的一种经学传播机构。     

A Unique Case of Prone Position in the Primary Cremation Tomb 252 of Monte Sirai Necropolis (Carbonia,Sardinia, Italy)

A series of graves belonging to the Phoenician period were investigated after the campaign excavation of 2007 in the Phoenician‐Punic necropolis of Monte Sirai (Carbonia, Sardinia, Italy). One tomb in particular (labelled 252) is presented here because of its uniqueness. Tomb 252 contained the cremated remains of an individual, probably male, and comparison of the excavation records alongside reconstruction of the bone material itself makes clear that the individual was cremated in a prone position. It represents the first case of prone cremation reported in the literature. To investigate whether the temperature of the cremation was homogenous across the entire body, we have conducted a combined physical–chemical analysis using X‐ray diffraction spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

明清时期广东五邑地区政区变迁研究

广东五邑地区以潭江流域为中心,是一个相对独立的地理单元,但该地的政区边界却打破了自然山川的界限。从明代到清初顺治年间,为了应对以民变为首的地方政治危机,朝廷先后在潭江流域设置了恩平、新宁、开平三县。这些县级政区的边界大致与潭江流域的地理分界线重合,地理单元的独立性开始作用于政区划界中。清代雍乾年间,形成了新会、鹤山、新宁、开平、恩平五县分治潭江流域的格局。同时,随着新会县核心政区地位的巩固,流域内各县整合为一个统县政区的倾向开始加强,为后世潭江流域的政区整合奠定基础。明清时期潭江流域的政区变迁体现了地理环境和地方政治局势在政区格局形成过程中的根本性作用。     

What is Geography? Perceptions of first year undergraduates in South Africa

Disciplines such as Geography are well placed to respond to the changing needs of society and the effective application of geographical knowledge to real-world problems. This project surveyed first year Geography undergraduates’ understanding of “What is Geography?”, both before and after an exercise in which geographic topics were identified within recent newspapers. The survey instrument employed was an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire, and was undertaken with first-year undergraduate Geography students at a university in South Africa. Results show that the exercise enabled students (n = 158) to more readily see the application of geographical knowledge to both environmental and social problems that they identified in the newspaper stories. Students also identified that studying Geography may be able to help them increase their skills, employment prospects and earning potential. These findings can help locate the disciplinary concerns and applicability of Geography in post-apartheid South Africa within the wider context of the twenty-first Century world.     

Women following fish in a more-than-human world

Drawing on ethnographic and interview research conducted in Scotland, South Australia and New South Wales, Australia, I attempt to frame the cultural, social and geographical networks created by the people who follow fish (primarily commercial fishers). My account is constructed through a ‘self-conscious storying’ (Whatmore 2008) deployed by geographers working in a more-than-human perspective. Although I find much to inspire from this approach, throughout this article the question that nags at me is how to account for women within a materialist more-than-human framework, and how to articulate a feminist politics within this epistemological and methodological space. I try to avoid admonitions about what should be done and to advance or to model an embodied glimpse of what such a politics might be.