Development Of Geography Research Articles

Trilateral Development Cooperation: Power and Politics in Emerging Aid Relationships

ABSTRACTChanges are reverberating through the international development system. This article focuses on (re)emerging development actors in the South and their role in setting agendas, challenging current aid orthodoxies, and re‐articulating development cooperation relationships between and within the North and South. Specifically, the article examines trilateral development cooperation, a significant new trend in foreign aid. The first aim is to examine the role of trilateral development cooperation in the changing geographies of development and global partnerships. The second aim is to foreground and critically evaluate the politics of trilateral development cooperation. The authors argue that trilateral development cooperation has potential to improve aid effectiveness, harness the energies and expertise of southern partners, and reshape development relations in more egalitarian ways. Alternatively, however, it may work to co‐opt (re)emerging donors into a depoliticized and ineffective aid system. While this argument has been made by many critics with regard to North–South development relations, the authors also question the projection of shared interests and essentialized developing country identities in relation to the South–South element of trilateral development cooperation. The article concludes by emphasizing the need to extend critical perspectives to all elements of the new development partnerships emerging within a rapidly changing global landscape.

Political geographies of academic development in Jamaica, Ethiopia and Japan: reflections on the impossibilities of neutrality

Political geographies of academic development in Jamaica, Ethiopia and Japan: reflections on the impossibilities of neutrality

Geography and Institutions: On the Origins of Comparative Development

In this paper, I replicate the analysis in Acemoglu et al. (2001). These authors famously show that institutions are the primary determinant of differences in income between rich and poor countries, while geography has no effect on income, once in- stitutions are properly controlled for. However, if global income data are drawn from a bi-modal distribution, the effects of these explanatory variables may be obscured by the use of linear estimation models that implicitly assume these effects to be homogeneous across all countries. I use a range of analytical techniques, from simple sub-sample analysis, to sophisticated empirical estimation based on a finite mixture model approach in attempting to identify the effects on the AJR results of accounting for the bi-modality of the global income distribution. My analysis shows that the AJR results are sensitive to sample composition. In particular, it appears that institutions do not explain the variation in income across relatively poor countries or those in sub-Saharan Africa. I use Monte Carlo simulations to confirm that ignoring the bi- modality of global income could cause geography to appear unimportant. My findings could potentially reconcile apparently conflicting results from the existing literature on the role of geography and institutions in comparative development.

Overcoming Secularism? Catholic development geographies in Timor-Leste

The Catholic Church has played a key role in the development of Timor-Leste since Dominican friars first began trading with the Timorese in the 16th century. Religious networks and spaces have been essential in delivering development services, while Catholic theologies have shaped how development is pursued and understood. In this paper we outline the changing contribution and character of the Catholic Church through three periods of Timor's tumultuous history—during colonialism, under Indonesian occupation and through independence—with a greater focus on the latter stages. We present the Timorese Church as a heterogeneous organisation that responds in both progressive and conservative ways to the socio-political contexts in which it is embedded. Our aim is to highlight the diverse religious development geographies that exist in Timor-Leste but which are marginalised within contemporary development planning and policy. Drawing upon post-development theory and performative research, we encourage debate about the role of religious institutions in inspiring ‘alternatives-to-development’.

Evidence of Wagner's law from Indian states

In this paper, we test for Wagner's law for 15 Indian states. We consider nine panels of states based on geography and level of economic development. Using panel unit-root, panel-cointegration, and panel-Granger causality analysis, we unravel strong evidence of Wagner's law. However, we find that the Wagner's law relationship is consumption rather than capital expenditure driven. This is a fresh revelation and our results are robust to different model specifications.

The Geography of Evolution and the Evolution of Geography

Abstract Insights into the geography of life have played a fundamental role in motivating major developments in evolutionary biology. The focus here is on outlining some of these major developments, specifically in the context of paleontology, by emphasizing the significance of geographic isolation and allopatric speciation, punctuated equilibria, and the Turnover Pulse Hypothesis to evolutionary theory. One of the major debates in evolution concerns the relative contributions of abiotic and biotic factors to macroevolution, and each one of these developments increasingly suggested that it was climatic and geologic factors, rather than competition, that played the primary role in motivating macroevolution. New technical developments, including in the area of Geographic Information Systems, allow continued detailed testing of the relative roles that biotic as opposed to abiotic factors play in causing evolution, and some of the work in this area will also be described.

Geographies of development

Some contemporary narratives of development give privileged status to middle classes in the global South. In the face of intractable poverty, policy-makers take heart from the success stories of ordinary people who have, over generations, realized and consolidated the gains of development and who embody society at its most functional. Their presumed virtues are their self-sufficiency, their ability to articulate with the global economy, their buying power, and their good sense as responsible citizens. This, the first of three reports on geographies of development, reflects on recent research that interrogates the privileged status of middle classes in some narratives of development. As this burgeoning literature suggests, celebratory narratives elide the complex circumstances that make and unmake middle classes. Furthermore, middle-class gains do not automatically translate into development for others. Indeed, efforts to centre the middle class threaten to displace, and justify the displacement of, economically marginalized groups seen as surplus to development.

For a social geography of emerging countries

New economic world order, new geographies of development, new powers… A whole range of expressions has appeared in the past three decades to coin the major and multi-dimensional changes that have affected global political economics. More specifically, those expressions refer to a transition towards a multi-polar world: the domination of the West and later the Triade is now counterbalanced by the economic and perhaps political power of countries that were once called under-developed - China be...

ARCELORMITTAL and Corporate Social Responsibility

ARCELOR MITTAL (AM) is the world’s largest steel producer with a combined capacity of over a hundred million tons. Steel is a basic commodity for any country – for its infrastructure, for its construction, automobile, and a host of downstream industries. Yet, the production of steel is steeped in a dilemma between the need for development and the need for preservation. The latter relates to natural resources and the environment as much as it relates to the resettlement and rehabilitation of thousands of poor people who are invariably affected whenever major projects in steel or other metals are undertaken. The issue assumes highly complex proportions in the case of organizations like AM. Operating in over 60 countries with differences in culture, administration, geography and stage of economic development, AM cannot have a 'one size fits all' approach to the problem. The regulatory mechanisms are different as are the expectations of the local people. Nature has a fascinating sense of balance. With some exceptions, natural resources are found in abundance in the least developed and developing countries.Technologies to harness the resources into a form that humanity can use to advantage emanate from the developed world. The agenda for economic development of the two sets of countries is not the same. Countries endowed with natural resources are also home to some of the poorest people in the world – those earning less than US$ 2 per day. In this scenario, how do large corporations ensure that economic development occurs wherever they operate? Further, how do they ensure that such development has a human face – factoring the needs and aspirations of the local communities and delivering inclusive growth? It is a challenge as well as an opportunity. Through their Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, corporations can demonstrate that they care. They can show the world that one can do well by doing good and that the creation of long-term shareholder value and sensitivity to pressing problems of local communities are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they are complementary.The present case examines AM’s initiatives in CSR and the impact thereof on the communities in which the Company operates. The case has some unique characteristics. AM is a Company formed largely through the acquisition route. Thus, there is a basic question of integrating the internal culture of the organization itself. Then there is the need to take local communities into confidence and reassure them that the well-being of the organization would not be at the cost of the well-being of the affected communities. At a macro level, AM also needs to put in place initiatives that impact the whole world and convey a message that it is a responsible and responsive Corporate Citizen.

Geography, institutions and urban development: Italian cities, 1300–1861

Recent studies have highlighted the role of geography and institutions as key determinants of urban development. In this paper, we test this hypothesis by considering the case of Italian cities over a very long time period, i.e., from 1300 to 1861. Our measure of development is the urban population, and we relate it to geographical and institutional variables at both city and regional level. We find that the quality of institutions as measured by the experience of free city-state and the presence of a university has a positive effect on urban development, whereas we could not find a robust impact of the quality of regional government. However, we also find that cities located in mountain areas grew less than cities located in lowlands, possibly with access to the sea. We interpret these results as evidence of the importance of urban institutions and geography in shaping urban development.

Comparability of Patient-reported Health Status

Valid and comparable measures of health outcomes are needed for clinical trials, studies on quality of healthcare, and population health monitoring. To examine comparability of patient-reported health status across populations. Logistic regression analysis of health status across regions, controlling for demographics, risk factors, and clinical event history. Multicenter clinical trial in 20 countries, grouped into 3 regions defined by geography and levels of economic development (Asia, Established Market Economies, Eastern Europe). 11,140 people with type 2 diabetes. Patient-reported health status in 5 domains (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, anxiety/depression) using EQ-5D. Examining unadjusted response probabilities, patients in Eastern Europe were consistently more likely than patients in other regions to report problems in all domains. Compared to Asia, probabilities of reporting problems at baseline in Eastern Europe were more than 3 times higher for mobility or usual activities, and more than 6 times higher for self-care. Patients in Asia were less likely than patients in Established Market Economies to report problems in all domains except anxiety/depression. Substantial regional reporting differences persisted after controlling for demographics, common risk factors, and history of major disease complications. Compared to Established Market Economies, adjusted odds ratios for reporting problems in at least 1 health domain were 1.79 (1.55 to 2.06) in Eastern Europe and 0.76 (0.67 to 0.86) in Asia. There is substantial variation across regions in reporting on functional health problems, which cannot be explained by differences in demographic variables, clinical risk factors, or rates of complications. This suggests that commonly used health status instruments may have important problems in comparability across settings.

Tenure security interventions in cambodia: testing bebbington's approach to development geography

.The relationship between the development industry and the problems it claims to address is problematic. Development studies have often found development practice systematically misrepresenting its context with the result that interventions are out of kilter with reality and fail. In a series of articles in the early 2000s Antony Bebbington suggested development geographers attend to the spatial distribution of development interventions by mapping and explaining immanent development, mapping and explaining intentional development and studying the relationships between them. This article uses the case of property rights interventions in Cambodia to examine the extent that Bebbington's approach might explain development interventions and their relationship to the contexts into which they are inserted. Primary data consist of interviews with key actors involved in decisions over the locations of these interventions. Secondary data consist of reports and databases showing their geographical spread, and political and social science literature explaining the main transitions in recent Cambodian history. The main empirical finding is that the interventions, land titling and community forestry, have not been implemented in the places where the problems they are claimed to address are located. The methodological reflection is that Bebbington's approach valuably challenges policy narratives that tend to smooth space and conceal unevenness. However, it provides only a broad theoretical framework rather than any theoretical content. The approach may only realize its potential when Bebbington and others begin to apply it to generate hypotheses and theory. A new hypothesis emerging from the Cambodian case is briefly introduced in this regard.

Geographies of Development: New Maps, New Visions?*

The use of categories (such as developing world or Third World) to demarcate world regions on the basis of their levels of development is increasingly disputed. Moreover, in the last few years, references have proliferated to the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China), or sometimes BRICA (adding the Arab states of the Gulf), as hyperlinks to future-oriented investment in the world economy. These new labels rest on more than two decades of discourse about “emerging markets” and are embodiments of and agents in the decomposition of the Third World as denoting a meaningful geopolitical and epistemological category. Where are and what then remains of the geography of development and the Third World? In addressing such questions, nuanced maps will be needed. This article sketches some alternatives.

Geography and development

Background The recent (re-)discovery of geography by economists through the lens of the new economic geography literature (Krugman, 1991) has had its counterpart in policy making with the promotion of the idea that economic geography is central to understanding and influencing actual economic development. The culmination of this was the publication of the World Development Report (WDR) 2009 by the World Bank in late 2008 (World Bank, 2008). In this report, aptly titled Reshaping Economic Geography, the World Bank basically makes two related claims. Firstly, and very much based on the new economic geography literature, understanding and shaping economic geography is crucial for economic development. So, after its earlier emphasis on development factors such as governance and institutions or human capital, in the WDR, the World Bank adds economic geography to the list of key drivers of economic development. Secondly, once the crucial role of economic geography for development is recognized, the WDR forcefully argues that this has far-reaching policy implications. In particular, in as far as geography is a hindrance to development, policies should be aimed at stimulating economic integration, especially between countries. Within countries, the WDR advises policy makers to focus less on, using their terminology, place-based policies and more on people-centered policies. The WDR’s policy recommendations have generated a considerable amount of debate as to whether governments should stop using placebased policies to tackle the problems of their more slowly growing areas. Central to the discussion has been the observation that the geography of economic development is uneven reflecting the economic advantages to nations and their populations of large agglomerations of economic activity. To try and stimulate the development of relatively lagging areas in a country outside these core agglomerations has been argued to be at best ineffective and at worst damaging to the economic growth of the nation as a whole. Thus, in his recent article on the blog www.voxeu.org, Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s Chief Economist for Europe and Central Asia and the Director of the WDR, argues:

Nahoko Miyamoto Alvey, Strange Truths in Undiscovered Lands: Shelley's Poetic Development and Romantic Geography (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009), pp. 264. £35.00 hardback. 978-0-8020-3956-9

N<scp>ahoko</scp> M<scp>iyamoto</scp> A<scp>lvey</scp>, <i>Strange Truths in Undiscovered Lands: Shelley's Poetic Development and Romantic Geography</i> (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009), pp. 264. £35.00 hardback. 978-0-8020-3956-9

Corporate ecology: BC Hydro’s Stikine-Iskut project and the unbuilt environment

For every successful megaproject, there are dozens that have failed to launch, left as paper remains, imaginary geographies of development and enterprise. Although most scholarly attention focuses understandably on the projects which have been built, we need to look again at those projects that have been put aside, rejected, and cancelled. Failed projects produce unbuilt environments, and these have their own peculiar effects. This paper interrogates the planning, development, debate and abandonment of a massive infrastructure project in a remote area of northwest British Columbia. BC Hydro’s attempt to build five dams on the Stikine and Iskut Rivers in the late 1970s and early 1980s never materialized. However, in the ten-year attempt to justify the economic and environmental cost of the proposed dams, BC Hydro commissioned several dozen large resource inventories and analyses of biophysical, cultural, socioeconomic and hydrological data in the Stikine Watershed, where this information had been largely absent. In doing so, BC Hydro circumscribed the terms of the debate around dam construction, framed the constituents of the debate and reordered knowledge about the region. Locals and other interested parties began to engage with the river differently. I argue that the apparatuses of scientific, engineering and technological engagement that were implemented by BC Hydro resulted in both material and discursive changes to nature in the Stikine. I develop the concept of ‘unbuilt environments’ to understand the changes that emerge in the wake of failed infrastructure projects.

Geography and stage of development affect persistent organic pollutants in stranded and wild-caught harbor seal pups from central California

Persistent organic pollutants have been associated with disease susceptibility and decreased immunity in marine mammals. Concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and its metabolites (DDTs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), chlordanes (CHLDs), and hexachlorocyclohexane isomers (HCHs) were evaluated in terms of stage of development and likely exposure routes (in utero, suckling, fasting) in the blubber of 202 stranded and wild-caught, primarily young of the year (n=177), harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) in the central California coast. This is the first report of HCH concentrations in the blubber of California seals. Lipid normalized concentrations ranged from 200 to 330,000ng/g for sum PCBs, 320–1,500,000ng/g for sum DDTs, 23–63,000ng/g for sum PBDEs, 29–29,000ng/g for sum CHLDs, and 2–780ng/g for sum HCHs. The highest concentrations were observed in harbor seal pups that suckled in the wild and then lost mass during the post-weaning fast. Among the pups sampled in the wild and those released from rehabilitation, there were no differences in mass, blubber depth, or percent lipid although contaminant concentrations were significantly higher in the pups which nursed in the wild. When geographic differences were evaluated in a subset of newborn animals collected near their birth locations, the ratio of sum DDTs to sum PCBs was significantly greater in samples from an area with agricultural inputs (Monterey), than one with industrial inputs (San Francisco Bay). A principal components analysis distinguished between seals from San Francisco Bay and Monterey Bay based on specific PCB and PBDE congeners and DDT metabolites. These data illustrate the important influence of life stage, nutritional status, and location on blubber contaminant levels, and thus the need to consider these factors when interpreting single sample measurements in marine mammals.

Discussing the Geography of Sustainable Development through an International Online Collaboration with Students in Chile and the USA

Students participated in online discussions about sustainable development using a lesson from the Center for Global Geography Education. Students showed statistically significant changes in attitudes about solutions for global problems. Results suggest Chilean students' attitudes toward grades in geography classes, and attitudes toward awareness of world events became more negative; however, attitudes toward email communication increased as did US students' attitudes toward communicating with people in other countries. Students in USA showed more positive attitudes toward understanding global issues like sustainable development, whereas they stated a decrease in attitudes toward learning how peers in other countries think about world problems.

A review of Paul Krugmen’s economic geography

This paper reviews the main concepts on economic geography developed by Paul Krugman since the 1980s. Special attentions are given to three areas of his contributions: new trade theory, criticism on the five traditions of economic geography and spatial models of economic development. Finally, some comparisons are provided between Krugman's ideas and the conventional economic geography.

Bangladesh: From Basket Case to Showcase–An Essay on the Geography of Development

This article examines various geographic aspects of contemporary socio-economic development and its environmental impact in Bangladesh. The author outlines the political and economic geography of Bangladesh from the perspective of geography of space within the framework of neo-classical economics. The study outlines the spatial pattern of economic activities that correspond to a particular configuration of state, society, and economy between the colonial past and the present structural changes in Bangladesh's economy. An analysis of the geography of development identifies seven interrelated aspects of geography that affect the socio-economic development of a country: location, climate, population, resource base, access to the sea, agricultural productivity, and prevalence of disease. The remainder of the paper illustrates the interaction of these criteria in the context of development/underdevelopment in Bangladesh. A description of the physical geography of Bangladesh in terms of location, fertile land, ...