Transborder Region Research Articles

Recasting the Machine Age: Henry Ford's Village Industries by Howard P. Segal

Book Reviews 147 Roberts ably weaves together McGregor's personal, corporate, and civic lives to create a vivid portrait of the man and his place within the modernizing yet still rough-and-tumble Windsor-Detroit area and the rapidly expanding Ford empire. Some elements of McGregor's times, such as the complex relationship between labor and capital and problems of race relations (including Henry Ford's anti-Semitism), while covered competendy, could have been contextualized more effectively; but Roberts has captured the essence of McGregor's accomplishments. This is an achievement, given that, again unlike many other business biographies, In the Shadow of Detroit does not rest upon a treasure trove of sources. McGregor did not leave a large collection of private papers, and the bulk of his company's records have long since disappeared. Nonetheless, the reader does get a sense of McGregor's reach, as he and Ford Canada reshaped Windsor and Canada, and spread Ford's wares throughout the world via Canada's British connections. The author is to be commended both for searching through amultitude of local records and news sources, and for his careful handling of the overdy partisan Windsor newspapers' treatment of McGregor. This book is different also because Roberts did not just write a biography: he wrote the story of a distinctive transborder region. This section of In the Shadow of Detroit is useful in understanding the imperialistic phase of Michigan history, when its auto industry rapidly and profoundly shaped virtually every aspect of North American life. Windsor became a special place?the first foreign outpost of Henry Ford's empire?and one that took on a particular Canadian-American personality. Like all imperial outposts, Ford Canada and its founder both reveled in, and sometimes chafed against, their master's embrace. Roberts has vividly shown that McGregor was a capable centurion in Ford's fascinating Motoropolis. Dimitry Anastakis Trent University, Peterborough Ontario, Canada Howard P. Segal. Recasting the Machine Age: Henry Ford's Village Industries. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2005. Pp. 244. Bibliography. Illustrations. Index. Notes. Cloth, $34.95. In Recasting theMachine Age, Howard P. Segal explores Henry Ford's ideas about the decentralizing of production in the early twentieth century. Ford believed that centralized production had 148 Michigan Historical Review become expensive because it created many social ills. Accordingly, Ford relocated a portion of his company's production to several rural Michigan sites, which afforded the company two benefits: lower overhead and an opportunity for Ford to implement cultural values that were dear to his heart. Positioning the Ford debate outside of its traditional setting?urban America?Segal offers historians a chance to examine corporate America's shift of industrial manufacturing from urban cores to the countryside. Segal begins with a discussion of Ford's "village industries." Designed as small-scale, widely dispersed factories, they were an effort to decentralize production within Ford's industrial empire. Segal concludes that the results of this initiative were mixed at best, but he notes that Henry Ford's personal opinions about proper living and working arrangements played an important role in this process. The same paternalistic trend was evident at Ford's rural industrial sites as at his urban factories. Ford believed that moving production away from congested cities yielded greater profits and made for a healthier and happier work environment. Employing the latest technology, village industries proved to be efficient production facilities that provided local townspeople with employment and generally improved the surrounding area's infrastructure. Segal's later chapters examine workers' experiences in village industries. He compares "village" workers to their urban counterparts and finds that the former were different. Work in Ford's village industries took on a familial character; many employees claimed that they "felt like a family" (p. 62). Segal argues that village industries provided a vision of "a new social order inAmerica" (p. 155). Ford welcomed modern technology as a fact of life and, through his rural production facilities, offered a means of accommodating it to his notion of middle-class respectability. The motives behind Ford's establishment of village industries were not solely economic; while he sought to lower his operating costs, Ford was also attempting to...

Transborder cooperation in the Pannonian plain: Case study of 'The Euroregion Danube-Drava-Sava'

Within the new 'European state architecture', based on the policy of the Western countries that encourage transborder cooperation, the last decade of the second millennium was characterized by considerable 'mutations' in the countries of the former Eastern block. With a strong logistic and financial support, that European project was quickly accepted in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Linking of transborder regions by means of direct cooperation, leaning upon the legal framework that allows the official competence of local and regional authorities, with obeying of national laws is the basis and the main reason for acceptance of this European policy which precedes the real European integration. One of such regions, formed in the southern part of the Pannonian plain, is the 'Danube-Drava-Sava Euroregion' that links Hungary, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with north-western Bačka, which still has the status of the observer.

Az osztrák–magyar határ menti együttműködés múltja, jelene

A tanulmány célja, hogy áttekintést adjon az osztrák-magyar határrégió fejlődését befolyásoló tényezők alakulásáról a rendszerváltozástól napjainkig. A határrégió kiemelt figyelmet kapott a magyar regionális fejlődésben, hiszen egy sikertérségnek lehetett tekinteni. A siker okai abban keresendők, hogy egy kvázi centrumrégió érintkezett egy fejlett, nyugat-európai centrummal, alapvetően Béccsel. A kapcsolatok már a 20. században is jelentősek voltak, azonban a II. világháború után kialakult vasfüggöny hosszú évtizedekre holt régióvá tette Magyarországnak ezt a vidékét. A hetvenes években indulnak meg a kapcsolatok, elsőként a bevásárlóturizmus, ami mind a napig tart és hat a térség fejlődésére. A hivatalos, intézményi együttműködések a nyolcvanas évek közepétől aktivizálódtak. Ennek szintjei az állami szervezetektől kezdve az önkormányzatokon át egészen a különféle közintézményekig terjedtek. Egyre fontosabbá vált az együttműködések rendezett, kiépített, folyamatosan működő szervezeti rendszerbe való átalakítása. Ennek formája az Eurorégió, ami 1998-ban alakult meg. A szervezett és intézményi szinten alakított kapcsolatok mellett azonban működnek – és a határgazdaság alapján természetszerűen hosszabb-rövidebb ideig élnek – nem legális viszonyok a határrégióban. A tanulmány záró fejezete összefoglalja azokat a tényezőket, amik akadályozzák az együttműködések teljesebb kibontakozását. Ezek között a gazdasági különbségek, az eltérő területi intézményrendszer és finanszírozás éppúgy szerepet játszik, mint a két ország kulturális különbségei, vagy a regionális politika súlypontjai.

Euroregions — new potential destinations

Europe as a destination seems to be in a critical stage. There is more competition than cooperation between European nations and regions Our continent needs new solutions and patterns of tourism development. As new initiatives take place in transborder regions it is important to analyze opportunities for transborder tourism development. Several euroregions function only as “umbrellas” facilitating tourism development in national components however some of them are becoming attractive transborder destinations. The author tries to compare regions and euroregions as destinations. The paper shows the role of structural funds (e.g. Interreg), in transnational cooperation and to describes examples of good practice in transborder tourism. According to Association of European Border Regions, “the border regions themselves would not be able to overcome their problems without being granted assistance from the UE. The Oresund is one of the first euroregions promoted as transnational destination. The creation of a transborder destination is a long term process. It requires stable partnership between national components that leads from alienation to integration

Border Management and Growth Coalitions in the Hong Kong Transborder Region

The integration of Hong Kong with proximate parts of China since 1979 has played a major part in one of the most influential spurts of wealth creation in history, but the proliferation of projects to tap large complementarities have not been matched by the creation of innovative institutions to foster cooperation. This article argues that patterns of cross-border cooperation and conflict can be better understood by considering the influence of growth coalitions with heavy real estate investments in Hong Kong, which are threatened by the risk of price convergence between the Hong Kong and mainland China sides of the border. We examine the impact of these growth coalitions through case studies of debates about border liberalization and proposals for integrative infrastructural projects. We suggest that border studies would benefit from paying more attention to the influence of real estate interests, given the fixity of their investments compared to other more mobile resources and agents.

Small populations of grizzly bears in the U.S.–Canada Transborder Region: Introduction to the workshop proceedings

Small populations of grizzly bears in the U.S.–Canada Transborder Region: Introduction to the workshop proceedings

The influence transborder regions on the development process in Serbia

Opening of the East European borders, at the end of the 20th century, a lot of possibilities for international and transborder collaboration were appeared. There were different initiatives to create planned concepts for adjusting the development of eastern and western countries, and opportunity activating potentials. This paper, deals with the new planning concept of the transborder regions according to the predominant politics and trends in "Europe without borders". In Serbia, transborder regions were created with Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Bosnia and Hercegovina and Croatia.

Les nouvelles dynamiques de peuplement dans les zones frontalières en Wallonie

The Recent Dynamics of Settlement in the Border Regions of Walloonia. For some years, certain localities have stopped losing their inhabitants and present, on the contrary, a spectacular population growth. This change is due to a strong migratory attraction, which takes place in a double context, both national and international. At the country level, the recent immigration toward these regions lies within the process of periurbanisation: people and families migrate to parkland, sometimes distant from their work place. At the international level, the origin is the free circulation of the goods that has transformed border spaces into transborder regions. This paper studies, on the long trend and in a comparative approach, the demographic dynamics of municipalities located along the border with Germany and the Grand-Duchy of Luxemburg. Thanks to the linkage between the individual data of the national register and the 1991 population census, we analyse the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the populations who set up in these border regions between 1993 and 1998.

Methodology and results of the REKLIP atmospheric emission inventory of the upper Rhine valley transborder region

In the frame of the climatological project REKLIPwhich involves part of Switzerland, Germany and Franceand concerns the upper Rhine valley, an atmosphericemission inventory has been established with a spatialresolution of a square kilometer and a time resolutionup to one hour. Anthropogenic emissions of SO2, NOx,CO, HCl and volatile organic compounds (VOC) divided into thirty compounds or group of compounds as well as biogenic emissions of NMVOC have been taken into account for the year 1990. This inventory has been updated for the following years until 1993 and some hourly emissions inventories have been derived for a period of several days of September 1992,corresponding to a REKLIP intensive measurement campaign.

Norden is Dead — Long Live the Eastwards Faced Euro-North

Norden may be forgotten, but northern spatial politics is `alive and kicking'. The human aspiration to define, represent and master space has not ended in the northern hemisphere. Claims made about `the end of the geography', given the decreasing importance of spatial distance or location, are misleading. Geography still matters, albeit the modes of geographical reasoning are radically changing. An analysis of spatial politics practised by multiple actors within the last seven years in the Nordic journal Nord Revy (later North) suggests an active geopolitical reconstruction of northern space. The new, reconstructed `northernness' points predominantly in two directions: east (Russia) and south (Europe). Northern space as a whole, however, covers a large variety of spatial constructions, or representations (states, interstate regions, trans-border regions, city districts, urban networks, etc.). The new eastwards-oriented and Europeanized `northernness' is more reminiscent of a complex and multilevel spatial network than a clearly delimited, homogeneous territory `between the two blocks'. Given such developments it can be argued that the `North' is beginning to exhibit a number of late-modern features. It is less territorial and has many layers and possible directions for future development. Nevertheless, the new `North' hasn't lost any of its geopolitical appeal, albeit the mode of politics has changed.

From peace to partnership: Challenges of integration and development along the Peru‐Ecuador Border

The common needs and aspirations of those living on both sides of the Peru‐Ecuador border have challenged the central governments of these two “distant neighbors” to achieve a peaceful solution to their long‐standing border dispute. These similar hopes and necessities provide impetus for a socio‐economic partnership benefiting the transborder region in the near term, as well as the national economies as the relationship consolidates over the longer term. This study examines the developmental needs, opportunities, and projects relevant to the integration of the Peru‐Ecuador borderlands. Not only will new roads and bridges link populations once separated by armies, minefields, and neglect, but they will also serve as conduits for cultural, educational, and commercial exchange and integration. An incipient transborder culture and partnership await this border region in the new millennium.

The Monterrey industry and the north‐American market: Past and present dynamics

Future historical analyses of the process of industrialization in Monterrey, Mexico, will characterize the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s as a watershed. Mexico entered into the GATT in 1986, the Salinas government liberalized imports in 1988 and Mexico signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993. Together these actions have generated radical changes in the conditions under which the industry has to produce and compete. All through the hundred years history of industrialization in the North American market has been extremely important. For a long period has operated there as foreign exporter. It has now joined that same market. This happened in an atmosphere of optimism. In June 1992 The Economist published an article entitled It's happening in Monterrey in which this optimistic view of future developments was supported. An image was presented of a modern industrial city, led by a group of dynamic entrepreneurs ready to meet the challenges of the new situation created by NAFTA. The economy was presented as the trailblazer for Mexican interests in the North American market and as the center of a new transborder region that would expand into the Texas heartland. But what might this consist of? Are these appraisals of the future role of the economy realistic? What inferences can be drawn from its performance during the initial years of trade liberalization leading up to NAFTA regarding its future performance?

Elementi obmejnosti in faktorji oblikovanja prekomejnih območij na primeru Slovenije

Članek na primeru Slovenije obravnava nekatere elemente obmejnosti ter faktorje oblikovanja prekomejnih območij, s posebnim poudarkom na različni predispoziciji konsolidiranih in novejših obmejnih območij do prekomejnega sodelovanja ter na vlogi kulturne afinitete obmejnega prebivalstva pri oblikovanju prekomejnih območij.

Cultural and social dimensions of borderlands: The case of the Italo-Slovene trans-border area

The article represents an attempt to explore the dimensions of border landscapes on the basis of some recent theoretical and methodological geographical trends in approaching such kind of regions and in the case of a special part of the current Italo-Slovene transborder area — the Gorizia section. Here, the contradiction between the stability of trans-border cultural and social links and the lability of the political partition seems to be particularly sharp. As a consequence, the border population try to reproduce the traditional spatial and social milieu in which it used to live before changes in international political framework occurred. Field methods for the detection of local social and cultural trans-border relations are then introduced, disclosing both the extent and qualities of the Gorizia trans-border region.

Le territoire des réseaux vidéotex internationaux : flux transfrontières ou flux transfrontaliers ?

Encouraged by France, the internationalization of videotex networks enables easier trans-border data flow. Is the operating of these networks antinomic to the presence of specific territorial contents ? The weakness of the trans-border videotex data flow traffic and the almost inexistent trans-border region flows in the Alsace, Aquitaine and Midi Pyrenees areas do not, as-to-date, enable one to come to any decision in this debate on network and territory.

Nationalism Versus Ethnic Identity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Part and parcel of the conventional wisdom about rural publics in Africa is that populations on the periphery will accord ethnic solidarity greater significance than national consciousness. A survey of neighboring Hausa villages on different sides of the Niger-Nigeria boundary counters this myth. Probing issues of self-identity and ethnic affinity, we found that most Hausa villagers on the frontier did not place their Hausan ethnic identity above their national one as citizens of Nigeria or Niger and expressed greater affinity for non-Hausa cocitizens than for foreign Hausas. However, expressed attachments to ethnic, national, and other social identifications (such as religion) varied according to village: citizenship does make a difference in the political consciousness of villagers on the geographic margins of the state. More survey research in other transborder regions should shed further light on processes of state penetration and national integration in developing countries.