New Patterns: Process and Change in Human Geography introduces modern geographical theory in an accessible format and reflects the changing nature of the subject. The in-depth applied analysis of topics, consolidated by extensive reference to case study material, makes it an essential textbook for advanced level geography students.
Offers comprehensive and in depth coverage of the topic for AS and A Level. The book is also a useful resource for GNVQ Tourism and Leisure courses. Additional Information: Tourism, leisure and recreation The impact of tourism in coastal areas Mountains, high ground and rugged relief Sustainable tourism and ecotourism.
The term climate change is used to denote any significant but extended change in the measures of climate. The changes could be due to natural variability or as a result of human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels to produce energy, deforestation, industrial processes, and some agricultural practices. Such activities release large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that hang like a blanket around the earth, thus trapping energy in the atmosphere and causing it to warm up. This results increasingly in climate variability, which is characterised by extreme seasonal, annual, temporal and non-spatial variability in temperature, vagaries of precipitation (rainfall patterns and amounts) and/or wind patterns occurring over a prolonged period of time. The last decade (2001 - 2010) has been the warmest on record; with the average temperatures reaching 0.46∞C, above the 1961 - 1990 mean, and 0.21∞C warmer than the 1991 - 2000 period. It has been proved that the African continent is warming up faster, all year-round, than the global avera≥ a trend that is likely to continue. By the year 2100, it is predicted that temperature changes will fall into ranges of about 1.4∞C to nearly 5.8∞C increase in mean surface temperature compared to 1990, and the mean sea level will rise between 10cm to 90 cm (AMCEN 2011). The interior of semiarid margins of the Sahara and central southern Africa will be the most affected by such warming (AMCEN 2011). To tackle the phenomenon of climate change effectively, human societies have put in place a combination of mitigation and adaptation mechanisms and strategies. Whereas mitigation aims at avoiding or lessening the impacts of the unmanageable, the goal of adaptation is to manage the unavoidable. That men and women are affected differently by climate change suggests that they also differ in terms of the adaptation mechanisms they employ. Despite the existence of gender-based differences in the effects of climate change and in adaptation and coping strategies, studies on the gender differential impacts of climate change and variability on women in general and pastoralist women in particular in sub-Saharan Africa are limited. This volume offers insights and knowledge that pastoralist women developed on climate change adaptation through their experiences in their households and communities and thereby tries to narrow this gap.
Hotter summers and milder winters have already made most of us aware of what scientists say is a trend towards extensive global warming. Most of the experts accompany their predictions with dire warnings of the resulting rising sea levels and spreading deserts. Trausti Valsson's approach to the problem of global warming is a refreshing look at the advantages that will ensue. With the melting of the sea ice in the north, shipping routes will regularly include the passage north of Siberia and, slightly later, a north-west passage through the Canadian Archipelago. This means that countries bordering the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans will become "closer" to each other and that ships too wide for the Panama and Suez Canals can easily transport oil and other cargoes via the shorter routes over the Arctic Ocean. The warming climate and melting ice will make oil and mineral resources in northern areas easily accessible for exploitation and will make the far north comfortable for human habitation, replacing the living spaces around the central areas of the globe that will become too hot for habitation. Valsson recognizes the fact that the world's climate has changed many times in the past and that the present warming trend is not new. However, he underlines the importance of the international agreements for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which are largely to blame for the current warming trend. He also promotes the view that even in the face of the very many negative consequences, we need to maintain a positive attitude towards the changes that are coming upon us, a refreshing view which he presents through text and a wealth of informative maps.
Geographical scale is a central concept enabling us to make sense of the world we inhabit. Amongst other things, it allows us to declare one event or process a national one and another a global or regional one. However, geographical scales and how we think about them are profoundly contested, and the spatial resolution at which social processes take place – local, regional or global – together with how we talk about them has significant implications for understanding our world. Scale provides a structured investigation of the debates concerning the concept of scale and how various geographical scales have been thought about within critical social theory. Specifically, the author examines how the scales of the body, the urban, the regional, the national, and the global have been conceptualized within Geography and the social sciences more broadly. The first part of the book provides a comprehensive overview of how different theoretical perspectives have regarded scale, especially debates over whether scales are real things or merely mental contrivances and/ or logical devices with which to think, as well as the consequences of thinking of them in areal versus in networked terms. The subsequent five chapters of the book then each takes a particular scale: the body; the urban; the regional; the national; the global and explores how it has been conceptualized and represented discursively for political and other purposes. A brief conclusion draws the book together by posing a number of questions about scale which emerge from the foregoing discussion. The first single-author volume ever written on the subject of geographical scale, this book provides a unique overview in pushing understandings of scale in new and original directions. The accessible text is complimented by didactic boxes, and Scale serves as a valuable pedagogical reference for undergraduate and postgraduate audiences wishing to become familiar with such theoretical issues.
Introduction to Politics and Society draws on examples from popular political culture in order to convey how politics operates in the contemporary world. Examples illustrate the meaning of theories and show the relevance of central theoretical debates. Planned and developed with an eye to the needs of students, the book is an extraordinary resource for undergraduate teaching and study needs. It will be required reading for undergraduate students in sociology, politics and social policy.
This work aims to combine comprehensive coverage of the full range of topics with a flexible approach to learning. It covers basic geographical skills and offers help with revision and exam techniques.
Qualitative Change in Human Geography is a collection of studies that tackles concerns about human geography. The papers presented in the book deal with qualitative issues regarding human geography. The text contains eight different discussions that cover topics such as the direction of social practice research and the concept of people, society, and nature in social science. The book covers how economic and political interaction can explain the creation of spatial structure. The text discusses the explanatory theories and ideologies regarding the obsession of policymakers with the inner-city. The book will be of great interest to sociologists, psychologists, and individuals concerned with human geography.
The Social Ecology of Tropical Forests brings together various analyses from the three major tropical regionsâ??Southeast Asia, the Amazon basin, and Sub-Saharan Africaâ??and by challenging simplistic correlations, the authors explore the complex relationships between deforestation and migration. The book provides both an historical overview of migration into these regions, and presents contemporary case studies to reveal the complex interplay of factors motivating migration. The scope of the discussion is extensive, covering historical issues such as the impact of the slave trade on Sub-Saharan African forests and communities, and contemporary dilemmas like the over-exploitation of natural forest products in Vietnam. The authors look at the broader picture of intertwining political, social, geographical, environmental, and historical influences, without seeking quick-fix solutions to the social and environmental issues arising from increasing forest cover loss. The analyses are spatially and temporally contextualized, drawing on both qualitative and quantitative data to provide a useful resource for studying the societies of tropical regions and their social ecology.
