Search

This paper explores the thesis of de-globalisation in relation to international education. Through interrogating accounts of international school leadership during the COVID-19 crisis, the tension between international expectations and localised realities is charted, with four central tenets of internationalism undermined by the pandemic experience. It is argued that the COVID-19 crisis, ostensibly a single global event, resulted in the fractalisation of international education; the conceptualisation of unified internationalism was undermined by the inherently localised material effects of the pandemic. In place of an internationalism that is unified, transcendent, inclusive and connected, international school leaders' accounts of leading through the pandemic focused on their sense that their schools were fractured, rooted, privileged and isolated. It is suggested that this international crisis demonstrates the precarious nature of the respatialising of the global that is intrinsic to international schooling.

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, every aspect of daily life is being altered in response to the virus. The pandemic has altered secondary education. Classes online, teachers struggling to learn Zoom and make lessons meaningful and relevant to students. Students struggling to make sense of this moment, struggling with mental health issues due to the loss of routine and in many cases contact with adult role models. Unfortunately, in times of crisis such as these some of the most disenfranchized people in society are completely overlooked and forgotten, such as refugees. However, if more teachers were to leverage the social studies potential of current events such as the Coronavirus, greater empathy would be felt for marginalized people more starkly impacted by the pandemic, leading ultimately to a heightened sense of civic engagement among the next generation. The purpose of this paper is to assist teachers in guiding their students through analyzing current events, such as COVID-19's impact on refugees, toward developing civic mindedness. In addition to this, the paper will discuss some of the broader societal impacts the virus is having within the United States, as well as ways in which this event may be viewed as a historical subject in the future. The paper will begin by building the content knowledge of high school social studies teachers through addressing the following question: "What is the difference between a refugee entering the United States now versus one year ago before the COVID-19 pandemic?" Following this, the authors will present an inquiry-based learning segment designed to teach the History correlated to the COVID-19 pandemic to a classroom of secondary education students. The inquiry template follows the standard C3 format utilized by the State of Connecticut.

Based on the "case" of educational reform in India, this paper explores the emergence of both new trans-national spaces of policy and new intra-national spaces of policy and how they are related together, and how policies move across and between these spaces and the relationships that enable and facilitate such movement. The paper is an attempt to think outside and beyond the framework of the nation state to make sense of what is going on inside the nation state. In particular, it takes seriously the need to rethink the frame within and scales at which the new policy actors, discourses, connections, agendas, resources, and solutions of governance are addressed--and the need to move beyond what Beck calls "methodological nationalism". In other words, the paper argues that thinking about the spaces of policy means extending the limits of our geographical imagination. To address this argument, it combines the presentation and discussion of data with some more general discussion of policy networks and mobilities.

The introduction conveys some data on the system of education in India, about the place Geography occupies within the curriculum, and on geography teachers' training. In the first section of the paper, several features of the coursebooks in India are underlined: authors, editing, prices, and designing. Furthermore, an array of coursebooks for 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades is presented. As regards each coursebook, there are scrutinized: the table of contents (topics), the texts, illustrative/iconic materials (maps, photographs, and schematic charts), exercises, the amount of geography terms and denominations, and the glossary.

This paper focuses on the spatiality of cricket played over public grounds. The paper uses the concepts of space, place and sportscape (Appadurai in Playing the modernity: The decolonisation of Indian Cricket, University of Minnesota Press, 1995) to derive meanings of the way the game is played and experienced. The study is organised under three scales conceptualised as landscape, territory and anthropocentric levels which are interlinked to each other. Drawing insights from the geography of sports literature, the paper extends the boundaries of knowledge about cricket beyond historical and sociological studies of the sport. A combination of methods, namely, ethnographic observations, interviews and focused group discussions were employed to deduce the spatial connection of cricket to urban spaces in India. For this purpose, Nirankari Grounds in North Delhi has been selected as the study area. The location of Nirankari Grounds at the crossroads of a densely populated residential area and the University of Delhi makes it an important site for the study. The paper contributes to the study of geography by expanding the geographical understanding of the sport. At the same time, it attempts to fill in the gaps in literature in domain of sports geography by analysing spatial aspects of sports when the game is in play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic activity as a measure of development is generally estimated in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). But the propriety of GDP as a measure of development has been subject to debate. Different theoretical as well as empirical evidences have hinted towards a relationship between geography and economic growth. This paper attempts to test the geographical proximity hypothesis (i.e., economic growth of a region is determined by its geography in general, and its proximity to other developing or under developed regions in particular) in context of India. This paper argues that the growth rate of a region is determined by the proximity to developed or under-developed states and such clusters of proximate states grow together as a whole. This inference has huge policy implications and makes a favourable case for inclusion of geography as a significant determinant of economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the Linguistic Survey of India (LSI), a monumental exercise supervised by George Grierson to survey and classify the languages of colonial India. It considers why the LSI developed into an atypical scheme that corresponded with a multiethnic and multinational network of officials and scholars to survey India's languages. It makes the case that the networked practice of surveying was reciprocated at different scales, from localised linguistic surveys in districts and princely states to gather information and specimens, to a loosely governed transnational exercise involving Indians and Europeans to edit, review and publish results. The paper argues that the LSI's scalar geographies were negotiated by Grierson and, more importantly, his assistant Gauri Kant Roy and demonstrates that scale, as an analytic or process, was not an abstraction or predetermined for those entangled in the LSI's survey of India's languages. • Examines the Linguistic Survey of India from a historical geography perspective. • Highlights the LSI's uniqueness as a colonial Indian survey. • Draws on underutilised materials from National Archives of India. • Proposes a scalar and networked approach to the history of science and surveying. • Emphasises the significance of Gauri Kant Roy and various Indian surveyors in shaping India's linguistic geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the Center for Global Geography Education teaching workshop held in Bangalore, India, in March 2012 which served as a collaborative forum linking geography teachers in secondary and higher education in the USA and India. It considers the inclusion of the Advanced Placement Human Geography teachers from the USA and the building of global teaching content in collaborative teams as a useful way to connect geography teachers across institutional contexts. Based on a survey of workshop participants, it also highlights some of the issues that need to be addressed for further strengthening of high school-university linkages within national and across international contexts.

The English Geography National Curriculum encourages primary teachers to focus on similarities and differences when teaching distant places. The issues this raises are particularly acute when teaching geography in the context of the Global South. In this article I argue that comparisons based on object-based thinking can lead to views of the "Other" that undermine attempts to challenge stereotypes and develop positive attitudes towards difference. Relational thinking is proposed as an alternative, where difference is seen as a relation rather than a distinction. Drawing on an Economic and Social Research Council research project, these alternative ways of thinking are explored through research participants' constructions of culture and identity during study visits to Southern India and The Gambia. The implications for primary teachers are considered.

Geography is among the late beginner subjects at higher education level in India. As revealed in scholarly writings, this discipline had been subjected to discrimination for colonial reasons and continues to lurch even today. There have been many academic writings on Indian geography. This paper is an attempt to look at the discipline from the people's side. Against the backdrop of a brief history of Indian geography and current debates therein, various issues are discussed as revealed by ordinary people during a questionnaire-based survey across different sections of society and also focused informal discussions. (Contains 5 tables and 3 figures.)

This paper argues for and demonstrates the value of integrating nexus thinking - a conceptual and policy framework for the multiple interdependencies between resources, most commonly food, water and energy – into the Geographies of Children, Youth and Families (GCYF). Through discussion of the two areas' current limitations, a review of existing GCYF work on food, water, energy and materiality, and secondary auto-analysis of data generated on families' situated environmental concerns in India and the UK, the paper identifies three key contributions of an integrated nexus thinking-GCYF research agenda. Firstly, nexus thinking can advance understandings of how children and young people negotiate multi-scalar social, political, economic and ecological processes; secondly, an integrated agenda can 'embody' nexus thinking by situating children and families in the nexus of interconnections; thirdly, nexus thinking offers a policy-relevant frame through which GCYF can engage questions of intergenerational justice with questions of resource sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper interprets the use of the Auto-Tune effect (ATE) in popular music from northern India. The paper sets out to demonstrate the value of using YouTube channels to identify regionally calibrated listenerships and to demonstrate how three channels in the state of Uttarakhand use the Auto-Tune effect to contribute to regional identity through music. While processes of globalization spread the use of the ATE around the world, a closer examination of its local expression in the music markets of India and Uttarakhand demonstrates that local contexts and local/regional industries influence the way the ATE is applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the legacy of Kenneth Mason (1887–1976) in the geography of the Himalaya-Karakoram (H-K) region has been thoroughly examined. Mason was a distinguished British geographer, surveyor, soldier, and mountaineer. He led the Indo-Russian Triangulation Connection and pioneered the use of stereoscopic photography in the Pamirs, laying the groundwork for precise geographical records. His detailed surveys and mappings of the Shaksgam Valley and Aghil Ranges corrected longstanding cartographic inaccuracies and presented accurate topographical details through terrestrial stereo photogrammetry. Mason critically assessed and recommended improvements for the depiction of glaciers and geomorphic features on Survey of India maps, encouraging the training of surveyors in glacial morphology. He contributed significantly to standardising geographical terms and nomenclature within the Karakoram Range. Mason also played a crucial role in founding the Himalayan Club and the Himalayan Journal. His studies on glacier movements and advocacy for monitoring systems to prevent natural disasters exhibit his profound commitment to minimising human life and infrastructure loss. Mason's comprehensive work boosted scientific investigation in the H-K region and laid a foundation for ongoing and future research in these remote regions, paving the way for future generations of explorers, researchers, and enthusiasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By tracing specific moments in the history of the more‐than‐human landscape constituting the food geography of western Avadh, a long settled agricultural heartland in the Indo‐Gangetic plains, this paper challenges the neat formulations of the Anthropocene laying out decisive global impacts of humans on the environment. Building upon the concept of the 'patchy Anthropocene', we show how outcomes are shaped by an imbrication of humans and non‐humans—where powerful human actors seek to coerce people and corral the environment into their projects of remaking the landscape, but also where recalcitrant ecologies and resistant people thwart these intentions, especially during the colonial encounter. Contestations across power hierarchies and unintended outcomes litter the wake of the Anthropocene — as we show, efforts to save the non‐human cow in the last decade have intensified processes associated with the Great Acceleration. Instead of treating the trajectory of food geographies like western Avadh as outliers and marginal to the normative process of defining change, we argue for treating it as constitutive of the norm. Only through such a process of decolonisation, by 'provincialising the Anthropocene', can we hope to push for epistemic justice, ecological sustainability and a more equitable world. By tracing the history of the more‐than‐human landscape constituting the food geography of western Avadh, a long settled agricultural heartland in the Indo‐Gangetic plains, this paper challenges the neat Anthropocene formulations of decisive global impacts of humans on the environment. We show how powerful human actors seek to coerce people and corral the environment into their landscape remaking projects, but also how recalcitrant ecologies and resistant people thwart these intentions. We also describe unintended outcomes – efforts to save the nonhuman cow in the last decade have intensified processes associated with the Great Acceleration. Only through decolonisation and 'provincialising the Anthropocene', can we hope to push for epistemic justice, ecological sustainability and a more equitable world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructing the syllabus of a school subject could be a highly contested exercise given the fact that it must cater for the concerns of competing stakeholders and pressures to incorporate all possible aspects of that discipline. For geography, whose field of study is extremely vast, and its nature is not clearly defined, developing its syllabus is particularly challenging. This paper discusses some key issues concerning the status of the geography syllabus in the secondary schools in India. The central theme of the paper is built on the study of documentary sources, research works, as well as on the survey of schoolteachers and geography experts from some school boards. The paper concludes that the educational value of school geography can only be realized by incorporating both physical and human aspects of the Earth in the syllabus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on the concentration of urban poverty has considered two kinds of locations as the pockets of poverty: slums (vs. non-slums) and towns (vs. cities). Moving beyond these binaries in discussing spatial concentration of urban poverty, we have made an intersection of these two kinds of residential locations in the post-reform India using four rounds of data from the National Sample Survey. The proportion of relatively poor households was lower in city slum areas than in towns (both slum and non-slum households). Next, this paper tries to find out the level of basic services availability across these intersectional spatial categories and how public policies respond to existing poverty. Availability of basic services was higher in city slums than in town non-slum households. Across all these urban areas, the poor had a lower access to services than the non-poor, and the gap between them had increased over time. These findings also pose serious concerns on the geographical targeting of poverty alleviation programmes in India and on iniquitous resources allocations for providing basic amenities [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to examine how online education in Kerala -- in its shift necessitated by the Pandemic--amplifies rather than mitigates existing inequalities for female students from low or middle income groups, already hindered by entrenched patriarchal social norms, which see educational qualifications also as a means for bolstering marital prospects, perhaps more than for gainful employment--a fact attested by the much discussed paradox of the gap between high female literacy and low female employment ratio in Kerala. In the unique context of Kerala which prioritises education, the transition to virtual mode was welcomed as a timely intervention against uncertainties ushered in by the Covid-19 lockdown. Arguments were also raised against over-optimizing the 'borderless' reach of online education, expected to level social, cultural, and economic fallouts for students in general, and for girl students in particular, confined as they were in domestic quarantines with relatively unequal access to educational resources and technological tools, and already imbricated by caste, class, community, spatial and geographical inequalities. Based on sample surveys and feedback from students about the efficacy of online classes, the paper analyses the deprivation of social interactions and the neutral spaces on college campuses, which impacts the mental and physical health of students from middle- and lower-income BPL and AAY category who tellingly opt for physical classrooms, indicating the fact that domestic space-classrooms are enabling only for students from families with economic and social capital. The paper critiques the egalitarian claims of online education and the supposed lack of gender and social biases of technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the shared cultural and spiritual heritage of Guru Nanak is intertwined with the political tensions and violence that have defined the complex relationship between India and Pakistan. We argue that that Nanak is the only thinker/spiritual leader who is equally respected both in India and Pakistan. This strong and rare commonality between India and Pakistan could be the agreed basis, despite all other differences, for conversation and dialogue between the two countries. We suggest that such dialogue can remove mistrust and foster peaceful and mutually beneficial relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper looks at the circulation of music in new spaces produced by technologies of recording, amplification, and transmission. It argues for the making of new categories that go beyond 'classical' and 'popular' especially in the context of southern India and the tradition that is identified as Carnatic music. It looks at Radio and televisual broadcasting to capture new listening communities and their acoustic aspirations. It argues for new radio geographies that reinforced identity of regions and their practices and gave them greater leverage in relation to the nation and national pool of resources. In contrast the television as a medium of spectacle and entertainment impacted listening experiences quite differently even as it expanded the viewership beyond the confines of the nation space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper quantitatively analyzes the spatial heterogeneity of district‐level correlates of open defecation in rural India. We employ standard non‐spatial regression, spatially explicit regressions and multi‐scale geographically weighted regression to compare the stability of measurable correlates of open defecation across these different methods as well as across analyzed spatial units. Attributes like ownership of household assets, drinking water inaccessibility and prevalent literacy rates were identified as the most stable district‐level correlates of open defecation. Our results also demonstrated the relevance of our hypotheses about (a) possible negative sanitation externalities stemming from the co‐concentration of Scheduled Caste communities and other communities in densely populated rural districts, and (b) possible positive sanitation externalities stemming from the co‐concentration of Muslim and non‐Muslim communities in densely populated districts. Overall, however, our analyses demonstrate notable spatial clustering and significant spatial non‐stationarity of examined variables. Therefore, in our opinion, research findings that ignore spatial heterogeneity of sanitation drivers provide incomplete information for policy development and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last 15 years, "rights of nature" as a concept and legal apparatus has spread across various sites and scales of environmental governance throughout the world. This paper examines the rights of nature phenomenon, focusing on a recent decision by the High Court of Uttarakhand, India to grant legal personhood to the Ganga (Ganges) and Yamuna rivers and associated natural entities. Arguing against "diffusionist" and "global" approaches to understanding the rights of nature phenomenon, and drawing on the concept of translocal assemblages, I emphasise the place‐based specificities of these decisions in addition to their translocal connections. Through a close reading of the Uttarakhand case, I demonstrate the need to situate translocal social movements in place by attending to the manner in which "rights of nature" becomes articulated through specific practices, cultural meanings, material networks, human–environment relations, legal regimes, governance structures, and political projects in culturally and geographically specific ways with often counterintuitive outcomes. Rather than seeing "rights of nature" as a global movement or network manifesting at various scales, I consider it as a boundary object connecting translocal assemblages of environmental governance through acts of translation. In doing so, I push assemblage geographies to engage theoretical problems of difference, boundaries, and translation that have yet to be addressed in this emerging paradigm. In the last 15 years, "rights of nature" as a concept and legal apparatus has spread across various sites and scales of environmental governance throughout the world. This paper examines the rights of nature phenomenon, focusing on a recent decision by the High Court of Uttarakhand, India to grant legal personhood to the Ganga (Ganges) and Yamuna rivers. Arguing against "diffusionist" and "global" approaches to understanding the rights of nature phenomenon, I consider it as a boundary object connecting translocal assemblages of environmental governance through acts of translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important new large-scale survey database is brought to bear on measuring and analysing self-reported health in India. The most important correlates are age, income and location. There is substantial variation of health across the 102 'homogeneous regions' within the country, after controlling for household and individual characteristics. Higher income is correlated with better health in only 40% of India. We create novel maps showing regions with poor health, that is attributable to the location, that diverge from the conventional wisdom. These results suggest the need for epidemiological studies in the hotspots of ill-health and in regions where higher income does not correlate with improved health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses recent developments in the literature on local and regional innovative performance to show how an 'integrated' conceptual framework based on the cross-fertilization of different theories can serve as a foundation for the comparative analysis of territorial innovation dynamics in both developed and developing countries. The paper outlines a conceptual framework to explain the differences between innovation systems and their geography by drawing on elements of endogenous growth, new economic geography and regional innovation systems. This framework forms the basis of the subsequent analysis of the differences in innovative capacity between the European Union (EU), the United States (US) - as the leader system to be challenged - and China and India as emerging competitors for international technological leadership. The systematic analysis of a large body of empirical literature shows important differences between the spatial patterning of 'emerging' (China and India) and 'mature' (EU and US) innovation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds on the growing literature on the political resource curse by highlighting the potential impacts of risitarianing global commodity prices on good governance and peace-building in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It confirms the existence of the connection between natural resource dependence, armed conflict and weak governance, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. By focusing on the Democratic Republic of Congo, the paper contributes to the ongoing resource curse literature by highlighting the role of various mineral resources, the geographical distribution of such resources as well as the role of international state and non-state actors. The paper argues that the recent shift in the global terms of trade in favour of hard commodities due to the growing demand of China and India will present significant challenges for governance and peace-building as state and non-state actors attempt to gain control over lucrative natural resource rents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper describes a methodology by which modelers, ecologists and planners can quantify the certainty in predicting the location of change for a given quantity of change. The specification of the quantity of a land cover category and the specification of the location of a land cover category are two distinct fundamental concepts in geographical analysis. It is crucial that scientists have appropriate quantitative tools to analyze each of these two concepts independently of one another. This paper gives methods whereby a scientist can convert a map of relative propensity for disturbance to a map of probability of future disturbance, based on a quantifiable validation of a map's predictive ability. The required inputs are: (1) maps that show a Boolean categorical variable at times 0, 1 and 2, (2) a technique to create a map that shows the relative propensity for membership in the Boolean category, and (3) a predicted proportion of the category at time 3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides new insights on compensation and human resources practices of multinational corporations (MNCs) and how they differ from those of domestic companies. The authors focus on cross-geography differences in compensation for IT professionals and take a closer look at returns on master of business administration (MBA) education and information technology (IT) experience. They analyze data on more than 20,000 IT professionals across the United States and India and compare practices of United States–based MNCs and India-based firms for IT professionals in India and of United States–based MNCs for IT professionals in the United States and India. The study finds that MNCs source IT talent from emerging markets because of the lower cost of IT professionals in these markets, coupled with the availability of a large pool of technically qualified professionals. For IT professionals in India, results indicate that United States–based MNCs pay a premium (compared with India firms) for each year of IT experience. By contrast, India firms pay a premium (compared with United States–based MNCs) for IT professionals in India with an MBA. Interestingly, whereas United States–based MNCs do not pay a premium for MBA education in India, they do pay a premium for MBA education in the United States. The findings are informative for IT professionals to decide whether to pursue an MBA or invest in gaining firm-specific experience. The results also provide indirect evidence that MNCs apply a portfolio approach to optimize their profits by using knowledge workers in various locations based on their skills and costs. How do multinational corporations (MNCs) and domestic firms compensate technical and managerial skills of knowledge workers within and across geographies? This paper answers this question by examining how developed economy MNCs and emerging economy firms value master of business administration (MBA) education and firm-specific information technology (IT) experience of IT professionals in India and how developed economy MNCs value MBA education and firm-specific IT experience differently across India and the United States. Our analyses of archival data on more than 20,000 IT professionals reveal two important findings. First, for IT professionals in India, the marginal effect of firm-specific IT experience on compensation is greater for developed economy MNCs than for emerging economy firms, and the marginal effect of MBA education is greater for emerging economy firms than for developed economy MNCs. Second, when we compare compensation of IT professionals employed by MNCs across India and the United States, we find a greater marginal effect of firm-specific IT experience in India but a greater marginal effect of MBA education in the United States. These findings suggest that the manner in which MNCs and emerging economy firms value and compensate IT professionals across geographies is consistent with their firm-level strategies and capabilities. The findings provide important insights on compensation of IT professionals within and across geographies based on firm national origin. These contributions are important to understand the broader context of compensation of IT professionals across firm national origin and geographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty affects many people, but the ramifications and impacts affect all aspects of society. Information about the incidence of poverty is therefore an important parameter of the population for policy analysis and decision making. In order to provide specific, targeted solutions when addressing poverty disadvantage small area statistics are needed. Surveys are typically designed and planned to produce reliable estimates of population characteristics of interest mainly at higher geographic area such as national and state level. Sample sizes are usually not large enough to provide reliable estimates for disaggregated analysis. In many instances estimates are required for areas of the population for which the survey providing the data was unplanned. Then, for areas with small sample sizes, direct survey estimation of population characteristics based only on the data available from the particular area tends to be unreliable. This paper describes an application of small area estimation (SAE) approach to improve the precision of estimates of poverty incidence at district level in the State of Bihar in India by linking data from the Household Consumer Expenditure Survey 2011–12 of NSSO and the Population Census 2011. The results show that the district level estimates generated by SAE method are more precise and representative. In contrast, the direct survey estimates based on survey data alone are less stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce a simple and convenient method for the landslides study. Design/methodology/approach – This study is based upon the individual case study of three past landslides which may probably prove fatal in the near future. It is useful for the measurement of the horizontal length, longitudinal length, altitude at different points and area of the landslide. These measurements are very helpful in calculating the valley side gradient, longitudinal gradient of the landslide scarp and the volume of the debris generated due to mass movement. Findings – Reactivation of slope instability problems were found along these landslides spots, which will create havoc for the people and a problem for the administration in the near future. Originality/value – The implication in the paper is that structural and non-structural mitigation and management strategies are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is the simultaneous growth of a system of spatial units with India the case for empirical testing. The framework used to model the multiregional dynamics is consistent with spatial theory and spatial econometrics. It builds on the work by Arbia and Paelinck, which proposes a model based on the classical Lotka-Volterra predator-prey system to consider potential convergence dynamics of regions. The paper proposes a different method to estimate dynamic interdependencies and in its empirical exercise distinguishes between dynamics that may arise from geographic proximity and those that may arise from equivalent structures. Resumen Este artículo concentra su atención en el crecimiento simultáneo de un sistema de unidades espaciales con la India como caso para estudio empírico. El marco utilizado para modelizar las dinámicas multirregionales está en consonancia con la teoría espacial y la econometría espacial. Se basa en el trabajo de Arbia y Paelinck, que propone un modelo basado en el sistema clásico de predador-presa de Lotka-Volterra para considerar posibles dinámicas de convergencia regionales. El artículo propone un método diferente para estimar interdependencias dinámicas y en su desarrollo empírico distingue entre aquellas dinámicas que pueden resultar de la proximidad geográfica y las que pueden resultar de estructuras equivalentes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recently, Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) has been a rapidly expanding field and broadly assumed to underpin the development of information society and the knowledge economy. In this paper, we argue that the anticipated benefits of SDIs have largely not yet been generally realized in practice due to a lack of a robust theoretical framework as well as insufficient empirical research to guide the implementation efforts. We posit that learnings from the allied discipline of Information Infrastructures, which has matured during the 1990s in response to the proliferation of distributed, complex, and heterogeneous networked systems, can provide a useful theoretical lens to inform the emerging domain of SDIs. We focus on three key concepts identified in the domain of information infrastructure theory, viz. the installed base , reflexive standardization , and cultivation approach to design , to develop a theoretical framework, which is then applied to analyse the ongoing initiative to establish National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) in India. This analysis helps us to provide the basis to articulate a potential research agenda—for both theory and practice—which, we believe, offers the promise to better conceptualize and implement SDIs, particularly in developing country settings like India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Even though cholera has existed for centuries and many parts of the country have sporadic, endemic and epidemic cholera, it is still an under-recognized health problem in India. A Cholera Expert Group in the country was established to gather evidence and to prepare a road map for control of cholera in India. This paper identifies cholera burden hotspots and factors associated with an increased risk of the disease. Methodology/Principle findings: We acquired district level data on cholera case reports of 2010–2015 from the Integrated Disease Surveillance Program. Socioeconomic characteristics and coverage of water and sanitation was obtained from the 2011 census. Spatial analysis was performed to identify cholera hotspots, and a zero-inflated Poisson regression was employed to identify the factors associated with cholera and predicted case count in the district. 27,615 cholera cases were reported during the 6-year period. Twenty-four of 36 states of India reported cholera during these years, and 13 states were classified as endemic. Of 641 districts, 78 districts in 15 states were identified as “hotspots” based on the reported cases. On the other hand, 111 districts in nine states were identified as “hotspots” from model-based predicted number of cases. The risk for cholera in a district was negatively associated with the coverage of literate persons, households using treated water source and owning mobile telephone, and positively associated with the coverage of poor sanitation and drainage conditions and urbanization level in the district. Conclusions/Significance: The study reaffirms that cholera continues to occur throughout a large part of India and identifies the burden hotspots and risk factors. Policymakers may use the findings of the article to develop a roadmap for prevention and control of cholera in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanized coastal geographies with high population density but with low adaptive capacity are more exposed to threats of both rapid and slow onset weather events. Altered coasts along the Bay of Bengal is one such geography where general urbanization trend coupled with new policy driven tourism activity promotion is increasing exposure to frequent and intense disaster events. Current study takes a deeper dive into a 17 km long coastal stretch along Digha-Shankarpur-Mandarmoni in the Bay of Bengal in India. Community consultation using questionnaire-based survey is the primary source of evidence for this study. Community's perception about threats from changing weather events and risks perceived by the coastal community engaged in various livelihood categories have been used to assess their resilience status, awareness of various local adaptive interventions and measures undertaken for local resilience building. With already predominant traditional agricultural and fisheries practices, promotion of tourism is altering the natural ecosystem faster through hard infrastructure expansion. The prevalent threats from weather events in the region lead to the loss of ecosystem services with adverse impacts on the communities whose livelihood are closely linked to the ecosystem service flows. In this context, how to build the resilience is the major research question. Nine impact indicators are used to assess risk using qualitative and quantitative methods. The analysis shows that individual and the community scale resilience increases with livelihood diversification, inclusive community engagement, polycentric governance structure, maintenance of diversity in ecosystem service flows, access to science based information on threats and opportunities, inclusion of local knowledge available with the communities in various livelihood categories for designing appropriate social protection measures. The study comes up with policy recommendations. It is important to avoid lack of long-term vision in the policies, enhance local institutional capacity through sector specific associations to deal with multiple threats quickly, overcome lack of awareness about preventive and soft adaptation measures, restoration actions, increase interaction and involvement of local stakeholders for local knowledge. Additionally, it is an urgent need to involve multiple even if sometimes conflicting scientific views on solutions vis-à-vis community wisdom for strengthening resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genus Podaxis was first described from India by Linnaeus in 1771, but several revisions of the genus have left the taxonomy unclear. Forty-four Podaxis species names and nine intraspecific varieties are currently accepted, but most fungarium specimens are labelled Podaxis pistillaris. Recent molecular analyses based on barcoding genes suggest that the genus comprises several species, but their status is largely unresolved. Here we obtained basidiospores and photographs from 166 fungarium specimens from around the world and generated a phylogeny based on rDNA internal transcribed spacer ITS1, 5.8S and ITS2 (ITS), and a phylogenomic analysis of 3 839 BUSCO genes from low-coverage genomes for a subset of the specimens. Combining phylogenetics, phylogenomics, morphology, ecology, and geographical distribution, spanning 250 years of collections, we propose that the genus includes at least 16 unambiguous species. Based on 10 type specimens (holotype, paratype, and syntype), four recorded species were confirmed, P. carcinomalis, P. deflersii, P. emerici, and P. farlowii. Comparing phylogenetic analysis with described species, including morphology, ecology, and distribution, we resurrected P. termitophilus and designated neotypes, epitypes, or lectotypes for five previously described species, P. aegyptiacus, P. africana, P. beringamensis, P. calyptratus, and P. perraldieri. Lastly, based on phylogenies and morphology of type material, we synonymized three reported species, P. algericus, P. arabicus, and P. rugospora with P. pistillaris, and described five new species that we named P. desolatus, P. inyoensis, P. mareebaensis, P. namaquensis, and P. namibensis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the daily, psychic journeys Indian call center agents undergo as they 'virtually migrate' between India and the US. A thin cable that runs half way around the globe bridges the 'here' and the 'there', connecting agents to faraway customers in real time. The new time-space relations generated by this virtual contact create conditions for these workers to undergo a global 'migration' from India and to America, even as their bodies remain bounded within the national homeland. To accommodate the US American workday, Indian agents often work the nightshift and sleep during the day, leaving them little time for family, friends, and cultural events. This temporal arrangement displaces them from the daily rhythms of Indian life, generating a sense of loss, longing, and nostalgia for 'India'. Further, while agents experience a sense of distance from India, they also experience a movement toward 'America'. Agents' accounts suggest a feeling of living between worlds, yet their movement is decoupled from physical migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rajampet taluk is semi-arid and drought prone situated in Kadapa district in Rayalaseema, Andhra Pradesh, was selected to conduct groundwater investigations. The study area was investigated in terms of its geology, hydrogeology, geoelectrical, aquifer parameters and quality of water. The groundwater samples from the wells of Rajampet taluk were collected and the chemical analysis for various parameters has been carried out. The data pertaining to water quality has been systematically processed and the results are presented numerically and graphically in this paper. 54 VES were carried out throughout the taluk. Pump test has been carried out in selected bore wells in the study area.

Physical features and somatometric characters of the wide spread Gujjar population in North-Western India are fascinating. It is all the more interesting to study their morphological and regional variations in the body dimensions. In this paper, anthropometric characters of 200 adult subjects each belonging to Hindu Gujjars in the Ropar District of Punjab and Muslim Gujjars in the Chamba District of Himachal Pradesh in the North-Western part of India were compared. They differ significantly from each other for many physiognomic measurements, suggesting the biological diversity between the two population groups. Further, the comparison of anthropometric measurements between the different localities of the Gujjars showed morphological variations and regional diversity of the isolates in North-Western India. These findings may be attributed to the founder effect, genetic drift, and breeding and geographical isolation of the populations under study and not to secular trends. The findings have also been compared and discussed with the available results of other local populations in North-Western India.

This paper argues that Dalit identity formation processes in contemporary East Punjab can easily be perceived in mutifaceted activites being undertaken by an all-pervasive and potent agency of Dalit Deras especially Ravidass Deras. These Deras over the last few years have been making concerted efforts towards occupying easily available distinct Dalit space in the peripheries of the villages of this borderland state of North India. Ravidass Deras have been seen as centres of fast emerging Dalit religious domain in the otherwise religion dominated society of Punjab where till recently Dalits were invariably considered as part of one or the other mainstream religion in the state. But the fast expanding constituency of such Deras among Dalits and their consequent confrontation with the dominant religion in the state forced some of the groups within Dalit communities of the region to seek and establish their separate Dalit identity basically based on their indigenous religious ethos deeply rooted in the egalitarian teachings of sant Ravidass of the famous North Indian Bhakti movement, who they reverently consider Guru (mentor/perceptor). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feminist geography still remains at the margins of human geography in India. The space occupied by the subfield, the nature of research and the skepticism routinely encountered by feminist geographers 'doing gender' in India all point to this marginal status. Drawing upon detailed status reports, personal communications and everyday encounters with patriarchy in the academy, this essay uses an autobiographical lens to address the pervasiveness of misogyny and the politics of gendered parochial and caste-based gatekeeping to make sense of the peculiar but marked 'ontological circumcision' of feminist geographies in India. 'Coming out' as a feminist geographer and writing gender from such locations is political and should be read as a resistance to these caste-ridden, male dominated and inherently misogynistic contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to explore the scientific background of Francois Bernier and his mindset behind his travel accounts. Bernier enjoyed unrivalled opportunities of observation in India. He was acquainted with the leading philosophers of his days, was fully conversant with methods of historical and philosophical discourse and was capable of looking beyond the immediate occasion of an event to its ultimate cause. Bernier made an attempt to compare the different social and political structures in the oriental and occidental worlds. Further, an attempt has been made to analyze Bernier's observations of different irrationalities, superstitious beliefs and illogical customs witnessed by him in Indian religions, geography, astrology, medical science and education system. Although Bernier highlighted the French superiority in all these domains, on many occasions he drew their similarity to some of the French customs perceived as 'irrational' by him. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]