Primijenjena geografija: načela i primjena

An applied geographical approach has the potential to illuminate the nature and causes of a wide range of economic, social and environmental problems, and inform the formulation of appropriate responses. This paper provides an overview of the principles and praxis of applied geography. First we examine the conceptual foundations of applied geography and consider the relationship between pure and applied research, and the concept of useful knowledge. This conceptual discussion is then complemented by empirical case study examples of applied research in the field of urban geography, with particular reference to the key question of quality of life and human wellbeing. Finally, we adopt a prospective perspective to address the question of the value of applied geography in contemporary society.Pristup primijenjene geografije ima mogućnost razjasniti uzroke velikog broja ekonomskih, socijalnih i ekoloških problema, te stvoriti osnovu za njihovo rješavanje. U članku se daje sažeti pregled načela primijenjene geografije te se raspravlja o mogućnostima njene primjene u praksi. Prvi dio rada odnosi se na konceptualnu utemeljenost primijenjene geografije. Također se raspravlja o odnosu između teorijskog i primijenjenog istraživanja, a definiran je i pojam korisnoga znanja. U drugom je dijelu rada prikazana mogućnost primjene geografskog znanja u području urbane geografije. Posebna pažnja posvećena je pitanjima kvalitete života i ljudskog blagostanja. Završno je prikazano značenje primijenjene geografije u suvremenom društvu

A comparative evaluation of dynamic visualisation tools

Despite their potential applications in software comprehension, it appears that dynamic visualisation tools are seldom used outside the research laboratory. This paper presents an empirical evaluation of five dynamic visualisation tools - AVID, Jinsight, jRMTool, Together ControlCenter diagrams and Together ControlCenter debugger. The tools were evaluated on a number of general software comprehension and specific reverse engineering tasks using the HotDraw objectoriented framework. The tasks considered typical comprehension issues, including identification of software structure and behaviour, design pattern extraction, extensibility potential, maintenance issues, functionality location, and runtime load. The results revealed that the level of abstraction employed by a tool affects its success in different tasks, and that tools were more successful in addressing specific reverse engineering tasks than general software comprehension activities. It was found that no one tool performs well in all tasks, and some tasks were beyond the capabilities of all five tools. This paper concludes with suggestions for improving the efficacy of such tools

Food systems sustainability : an examination of different viewpoints on food system change

Global food insecurity levels remain stubbornly high. One of the surest ways to grasp the scale and consequence of global inequality is through a food systems lens. In a predominantly urban world, urban food systems present a useful lens to engage a wide variety of urban (and global) challenges—so called ‘wicked problems.’ This paper describes a collaborative research project between four urban food system research units, two European and two African. The project purpose was to seek out solutions to what lay between, across and within the different approaches applied in the understanding of each city’s food system challenges. Contextual differences and immediate (perceived) needs resulted in very different views on the nature of the challenge and the solutions required. Value positions of individuals and their disciplinary “enclaves” presented further boundaries. The paper argues that finding consensus provides false solutions. Rather the identification of novel approaches to such wicked problems is contingent of these differences being brought to the fore, being part of the conversation, as devices through which common positions can be discovered, where spaces are created for the realisation of new perspectives, but also, where difference is celebrated as opposed to censored

Progress in Tourism Management: from the geography of tourism to geographies of tourism - A review

This Progress in Tourism Management paper seeks to review the development of geographical contributions to the study of tourism over the last decade. Given the limited number of surveys of geography published in academic journals since the 1970s, it is particularly timely to question and debate where the subject has evolved to, the current debates and issues facing those who work within the subject and where the subject will evolve in the next five years. The paper is structured around a number of distinct themes to emerge from the research activity of geographers, which is deliberately selective in its coverage due to the constraints of space, but focuses on: explaining spatialities; tourism planning and places; development and its discontents; tourism as an 'applied' area of research, and future prospects

The Policy Context of Urbanization

This book brings together a range of viewpoints on a number of the burning issues affecting urban sustainability in North America and Europe at the beginning of the 21st century. H.S. Geyer and his contributors cover a wide spectrum of the urban policy issues that determine the growth and development progress as well as the livability of cities in the Occident. The volume focuses on three broad themes: nuances in urban policy formulation in Britain and the United States; the evolvement of urban systems regionally and globally; and the social and economic forces that determine urban livability and bring about change in the demographic landscape of cities in both Europe and the United States. In this Handbook some of the world's most experienced researchers express their views - often controversial - on topics as diverse as the role of the IT sector, population ageing, migration, global warming and social economics within urban development. This important Handbook has a strong demographic and developmental focus and covers urban policy issues that should be of interest to a wide readership - from urban planning, geography, regional science and economics to international business, population studies, history and political science

Quality of life research in urban geography

The 1980s represent a significant period for the development of urban geography - a decade that advanced the reformation of urban geography as a conceptually sound, analytically powerful, integrative discipline capable of making a distinctive contribution to mainstream social science research on the city. The decade also witnessed the emergence of new theories, concepts and research themes that were to have an enduring influence on the nature of the subject. Prominent in this new research portfolio were issues related to quality of life in the city. This paper outlines the main developments in urban geography in the 1980s with particular reference to themes relating to quality-of-life research. The discussion introduces the concept of 'useful knowledge' within the context of 'applied urban geography'; examines the key dimensions of quality-of-life research in urban geography; and concludes by adopting a prospective viewpoint to identify a number of quality-of-life issues of significance for the urban geography of the 21st century

Housing

The availability of shelter is a basic human need. Western governments have adopted different attitudes towards meeting this need. At one extreme, housing is regarded as a consumer good rather than a social entitlement. In the USA the government provides only 1% of the total stock in the form of social housing, primarily as a complement to private urban renewal programs, and this effort is directed mainly at the poor, one-parent households, nonworking families with dependent children, or the low-income elderly. At the other extreme, in the former communist states of Eastern Europe, housing was long considered a universal right and an essential part of the 'social capital', although in practice the inability of state resources to meet housing demand led to promotion of alternative forms of provision, including housing cooperatives and owner-occupation. The intermediate position is illustrated by the states of Western Europe, in which housing is considered to be a limited social right, and where the state has intervened in the housing market to ensure a basic level of shelter for the majority of the population. In the absence of intervention, between one-quarter and one-third of the total population of most Western European countries would be unable to meet the full economic cost of the housing it occupies. In most large cities of the Third World a majority of the population occupy rudimentary self-constructed forms of shelter or literally live without a roof over their heads

Urban environmental quality and human well-being : a social geographical perspective

Concern over the quality of modern life is a characteristic of contemporary society. This paper explains the social geographical approach to research into quality of life and urban environmental quality. A five-dimensional model for quality of life research is presented, and a number of key conceptual and methodological issues examined. Two exemplar case studies are employed to illustrate the application of the five-dimensional social geographical perspective in a real world context. Finally, the potential usefulness of quality of life research is assessed, and several conclusions advanced for future research

Residential differentiation in nineteenth-century Glasgow : morphogenetic study of Pollokshields garden suburb

This chapter provides a morphogenetic study of Pollokshields garden suburb

Local money - a response to the globalisation of capitalism?

In response to the global financial crisis of 2007, a number of central banks used quantitative easing to address the collapse of confidence and credit. This involved increasing the liquidity of the financial system by creating new money. It is suggested that similar strategies of ‘printing money’ in the form of local currencies may be of value for local communities confronting the challenges of economic globalisation. This paper identifies the local impacts of economic globalisation, examines the underlying causes of the global financial crisis, explains the nature of money, and illustrates the goals and different forms of local money. Finally, the potential value of local currencies as a response to the globalisation of capital is assessed