Author: Human Geographies - Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography

By Posted on Posted in Volume 11, Issue 2, 2017 Tagged with , , , , ,

This paper aims to analyse death and injury frequencies caused by road accidents in different regions of Ukraine. Types of road accidents and their degree of severity are analyzed, in addition to the level of road accidents in Ukraine compared to the same parameters in Europe. 2007 and 2013 death rates and injury rates due to car crashes or trafc accidents are considered as ratio per 1,000 inhabitants and 1,000 cars. An overall geographically featured assessment of road injuries has also been computed for each administrative region of the country. An evaluation of an integrated road safety index based on the statistical analysis of road accidents indicators has been developed (primarily making use of factor analysis such as principal component analysis and correlation analysis). Assessment of an integrated road safety index has been introduced since this enabled us to differentiate and identify a variety of regional categories related to traumatism and mortality rates due to road accidents.

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This article explores the complexity of the spatial construction of ethnicity, identity, and sociopolitical interaction among South Sudanese ethnic groups. The article focuses on the interplay between social interaction and the construction of ethnic identity as they affect the notion of human interaction and welfare. The narratives are based on the political sociology of South Sudan after its independence from Sudan and challenges endured in the process of sociopolitical transformation towards the reconstruction of national identity and peaceful coexistence. This discourse gives meaning to visible and invisible ethno-cultural constructions that shaped the norms of social and political interactions among various ethnic groups in the country. The analysis concluded that South Sudan society is socially, politically, and culturally constructed along ethnicized communities with variant perceptions of group and regional identities based on both primordial ties and instrumentalists’ perceptions. These unique characteristics of spaces and construction of social structure has created multifaceted challenges in the process of social, economic and political reconstruction after the independent of South Sudan in July 2011.

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The intent of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of determinants on new business formation in the Czech Republic’s regions in the period 2003 to 2014. The results suggest that the regions with strong entrepreneurial culture, measured by a high proportion of entrepreneurs in the population, and with a strong presence of foreigners, had higher rates of new business formation. A positive inuence of agglomeration economies was observed, and the impact of unemployment was negative. However, the results were not consistent when more advanced legal business forms (especially limited liability and joint-stock companies) had been used in the dependent variable. In this case, human capital was the overriding factor determining regional differences in new business formation rates, while entrepreneurial culture and the presence of foreigners were not signicant. Finally, the importance of the industrial structure of regions was conrmed regardless of the dependent variable form.

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Previous research has suggested that natural green areas provide several psychological benefits to individuals. One such benet is the restoration of attention capacities, an advantage that is of particular importance to university students. The present study, therefore, aimed to determine where students spend their free time on campus at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, how they perceive their on-campus green spaces and the extent to which they found these spaces restorative. Participants responded to a threepart questionnaire, investigating demographic characteristics, green space usage, and the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS). Statistical analyses were conducted to determine which of the green spaces contributed most signicantly to overall PRS scores. All green areas made signicant contributions, but the campus’s botanical garden was the greatest contributor to PRS. The ndings of this study serve to encourage tertiary institutions to protect their green spaces, as the psychological well-being and attention restoration of students are affected by it.

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This article aligns theories of city imaging and physical cultural studies to probe the city of Newport. This ‘new’ city shares many cultural and economic characteristics with the rest of Wales, but also reveals some signicant differences. We focus on and probe the movement policies and cultures in the city, understanding the relationship between bodies and economics, cities and health. Through this discussion, we weave analyses of resilience through the paper, recognising that regeneration focuses on constructing and renovating buildings. We investigate how regeneration and resilience disconnect, with particular consequences for health. Part of this challenge emerges because of the inability to align sport and event tourism with the promotion of walking programmes for residents. Regeneration and resilience disconnect once more. Creating movement cultures is difcult. The ambivalent success of Newport’s policies and initiatives offers both insights and warnings to other small cities.

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By Posted on Posted in Volume 11, Issue 1, 2017 Tagged with , , ,

Multi-input prediction models are gradually finding their places in the arena of social and economic sciences to assess, locate and address the complicated socio-economic issues arising around the globe. These models treat the problems as the output aroused from a complex interaction between a range of variables linked with physical, socio-cultural, economic as well as ambient political systems. The discussion on dropout from the education system belongs to the core of the educational researchers. The researchers within this domain are attempting to develop the ‘tools and techniques’ for efficiently demarcating the space with a given degree of susceptibility. The scope is to drop out and examine the internal functions of the interactive variables associated with the process. In the present study, we try to apply the fuzzy logic in mapping the spatial variation of the susceptibility of school dropout in the district of Purulia, a backwards district in India regarding achieved level of human development. The training datasets for building the fuzzy model based on the available secondary data from different reports published by the Government and a range of primary data collected through a socio-economic survey. The model output is an index, namely the Index of Susceptibility of School Drop Out (ISDO) which reflects the levels of susceptibility to school dropout at different parts of the study area. The proposed model should allow the success within the larger social and economic system.

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This paper explores police stop and search practices in Toronto using the 2003-2012 data from Toronto Police Service. The findings demonstrate that for black youth, the number of stops and the stops/arrests ratios increased significantly by 42.7% and 44.9% respectively between 2003 and 2012, while for white youth, both indices decreased steadily during the same period. Moreover, they show that police stops of black youth occur most excessively in neighbourhoods where more white people reside and/or have higher crime rates. This article argues for the importance of a contextualized examination of police stops within the spatial context of neighbourhoods and calls for open and free access to police stop data, regular internal review by police, and community policing in Toronto.

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The so-called “Green Revolution” has marginalized and depopulated many rural areas, but economic diversification has emerged since the 1980s. Consumer appreciation for organic farming and proximity sourcing has increased, and farmers have responded to this market. Since 2008 the economic crisis has led to importation of low-quality food products at an unsustainable level of energy costs, and the lack of employment opportunity has led people to seek economic opportunities in the countryside, producing foods with ecological criteria for short food supply chains. Within this scenario, Social Farming (SF) has appeared as a multifunctional innovative strategy. It gives a return to society through the production and processing of agricultural products by incorporating direct social benefits in employment, training, and therapy or rehabilitation of groups at risk of social exclusion. SF offers social cohesion, empowerment of vulnerable groups, local development in rural and peri-urban settings, and an equitable balance between revenues and costs to society.

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The critical current of urban regeneration scholarly research focusses on neoliberal urbanism. In concentrating on the neoliberal economic, business and financial dimensions as driving forces behind urban change and regeneration, the human dimension of city centres and city centre living is frequently overshadowed. This paper explores the human dimension through the example of Engage Liverpool, a citizen and neighbourhood organisation. This paper investigates citizen engagement with urban development in the setting of the city centre and central waterfront in Liverpool. The paper argues that despite the dominance of global neoliberal forces within regeneration, citizen and neighbourhood organisations such as Liverpool Engage may have the potential to facilitate citizens’ participation as change makers in urban (re)development.

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The post-socialist transition processes in Serbia stepped up the existing disparities in development between the regions as well as between the municipalities. In the attempt to contribute to the EU and national knowledge on this topic, this paper focuses on interrelation between migration and development inequalities in Serbia in terms of negative natural increase, traditional emigration and small scale immigration, which challenge the balanced distribution of Serbian population and affect social change. The objective of the paper is to explore the interaction between migration and inequalities in transition economy of Serbia and to identify the underlying determinants. The indicators used in the regression analysis are the net migration rate for the inter-census period 2002-2011 and the set of demographic, socio-economic and geographic quantitative indicators. The findings reveal the interaction of migration and level of development in Serbia suggesting the importance of geographic location besides the socio-economic factors .

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