Jay D. Gatrell - Böcker

In recent years there has been an explosion of interest in local food systems-among policy makers, planners, and public health professionals, as well as environmentalists, community developers, academics, farmers, and ordinary citizens. While most local food systems share common characteristics, the chapters in this book explore the unique challenges and opportunities of local food systems located within mature and/or declining industrial regions. Local food systems have the potential to provide residents with a supply of safe and nutritious food; such systems also have the potential to create much-needed employment opportunities. However, challenges are numerous and include developing local markets of a sufficient scale, adequately matching supply and demand, and meeting the environmental challenges of finding safe growing locations. Interrogating the scale, scope, and economic context of local food systems in aging industrialized cities, this book provides a foundation for the development of new sub-fields in economic, urban, and agricultural geographies that focus on local food systems. The book represents a first attempt to provide a systematic picture of the opportunities and challenges facing the development of local food systems in old industrial regions.

Represents the collective efforts of the International Geographical Union's Commission on the Dynamics of Economic Spaces. This work provides insight into the workings of a variety of communities, regions, and nations as they seek to balance economic growth with the necessity to simultaneously promote ethical and sustainable regional development.

This chapter has shown a small sample of GIS applications in economic devel- ment. GIS is a powerful tool for data analysis and presentation, and the economic development rami cations are truly signi cant. The speed at which data and stra- gies can be coordinated is clearly changing the way economic developers approach their job. There are a number of important trends that are likely to result in GIS becoming more pervasive in the economic development community. These include declining costs of GIS software, increased computing power, and the growth of Web-based GIS applications. There also has been increase in GIS skills among economic development professionals. References Bastian, L. (2002). Getting the best from the web. Area Development Site and Facility Planning, March 1–7. Accessed 5 September 2008. Batheldt, H. (2005). Geographies of production: growth regimes in spatial perspective (II) – kno- edge creation and growth in clusters. Progress in Human Geography, 29(2), 204–216. Bathelt,H.,Malmberg,A.,Maskell,P.(2004). Clustersandknowledge: localbuzz,globalpipelines and the process of knowledge creation. Progress in Human Geography, 28(1), 31–56. Bernthal, M., Regan, T. (2004). The economic impact of a NASCAR racetrack on a rural com- nity and region. Sports Marketing Quarterly, 13(1), 26–34. Blackwell, M., Cobb, S. Weinbert, D. (2002). The economic impact of educational institutions: Issues and methodology. Economic Development Quarterly, 16(1), 88–95. Blair, J. (1995). Local Economic Development, Analysis and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

In recent years there has been an explosion of interest in local food systems-among policy makers, planners, and public health professionals, as well as environmentalists, community developers, academics, farmers, and ordinary citizens. While most local food systems share common characteristics, the chapters in this book explore the unique challenges and opportunities of local food systems located within mature and/or declining industrial regions. Local food systems have the potential to provide residents with a supply of safe and nutritious food; such systems also have the potential to create much-needed employment opportunities. However, challenges are numerous and include developing local markets of a sufficient scale, adequately matching supply and demand, and meeting the environmental challenges of finding safe growing locations. Interrogating the scale, scope, and economic context of local food systems in aging industrialized cities, this book provides a foundation for the development of new sub-fields in economic, urban, and agricultural geographies that focus on local food systems. The book represents a first attempt to provide a systematic picture of the opportunities and challenges facing the development of local food systems in old industrial regions.

The investigation of the interactions between human and physical systems poses unique conceptual, methodological, and practical challenges.  This book establishes a spatial science framework for policymakers, social scientists, and environmental researchers as they explore and analyze complex problems.  The authors provide guidance for scientists, writers, and students across a broad range of fields on how to tackle discipline-specific issues of space, place, and scale as they propose and conduct research in the spatial sciences. This practical textbook and overview blends plenty of concrete examples of spatial research and case studies to familiarize readers with the research process, demystifying and illustrating how it is actually done. The appendix contains both completed and in-progress proposals for MA and PhD theses and dissertations, as well as successful research grants. By emphasizing research as a learning and experiential process, while providing students with the encouragement and skills needed for success in proposal writing, "Research Design and Proposal Writing in Spatial Science" can serve as a textbook for research-design or project-based courses at the upper-division undergraduate and graduate level.

The investigation of the interactions between human and physical systems poses unique conceptual, methodological, and practical challenges.  This book establishes a spatial science framework for policymakers, social scientists, and environmental researchers as they explore and analyze complex problems.  The authors provide guidance for scientists, writers, and students across a broad range of fields on how to tackle discipline-specific issues of space, place, and scale as they propose and conduct research in the spatial sciences. This practical textbook and overview blends plenty of concrete examples of spatial research and case studies to familiarize readers with the research process, demystifying and illustrating how it is actually done. The appendix contains both completed and in-progress proposals for MA and PhD theses and dissertations, as well as successful research grants. By emphasizing research as a learning and experiential process, while providing students with the encouragement and skills needed for success in proposal writing, "Research Design and Proposal Writing in Spatial Science" can serve as a textbook for research-design or project-based courses at the upper-division undergraduate and graduate level.

This book explores the environmental, economic, and socio-political dynamics of sustainability from a geographic perspective. The chapters unite the often disparate worlds of environment, economics, and politics by seeking to understand and visualize a range of sustainability practices on the ground and in place. In concert, the book provides an overview of a range of geotechnical applications associated with environmental change (water resources, land use & land cover change); as well as investigates more nuanced and novel examples of local economic development in cities. The diverse collection maps local practices from urban farming to evolving and thriving industries such as metal scrapping and craft beer. Additionally, the book provides an integrated geo-technical framework for understanding and assessing ecosystem services, explores the deployment of unmanned systems to understand urban environmental change, interrogates the spatial politics of urban green movements, examines theimplications of revised planning practices, and investigates environmental justice. The book will be of interest to researchers, students, and anyone seeking to better understand sustainability at multiple scales in urban environments.

This book explores the environmental, economic, and socio-political dynamics of sustainability from a geographic perspective. The chapters unite the often disparate worlds of environment, economics, and politics by seeking to understand and visualize a range of sustainability practices on the ground and in place. In concert, the book provides an overview of a range of geotechnical applications associated with environmental change (water resources, land use & land cover change); as well as investigates more nuanced and novel examples of local economic development in cities. The diverse collection maps local practices from urban farming to evolving and thriving industries such as metal scrapping and craft beer. Additionally, the book provides an integrated geo-technical framework for understanding and assessing ecosystem services, explores the deployment of unmanned systems to understand urban environmental change, interrogates the spatial politics of urban green movements, examines theimplications of revised planning practices, and investigates environmental justice. The book will be of interest to researchers, students, and anyone seeking to better understand sustainability at multiple scales in urban environments.

I was introduced to cities as “ecosystems” by the late Professor Forest Stearns (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) who was an early pioneer in the studies of the urban ecology in the 1970s. I still recall the various terms: “Urban ecosystem”, “Urban zones” Urban corridors” Megacities” or “Megacities’ complexes” and “Megalopolis” used by various discipline experts as they grappled with the complex of all the terrestrial habitats-the city. Cities have been humanity’s habitat since ancient times and one can find references to the cities even in biblical writings and other ancient texts from many parts of the world. So what is different now? It is the rate of global urbanization that has brought urban systems and urban envir- ments into focus once again. This has captured our attention in the past several months. For example, the British Broadcasting Corporation News (BBC news) devoted a series of highly educational programs titled “Urban planet” in July 2006. I was impressed with the breadth and the depth of - ban issues discussed in the series and the fact that many academic and government experts were featured to provide an assessment of the current state of global urbanization. The United Nations reports that increased - banization has created a range of serious issues, including access to clean water, sanitation, shelter, urban poverty, HIV/AIDS and problems with - ban governance, not to mention the issues related to urban environments.

I was introduced to cities as “ecosystems” by the late Professor Forest Stearns (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) who was an early pioneer in the studies of the urban ecology in the 1970s. I still recall the various terms: “Urban ecosystem”, “Urban zones” Urban corridors” Megacities” or “Megacities’ complexes” and “Megalopolis” used by various discipline experts as they grappled with the complex of all the terrestrial habitats-the city. Cities have been humanity’s habitat since ancient times and one can find references to the cities even in biblical writings and other ancient texts from many parts of the world. So what is different now? It is the rate of global urbanization that has brought urban systems and urban envir- ments into focus once again. This has captured our attention in the past several months. For example, the British Broadcasting Corporation News (BBC news) devoted a series of highly educational programs titled “Urban planet” in July 2006. I was impressed with the breadth and the depth of - ban issues discussed in the series and the fact that many academic and government experts were featured to provide an assessment of the current state of global urbanization. The United Nations reports that increased - banization has created a range of serious issues, including access to clean water, sanitation, shelter, urban poverty, HIV/AIDS and problems with - ban governance, not to mention the issues related to urban environments.

Enterprising World represents the culmination of several years of work by geographers, planners, and economists. The chapters represent the collective efforts of the International Geographical Union’s Commission on the Dynamics of Economic Spaces. This collection is the result of the 2005 annual meeting in Toledo, Ohio (USA). The chapters have been selected based on their contribution to the broader community of economic geographers and policymakers and to demonstrate the inherent interconnectedness of these themes (and at times the conceptual tension that exists between ethics, economics, and the environment) insofar as these important issues shape the contours and cleavages of contemporary regional development.In particular, the chapters represent the diversity of perspectives on these issues. The authors provide insight into the workings of a variety of communities, regions, and nations as they seek to balance economic growth with the growing necessity to simultaneously promote ethical and sustainable regional development. As such, this book is truly international in both scale and scope and provides the reader with a survey of emerging and established concepts, theories, and conflicts in economic geography.

This chapter has shown a small sample of GIS applications in economic devel- ment. GIS is a powerful tool for data analysis and presentation, and the economic development rami cations are truly signi cant. The speed at which data and stra- gies can be coordinated is clearly changing the way economic developers approach their job. There are a number of important trends that are likely to result in GIS becoming more pervasive in the economic development community. These include declining costs of GIS software, increased computing power, and the growth of Web-based GIS applications. There also has been increase in GIS skills among economic development professionals. References Bastian, L. (2002). Getting the best from the web. Area Development Site and Facility Planning, March 1–7. Accessed 5 September 2008. Batheldt, H. (2005). Geographies of production: growth regimes in spatial perspective (II) – kno- edge creation and growth in clusters. Progress in Human Geography, 29(2), 204–216. Bathelt,H.,Malmberg,A.,Maskell,P.(2004). Clustersandknowledge: localbuzz,globalpipelines and the process of knowledge creation. Progress in Human Geography, 28(1), 31–56. Bernthal, M., Regan, T. (2004). The economic impact of a NASCAR racetrack on a rural com- nity and region. Sports Marketing Quarterly, 13(1), 26–34. Blackwell, M., Cobb, S. Weinbert, D. (2002). The economic impact of educational institutions: Issues and methodology. Economic Development Quarterly, 16(1), 88–95. Blair, J. (1995). Local Economic Development, Analysis and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

This book emphasizes research as a learning process and provides the encouragement and skills needed for success in proposal writing. It blends concrete examples of geographic research and case studies to familiarize readers with the research process.