American Association of Geographers American Association of Geographers

WorldMinds Celebrates Geography’s Contributions

WorldMinds: Geographical Perspectives on 100 Problems, edited by Don Janelle (University of California Santa Barbara), Barney Warf (Florida State University), and Kathy Hansen (Montana State University), is one of two commemorative publications planned in celebration of the Association’s Centennial. This one-hundred-chapter book is intended to showcase how geographers use their tools and theory to address some of the significant problems facing society. Authors were asked to document the contributions of geography in adding insight and solutions to pressing environmental, economic, social, political, and scientific problems.

The volume includes 100 contributions from about 150 authors and co-authors that range from graduate students to senior professors, as well as government and business practitioners, theorists, methodologists, teachers, and applied geographers. The topics span a broad range of issues from AIDS to the micro-climatologic of cities. The volume is divided into ten-sections that stress an action-oriented application of geographical perspectives that cut across different kinds of societal concerns and disciplinary perspectives, each with an average of ten chapters. Section titles include: Mixing Geography with Politics; Addressing Human Needs: Health and Education; Enhancing Life in Cities; Integrating Local and Global Economies; Maintaining Healthy Ecosystems; Balancing Environment with Economy; Unmasking Dangerous Environments; Activating Physical Geography; Mobilizing Geographical Technologies; (Re)Assessing Culture and Identity.

Kluwer Academic will publish WorldMinds for distribution to all registrants at the AAG’s Centennial Meeting in Philadelphia. The editors and publisher see WorldMinds as a broadly representative reflection of the discipline, aimed at accessibility to a range of readers and relevance to anyone requiring a comprehension of what geography has to offer for education, science, and society. The quantity and succinctness of the chapters makes it ideal as a general reader to supplement textbooks in the full range of courses found in undergraduate programs, as a volume suited for a pro-seminar, and as a broad exposure to a geography that is engaged with discovery, interpretation, and problem solving.

Don Janelle, Co-Chair
Centennial Coordinating Committee


WorldMinds: Geographical Perspectives on 100 Problems

Edited by Donald G. Janelle, Barney Warf, and Kathy Hansen


Foreword by Ronald F. Abler and Douglas Richardson
Introduction by Barney Warf, Donald G. Janelle, and Kathy Hansen

Part I: Mixing Geography With Politics

1. Environmental Problems and International Democracy - Ron Johnston
2. Geographies of Power in the Post-Cold War World-System - Thomas Klak
3. Rural Property Rights in a Peace Process: Lessons from Mozambique - Jon D. Unruh
4. Globalization and Protest: Seattle and Beyond - Bruce D'Arcus
5. Allah's Mountains: Establishing a National Park in the Central Asian Pamir - Stephen F. Cunha
6. Energy, Territory, and Conflict: Place-Based Research in the Caucasus - Shannon O'Lear
7. Hidden Killers: The Problem of Landmines and Unexploded Ordinance - Carl Dahlman
8. Evaluating the Geographic Compactness of Representational Districts - Gerald R. Webster
9. Environmental Conflict, Collaborative Solutions, and the Politics of Geographic Scale - Randall K. Wilson
10. Putting Memory in its Place: The Politics of Commemoration in the American South - Derek Alderman and Owen J. Dwyer
11. Banner Headlines: The Fight Over Confederate Flags in the American South - Jonathan Leib and Gerald Webster

Part II: Addressing Human Needs: Health And Education

12. Halting the AIDS Pandemic - Harold D. Foster
13. Detecting Spatial Clusters of Cancer Mortality in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana - Esra Ozdenerol and Nina Lam
14. A Geographic Approach to Identifying Disease Clusters - Arthur Getis
15. Mortality Rates Across Time: Does Persistence Suggest “Healthy and Unhealthy Places” in the United States? - Ronald E. Cossman, Jeralynn S. Cossman, Wesley L. James, and Arthur Cosby
16. Learning Geography in the Absence of Sight - Reginald G. Golledge
17. Haptic Soundscapes: Developing Novel Multi-sensory Tools to Promote Access to Geographic Information - Dan Jacobson
18. The Finnish Kaamos: Escapes from Short Days and Cold Winters - Stanley D. Brunn, Pauli Tapani Karjalainen, Rikard Küller, and Mika Roinila
19. Applied Geography in the Provision of Educational Services - Richard Morrill
20. Spatial Analysis and Modeling for the School District Planning Problem - David S. Lemberg
21. A Model for Collaborative Research: Building a Community-University Institute for Social Research - James E. Randall, Allison M. Williams, Bill Holden, and Kate Waygood
22. Struggling against Illiteracy in a Global City: The New York Experience - Werner Gamerith
23. Reaching New Standards: Geography’s Return to Relevance in American Education - Michael N. Solem

Part III: Enhancing Life In Cities

24. Poverty and Geographical Access to Employment: Minority Women in America’s Inner Cities - Sara McLafferty and Valerie Preston
25. Ethnic Segregation: Measurement, Causes, and Consequences - David H. Kaplan
26. Flat Break-Ups: The British Condominium Conversion Experience - Chris Hamnett
27. The Geography of Environmental Injustice in The Bronx, New York City - Juliana A. Maantay
28. Commuting, Congestion, and Urban Transport Sustainability - Mark W. Horner
29. Charting Urban Travelers 24-7 for Disaster Evacuation and Homeland Security - Frederick P. Stutz
30. The Walking Security Index and Pedestrians’ Security in Urban Areas - Barry Wellar
31. Clean Streets – Clean Waterways: Street Sweeping, Storm Water Runoff, and Pollution Reduction - Graham A. Tobin and Robert Brinkmann
32. Reclaiming Brownfield Sites: From Toxic Legacies to Sustainable Communities - Mark D. Bjelland
33. Land Cover Change in the Seattle Region: Linking Patterns of Growth to Planning Efforts through Land Cover Change Assessments - Melissa Wyatt
34. How Smart is Smart Growth? The Case of Austin, Texas - Daniel Z. Sui, Wei Tu, and Jose Gavinha

Part IV: Integrating Local And Global Economies

35. Cultural Exploration and Understanding: A Framework for Global Business - Nanda R. Shrestha, Wilbur I. Smith, and Kenneth R. Gray
36. Geography in Crisis: Perspectives on the Asian Economic Crisis of the 1990s Philip Kelly and Jessie P. H. Poon
37. Modeling Space for Regional Regeneration: High-tech Districts in China - Susan M. Walcott
38. Why Offshore? Exploring the Geographies of Offshore Financial Centers - Sharon C. Cobb
39. U.S. Call Centers: The Undiscovered Country - David L. Butler
40. Gender and Globalization: Maquila Geographies - Altha J. Cravey
41. Promoting Development in the Canadian North - James C. Saku
42. U.S. Land Use and Land Cover Change: 1973-2000 - Darrell Napton and Thomas Loveland
43. Periodic Markets Now and Then - Allison Brown

Part V: Maintaining Healthy Ecosystems

44. The Biodiversity Crisis - John A. Kupfer and George P. Malanson
45. Biodiversity Inventory: Kamiali Wildlife Management Area - F.L. (Rick) Bein
46. Anthropogenic Soils and Sustainability in Amazonia - William I. Woods
47. Tropical Deforestation - David L. Carr
48. Deforestation of the Ecuadorian Amazon: Characterizing Patterns and Associated Drivers of Change - Stephen J. Walsh, Joseph P. Messina, and Leo Zonn
49. Forest Degradation and Fragmentation within Celaque National Park, Honduras - Jane Southworth, Darla Munroe, Harini Nagendra, and Catherine Tucker
50. Human Interactions with Ecosystem Processes: Causes of Aspen Decline in the Intermountain West - Amy E. Hessl
51. The Colorado River Delta of Mexico: 'Endangered Species Refuge' - John All
52. Geographical Perspectives for Tackling Problems in Wetlands - Christopher F. Meindl
53. Marine Geography in Support of "Reefs at Risk" - Dawn J. Wright
54. The Oculina Banks Experimental Research Reserve: A Habitat Assessment Using Multi-Media and Internet GIS - Joanne N. Halls

Part VI: Balancing Environment With Economy

55. Geographers and Sustainability: A Missing Connection? - James C. Eflin
56. The Great Plains and the Buffalo Commons - Deborah E. Popper and Frank J. Popper
57. Reducing Energy Shortages and Pollution in China: The World Bank’s Coal Transport Studies - Michael Kuby and Zhijun Xie
58. Unintended Consequences: The War on Drugs and Land Use and Cover Change in the Ecuadorian Amazon - Joseph P. Messina
59. A Geographical Perspective on Coca/Cocaine Impacts in South America - Kenneth R. Young
60. Global Environments and Rural Communities: Enhancing Community Conservation Initiatives in East Africa - Jeffrey O. Durrant and Mark W. Jackson
61. Water Management in the West: Controlling the Impact of Cumulative Pond Diversions - Teresa L. Bulman
62. The Conservation Reserve Program: A Solution to the Problem of Agricultural Overproduction? - Philip J. Gersmehl and Dwight A. Brown
63. It’s the Overgrazing Stupid! Destruction of the Global Rangelands - Peter Vincent
64. Forests and Management: A Case Study in Nepal Using Remote Sensing and GIS - Harini Nagendra and Charles M. Schweik

Part VII: Unmasking Dangerous Environments

65. Excursions into the Toxic Past - Craig E. Colten
66. Non-Point Sources: Historical Sedimentation and 20th-Century Geography - L. Allan James
67. Spatial Analysis of Hazardous Fuels and Ecological Decadence - Denise Tolness
68. Closed Municipal Landfills in Texas: Using GIS to Study their Health, Safety, and Environmental Risks and Impacts - Robert D. Larsen, Ronald J. Stephenson, and James Vaughan
69. Understanding Pesticide Misuse in Developing Countries - Lawrence S. Grossman
70. The Biogeographic Response to Acid Rain - Sarah Finkelstein
71. Thinking Outside the Circle: Using Geographical Knowledge to Focus Environmental Risk Assessment Investigations - Jayajit Chakraborty and Marc P. Armstrong
72. Paleotempestology: Geographic Solutions to Hurricane Hazard Assessment and Risk Prediction - Kam-biu Liu
73. Societal Impacts of Blizzards in the Conterminous United States, 1959-2000 - Robert M. Schwartz
74. Coastal Hazards and Barrier Beach Development - Stephen P. Leatherman and Keqi Zhang
75. Bridging Hazards Geography and Political Geography: A Borderland Vulnerability Framework - Lydia L. Bean and Fred M. Shelley

Part VIII: Activating Physical GeograPHY

76. Ecological Response to Global Climatic Change - George P. Malanson, David R. Butler, and Stephen J. Walsh
77. Global Change and Assessment of the Onset of Spring - Mark D. Schwartz
78. Understanding Urban Climates - Sue Grimmond
79. Developing Heat-Warning Systems for Cities Worldwide - Scott Sheridan
80. Using Geomorphology to Assess and Enhance Beach Habitat for Horseshoe Crabs - Nancy L. Jackson, David R. Smith, and Karl F. Nordstrom
81. Reconstructing Past Watershed and Ecosystem Development in the Coast Mountains, British Columbia, Canada - Catherine Souch
82. Water Resource Development on Small Carbonate Islands: Solutions Offered by the Hydrologic Landscape Concept - Douglas W. Gamble
83. The Hydrodynamic Efficiency of Non-Traditional Levee Protection Methods in the Sacramento River Delta - Douglas Sherman, Jeffrey Hart, David Hansen, and Jean Ellis
84. Reclamation of Surface Coal-Mined Lands in Northwest Colorado - Richard A. Marston and David M. Furin

Part IX: Mobilizing Geographic Technologies

85. Community Mapping as a Solution to Digital Equity - Jeremy W. Crampton and Dona J. Stewart
86. Using Historical GIS to Resolve Political Boundary Disputes Along Rivers - Wendy Bigler and Patricia Q. Deschamps
87. Toward a Participatory Geographic Information Science - Timothy L. Nyerges and Piotr Jankowski
88. Empowering Indigenous Peoples and Promoting Collaborative Natural Resource Management through Mobile Interactive GIS (MIGIS) - Jack A. McConchie and John M. McKinnon
89. Towards Structured Public Involvement: Improving Community Involvement in Transportation Decision Making - Keiron Bailey and Ted Grossardt
90. GIS Evaluation for Field Dissipation in the Northern Wheat Belt - Mary Bee Hall-Brown, Roy S. Stine, and Warner J. Phelps
91. Quantitative Spatial Analysis of Remotely Sensed Imagery - Nina Lam, Charles Emerson, and Dale Quattrochi
92. Geospatial Contributions to Watershed-Scale Surface Water Quality Modeling - J. M. Shawn Hutchinson, John A. Harrington Jr., and Luke J. Marzen
93. The Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) - David W. S. Wong

Part X: (re)assessing culture and identity

94. Placing Children at the Heart of Globalization - Stuart C. Aitken
95. How Do Children Use Representations of Space? - Scott Bell
96. Undocumented Immigrants in the 21st Century: Perceptions of Spatial Legitimacy - Gwen Gustafson Scott
97. ‘Nourishing the Soul’: Geography and Matters of Meaning - Daniel H. Olsen and Jeanne Kay Guelke
98. The Profound Problem of Locating Humanity: The Significance and Implications of Feng-shui - David Nemeth
99. Alexander von Humboldt and the Origins of Our Modern Geographical View of Earth - Alejandro Guarín
100. Natural and Cultural Landscapes: One Heritage or Two? - Thomas F. McIlwraith