| 1. |
- Avango, Dag, et al.
(författare)
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Industrial extraction of Arctic natural resources since the sixteenth century : technoscience and geo-economics in the history of northern whaling and mining
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Historical Geography. - : Academic Press. - 0305-7488 .- 1095-8614. ; 44, s. 15-30
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A comparative perspective is applied in analyzing the large-scale utilization of Arctic natural resources driven by economies and agents outside the Arctic and subarctic regions. This paper focuses on whaling since the sixteenth century, and on the development of mining from the nineteenth century to the present. The European sector of the Arctic and subarctic regions including the high-Arctic archipelago of Spitsbergen provides the main cases for this study. The social, economic and environmental contexts and consequences of northern industry are considered; as part of this line of research, the little-known symbolic and geopolitical uses of industrial field installations are considered. The northern transfer of Western technoscience, including scientific navigation, colonial geography, steam-propulsion and aviation, often failed initially despite much enthusiasm and underwent painstaking on-site modification. In this industrialists and other Arctic entrepreneurs attempted to control a complex combination of factors including the sparse local population, the lack of major infrastructure, and the environmental impact of their own businesses. This combined with the social problems of keeping peace among collaborators and competitors under isolated and lawless conditions. In conclusion, the greatest challenges to industry in the Arctic throughout modern history were local and social rather than climatic or geopolitical. Indigenous interests were long disregarded while Arctic seas and some land areas were exploited by Western nations as unregulated commons. Not only nature and local inhabitants but also the industry itself suffered from increased scales of operations. The record of Arctic extractive industries over four hundred years reveals a need to develop and share relevant environmental and socio-economic knowledge and to develop international regulations and instruments such as industry certification to guarantee sustainable northern resource utilization.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Cook, Matthew, et al.
(författare)
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Agents of memorialization : Gunter Demnig's Stolpersteine and the individual (re-)creation of a Holocaust landscape in Berlin
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Historical Geography. - : Elsevier BV. - 0305-7488 .- 1095-8614. ; 43, s. 138-147
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In their studies of the memorialization process and its outcomes, geographers have traditionally focused on state-driven commemoration. This is true for studies of Holocaust memorials in Berlin, which have mostly investigated the roles of the state in the creation of state-sanctioned memorials. It is also important to focus on non-state actors who are engaged in the creation of memorials to better understand how individuals interpret and shape a cultural landscape. In this paper we use a case study of German artist Gunter Demnig's Stolpersteine (stumbling stones), which are small memorial stones that commemorate individual victims of the Holocaust at their former homes and businesses. Individuals, families, and school groups conduct historical research and finance the emplacement of these memorial stones in sidewalks in Berlin and other cities. The research findings are based on participant observations at ten installation ceremonies in Berlin in May 2011, interviews with Demnig's assistants and participants in the ceremonies, and media accounts of the Stolpersteine. Responding to recent calls for the inclusion of agency in the memorialization literature, we study how individuals shape a cultural landscape. These agents of memorialization negotiate meanings of the Holocaust with city and federal governments, thereby (re-)creating a cultural landscape for current and future generations. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 4. |
- Doel, Ronald E., et al.
(författare)
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Strategic Arctic science : national interests in building natural knowledge - interwar era through the Cold War
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Historical Geography. - : Elsevier BV. - 0305-7488 .- 1095-8614. ; 44, s. 60-80
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- From the 1930s through the 1950s-the decades bracketing the second and third international polar years research in the physical and biological environmental sciences of the Arctic increased dramatically. The heroic, expedition-based style of Arctic science, dominant in the first decades of the twentieth century, gave way to a systematic, long-term, strategic and largely statefunded model of research which increased both Arctic presence and the volume of research output. Factors that made this change possible were distinct for each of the five circumpolar nation-states considered here. For Soviet leaders, the Arctic was an untamed land containing vast economic resources, all within reach if its long-sought Northern Sea Route became reality; Soviet officials sought environmental knowledge of this region with a range of motivations from economic and strategic concerns to enhancing the prestige of socialism. In contrast, United States officials largely ignored the Arctic until the outbreak of World War II, when military commanders quickly grasped the strategic importance of this region. Anxious that the Arctic might become a literal battleground between East and West by 1947, as the Cold War began, Pentagon leaders funded vast northern research programs, including in strategically located Greenland. Canadian leaders while appreciating the national security concerns of its powerful southern neighbor were even more concerned with maintaining sovereignty over its northern territories and gaining knowledge to assist its northern economic ambitions. Norway and Sweden, as smaller states, faced distinct challenges. With strong claims to Arctic heritage but limited resources, leaders of these states sought to create independent research strategies while, especially in the case of Norway, protecting their geopolitical interests in relation to the Soviet Union and the U.S. This article provides the first internationally comparative study of the multiple economic, military, political, and strategic factors that motivated scientific activities and programs in the far north, from the interwar period through World War II and the Cold War, when carefully coordinated, station-based research programs were introduced. The production of knowledge about Arctic's physical environment including its changing climate had little resemblance either to ideas of science-based 'progress,' or responses to perceived environmental concerns. Instead, it demonstrates that strategic military, economic, geopolitical, and national security concerns influenced and shaped most science undertakings, including those of the International Polar Year of 1932-1933 and the following polar year, the International Geophysical Year of 1957-1958.
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| 5. |
- Gentile, Michael, et al.
(författare)
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Soviet housing : who built what and when? The case of Daugavpils, Latvia
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of Historical Geography. - : Elsevier. - 0305-7488 .- 1095-8614. ; 36:4, s. 453-465
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Throughout much of the Soviet period, access to housing was a major consideration, both for individual citizens and employers intent on increasing their number of employees. Because of the heavy emphasis on industry, and despite the progress made within the area since the late 1950s, Soviet urban residential provision never managed to fully recover from the acute housing shortage that characterized the Stalin years. In this paper, we address the quantitative side of housing construction during the socialist era. Using the mid-sized diversified industrial town of Daugavpils (Latvia) as a case study, we set out to investigate the extent to which employers were involved in decisions concerning housing provision. To do this, we consult a large volume of archival records, our focus being on documents tracing entries indicating that new living quarters were ready and could be allocated to employees of sponsoring organizations and enterprises.
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| 6. |
- Grubbström, Ann, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Estonian family farms in transition : a study of intangible assets and gender issues in generational succession
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of Historical Geography. - : Elsevier BV. - 0305-7488 .- 1095-8614. ; 38:3, s. 329-339
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper, based on interviews, highlights intangible assets in the intergenerational transfer of farms in two Estonian municipalities from a long-term and gender perspective. The study stretches from the interwar period in the twentieth century up to the present. It has been shown that emotional bonds to the land are generally strong in Estonia. This paper aims to highlight how such bonds and feelings may influence decisions on generational succession.The results of the study indicate that family farming and land transfer have had a significant and persistent role in Estonian society, even during the Soviet period under its collectivised system of agriculture. Transfers of intangible assets were important during Soviet rule, for example, the transfer of knowledge about the pre-Soviet property and the value and importance of the farmhouse. Today, family farming is gradually declining in importance, but older traditions of farm and farmhouse transfer can still be found, such as early decisions on who is to be the successor. This is evident among active farmers but also among former farmers with strong emotional bonds to the land. Traditional gender roles tend towards men’s knowledge still generally being more highly valued in the decision about who is to be the successor to the family land.
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| 7. |
- Lajus, Julia, et al.
(författare)
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Melting the glacial curtain : the politics of Scandinavian-Soviet networks in the geophysical field sciences between two polar years, 1932/33-1957/58
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Historical Geography. - : Elsevier BV. - 0305-7488 .- 1095-8614. ; 44, s. 44-59
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While providing a brief background of the development of Scandinavian Russian relations in the polar sciences in the early 20th century, this paper focuses on the period from the 1930s when the Swedish geographer Hans Ahlmann and Norwegian oceanographer Harald Ulrik Sverdrup developed a curiosity of the Soviet Union as a field for the practice of Arctic science. Visit of the Arctic Research Institute in Leningrad in 1934 further enhanced Ahlmann's sympathy and in 1935 he co-founded the Society for the Promotion of Cultural and Scientific Relations between Sweden and the Soviet Union. After further wartime collaboration, Ahlmann returned to the Soviet Union in 1958 and 1960 as president of the International Union of Geographical Sciences. Using his longtime Soviet contacts to penetrate the Iron Curtain, Ahlmann became a key figure in maintaining the flow of scientific information between East and West. New materials from archives open perspectives for better understanding of the international connections and transfer of knowledge in geophysical and geographical science in its formative period. The key message from this paper is that while tensions did exist and presented scientists with differential loyalties, they still managed to find ways to undertake fruitful scientific collaborations even under political restraints and could sometimes play political roles.
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| 8. |
- Maandi, Peeter, 1975-
(författare)
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Land reforms and territorial integration in post-Tsarist Estonia, 1918-1940
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of Historical Geography. - : Elsevier BV. - 0305-7488 .- 1095-8614. ; 36:4, s. 441-452
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- After the declaration of independence in 1918, the Estonian government initiated a number of land reforms within a relatively short period of time. Although the reforms varied in aim, they led to similar outcomes in terms of the status and structure of landed properties. This paper explores, first, how the land reforms transformed a diversity of tenure systems into a coherent property regime, and second, how the reforms related to the political discussion on the proper spatial organization of land rights in Estonia. I argue that an important aim of the reforms was to contribute to the spatial and cultural consolidation of the new nation. The paper places the land reforms in a geopolitical context, proposing that the land reforms served to fend off a number of real and perceived threats to territorial integration. The paper is based on statements by politicians and intellectuals of the time, and on land reform records stored in Estonian State Archive.
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| 9. |
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