Regional/cultural geography

• Foreign language and culture
• The Geography of Consciousness
• The Blue(s) Highway
• Gateway to Scotland
• Virtual tour of Israel
• Semiotics for beginners
• Uganda: The Pearl of Africa
• The Republic of Cameroon
• Latin American Studies
• Around-the-World Journal
• Canadian Heritage Internet Site
• Pacific Islands on the Web
• Windows on Italy
• Have Theory; Will Travel: Constructions of "Cultural Geography"
• Geography of Kuwait with Links to Other Arab States
• Virtual Antarctica
• Trans-Saharan Trade and the West African Discovery of the Mediterranean World
• The Russian Chronicles
• The Arctic on the Internet
• Arctic Science Sites
• State and Local Policymaking in Brazil
• Culture and Landscape
• Local and Community Historical Geography
• The Historical Geography of Jewish Printing
• A Century on the Census - Gaelic in Twentieth Century Focus
• Changing Neolithic Landscapes at Brzesc Kujawski, Poland
• Spatial Boundaries, Etiquette and Interpersonal Interactions at a Gothic Club
• Geography & Gender - A Bibliography
• Space and Language
• Gendered Spaces & Seawell's Throckmorton
• Geography of Christmas Island
• Stories and Legends - Christmas
• The Ancient World Web: Main Index
• Regional Geography Resources
• WORLD: Subject Headings for WWW Subject Sites
• Andean Links - Cultures of the Andes
• Brazil
• Mental Space And Group Relations
• Ireland: the Digital Age: the Internet
• Geography USA: A Virtual Textbook
• Geography of China
• Culture & Language
• Cultural Formations in Text-Based Virtual Realities
• Rural Grassroots Telecommunication
• About Nunavut
• No Place Like Home - A Cybertour of the Geography of Singapore (a treat for Mac fans!)
• Regional Futures - Technology
• Regional Development in France
• Basic Methodological Problems with the Anti-Mormon Approach to the Book of Mormon
• Contingencies of Culture: The Space of Culture in Canada and Québec
• Population Index 1986-1996 On-line
• Countries & Geography of the Middle East and Beyond li>Refugees and Environmental Change: the case of the Forest Region of Guinea
• Facing the Future: People and the Planet
• Places, People, and Cultures
• I. Wallerstein, "SpaceTime as the Basis of Knowledge"
• Feminism and Women's Resources Page
• Course Proposal: Women and the Built Environment
• Empirical, Civilizational and Critical Approaches to Sustaining And Transforming the World for Future Generations
• The Intellectual Construction of "Social Distance"
• Place, Region, and Cyberspace
• E-Conflict, World Encyclopedia and Simulation
• Community Policing And The Challenge Of Diversity
• Regions in Sweden
• The Geography of Discontent
• Bioregional WWW Pages
• Bioregionalism
• Natural Resources and Community Values
• Cruising Geography: A Queer Glance At Geography's Orientation
• Hall of Geography - Countries/Regions of the World
• Great Lakes Information Network
• Hohokam Indians of the Tucson Basin - an online book
• Canadian Geographical Names / Les noms géographiques du Canada
• Geographical Names
• Face of Russia
• Lyon geography, the Lyon metropolitan area in the heart of Rhône-Alpes
• Gender, Place and Culture - A Journal of Feminist Geography - Online
• Lecture: Populations
• United States Population Pyramids
• Sites Related to Russia
• Global Workspaces of the Mind - explores ways how to construct and share realities
• Cultural Geography
• Cultural Corridors in South-East Europe
• Social Connotations Of Spatial Metaphors And Their Influence On (Direct) Social Navigation
• The Basque Country Today
• Introduction to China
• SSHA Historical Geography Network
• Civilizations versus Regionalism: Religion and Geography in Southeast Asia
• Geography of France
• Visualizing the Great Lakes
• Internet Geography Tutorial: Regional Geography Resources
• Geography, photography, the cinema
• Infonation: Choose Countries - InfoNation is an easy-to-use, two-step database that allows you to view and compare the most up-to-date statistical data for the Member States of the United Nations.
• Finding the Heart of Dixie in Cyberspace: The Internet as a New Laboratory for Cultural Geography
• Enabling Better Land Use in East Africa: The Story So Far
• Canadian Geography
• Image Commodification and the Evolution of Taste: Time-Space Compression
• The Gulf/2000 Project
• Arctic Studies Center
• Mapping the Life Course: Visualising Migrations, Transitions and Trajectories
• Origins Of The New Farm Women's Movement In Canada, New Zealand And Australia
• Memetics: The Nascent Science Of Ideas And Their Transmission
• Scotland: Gateway to Scotland
• The Complete Guide to Palestine's Websites
• The Palestinian Center for Regional Studies - a non-governmental, regional research institute established by Palestinian scholars, intellectuals and decision-makers to promote regional cooperation in an environment of peaceful coexistence in the Middle East region.
• East Asia WWW Virtual Library
• Tajikistan Resource Page
• Welcome to the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC)
• Info Costa Rica: Information Center
• Golden Crescent Index - The Golden Crescent, running in a wide swath along the Atlantic Coast from Savannah to Cape Canaveral and inland towards Tallahassee, is remarkably rich in history and prehistory.
• Rondonia Web - This page provides access to several of the things about Rondônia, which is located in the western portion of the Amazon Basin in Brazil, near the Bolivian border.
• Central Asia/Caucasus Analyst - Biweekly briefing.
• Inuit and Englishmen: The Nunavut voyages of Martin Frobisher - Canadian Museum of Civilization based site on the early explorations of Martin Frobisher, who tried to find the Northwest Passage, but instead found Baffin Island and Inuit peoples.
• Arctic Science and Technology Information System (ASTIS=SISTA) - The Arctic Science and Technology Information System (ASTIS) database contains over 45,000 records describing publications and research projects about northern Canada.
• Canadian Geographical Names - Natural Resources Canada - The site is maintained by the Secretariat of the Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (CPCGN). We are providing a reference service by combining this server and the Canadian Geographical Names Data Base (CGNDB). Users can perform queries to obtain basic locational information and generate simple sketch maps which show general locations of selected features.
• World Regional Geography
• Virtual Guidebooks Home Page - Over 800 (eventually over 1400) virtual 360 degree panoramas of the western part of North America, from Alaska to southern Baja California. Panoramas can be rotated by mouse action. The pictures are catagorized geographically as well as by subject and come with very brief information on the location. Unfortunately they lack indication of direction.
• Central & Eastern Europe - Internet Resources - Large collection of weblinks by country. Hundreds of authoritative links per country on topics as divers as news, politics, defense, history, culture, geography etc. The listing is strong in links to official documents and institutions, but also holds specialised links to relevant journal articles.
• NIS & the Former Soviet Union - Internet Resources - Large collection of weblinks by country. Hundreds of authoritative links per country on topics as divers as news, politics, defense, history, culture, geography etc. The listing is strong in links to official documents and institutions, but also holds specialised links to relevant journal articles.
• Welcome to Statistics of the Commonwealth of Independent States
• Welcome to the Virtual Geography Texts on Canada and Germany - The Virtual Geography Texts (VGT) on Germany and Canada are not meant to replace the traditional textbooks, but rather to complement them. They are mainly designed for use in the North American and German education system.
• Some Futures for Cultures
• Portugal From the Sky - Access to aerial photographs of Lisbon and Oporto and landsat images for the whole of Portugal.
• Geography of The Netherlands - Metasite on geography of the Netherlands. Simple but effective listing of sites on geographically relevant aspects of the Netherlands.
• U.S. Census Bureau Geography Topics - Geographical backgrounds, explanations and resources of the US Census.
• SIQSS Home Page - The Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society (SIQSS) is dedicated to employing empirical data, and statistical methods informed by the best of social theory, to address complex questions about the nature of society and social change.
• Gender Preferences for Children in Europe - In this paper, data from the Fertility and Family Surveys are used to compare 17 European countries with respect to their gender preferences for children.
• America Becoming: Contemporary Immigration And The Dynamics of Race And Ethnicity - This paper examines the historical trends and sources of immigration to the United States and the spatial patterns of contemporary immigrant settlement.
• World's Transportation Commission Photograph Collection 1894-1896 - The World's Transportation Commission Photograph Collection contains nearly nine hundred images by American photographer William Henry Jackson. In addition to railroads, elephants, camels, horses, sleds and sleighs, sedan chairs, rickshaws, and other types of transportation, Jackson photographed city views, street and harbor scenes, landscapes, local inhabitants, and Commission members as they travelled through North Africa, Asia, Australia, and Oceania.
• Canadian Information By Subject: Geography, history - Extensive but basic listing of websites related to the geography and history of Canada. Arranged by Dewey decimal classification. By the National Library of Canada.
• Why Now is the Time to Rethink Regionalism - What has changed is what it means to be a region. Decentralization has helped to reconfigure regions and redefine how their subdivisions interact. For example, regions no longer need a major city as their nucleus. Regional cooperation does not have to mean formal regional governance. Regionalism 1990s-style is a partnership, not a command-and-control relationship. This article will review the intellectual forces and the tangible changes that have set the stage for the new regionalism. It then will examine the implications. The new regionalism is the recognition that the people of the world have been pulling apart but also are pulling together in new combinations. It is the acknowledgment that smaller is better on one level, but that coalitions working together with a shared message are the most powerful of all. The regionalism of today means more than a geographical boundary; it is the philosophy of connectedness.
• Country Studies: Area Handbook Series (Library of Congress / Federal Research Division) - This website contains the on-line versions of books previously published in hard copy by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/Area Handbook Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Army. Because the original intent of the Series' sponsor was to focus primarily on lesser known areas of the world or regions in which U.S. forces might be deployed, the series is not all-inclusive. At present, 101 countries and regions are covered.
• Norwegian Polar Institute - Research institute with some bias towards the Norwegian arctic (Jan Mayen, Spitsbergen). The site is concerned with arctic issues worldwide, hoewever. With links to full texts of Antarctic treaty and related documents. Research programmes include amrice ecology, polar climate, ecotoxicology, and Kara Sea studies.
• Water, Conflict Resolution and Environmental Sustainablility in the Middle East - Freshwater resources are finite, unevenly distributed worldwide, and often shared by more than one country. Thus, fresh water can be a trigger for conflict--but it can also become a reason for cooperation, as parties in water-scarce regions join together to manage this crucial shared resource. Nonetheless, the disparities between countries are wide and some are already faced with constraints in meeting domestic water demand owing to physical, socio-economic and political factors. As a result, water and water-supply systems may become instruments of political confrontation and objectives of military operations as the global population expands. Water quality has also become a crucial factor in the discussion over water availability, conflict and cooperation. In many countries, both developing and developed, current water use is not sustainable because water is poorly allocated and/or managed. The situation is especially grim in the Middle East and North Africa.
• Place Names And Intersocietal Interaction: Wintu Expansion Into Hokan Territory In Late Prehistoric Northern California - Though there was little which might be understood as core/periphery hierarchy in this regional system, the Wintu expansion could be interpreted as an instance of intersocietal exploitation or domination. This study uses linguistic evidence -- the names of places along the borders of Wintu territory -- to distinguish between different modes of Wintu expansion.
• Media Guide: The Big Book: The United States vs. The World: A Theoretical Look at Cultural Imperialism - "What we are seeing today is not actually a hegemony of American culture, since there is little in that culture that can be called inherently "American". What's really happening is an "internationalization" of material culture throughout a world that has truly become a global village. Because the United States is itself a hybrid nation, made up of immigrants from many nationalities, it is acting as a "crystal ball" for the rest of the world." Dr. Ron Robin, American History scholar, speaking at Haifa University's conference on "Ideology and Resistance: the construction of American Culture and its Reception at Home and Abroad".
• Push and Pull Factors of International Migration - Home Page - International migration flows have increased in magnitude and complexity over the past decades. As a result, migration and potential migration to, for instance, the European Union are receiving ever more attention at policy level. Within this context, the Commission of the European Communities entrusted Eurostat, its statistical Bureau, and the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI) with a project to study the push and pull factors determining international migration flows. The objective of the project is to improve our understanding of the direct and indirect causes and mechanisms of international migration to the European Union, from an internationally comparative perspective. The results are intended to serve as a basis for the development of policy instruments and to provide tools for estimating future migration.
• British Antarctic Survey Home Page - Clear description of some key Antarctic issues (ozone, effects of rising sea levels on ice sheet a.o.), presentation of research programmes, current highlights, a geographical and geopolitical description of the continent and an overview of the survey's resources, all in a very clear layout and consistent navigation.With links to the Antarctic Digital database of geographical map files.
• Bienvenue au Quid - Online version of the respectable world almanac from France. Apart from the general subjects, there is a wealth of geo-information. Most of it is in the light-yellow column on the right. There are general country 'fiches', flags, maps (click on the map to get more detail) and many, albeit somewhat stereotypical, photographs. What sets this site apart however is the country data service, with the possibility to compare up to ten countries. The geography data include many not found elsewhere: country circumference, length of coastal and land frontiers, length of frontiers shared with neighbouring countries, height and name of highest point, height and name of lowest point, short geographical description, climate data, disaster listing. The unique database of information at the commune level in France (there are 36,511 of them!) is worth mentioning as well.
• Cultural, geography, political economy and ecology - I was the more interested that, having moved from red to green and to ecology in the 70s-80s, I had recently developed an interest in "cultural geography" . In fact, it had been aknowledged from Sauer that "cultural geography" is a twin for what we call now "human ecology". "Culture is the agent, the natural area the medium, the cultural landscape the result" : Sauer's formula is indeed a good proxy for the definition of human ecology. Yet, to my amazement, I discovered in Milos that, for a subsector in British academic geography, "culture" was about... shopping centers, and "lifestyles" about fashions ! The fury of the debate led me to reconsidere a group of papers which I had previously considered without a specific interest. I discoverd that indeed, while pointing out the shortcomings of "consumption studies" in the mid-90's, P. Jackson, in his "Guest Editorial" to the issues of Environment and Planning A dedicated to this theme, had not hesitated to identify this new focus of interest as "the cultural turn in human geography". I discovered that this "cultural turn" was identified by Sivanandan to a betrayal by some ex-marxists, discovering the seductions of consumerism, individualism: a "Thatcherite turn" in reality!
• Diffusion in Social Networks - In the first stage a few innovators adopt, which makes it more likely that their neighbors adopt, then their neighbors' neighbors, and so forth, until the innovation spreads to the entire social group. Such processes can be used to model not only technological innovation, but also the diffusion of customs, laws, and norms of behavior. Consider the history of rules of the road in Europe. While driving on the right is currently the norm in continental European countries, it was not always so. Prior to World War I, for example, driving on the left was common practice in Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Sweden, Portugal, and parts of Italy, and probably other European countries as well. Looking back still further into the eighteenth century, we find that driving on the left was customary in France. Under the ancien regime horse-drawn carriages kept to the left, and pedestrians walked on the right in order to face the oncoming traffic and be prepared to jump out of the way if necessary. Keeping to the right was therefore a custom of the average citizen, while keeping to the left was a practice of the privileged classes. After the French Revolution, the right-hand rule was adopted as a symbol of the new, more democratic order.
• World Health Report 2000 - Full text and tables of the first WHO comparative report on the effectiveness of the world's health systems. The report ranks France's health system 1st, that of the US 37th. The analysis is not just on health sector expenditure, but also on its fairness and some other variables. The statistical annexes carry the detailed results of the survey. There is also a wealth of demographic information in this report. The WHO uses DALE, a life expectancy measure that is adjusted for disability. Tables are available in Excel format as well, although these files do not seem to open properly.
• Comoros: The Comoro Islands' Home Page - General Comoros site with own content on the geography, climate, population, etc. of the three islands of the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoro Islands (Ngazidja, Mwali, and Nzwani) of the island of Mayotte, still adminstered by France. With maps and photographs, an extensive (100+) bibliography and additional links.
• Just Another Medical Geography Page - General information on the history of medical geography and its current research interests. Provides valuable links to research centres, articles, discussion grouops, online health atlases and more. It is unclear whether the site is still maintained.
• Worldwide Gazetteer - Country reference and links. Holds the obvious country links such as CIA world factbook pages, maps (Expedia, MapQuest, MapBlast, Atlapedia), links from BUBL, a link to the Britannica, local papers and business links, but also has own content: articles on world affairs and some comparative country graphs. There are also direct country links to books at Amazon, and to the apporpriate categories of Yahoo, GoTo and Alta Vista. Lay out and navigation is clear, content mostly up-to-date. Handy for a first country exploration.
• Culture and the New Media Technologies - This report attempts to pinpoint key cultural issues raised by new media technologies. While coverage of the heteroclite practices encountered throughout the world cannot be provided by a brief, single-author paper of this kind, the examples discussed have been selected from a wide array of countries, structures, and thinkers fueling constructive debate. Through their diversity, it is hoped that these examples offer a fair reflection of the complex international situation.
• Canadian Geography
• Rural transport in India - The paper emphasizes the role of rural roads and rural transport in the country's development. Drawing on the experience of Kerala it explains how attention to these two matters could improve economic conditions in rural India and reduce migration to cities.
• Andorra - Departament d'Estudis i d'Estadística (in Catalan)
• Armenia - National Statistical Service (ARMSTAT)
• Barbados - Barbados Statistical Services
• Bulgaria - NSI
• Fiji - Fiji islands Statistics Bureau
• India - Ministry of Statistics
• Iran - Statistical Centre of Iran
• Macedonia - Agency of Information
• Mongolia - Mongolian Statistics
• Qatar - Ministry of foreign affairs
• Tunisia - Institut national de la statistique
• United Arab Emirates (UAE) - Ministry of Planning
• United Kingdom - Northern Ireland - Northern Ireland Statistics and research Agency (NISRI)
• Arctic theme page - Home - Gateway to arctic data and organisations, a photograph gallery and links to topical information. Aimed at the general public, with some specific scientific information. By the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
• State and County QuickFacts - Easy and handy database of basic facts for US states and counties. By the US Census Bureau. The are pages for all states, which in turn provide access to county selection maps. State figures are given together with US total and state totals accompany requested county data.
• Millennials and their Momentous Future: Part of the Crisis is Already Visible - After studying American economic and social patterns from colonial times onward, historians William Strauss and Neil Howe ended their first book, Generations, by predicting that a national crisis of unknown shape will begin sometime in the middle of this new decade -- the "Oh-Oh" decade, as they call it. Their prediction is based on the assumption that history has a recurrent, cyclical pattern, with "secular crises" occurring every 75 to 90 years, or roughly every four generations. Strauss and Howe point back to the Great Depression/World War Two, The Civil War and The American Revolution.
  In their 1997 book The Fourth Turning, they describe the nature (as opposed to the details) of a Secular Crisis: "Eventually, all of America's lesser problems will combine into one giant problem... Public choices will be newly simple, fitting within the contours of crisp yes/no choices... The splinterings, complexities and cynicisms of [the 1990s] will be but distant memories. The first glimpses of a new golden age will appear beyond -- IF ONLY THIS ONE BIG PROBLEM CAN BE FIXED" (emphasis by authors). And they liken the end stages of a Crisis to a typhoon, in the sense that "anything not lashed down goes flying; anything standing in the way gets flattened."
• Criminal Geographic Targeting - One of the focuses of any police investigation is the crime scene and its evidentiary contents. What is often overlooked, however, is a geographic perspective on the actions preceding the offense, the spatial behavior that led up to the crime scene. For any crime to occur, there must have been an intersection in both time and place between the victim and the offender. How did this happen? What were the antecedents? What do the spatial elements of the crime tell us about the offender and his or her actions? What are the hunting patterns of predatory offenders? These questions are particularly relevant in cases of serial murder, rape, and arson.
  Environmental criminology and routine activity theory provide a general framework for addressing these questions and the model of crime site selection developed by Brantingham and Brantingham suggests a specific approach for determining the most probable location of offender residence in cases of serial violent crimes. Research in this area represents a practical application of criminological theory to the real world of police investigation which not only can contribute useful information to law enforcement agencies, but may also open up possibilities for new and innovative investigative methodologies.
• Population statistics: historical demography - Here you will find a historical, demographical and statistical overview of the population of all the countries in the world, their administrative divisions and their important cities The construction and lay-out of this site was set up in April 1999, so it is still very much in a developmental phase. In Autumn 2000 the files of the administrative divisions and urban centers of the countries beginning with the letters A - H are as good as complete.
• DPRK - North Korea - Extensive listing of press coverage of North Korean issues. Subjects covered are international relations, business, food security and human rights.
• Population Index - Population Index, published since 1935, is the primary reference tool to the world's population literature. It presents an annotated bibliography of recently published books, journal articles, working papers, and other materials on population topics. The Index is provided free of charge on the Web as a public service, thanks to financial support from NICHD.
• Exploring the U.S. Census - The Census Module is designed to provide an introduction to two major digital tabulations of the decennial census - the Summary Tape Files and the Public-use Microdata Sample (PUMS). In addition to working with the structures of these two data bases, students are exposed to their content and to methods of extracting census information from the files stored at the SSDBA. The module provides several data extracts from the census and illustrates a few methods used by demographers to describe places and to examine population characteristics such as age, migration, ethnicity, and income.
• African Population Database Documentation - This documentation describes the third version of a database of administrative units with associated population figures for Africa. The first version was compiled for UNEP's Global Desertification Atlas, while the second version represented an update and expansion of this first product. The work discussed is also related to NCGIA activities to produce a global database of subnational population estimates, and an improved database for the Asian continent.
• Vietnamese Studies Internet Resource Center (VSIRC) - This site is intended as a comprehensive information center for those students, scholars, and community members interested in Vietnamese culture and history as well as the adaptation of the Vietnamese diaspora across the world. The site features a library of on-line research papers, extensive bibliographies of Vietnamese-related articles and books, an on-line Vietnamese Studies bookstore and a list of related links.
• Human Geography: Places and Regions in Global Perspective - This web site is intended to supplement and expand upon material in Human Geography: Places and Regions in Global Context. The Chapters section is organized in terms of chapters in the textbook, and contains exercises, vocabulary quizzes, links to useful related resources available on the WWW, and updates to the chapters. The Themes section contains topics and exercises which complement material in the text, with a focus on how geography matters in understanding current events.
• OH CANADA Homepage - This website provides access to information on the Internet which defines and exposes Canada and Canadians. This is an attempt to define our multicultural fabric, our history, our symbols and our values. This website is a start at hanging our flag on the front door.
• Whither Regionalism in the New West - As a geographer trained in the early 1970s, when academic departments of geography were closing down and the future looked bleak, it gives me pleasure to report that Geography is alive and well, and the human side of the field (geography also includes many physical scientists whose work has little to do with human culture), is especially vibrant. I explore two aspects of human geography long of interest to educators: the concept of regions and how we define them, and the human relationship with nature. The multifaceted field of geography defies comprehensive review, but these two subjects nicely contrast traditional and modern (dare I say post-modern) geographical scholarship, and speak to an audience beyond geography and academia. The regional concept is down for the count in positivist geography because it was not supported by the data. But it now flourishes in cultural geography. Environment and society studies also flourish as people worry about global change, species loss, and the host of other threats posed by industrial society.
• PictureAustralia - Aussie pictures galore at this site, which provides a central index to thousands of Australian photographs at websites of participating organisations. There are good metadata and search functions. Also inludes some 'picture trails' with selections made for you. Most pictures are of historical, cultural and wildlife interest, but geography may find numerous interesting photographs by doing a placename search.
• People and the Planet - This website is a global gateway into the issues of population, poverty, health, consumption and the environment. It derives from the work of People & the Planet magazine.
  When complete, it will review 14 key topics which link people and the environment. Each topic includes an Overview, Facts and Figures, Feature Articles, News Updates, Book and Film Reviews, a Glossary and Web Links.
  The first seven of these themed sections, on Population and Human Development, People and Food and Agriculture, Population and Reproductive Health, People, Coasts and Oceans, People and Renewable Energy, People and Pollution and People and Forests, are now on-line. Others will be added shortly.
  The website is being created by Planet 21, an editorially independent non-profit publishing company and British registered charity, with the support of our sponsors whose own websites are connected by live links on this home page.
• Gender In Geography Bibliography - This bibliography is an ongoing cooperative effort of members of the Discussion List for Feminism in Geography. The list reaches over 400 academics and other professionals, students and others interested in gender issues in geography.
• Province of Quebec -- Site Selection Area Spotlight - Quebec cannot be generalized, typified or characterized by any common means. In many ways, it is a province of dichotomies that is truly unlike any other location in North America or even the world. Quebec's culturally diverse population is highly skilled in both the practical sensibilities of business as well as the recreational art of living. Their entrepreneurial flair and know-how is equally balanced by their leadership role in the global marketplace. Indeed, this combination of disparities resonates throughout every aspect of the province of Quebec, from its distinctly European culture to its burgeoning economy.
• African Studies Internet Resources - Columbia University's collection of African Studies Internet Resources is an on-going compilation of electronic bibliographic resources and research materials on Africa available on the global Internet, created under the purview of the African Studies Department of Columbia University Libraries. Electronic resources from Africa are organized by region and country. All materials are arranged to encourage an awareness of authorship, type of information, and subject. The scope of the collection is research-oriented, but it also provides access to other web sites with different or broader missions. Beginning in early 1999, the site became the "official" African Studies web site for the World Wide Web Virtual Library.
• European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) - Final and full text version of the document setting out guidelines for spatial development in the EU, agreed Potsdam 1999. These are quite large PDF files, containing full colour maps etc. The report itself consists of analysis of spatial development in the EU area as well as some guidelines which form a cautious attempt at physical planning at a European scale.
• National Spatial Strategy (Ireland) - Arising from an undertaking given in the National Development Plan 2000-2006, the Department is preparing a National Spatial Strategy to provide a framework for future balanced Regional Development in Ireland over the next two decades. In order to stimulate an informed public debate, in February the Department issued a consultation paper asking for feedback on the issues that the National Spatial Strategy should address. Following a substantial response from national and local organisations and from members of the public, The National Spatial Strategy - Scope & Delivery was published in May. This document outlines the scope of issues that the Strategy will address and gives the timetable for its delivery. It is envisaged that the Strategy will guide future infrastructural, industrial, residential and rural development while providing protection for Ireland's cultural, natural and environmental heritage, promoting social inclusion and enhancing quality of life. The Strategy will also take account of the European Spatial Development Perspective, which was agreed in 1999 by the 15 EU Ministers responsible for spatial planning.
• Geography of Ireland
• How Does Civil Society Thicken? - What does it mean for civil society to "thicken?" The image of "thickening" is meant to suggest density, strength and solid foundations, though I recognize the risk of evoking less positive images of entanglements, swamps or quicksand. By "thickening," I refer to the broadening and deepening of social networks and organizations that are relatively autonomous from the state and broadly representative of their members. The question I want to address today is: if a thick civil society is made up of strong, flexible social webs, where do they come from? In this project I decided to step back and rethink more than a decade of empirical work to look for broader explanations of civil society formation. It turns out that, in spite of the very powerful intellectual consensus that effective democratization rests on the foundations of a strong civil society, it turns out that social science has produced remarkably little in the way of convincing explanations of just how civil society "thickens" on the ground and then "scales up."
• Migration - If individuals trace their ancestry back far enough, it is clear that we are all migrants, with a mix of blood running in our veins. Human relationships are not defined by lines on a map. This personal realization snaps the brittle links between people and national or racial superiority. It breaks the idea of a rigid homogenous nation completely, leaving space to mould new forms of society where migrants are accepted as 'us' not 'them'. We can start by urging rich world governments to provide the Majority World with aid and fair trade to create the local livelihoods that make mass migration unnecessary. At the same time they must accept migrants themselves. This two-pronged approach is complementary - it ensures that movement is voluntary. The rich world cannot continue to push its notion of 'development' onto the Majority World while shutting out the human cost - millions of migrants. Receiving governments also need to support migrants' rights - including equal rights to work, housing and political freedom. For example, the US has recently declared an amnesty for certain illegal migrants; a move that is far more sensible and less expensive than repatriation or lengthy appeals.
• Globalization and the Prospects for Cosmopolitan Society - In this paper we will argue that globalization reveals, and to some extent enhances, the prospects for cosmopolitan society and cosmopolitan identities, while noting that it can also produce quite other results.  The argument is informed less by utopian visions of a putative "cosmopolis" or by a universalist ethic, than by a regard for evidence which points to the intensification of certain cultural and organisational features of world society, and by other forms of trans and post-nationalization which are expressions of what is often called globalization from below. Such evidence points to a radical deterritorialization of social relationships; and at most towards a global civil society. However, our more cautious position is that the sort of global civil society thus configured looks less like conventional strains of normative cosmopolitanism, and more like a form of transnational network society.  In itself this fact is not discommoding for the development of global civil society, but it does raise some issues about the sort of cosmopolitan society that is emerging, and for some, doubts about its authenticity.
• Goa trance in Goa: globalization, musical practice and the politics of place - People travel, sounds travel. By travelling, they change local realities. I¹m going to discuss how a particular place changes through music culture and youth tourism: the Indian coastal state of Goa, which has been appropriated by young Western neohippies for psychedelic raves with 'Goa trance' music. I¹ll discuss the Goa trance scene as a touristic and musical culture, and I situate the scene more broadly within Goa. Although there's been interest lately in how music globalizes, there's still little about the local conflicts such globalization can entail. I will argue that due to a neglect of actual practices, most musicologists interested in place and geographers interested in music overlook the politics of place, which I want to put firmly into debates on globalization.
• A special project of the Australian National University with assistance from AusAID - Project of the Australian National University to facilitate research an discussion on political and social development in the Melanesian societies. It has a considerable amount of full text discusion papers, working papers and articles, many focussing on the Solomon Islands and Bougainville.
• Inuit Map of Nunavut and Northwest Territories - Map of Inuit peoples, settlement history and languages. The site also boasts some tasteful image galleries of Nunavut landscapes and Inuit life.
• Canadiana -- The Canadian Resource Page
• Mental Space - online book. I thought about what enhances and constricts mental space - space for reflection, for feeling, for relating to others, for being open to experience? I address this question in the light of two sets of issues: first, how we locate psychoanalysis in the history of thought about nature and human nature, with particular reference to Cartesian mind-body dualism; second, which psychoanalytic approaches are most useful and resonant with our experience, as contrasted with scientistic versions of psychology. I then turn to key concepts which bear on these issues: culture and cultural studies, transference and countertransference in the analytic space, psychotic anxieties and other primitive processes, projective identification and transitional phenomena. In each case I try to give a careful exposition of the history of the concept and the debates about its scope and validity, in individual and social terms, including group relations, racism and virulent nationalism. Particular attention is paid to the kinds of accounts of human experience which are most enabling, as opposed to those which diminish the richness and depth of experience. This is, then, a book about the problematic idea of mental space and about the concepts which I have found most helpful in understanding what enhances and threatens it. It was published by Process Press in 1994. The net version includes numerous corrections.
• Symbolic power struggles in inter-cultural space - ... a majority of humanity is by now more or less fully integrated into global systems of communication and exchange. We are forced to be citizens, and we are consumers in a market. The interfaces of modernity - the market, the state and the individual - unite very many of us in a system although we are geographically widely dispersed. Culture is being liberated, or severed, from places, and meanings flow in inter-cultural space. Although globalisation is a fact, the popular metaphor of the global village is fatally misleading: it mixes up the distinctive levels of inter-cultural space, made up by disembedded signs, and the local level, where these signs are pulled down and anchored in subjectively experienced worlds. In this talk I shall confront this contradiction in McLuhan's metaphor by indicating how the global is articulated with the local without becoming the same as the local. In doing this, I will wrap up my examples in a series of reflections about the ways in which we think about what culture is about.
• Landscapes of Crime: Table of Contents
• Feng Shui - Numerous Links
• Islam Guide: A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam, Muslims, & the Quran - This Islamic guide is for non-Muslims who would like to understand Islam, Muslims (Moslems), and the Holy Quran (Koran). It is rich in information, references, bibliography, and illustrations. It has been reviewed and edited by many professors and well-educated people. It is brief and simple to read, yet contains much scientific knowledge. It contains the whole book, A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam, and more.
• Journal of Psychogeography and Urban Research - The Journal of Psychogeography and Urban Research is a new online peer-reviewed journal, launched in September 2001 as a vehicle for astute, informative, and dynamic thought on the subject of psychogeography. The journal publishes work from a range of methodological positions, on various historical moments, and across diverse geographical and academic locations, such as the following paper.
• The Art of Walking - During the first half of the eighteenth century mobility within the urban or rural environment was confined to restricted areas. In the urban environment, for instance, the bad state of streets did not allow 'walking for pleasure' outside private parks or pleasure gardens. This situation underwent a sudden change in the mid-eighteenth century. The provision of public spaces in which to walk was part of the urban improvement measures of many British towns. This paper examines how these changes were mirrored in material objects such as footwear. Patterns, clogs and other devices designed to keep feet above ground level quickly disappeared, allowing easier mobility. However, a new kind of segregation came into being. While men's footwear embraced functional notions, women's shoes became expressive of a female environment increasingly considered to be a domestic and private space. Men's boots contrast with light and flimsy neo-classical women's shoes. The physical barriers that prevented free mobility gave way to more socially, culturally and psychologically constructed barriers.
• Siliconia - Here is the definitive collection of Siliconia on the Web. Siliconia are appropriations of names beginning with "Silicon" by areas outside Silicon Valley. A Siliconium can be promoted by local boosters or it can be assigned to an area in a press account. An ideal Siliconium will capture something unique about the regional character and when first encountered will bring a fleeting smile.
• Space Syntax - Museums & Galleries - Space Syntax has developed a unique methodology for analysing and forecasting visitor movement patterns in Museums, Galleries and other public building types. The key components of this methodology are:
  1. computer-based spatial modelling, and
  2. detailed observation studies of actual visitor use patterns.
  Space Syntax studies have consistently shown that the physical layout of rooms, corridors and vertical connections can influence the pattern of movement in museums and galleries, above all other factors. Understanding the effects of spatial layout on visitor activity allows layout proposals to be measured in terms of their likely 'impact' on visitor flows, and provides the client and design team with detailed feedback over a range of issues including:
  • number and location of entrances
  • ease of visitor orientation
  • location of retail facilities and information points
  • number and location of stair, escalator and lift links
  • gallery layout options
  Space syntax methods ensure that the physical layout of a building complements - rather than works against - the layout of exhibits within it, and has been widely applied in the analysis and design of buildings throughout the world including: the Louvre in Paris; the new Acropolis Museum in Athens; the Uffizi Gallery in Florence; and the British Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Natural History Museum, National Gallery and Tate Gallery Millbank, all in London.
• Geography and Television - The importance of a geographical understanding of television lies in recognizing that television always has been produced for, has circulated across, and has been engaged at particular sites. Consequently, what is understood as the "televisual" has never been a discrete object but a set of practices and/or attributes--always attached to, situated within, and dispersed across different environments. While one may choose to talk about the distinctive properties of television (e.g., as an industry, a technology, a narrative or cultural form, an audience), it is just as necessary to recognize that any definition draws strategically on examples of practices from particular locations. Similarly, any such definition risks ignoring how these distinctive properties have always been site-specific, complexly conjoined, along with other practices, to environments. As a consequence, any aspect of the televisual has been deployed, developed and engaged unevenly around the world.
• Local and Community Historical Geography - The purpose of this page is to communicate some of the work done on local historical geography in Northern Ontario. The major emphasis will centre on the City of North Bay and the Towns & Townships within a 100 kilometre radius of North Bay.
• The Baltic Sea Region Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - This background study for the VASAB 2010 PLUS Spatial Development Action Programme presents the most significant spatial trends in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) and highlights some fundamental challenges in the area that are in need of special attention.
• Portuguese American Community of Southern New England - This web site focuses on the urban ethnic landscape of the Portuguese American community in Southern New England. It focuses on recent immigration in the Portuguese American community in southern New England (mainly New Bedford and Fall River, Mass. and neighboring Rhode Island). It is an extensive site featuring more than 150 slides with text, but you can opt for the "Quick Tour" with 34 key slides. Special topics include signs, symbols and monuments in the landscape.
• Links to Psychogeography sites - Psychogegraphy is the study of the effects of geographical settings, consciously managed or not, acting directly on the mood and behaviour of the individual. Psychogeography research is carried on through non-scientific methods such as the drive, aimless drifting through the city, trying to record the emotions given by a particular place; and mental mapping, the production of mood-based maps.
• SWISS-ROMANSH: A Geographical Perspective - This web site is an introduction to the Romansh who primarily reside in the Alpine valleys of southeastern Switzerland. The summary of data, ethnography, and cartography are a product of my dissertation fieldwork and writing. I recommend you check the original sources for citation accuracy and feel free to distribute my ideas. There are separate graphic, bibliographic, and linkage pages at the bottom.
• Ontario Geography - guide to material on the geography of Ontario.
• Is the world getting larger or smaller? - Doreen Massey - "The world is not getting so small that there is room for only one story." The changing spatial dimensions of human life and thinking are creating the need for a new imagination and politics of space, says Doreen Massey.

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