Jacob Shell
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029339
- eISBN:
- 9780262330404
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029339.001.0001
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Cultural and Historical Geography
What sorts of transportation technologies and methods of conveyance have political regimes associated with the movement of weapons, papers, or people for political subversion and revolt? In an era ...
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What sorts of transportation technologies and methods of conveyance have political regimes associated with the movement of weapons, papers, or people for political subversion and revolt? In an era when much transfer of information moves across a wire-tappable medium, and much transport of goods and people occurs across a mapped network of tracks and checkpoints, what social history of the specter of subversive trafficking—and of the associated political fears this specter has been able to elicit—might help us better understand the retrenchment of an older range of possibilities for human mobility? This book pursues these lines of inquiry, focusing on several modes of transportation which have been perceived, in different times and places, as especially useful for clandestine, subversive logistics, and which have also become relatively marginalized and divested from over the past century and a half. The examples treated in the book are mostly animal-based forms of transportation (carrier pigeons, mules, elephants, camels, and sled-dogs) or water-based forms of transportation (especially canal and harbor boats). The book’s overall historical-geographic discussion is mainly concerned with the period from 1850 to 1950, though some examples are from well before or well after this period. The discussion extends to many parts of the world, most of them (with exceptions) places which were at some point in their history within the confines of the British Empire.Less
What sorts of transportation technologies and methods of conveyance have political regimes associated with the movement of weapons, papers, or people for political subversion and revolt? In an era when much transfer of information moves across a wire-tappable medium, and much transport of goods and people occurs across a mapped network of tracks and checkpoints, what social history of the specter of subversive trafficking—and of the associated political fears this specter has been able to elicit—might help us better understand the retrenchment of an older range of possibilities for human mobility? This book pursues these lines of inquiry, focusing on several modes of transportation which have been perceived, in different times and places, as especially useful for clandestine, subversive logistics, and which have also become relatively marginalized and divested from over the past century and a half. The examples treated in the book are mostly animal-based forms of transportation (carrier pigeons, mules, elephants, camels, and sled-dogs) or water-based forms of transportation (especially canal and harbor boats). The book’s overall historical-geographic discussion is mainly concerned with the period from 1850 to 1950, though some examples are from well before or well after this period. The discussion extends to many parts of the world, most of them (with exceptions) places which were at some point in their history within the confines of the British Empire.
Josef W. Konvitz
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781784992903
- eISBN:
- 9781526103970
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781784992903.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
There has been a fundamental shift in urban economies as manufacturing has declined: the service sector, including culture, generates trade for cities but is difficult to measure according to the ...
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There has been a fundamental shift in urban economies as manufacturing has declined: the service sector, including culture, generates trade for cities but is difficult to measure according to the traditional “basic/non-basic” model. In the knowledge economy, firms want to locate where the people they employ want to live. This puts more emphasis on the specific, immovable assets of places. Livable cities put more emphasis on the quality of life; they do not compete for investment and jobs in the same way as competitive cities. Mega-events such as the Olympic Games which call attention to the tension between competitiveness and livability also highlight the need for long-term strategies and for delivery on legacy promises. In both kinds of cities, the waterfront and the coastal zone are the next strategic frontier, posing many seemingly insoluble problems around conflicts over land use and amenity values. Resolving these issues is the challenge of strategic planning.Less
There has been a fundamental shift in urban economies as manufacturing has declined: the service sector, including culture, generates trade for cities but is difficult to measure according to the traditional “basic/non-basic” model. In the knowledge economy, firms want to locate where the people they employ want to live. This puts more emphasis on the specific, immovable assets of places. Livable cities put more emphasis on the quality of life; they do not compete for investment and jobs in the same way as competitive cities. Mega-events such as the Olympic Games which call attention to the tension between competitiveness and livability also highlight the need for long-term strategies and for delivery on legacy promises. In both kinds of cities, the waterfront and the coastal zone are the next strategic frontier, posing many seemingly insoluble problems around conflicts over land use and amenity values. Resolving these issues is the challenge of strategic planning.
