ABSTRACTS Volume 4 Number 1 (March 1993)
Point score analysis of agricultural decision-making in the Dominican Republic
Roy Ryder
Department of Geology & Geography, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama 3688, USA
Point score analysis is applied to examine farmers' perceptions of factors influencing selection of principal enterprise in a mountainous region of the Dominican Republic. As in Britain, decision-making factors in the Dominican Republic vary according to type of enterprise. Point score analysis is clearly applicable in developing nations and encourages cross-cultural communication between planners and farmers.
Key Words AGRICULTURAL GEOGRAPHY DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
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Vegetation and slope stability: examples from Upper St. Andrew, Jamaica
Russell J. Maharaj
Institute of Marine Affairs, P.O. Box 3160, Carenage, Chaguaramas, Trinidad & Tobago
In Upper St. Andrew, slope failures on vegetated slopes are very common geomorphic events, especially during and following torrential rainfall. Field observations of failures revealed that grasses, bamboo, shrubs, and tree species contribute to the cohesion of surficial soil layers. However, this effect can create mechanical anisotropy between surface-bound and underlying soil layers. Consequently, a shear plane can develop at this interface, attenuating slope failure conditions and, ultimately, leading to failure of the surface soil layers. Translational debris block slides are the main result of these conditions on hillslopes in Upper St. Andrew. These conditions also suggest that vegetation can contribute to slope instability, thereby decreasing the long term stability of hillslopes.
Key Words GEOMORPHOLOGY BIOGEOGRAPHY JAMAICA
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Carolyn V. Prorok Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Slippery Rock University, Pennsylvania 16057, USA
and Mohammad Hemmasi Department of Geography, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota 58202, USA
Building mosques is a fundamental aspect of the Muslim experience. Muslims in Trinidad build mosques for spiritual and socio-political reasons. This study analyses Muslim politicization through an historical geography of the Muslim minority and their mosques in Trinidad. Our analysis reveals that the three most distinguishing marks of mosques are their age/building material, size/site of population served, and architectural ornamentation. All three characteristics disclose the role of the mosque in resolving the tension that arises from conflicting aspirations of political assimilation and maintenance of ethnic identity among members of the East Indian Muslim community. Finally, an application of Goss' framework of a building as an object of value to mosque form and function is presented to support the authors' contention that building mosques is fundamental to Muslim identity. The investigation of the distribution of Muslims and character of their mosques provides geographers an opportunity to explicate the relationship between political assimilation, ethnic identity and the cultural landscape.
Key Words GEOGRAPHY OF RELIGION HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY TRINIDAD
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Population mobility and land assets in hill farming areas of Jamaica
Elizabeth Thomas-Hope
Department of Geography, University of Liverpool, Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX, United Kingdom
The impact of migration on agriculture in the Caribbean can only be fully assessed after the overall cycle of individual or household migration has occurred. The impact varies with the destination and purpose of the migration, as well as the duration and periodicity of the moves. In addition, the characteristics of the communities, the priorities which they place upon agriculture and the value of agricultural assets within the wider socio-economic context plays a fundamental role in conditioning the part that migration activity plays at the micro-level of the household. This paper examines the impact of international migration upon the acquisition of land assets in Jamaica and evaluates the variation which take place for migrations of different types and to destinations.
Key Words MIGRATION AGRICULTURAL GEOGRAPHY JAMAICA
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A note on InterGeo II and test results for Jamaica
M.P. Morrissey
Faculty of Education, University of the West Indies, Mona campus, Jamaica
`InterGeo ' is a test of achievement in geography designed by an international team of geography educators to enable cross-national comparisons. Jamaica was one of 25 countries participating in field trials in 1991. Of concern was that Jamaican students' average score was the lowest of all participating countries with the exception of Nigeria. The recent introduction of ROSE (the Reform of Secondary Education) gives social studies a core place in the curriculum in Jamaica; geography as a separate subject is not being promoted at all.
Key Words GEOGRAPHY AND EDUCATION JAMAICA
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ABSTRACTS Volume 4 Number 2 (September 1994)
The Progress of Caribbean Geography, 1983-1993
David Barker
Department of Geography, University of the West Indies, Mona campus, Jamaica
The progress of the journal, Caribbean Geography, from its inception in the early 1980s to the present, is examined by one of its editors. An analysis of the contents of major articles, the peer review system and the subscription list demonstrate that CG has emerged with reputable international and regional credentials, and provides a valuable forum for the dissemination of Caribbean geographical research. However, analysis of submissions flow reveals an apparently intractable problem: an inability to attract enough good manuscripts on a regular basis to sustain a biannual publication. Thus, as editorial policy has evolved, it has been necessary to fine-tune the need to provide a balanced regional coverage of topics and territories, against the reality of a limited number of manuscripts and a desire to maintain an acceptable level of international scholarship.
Key Words GEOGRAPHY AND EDUCATION REGIONAL JOURNALS CARIBBEAN
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Global process, local change: adjustment in urban Jamaica
Jeremy Holland
Department of Geography, University of Liverpool, Box 147, Liverpool L68 3BX, United Kingdom
The macro-economic process of structural adjustment has been fundamental in reshaping the macro-economic policy of debtor nations. Indeed it has been argued that resultant modifications of the structure of opportunity for individuals under adjustment are more than temporary deviations from the path of modernization. In other words, societal adaptation under the 'social impacts of adjustment' is structural rather than cosmetic. This paper looks at change at the local level, ultimately discussing to what extent defensive strategies of individuals and communities in marginalised urban society provide a sustainable response to the impositions of structural adjustment.
Key Words URBAN GEOGRAPHY STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT JAMAICA
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Barbara Welch
Department of Geography, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2K6
In the search for ways of mitigating the seemingly intractable economic problems of small, resource-poor countries, relatively little attention has been paid to the potential of producer associations to increase net returns to producers by skillful manipulation of resources and markets. The Eastern Caribbean provides sophisticated examples of such associations in those established for or by banana growers. A discussion of the background to the development of export banana cultivation in the Eastern Caribbean and the rationale for producer associations in general provides the context for an evaluation for the role played by two specific organizations: the banana grower's associations of the Commonwealth state of St. Lucia and the French overseas department of Martinique. The origins and character of these two very different bodies are described, and the impact their differing interventions have had on the nature of participation in the industry, the location of cultivation and the level of output is examined. A comment is made on the relationship between the socio-economic profile of the membership and the type of policies their organization pursue.
Key Words BANANAS PRODUCERS' ASSOCIATION ST LUCIA MARTINIQUE
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Rethinking the consequences of remittances for Eastern Caribbean development
Dennis Conway
Department of Geography, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA
This is a re-evaluation of the return migration and remittance impacts among Eastern Caribbean islands in this contemporary era of regional crisis accompanying global restructuring. With remittances being a fundamental private transfer of capital, and return migrants representing people endowed with human capital, potential and realized, the paper focuses on these migration-related processes at an appropriate micro scale - the household. Specifically, a conceptualization of the potential range of recipient strategies of investment of remittances, and the ways in which return migration patterns are related to remittances, is developed. This people-first construct depicts remittances impacts in the small island states of the Eastern Caribbean as progressive and satisficing for households, but insufficient to influence national development goals.
Key Words MIGRATION REMITTANCES EASTERN CARIBBEAN
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Anguilla: the tourist trajectory in an island microstate
John Connell
Department of Geography, University of Sydney, Australia 2006
The paper describes the impact of tourism development on Anguilla since the 1970s. Tourism has transformed patterns and levels of economic development. Visitor arrivals and tourist expenditure trends are examined. Impacts such as full employment, the development of infrastructure and the reduction of out-migration are discussed.
Key Words TOURISM ANGUILLA
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The Airport- West Coast Highway in Barbados: a source for School-Based Assessment Activities
Anthony D. Griffith University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus, Barbados
and Janet F. Foster Harrison College, Barbados
This paper illustrates some of the potentially useful areas for CXC School Based Assessment (SBA) which have been created in Barbados by the opening of the ABC Highway. The background to the construction of the Highway is noted, and guidelines for teachers using SBA are discussed.
Key Words GEOGRAPHY AND EDUCATION BARBADOS
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