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1143 | 505 | Popular Geopolitics: USA in Slovenian Media | Boštjan Rogelj, Darren Purcell

Slovenians have held negative attitudes toward the United States for more than a decade, according to Gallup polls in the 2010s. Political analysts point to a variety of reasons. One of them is a negative image of the United States provided in Slovenian media. This paper examines how often and in what context the U.S. is portrayed in media reports on Slovenia’s two main news websites (24UR.com and rtvslo.si) between January 2012 and January 2022. While much of the coverage focuses on political issues and events involving the U.S. government, other topics that paint an image of the U.S. are also covered in dataset. _x000D_
The first section of the paper discusses the concept of soft power, limits to it, and how it is conveyed or rejected in the media landscape today. This is followed by a discussion of the data, explaining its sourcing and the subjective decisions made to create a ten-year corpus in such a way that the topics and themes can be analyzed by researchers. This is followed by a discussion of the predominant themes identified and why they were so prevalent in the dataset. We also highlight the range of international coverage and the outsized role the U. S. has in Slovenia media compared to other countries. _x000D_

Boštjan Rogelj, Darren Purcell
University of Ljubljana, University of Oklahoma

 
ID Abstract: 505

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1138 | 727 | China’s urban and rural residential carbon emissions: Past and future scenarios | Si Wu

China faces significant challenges to supply its urban-rural development with energy while reducing carbon_x000D_
emissions. Residential consumption, which is the second-most important source of carbon emissions following_x000D_
industry, has gradually been receiving attention. However, there are fewer studies that systematically investigate_x000D_
rural and urban residential emissions separately, and the future of residential emissions is uncertain given_x000D_
changes in the economic and social drivers. We used 20 years of energy consumption data from 30 provinces in_x000D_
China and panel regression models to analyze how urban and rural carbon emissions have changed over time and_x000D_
space. We then simulated three future scenarios of residential carbon emissions based on the framework of_x000D_
Shared Socioeconomic pathways. We conclude that there has been considerable growth in per capita rural_x000D_
emissions, largely due to population increases, especially during the periods 2004–2012 and 2012–2018. Overall_x000D_
emissions have declined though, likely due to an adjustment of energy intensity. Both rural and urban emissions_x000D_
are expected to decline in the future, but there is variation in where and how rural and urban emissions may_x000D_
change under the three development scenarios.

Si Wu
China University of Geosciences

 
ID Abstract: 727

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1180 | 856 | Quantifying land flow embodied in interregional trade and its repercussions for carbon emissions in China | Shengfu Yang

The interregional flow of land embodied in remote linkages exerts a significant impact on land use and carbon emission transfer patterns among regions, underscoring the importance of investigating this process for sustainable land utilization. Based on a multiregional input‒output model, this study quantifies the embodied land flow and its repercussions for carbon emissions in China, analyzes the corresponding spatial distribution and differences, and further clarifies the characteristics of embodied land flow by constructing the contribution and dependency index. The results show that more economically developed regions occupy land in less developed regions through embodied land flow, and there are differences in the flow of various land types among regions due to disparities in regional endowments. For example, embodied construction land has primarily moved to economically developed eastern China. The transfer pattern of carbon emissions from land use caused by embodied land flows presents a spatial inconsistency. The developed coastal provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai all transfer more than 10 million tons of carbon emissions to other regions. The average levels of contributions to and dependence on embodied land flows in Chinese provinces were 20.51% and 23.13% in 2012, and these values rose to 27.14% and 27.23% in 2017, respectively, indicating a strengthening of interregional land system linkages and an intensification of land supply and demand. Furthermore, the embodied land flow and its associated carbon emission transfer can be assessed to ascertain the entities responsible for land consumption and carbon emissions. This underscores the significance of examining the interplay between land use and carbon emissions in shaping sustainable development pathways.

Shengfu Yang
School of Public Administration, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

 
ID Abstract: 856

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1154 | 787 | Analysing expert’ views on a renewed Dutch geography curriculum through an Anthropocene lens | Tine Beneker; Gijs van Campenhout; Rob van der Vaart

The Dutch geography curriculum for upper secondary level was designed almost 20 years ago. Since then, besides some adjustments, no fundamental changes have been made to this curriculum. The 150th anniversary of the Royal Dutch Geographical Society in 2023 and an expected national curriculum renewal in the coming years, provide the occasion for a renewed discussion about the geography curriculum. A symposium on the renewal of the Dutch geography curriculum, with teachers, curriculum experts, teacher trainers and academic geographers, takes place in March 2023. In preparation, we asked geography/geoscience scholars to give, in a short essay, their personal views on the questions and content that young people should be learning about in geography in upper secondary school in the coming decades. We did not ask them to reflect on the existing examination programmes nor to delve into developments in the school subject, but to simply, from the perspective of their daily work in geography/geosciences, indicate what content they consider worthwhile for pupils, now and in the future. Perspectives from both earth sciences and social sciences are represented in the essays. Current societal and spatial issues, such as migration and climate change, are discussed in changing contexts focussing on the Netherlands, Europe and the world/earth as a whole. Interestingly, the authors argue for the implementation of both classic geographical ‘content’ and new concepts. Further, many of them explicitly address the kinds of questions students should start asking and be working with in the classroom. In this paper presentation, we apply an Anthropocene lens to analyse the 20 essays. From a curriculum analytical view, we can distinguish conceptual, empirical and procedural knowledge(s) in these essays and distil the characteristics of the ‘powerful (disciplinary) knowledge(s)’.

Tine Beneker; Gijs van Campenhout; Rob van der Vaart
Utrecht University

 
ID Abstract: 787

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1229 | 780 | Memoir, Self-Help and Critical Theory: Techniques for Healing in Pandemic Times | Luke Leavitt

I propose to read passages from my dissertation, which mixes the genres of memoir, self-help, and critical theory. I pay special attention to the expanding and contracting spatialities that came with the pandemic lockdown, and its effects on my mental health. For me, exploding global crises became imminently interiorized through the experience of isolation. Being alone so much while so much else was happening forced me to look squarely at my place in the colonial-capitalist system. In this, a mix of urgency, stasis, despair and even optimism proved a potent cauldron of affects, one so overwhelming that it culminated in a major onslaught of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). By relating my mental health journey, I explore rupture and transformation as transversed across personal and social scales. Following Davis (2009), I understand OCD as the breakdown of the need to know (e.g. how can I be certain the stove is off? – let me check indefinitely). Departing from most OCD literature, I explore how my own need to know (in the disorder) may be the product of socialization in a white supremacist society, in which certainty and control are normative ideals also used to oppress people (McKittrick 2006). To heal this reflex, which OCD dramatizes so painfully, I use memoir to relate the techniques I pursued for building trust in my body; for relinquishing the need for mental certitude; and for developing compassion as a ground for navigating crises. Storytelling is the gentler and more supple mode of exploration I pursue here for sharing geographical knowledge (Moss and Besio 2019)._x000D_
_x000D_
Davis, L. J. (2009). Obsession: a history. University of Chicago Press. _x000D_
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McKittrick, K. (2006). Demonic grounds: Black women and the cartographies of struggle. University of Minnesota Press._x000D_
_x000D_
Moss, P., & Besio, K. (2019). Auto-Methods in Feminist Geography. GeoHumanities, 5(2), 313–325.

Luke Leavitt
University of Wisconsin-Madison

 
ID Abstract: 780

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1143 | 614 | Postpolitical environmentalism in Romanian virgin forests | Alexandru Gavriș; Mircea Gherghina

With the help of topic modelling we explore how the Romanian virgin forests transform under postpolitical environmentalism. We attempt to capture the web of relations that set the scene for a consensus over managerial and nonextractivist agenda where elites are called to action towards setting a surveillance technology in public discourse. The painted picture of a system of surveillance that would replace a political governance system clashes behind a political spectacle that sees a network of NGOs, local governments, and members of the wood industry’s supply chain reveal the shortcomings of technological fixes. It is therefore essential to clarify how networks endorsing the environment intervene and shape the forest governance, trying to advance specific views of ecological rationalities and national exceptionalism aligned within technologies of governance. First, we highlight this dynamic of valuation that may allow for a new imaginary to emerge, one where the local exploitative practices need to move along the treadmill of production towards the sustainability paradigm. A non-performing existing forest governance acts like a vacuum of power that allows alternative imaginaries of conservation to clash with a muddy, tacitly understood local informal economy that feeds into a global supply chain that takes virgin forest wood from hyperlocalized informal arrangements to a production pipeline that transcends borders. This renders virgin forests not only as a spatial dichotomy between localized yet global, but also as a space in need of intervention from actors removed from its materiality, with yet to be articulated stakes in its governance. Second, this research analyzes the struggle over meaning that we argue constitutes a strategy suited for harmonising a contested view on forests governance. The two endeavors allow us to uncover the insights of interactions framing power that advances in a context of (imaginaries projections over) environmental contentiousness.

Alexandru Gavriș; Mircea Gherghina
Bucharest University of Economic Studies; University of Toronto

 
ID Abstract: 614

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1248 | 327 | Sporting cultural production and the city: places, heritage, participation and identities. The Bologna case study. | Valerio della Sala, Giovanna Russo

The following contribution aims to offer the results of the SportCityCult (SCC) research project, with the objective of reconstructing the link between the city and sport, rediscovering its potential as tangible and intangible “capital”. The research analyses the ways in which this capital produces indirect socio-cultural, educational and symbolic effects, as well as the potential connections between event policy and sporting practices, both consolidated and emerging, between sport and the image of the city. Sport, a privileged area of investment in the Eventful City perspective, the city can in fact bring its sporting cultural heritage into play also through the legacy of events on a territorial scale, acting as a catalyst for urban and social regeneration whose effects are strategic for the host community. The analysis focuses on the relationship between the city of Bologna and sport, a field in which the city is putting itself back into play in order to assert itself on the national scene, starting from the experience of “Bologna Capital of Culture 2000”, which has included numerous cultural events, reviews, celebratory exhibitions, with Culture and Communication as the main theme. In particular, the theme of the city has been studied mainly in reference to major international sporting events, whose debate has pursued a plurality of objectives: material legacy, urban regeneration, economic development, following rather an approach of urban geography in consideration of the space where it takes place. The SCC project aims to define the impact of sport on the social life of the city, intercepting the historical political process, social and cultural change, and the construction of the collective memory of a community through the relationships that the sporting phenomenon has inscribed in the main symbolic places of Bologna from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day.

Valerio della Sala, Giovanna Russo
University of Bologna

 
ID Abstract: 327

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1229 | 518 | The potential of the creative sector and its relation to the cities’ resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic | Sylwia Dudek-Mańkowska PhD, Mirosław Grochowski PhD, Maciej Misztal MSc, Karolina Sitnik MSc

Creative cities appeared to be more resilient to economic crises in the late 2000s thanks to the ability of the creative class to adapt to unexpected and unforeseen situations and shocks. However, the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic had a unique character. This pandemic was unprecedented in its scale and impact. In order to assess whether creative cities turned out to be more resistant to the effects of the pandemic and whether they emerged victorious from this confrontation, the condition of the creative class and the creative sector as well as the economic condition of the city before 2020 should be identified and compared with the economic condition of the city after the pandemic. The study covered Polish cities with the greatest creative potential. This potential turned out to be crucial for many cities to survive the pandemic. However, the policy of public support offered by the central government and city governments as well as the functions performed by these cities also played a role. _x000D_
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We are a team of researchers from the UrbanLab at the University of Warsaw. The laboratory is headed by dr Sylwia Dudek-Mańkowska, whose field of interest is city branding and marketing. Dr. Mirosław Grochowski is an expert in spatial planning and urban development management. Maciej Misztal (MSc) is a PhD student. His research is focused on implementation of a 15-minute city concept. Karolina Sitnik (MSc) recently graduated from an interdisciplinary major in urban studies and deals with GIS solutions in urban geography. Our team has experience in working in national and international research and applied projects. We are also a partner in projects implemented jointly with the Warsaw City Hall. _x000D_

Sylwia Dudek-Mańkowska PhD, Mirosław Grochowski PhD, Maciej Misztal MSc, Karolina Sitnik MSc
University of Warsaw

 
ID Abstract: 518

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1270 | 456 | How does the decreasing sea ice cover in Eurasia impact the climate in mid and high latitudes? | Joanna Jędruszkiewicz, Joanna Wibig, Piotr Piotrowski

A significant decrease in sea ice cover in the Eurasian sector has been observed over the last 15 years. This phenomenon is most apparent in the area of the Barents-Kara Seas. Decreasing sea ice cover led to lower albedo and higher solar absorption by the ocean. Furthermore, newly open waters allow warm water penetration further toward the North Pole. All these, in turn, increase the temperature. A warmer atmosphere in the Arctic region decreases the meridional temperature gradient, changes circulation patterns, storm tracks, and characteristics of the jet stream and impacts the temperature extremes over Eurasia._x000D_
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This study is based on ERA5 reanalysis with a horizontal resolution of 0.25×0.25 and covers the 1979–2021 period. For the years with low sea ice cover, the temperature dipole is created in winter with warm Arctic and cold Eurasia, called the WACE pattern. The WACE pattern coincides with the enhancement of the high-pressure centre in Asia, often located near the Ural (Ural blocking). The high-pressure centre is also created over Greenland (Greenland blocking) during the summer. These circulation patterns favour the occurrence of more frequent cold or warm spells in Europe._x000D_

Joanna Jędruszkiewicz, Joanna Wibig, Piotr Piotrowski
Department of Meteorology and Climatology, Faculty of Geographical Sciences, University of Lodz

 
ID Abstract: 456

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1209 | 519 | Conflicts over land occupation in the proximity of industries. | Sophie Tost Pardell

We live in a “risk society”, a term coined by the German sociologist Ulrich Beck, in which there are many threats to people and the environment. Notable among them are the technological risks evidenced by very serious accidents that have occurred in the last 50 years, such as those at Union Carbide in Bhopal (1984), at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Ukraine (1986), the AZF fertilizer manufacturing plant in Toulouse (2001), etc. One of them, the emission of a highly toxic dioxin in a chemical reactor for the manufacture of an Imecsa herbicide, in the Italian town of Seveso, caused serious and persistent environmental damage over some 18 km2 and increased the risk of cancer for many people. This accident has given rise to Directive 2012/18/EU of July 4, whose article 13 imposes obligations on Member States regarding the planning of land use in the vicinity of certain establishments. This obligation raises conflicts between the industry that defends the need for space to expand its activities that generate employment and goods that society needs, and the community that also requires safe spaces. The purpose of the presentation is to present the results of an ongoing investigation to determine the causes of these conflicts based on a critical analysis of the transposition of the Directive through RD 840/2015, of September 21. The royal decree derives the obligation to the Autonomous Communities, which have all assumed the planning of the territory, urban planning and housing (ex. article 148.1.3 of the Spanish Constitution), as exclusive competence. The improvements that could be incorporated into the system are reflected upon, reaching the conclusion that it is necessary to act and that there are solutions

Sophie Tost Pardell
UDIMA

 
ID Abstract: 519

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