‘I'm Still Not Crossing That’: Borders,Dispossession, and Sovereignty in Frozen River (2008)

This paper considers the film Frozen River (2008) for the purpose of considering how the US-Canadian border is dramatised within the context of two women caught up in a illicit trading of migrants via a Native American Reservation. Re-calibrating more mainstream Hollywood's fascination with the United States' southern border, Frozen River usefully focuses attention on two areas that deserve further reflection namely the materiality of borders and border crossings and biopolitics. The paper concludes with some reflections on how borders, biopolitics, dispossession and sovereignty need further theorization by political geographers and other scholars.     

Rudolf Kjellén and modern Swedish geopolitics

This article explores the possibility of developing a more progressive sense of place which recognises the mutual interdependence and interconnection of South America, the Falklands (Malvinas) and the South Atlantic rather than perpetuating exclusive identities and sovereignty. Since the 1982 South Atlantic conflict, there have been considerable improvements in Anglo‐Argentine relations resulting in a decade‐long period of South Atlantic co‐operation and the 14 July 1999 Joint Statement. The difficulties of generating a progressive sense of place in regions where conflict, distrust and bitterness endure remain powerful forces. These endeavours will require all parties to develop a more plural sense of culture, geographical identity and place. The recent public recognition of shared loss by former President Carlos Menem and HRH the Prince of Wales is interpreted as a promising development in the long‐term process of co‐operation and forgiveness. Finally, this investigation considers how political geographers can contribute to these acts of reconciliation and recognition.     

Redistributive taxation with heterogeneous relative consumption concerns

Abstract This paper studies the impact of redistributive income taxation in a society where only some individuals are motivated by relative consumption concerns. Introducing this heterogeneity raises theoretical challenges since (i) earned income becomes an imperfect indicator of underlying ability and (ii) relative concerns may be inadmissable in the social objective. A new behavioural model is developed in which only relatively‐concerned individuals choose work effort strategically. Linear tax/transfer systems schemes are then characterized and simulated for a series of welfarist and non‐welfarist social objectives, and for different degrees of preference heterogeneity. A key result is that a government which understands the extent of relative consumption concerns–but places no social weight on individuals with such preferences–nevertheless sets a significantly more progressive tax system than a government which ignores relative consumption motivations altogether.     

Building society mergers and the size—efficiency relationship: a comment

This study uses the 1988 CPS Displaced Workers Surveyto analyse the effect of written advance notification of plant closings and relocations on the re-employment earnings of blue-collar and, for comparison purposes, white-collar workers in the United States. The results show that written notification given less than 60 days in advance of the layoffs did not have any significant effect on the re-employment earnings of either blue-collar or white-collar workers of either gender. However, the results show that dislocated male blue-collar workers who were given advance notification of 60 days or more before their layoffs had significantly higher re-employment earnings. This result is supportive of the federal plant closing legislation mandating 60-day advance notification to dislocated workers in the United States.     

The Destination Marketing Organization as an intelligent agent: Evaluating engagement in knowledge management practices

DMOs have been increasingly called upon to adopt the role of knowledge management, becoming intelligent agents with the capacity to gather, assess, and disseminate information among internal and external stakeholders. While knowledge management has remained a prominent topic in the literature, its application within the field of tourism management has been limited. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to ascertain to what extent DMOs have engaged in knowledge management practices through a nation-wide survey of 30 Canadian DMOs. The results demonstrate that, while DMOs have made progress toward becoming intelligent agents, there remains a long way to go.