Shipping route choice across geographies: Coastal vs. landlocked countries

This paper investigates how geography and transportation costs influence the decisions by shippers of which port of export to use. Using a large sample of disaggregated shipments originating from several countries in Europe, we show that European logistics networks exhibit a low level of international integration that affects shipping route choice. Furthermore, we find significant differences in shipping behaviors across landlocked and coastal countries, with shippers in landlocked countries avoiding long land transportation, crossing borders readily, and placing more value on transportation infrastructure. These findings have implications in designing port competitiveness strategies and economic development policies in landlocked countries.     

农牧交错地带种植业中的降水利用--以内蒙古伊金霍洛旗为例

农牧交错地带在我国农业生产中占有十分重要的地位,而水资源又是该地区农业发展瓶颈。以内蒙古伊金堆洛旗为例,对农牧交错地带种植业中自然降水资源的利用进行了分析,认为由于降水不合宜,地力不足,盲目开垦和水分利用率低,存在着粮豆单产严重依赖降水且产量不高的问题,并从作物,水,地力等方面提出了对策。     

A holiday celebration in a binational context: Easter experiences at the US–Mexico border

As part of a larger research project examining cross-border culture in a recreational and tourism context, this brief research note describes how intangible heritage melds into Easter celebrations and provides some preliminary findings of interviews with borderlanders and their experiences with Easter memories. The Paso del Norte region of the US–Mexico border is composed of the Ciudad Juárez (Mexico) and El Paso and Las Cruces (USA) conurbation. Mexican culture with strong roots at north of the border, while American culture heavily influences the cities south of the line. There are five international border ports of entry, which have facilitated the growth of cross-border tourism and the flow of culture and ideas on both sides of the boundary. In this setting, the commemoration of ‘Bunny Day’, or Easter, has become an important borderland cultural phenomenon celebrated on both sides of the border at Chamizal Park in Ciudad Juárez and Chamizal National Memorial in neighboring El Paso, and has become a mark of local borderlands culture. This is unique to the Paso del Norte borderland, which is home to a highly conservative, Catholic society. It is a manifestation of blended American and Mexican religious holiday traditions that represent the US–Mexico border community     

Communicating the ‘migrant’ other as risk: space,EU and expanding borders

Forced migration and border spaces as fault lines posing risks to society through the notion of ‘Othering’, remain under-explored in risk literature. With Europe facing its biggest humanitarian crisis with forced migration and displacement due to conflict zones, the borders of the European Union have received renewed attention in media. Refugees and the displaced are often depicted as ‘migrants’ and are seen as transgressing borders as illegitimate entities. Although increasing attention has been paid to border patrol and issues of securitization since 9/11, the ‘migrant’ body as ‘risky body’ in political and policy discussions is under-conceptualized and theorized in risk literature. We examine political discourses of the UK Government to discern how the migrant and the expanding borders of the EU are framed as forms of societal and economic risk and equally how these are mitigated with and through the discourse of space and borders. We take a constructionist approach to the ‘migrant’ problem in the EU and UK where risk is socially constructed through political discourse.     

Food supply chains and sustainability: evidence from specialist food producers in the Scottish/English borders

Despite an increasing interest in more sustainable forms of land management, few analyses have examined whether ‘local’ or ‘alternative’ food supply systems are sustainable in environmental, economic and social terms. Using SUSTAIN's ‘sustainable food’ criteria, this paper analyses the sustainability of a number of ‘speciality’ food supply chains operated by small rural enterprises in the Scottish/English borders. Results indicate that, in the main, the case study businesses are not particularly sustainable; instead, driven by a strong economic imperative, they often have to ‘dip’ into various ‘links’ associated with more conventional (commodity-based) food supply chains. The paper concludes by warning against the tendency to conflate terms such as ‘local’, ‘alternative’, ‘speciality’ and ‘sustainable’.     

Adolescent consumers: reaching them,border crossings and pedagogical challenges

Consumerism is part of living in the contemporary post‐modern world. It is claimed that schools and consumer education have a rather marginal impact on the consumer behaviour of young people. This qualitative study explores adolescents’ ways of consuming in three different worlds: home, school and peer groups. The aim is to understand how the adolescents experience border crossings between these worlds. What do they think about consumerism and consumer education? Finally, the pedagogical challenges of consumer education are discussed. The qualitative data was collected through mind maps, written questionnaires and semi‐structured group interviews. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. The data was collected from 59 teens (between 14 and 15 years of age) from Vantaa, Finland. According to the results, the adolescents’ way of consuming in each world differs from each other. However, border crossings occur with natural strategies and smooth transitions. The adolescents feel that ‘real’ consumerism does not begin until adulthood. Then, it is time to act like responsible consumers. Their motivation to study consumer issues at school is poor, because they feel the substance of consumer education not corresponding to their lives. Because of this, consumer education needs pedagogical renovation based on the needs of the adolescents and the special features of their consumerism.     

Parametric and nonparametric statistical modelling of crop yield: implications for pricing crop insurance contracts

This article considers alternative methods to calculate the fair premium rate of crop insurance contracts based on county yields. The premium rate was calculated using parametric and nonparametric approaches to estimate the conditional agricultural yield density. These methods were applied to a data set of county yield provided by the Statistical and Geography Brazilian Institute (IBGE), for the period of 1990 through 2002, for soybean, corn and wheat, in the State of Paraná. In this article, we propose methodological alternatives to pricing crop insurance contracts resulting in more accurate premium rates in a situation of limited data.     

From hostile boundaries to tourist attractions

This study examines the transformation of hostile borders to inviting tourist attractions. It focuses on three cases: the ‘Island of Peace’ on the Israeli–Jordanian border, the ‘Golden Triangle’ of Southeast Asia and the Berlin Wall. All three are located on boundaries that were sites of conflict and instability, formerly closed and fortified but transformed into open and free borders for tourism. The geopolitical changes that have influenced the development of the sites account for the similarities between them. In all three cases, unique attractions have been developed, offering elements such as special demarcation, observation points and commemorations of the heritage of the closed border or a symbolic representation of cooperation and renewed political relations with the neighbouring country. The tourism development at these attractions may constitute an important contribution in terms of awareness and education that could help in strengthening relations of peace and cooperation in places that in the past suffered from a closed and hostile border. By examining the development of intensive tourism at selected border tourism sites, much can be learned about the development of border attractions elsewhere.     

Tourism as a catalyst for changing boundaries and territorial sovereignty at an international border

This research note examines five ways in which tourism is an impetus for changes to international boundaries and sovereign territory, including subsequent tourism, wrapping of a resource, heritagisation of borders, modification of infrastructure, and territorial exchange. The empirical emphasis of this study is on the final type, as illustrated through the case of the Andorran–French border, and how sovereign territory was exchanged between the two countries and the boundary adjusted to accommodate the growth of tourism in Andorra.     

Perceived constraints to travel across the US‐Mexico border among American university students

This paper examines the primary structural barriers or constraints to travel across the US‐Mexico border to visit Mexican border towns, in particular among students at a major university near the border. Factor analyses resulted in the identification of three primary types of perceived constraints erected by the international boundary, namely, personal safety, institutional and disinterest. Pearson correlation tests found that familiarity with the border and what lies on the other side does not have a significant bearing on the barriers perceived by student travellers. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.