Geographica Helvetica

Journal: Geographica Helvetica

Abbreviation

Geogr. Helv.

Publisher

Copernicus

ISSN

0016-7312

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Publications 1 - 10 of 12

Family and space-An interpretive perspective on two central concepts in population geography
Montanari, Giulia; Schlinzig, Tino (2022)
Geographica Helvetica
Introductory texts in population geography are often organized using a sociological approach to demography (Barcus and Halfacree 2018:2; Newbold 2014:6). This is particularly evident in discussions on the concept of family. Both sociology and geography center concepts like marriage, divorces, births, the number of children in a household, and the composition of households. However, many of these concepts are outdated, with limited value for understanding contemporary social change. As the editorial to this special issue suggests, population geography must look to other fields for concepts that describe subjects' meaning-making. Interpretive family studies' conceptual and methodological approaches can help reconfigure established assumptions about the term "population"(Gubrium and Holstein 1993; LaRossa and Reitzes 1993; Bösel, 1980; Burgess, 1926). While classic population geography research does engage with new mobility and flexibility regimes and pluralization tendencies, it often fails to identify their consequences for lived experiences and intergenerational relationships. This limits scholars' understandings of new living conditions and practices, as well as their consequences for central concepts of mobility, for example, co-presence, absence, relocation, and residential location. This also occurs with the concept of "family", which is generally applied to mono-local nuclear families in a household unit. In this contribution, we draw on classic and contemporary interpretive research to (re-)evaluate the multi-locality of families and theories of co-presence to extend the concepts of family and space within population geography (see also Halatcheva-Trapp et al., 2019a). By transcending standard quantitative categories (e.g., the household, fertility, simplified models of mobility), we offer interpretive insights to better conceptualize an important topic in population geography-The family.
Last glacial maximum precipitation pattern in the alps inferred from glacier Modelling
Becker, Patrick; Seguinot, Julien; Jouvet, Guillaume; et al. (2016)
Geographica Helvetica
During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), glaciers in the Alps reached a maximum extent, and broad sections of the foreland were covered by ice. In this study, we simulated the alpine ice cap using a glacier flow model to constrain the prevailing precipitation pattern with a geomorphological reconstruction of ice extent. For this purpose we forced the model using different temperature cooling and precipitation reduction factors. The use of the present-day precipitation pattern led to a systematic overestimation of the ice cover on the northern part of the Alps relative to the southern part. To reproduce the LGM ice cap, a more severe decrease in precipitation in the north than in the south was required. This result supports a southwesterly advection of atmospheric moisture to the Alps, sustained by a southward shift of the North Atlantic storm track during the LGM.
Auf dem Weg zu einer metropolitanen Regulation? Der Verein Metropolitanraum Zürich
Nüssli, Rahel (2015)
Geographica Helvetica
The Metropolitan Region of Zurich is fragmented into eight cantons and marked by ideological cleavages. Nevertheless, the "Association Metropolitan Region Zurich" has established since 2007. The paper asks, how the metropolitan restructuring is possible. Tracing the question, first the scale-debate is opposed to the spatial governance-debate and it shall be argued that the scale-debate serves as a more precise tool of analysis. Building on this theoretical foundation the institutionalising of the association is analysed on the basis of 13 expert interviews. Three points are of particular relevance: First, precisely the fragmentation of the metropolitan region forms a crucial reason for the rapid introduction of the association. Second, the institutionalisation brings a subtle power to the association because it does not openly question the federalist system. Third, its agency manifests in territorial implications such as the revision of a national infrastructure plan or a metropolitan spatial plan, which both are made possible by simultaneous processes of informalisation and formalisation on a new scale. At the end it shall be demonstrated that the association's neoliberal agenda is hardly contested, raising the question of the scale of possible opposition.
Organizing the space of possibilities of an architectural competition
Silberberger, Jan (2011)
Geographica Helvetica
A study of the Würm glaciation focused on the Valais region (Alps)
Becker, Patrick; Funk, Martin; Schlüchter, Christian; et al. (2017)
Geographica Helvetica
During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the glaciation in the European Alps reached maximum ice extent. We already simulated the steady states of the Alpine ice coverage for several climate drivers in Becker et al. (2016) and heighten in this article such studies for the Swiss Valais region. To this end, we employ the Parallel Ice Sheet Model (PISM), which combines the shallow ice approximation (SIA) with basal sliding elements of the shallow shelf approximation (SSA), and subject this model to various external driving mechanisms. We further test the sensitivity of this kind of the ice coverage in the Valais region to a temporally constant climate and to monotonic ice sheet build-up from inception to steady state as well as to the Dye 3 temperature driving during the past 120 000 years. We also test differences in the precipitation patterns exerted to the northern and southern catchment areas of the Rhone and Toce rivers to possible transfluence changes in ice from the northern to the southern catchment areas and vice versa. Moreover, we study the effect of the ice deformability and estimate the removal up to 1000 m of sediment in the Rhone Valley and study the removal of rock hindering the flow through the valley cross section at the knee of Martigny. All these studies took place because of a discrepancy in the ice height prediction of the modelled ice sheet with its geomorphologically reconstructed counterpart with proxy data obtained by Bini et al. (2009) as well as a difference in ice height between the two of up to 800 m. Unfortunately, all the scenarios in the model do not sufficiently reduce this discrepancy in the height prediction and the geomorphological reconstruction. The model results have discovered an ice dynamical discrepancy with the land map in Bini et al. (2009).
Verorten, verkörpern, verunsichern
Hagmann, Jonas (2014)
Geographica Helvetica
A gift programme for sustainable forest management? A Swiss perspective on public policies and property rights
Creutzburg, Leonard; Ohmura, Tamaki; Lieberherr, Eva (2020)
Geographica Helvetica
For multifunctional forests that seek to fulfil societal, environmental and economic demands, active forest management is key. However, like in many other western European countries, Switzerland's small-scale private forest owners increasingly do not manage their forests. By applying and adapting the Institutional Resource Regime (IRR), a framework for environmental policy analysis that considers use rights both from public policies and property rights, we analyse the situation in Switzerland. Subsequently, we propose a Swiss forest gift programme – based on the Canadian Ecological Gifts Program (EGP) – consisting of different policy instruments that would ultimately lead to a transfer of property rights from the current to new owners. In sum, we argue that our proposal would lead to more “coherence”, with regard to the IRR's sustainability dimension, and consequently to clearer responsibilities for the sustainable management of forests in Switzerland.
Piecing together the Lateglacial advance phases of the Reussgletscher (central Swiss Alps)
Boxleitner, Max; Ivy-Ochs, Susan; Brandová, Dagmar; et al. (2018)
Geographica Helvetica
Exposure dating has substantially improved our knowledge about glacier advances during the Younger Dryas (YD) and the early Holocene. The glacier development after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the timing of morphologically evidenced, earlier Lateglacial re-advances is, however, still widely unknown. In this study we used 10Be surface exposure and radiocarbon dating to address these phases and corresponding landforms in the catchment of the former Reussgletscher (central Swiss Alps). We obtained clear indication for moraine deposition prior to the YD. The oldest samples predate the Bølling–Allerød interstadial (>14.6ka). Morphostratigraphically even older lateral moraines, probably corresponding to terminal positions in the Lake Lucerne, could not be dated conclusively. Due to the geomorphological constraints of the sampling environment, the establishment of a local pre-YD chronology remains a challenge: moraines with adequate numbers of datable boulders were rarely preserved, and age attributions based on few samples are complicated by outliers.
Topoclimatological case-study of Alpine pastures near the Albula Pass in the eastern Swiss Alps
Michna, Pavel; Eugster, Werner; Hiller, Rebecca V.; et al. (2013)
Geographica Helvetica
Alpine grasslands are an important source of fodder for the cattle of Alpine farmers. Only during the short summer season can these pastures be used for grazing. With the anticipated climate change, it is likely that plant production – and thus the fodder basis for the cattle – will be influenced. Investigating the dependence of biomass production on topoclimatic factors will allow us to better understand how anticipated climate change may influence this traditional Alpine farming system. Because small-scale topoclimatological variations of the main meteorological variables: temperature, humidity, precipitation, shortwave incoming radiation and wind speed are not easily derived from available long-term climate stations in mountainous terrain, it was our goal to investigate the topoclimatic variations over the pastures belonging to the Alp Weissenstein research station north of the Albula Pass in the eastern Swiss Alps. We present a basic assessment of current topoclimatic conditions as a site characterization for ongoing ecological climate change studies. To be able to link short-term studies with long-term climate records, we related agrometeorological measurements with those of surrounding long-term sites run by MeteoSwiss, both on valley bottoms (Davos, Samedan), and on mountain tops (Weissfluhjoch, Piz Corvatsch). We found that the Davos climate station north of the study area is most closely correlated with the local climate of Alp Weissenstein, although a much closer site (Samedan) exists on the other side of the Albula Pass. Mountain top stations, however, did not provide a convincing approximation for the climate at Alp Weissenstein. Direct comparisons of near-surface measurements from a set of 11 small weather stations distributed over the domain where cattle and sheep are grazed indicate that nocturnal minimum air temperature and minimum vapor pressure deficit are mostly governed by the altitudinal gradient, whereas daily maxima – including also wind speed – are more strongly depending on vegetation cover and less on the altitude.
Introduction to the special issue "contested urban territories: Decolonized perspectives"
Schwarz, Anke; Streule Ulloa Nieto, Monika (2020)
Geographica Helvetica
This paper serves as an introduction to the “Contested urban territories: decolonized perspectives” special issue. The idea for this issue emerged during our reflections on a socioterritorial perspective, preeminent in the current Latin American analysis of contemporary urban struggles (Schwarz and Streule, 2016). It aims to contribute to these ongoing debates about a specific understanding of urban territories from a postcolonial and decolonized perspective by combining contributions from two paper sessions we organized at the 2017 meeting of the American Association of Geographers in Boston with additional papers by scholars who could not participate in the conference. All seven contributions tackle the question of what a relational and dynamic conceptualization of territory may contribute to current debates in the urban studies field. Put more precisely, to which extent are socioterritorial approaches of value for a further decentering and pluralizing of urban theory? What is their significance to research on urban social movements? And, finally, how does such a socioterritorial perspective nurture and complement an analysis of the social production of space? The present special issue invites the reader to get familiar with new concepts and engage in a critical reflection on the conditions of knowledge production in urban geography and beyond.

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