Settlement and Transport Network Diversification and Complexity in Honduras (original) (raw)
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2001
This dissertation is a regional geography of the department of Olancho in northeastern Honduras. It focuses on the enredos (entangled situations) that characterize geographic reality, particularly in the interlocked domains of nation-state priorities, local identities, rain forest conservation, and sustainable development. The overarching theoretical framework of this dissertation is the collaborative work of complexity theorists Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. The major theme running through “Mapping Enredos” is the multidimensional nature of spatiality (complex spaces), ground for human and non-human existence as well as source of endless conflicts. Fieldwork was undertaken from 1999 to 2000. Qualitative research methods employed include participant observation, oral history compilation, and archival interpretation. The dissertation is written ethnographically, using primarily phenomenology and post-structural philosophy as theoretical guidelines. Olancho’s prehistory is mapped in terms of its non-Mesoamerican village-scale geography. The historical geography of Olancho, beginning in 1526, is constructed from primary archival sources, and focuses on the creation and rise of different spatial identities that made Olancho an autochthonous region at the margins of Western jurisdictional space. The natural history of Olancho is described through the separate consideration of different spaces and landscapes, with an eye toward unraveling the complexity that characterizes the region’s geomorphology and biodiversity. The histories lead into a cultural geography of contemporary Olancho through the understanding of its inhabitants—what in this work is called “local space.” These include events of everyday life, the gaze, the body, place, landscape, and the “enchanted” qualities of natural features, plants, and animals that emerge in folklore. From this base, conflictive identities involving land use are described—including development, religion, the state, coffee growing, cattle ranching, farming, logging, hunting, gathering, contraband, and gold-mining, among others. Using these “maps,” this dissertation ends by explicating the spatial conflicts and alliances that characterize buffer zone conservation and sustainable development in and around the Monumento Natural El Boquerón and the Parque Nacional Sierra de Agalta. It concludes that spatial complexity is multidimensional, fluid, and irrepressible. In terms of development, conservation, and the nation-state, complex spaces are in different instances both supportive and disruptive.
Spatial structure of the economy – the evolution of nodes and networks in South and Central America
Miscellanea Geographica
The form assumed contemporarily by spatial organization in South and Central America as a network of nodes and spatial linkages represents the outcome for the space of this region of long-acting external influences plus internal conditions that have – at different times in different ways – shaped spatial relationships and the manner in which space in this part of the world is planned. Naturally, the spatial structure of today’s economy is influenced further by globalization, with growing competition for access to resources, be these either mineral deposits or agricultural in nature. These impacts ensure that, notwithstanding the widely-voiced opinion on the need to protect nature in areas of the continent supporting moist tropical forests, and in the high Andes, the governments of the different countries continue to award concessions allowing corporations of global reach to exploit resources of value that are in demand worldwide. This aggressive “resources race” has its serious cons...
Revista De La Facultad De Ciencias Agrarias, 2018
The Yaqui Valley territory in the northwest of Mexico was analyzed using networks theory that determines the flows density and actors centrality among the agricultural sector. These networks were those of public, financial, commercial, technical, and social policy management. The current research has been carried out with the general objective of identifying the actors that make up the networks in the Yaqui territory and their change in densities as one of the factors that determine the effectiveness of the policy applied in the territory, comparing two samples of 2006 and 2016. Linked to this objective, it is proposed to describe the obstacles for the densification of networks that favor the agricultural producers labor in the Yaqui Valley territory. The obtained results indicate a clear disarticulation in the different networks of study that can elicit serious social problems of inequality among the actors that are active in the agricultural sector. The networks found in the terri...
Trade Networks in Latin America: Spatial Inefficiencies and Optimal Expansions
Policy Research Working Papers, 2021
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
Revista de la Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias Uncuyo, 2018
The Yaqui Valley territory in the northwest of Mexico was analyzed using networks theory that determines the flows density and actors centrality among the agricultural sector. These networks were those of public, financial, commercial, technical, and social policy management. The current research has been carried out with the general objective of identifying the actors that make up the networks in the Yaqui territory and their change in densities as one of the factors that determine the effectiveness of the policy applied in the territory, comparing two samples of 2006 and 2016. Linked to this objective, it is proposed to describe the obstacles for the densification of networks that favor the agricultural producers labor in the Yaqui Valley territory. The obtained results indicate a clear disarticulation in the different networks of study that can elicit serious social problems of inequality among the actors that are active in the agricultural sector. The networks found in the territory of the Yaqui Valley have been disarticulated over time, because ten years after being analyzed for the first time, the calculation of densities has been reduced by 24% on average, and the truss of the social sector practically tends to disappear.
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In Mexico, transformations in the territory have obeyed strategies motivated by the paradigm of globalization under the influence of public policies focused on planning processes in areas of specific interests, causing the emergence of revaluation of areas as potential tourist attractions. The present study is focused on identifying those transformations that have repercussions on local interests through the analysis of the relationship between The Mayan Train-megaproject and the territory of Balancán, Tabasco, Mexico, to examine the possible changes in the composition of the habitat, by means of an analytical-synthetic approach with a qualitative tendency. The results of the research evidenced the transformations in the territorial composition emerging from interests that are not exclusive to the political discourse of the development of the locality but transferred to interests of a larger scale. Thus, it is necessary to point out the positive and negative effects brought about by the arrival of a megaproject in Balancán regarding territorial transformation and its impact on the local population.
The Characterization of Functional Levels in the Settlements System of Ecuador
2017
Studies to determine the functional potential and the hierarchy of the settlements system usually have a descriptive purpose and it is hardly possible from them to set concrete performance measures. The cause lies in the method used, which consists of the aggregation of selected variables leading to obtain a single parameter which allows stablishing the hierarchical order of cities. When establishing the hierarchy by aggregation, whatever the method used, over the process, one loses basic information necessary for determining the weight in each city for each one of its functions. This article provides a methodological proposal, applied to the case of Ecuador, which prevents the loss of information by organizing settlements, according to their characteristics, in functional levels, thus maintaining the uniqueness of each city and making it possible to establish specific policies according to their potential and functional specificities.
Network analysis in the Caribbean
2003
The Caribbean region is a cross road of international and regional containertraffic. Most of the islands in the region have also adopted ambitiousstrategies to become prime locations for container transshipment. This paperintroduces a tool that can be used to visualise and analyse the Caribbeancontainer flows. The tool is constructed on the basis of a multi-layeredgraph structure and is highly parameterized to allow for flexible selectionof flows and ports. The tool supports the assessment of the potential forthe development of logistics and transport hub through the calculation ofrelevant indicators using available information on container flows in theregion. Much of the empirical work centers on the estimation of theorigin-destination matrix of container flows in the region. The paperpresents a case study for the island of Curacao.
The network of 5823 cities of Mexico with a population more than 5000 inhabitants is studied. Our analysis is focused to the spectral properties of the adjacency matrix, the small-world properties of the network, the distribution of the clustering coefficients and the degree distribution of the vertices. The connection of these features with the spread of epidemics on this network is also discussed.