Barbara J. Vandrasek

Variations in International Understandings of Employability for Geography

This research started from the premise that (a) employability is an internationally accepted concept with a confusion of interpretations and definitions; and (b) that an insight into the variation in understanding of employability and teaching employability would benefit geography curriculum development. Consequently, the views of the co-authors from Italy, the United Kingdom, United States, Chile, Estonia, Greece and Spain were sought to develop an international understanding of employability and its position in the geography higher education curriculum. Discussion shows that the definitions and implications are varied. There is common agreement that geography graduates are very employable, and that their degree work enhances their employability attributes. The extent to which employability can be enhanced within the curriculum is discussed.

METROPOLITAN AREA DEFINITION IN THE UNITED STATES

Since 1905 the Bureau of the Census has devised and applied concepts and criteria for delineating metropolitan areas and has published statistics describing them. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and its predecessor, the Bureau of the Budget, have defined metropolitan areas for use by federal agencies since introducing standard metropolitan areas (SMAs) for the 1950 census. In the late 20th century, new national United States settlement forms emerged, and distinctions between urban and rural areas or between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas lost both their theoretical and practical significance. A proposed system of national settlement areas, applied experimentally to eight diverse states, uses counties (towns and cities in New England) as basic statistical units, with each categorized by its population density as ranked within both its state and the nation. Relative population density alone is an adequate and appropriate surrogate for activity patterns and interaction among geographic unit...

Highway improvements and land development in Minnesota's Greater Twin Cities Area, 1970-1997

As increased traffic congestion becomes an issue in more and more cities across the country and especially in rapidly growing suburban areas, the following questions are often asked. How are improvements in highway transportation and patterns of land development in suburban and exurban areas related? Do road improvements encourage land development, or vice versa? The key question of leads and lags between transportation and development within cities and townships of the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area was investigated for five time intervals between 1970 and 1997. Correlation and regression analyses were used to measure the strength and causality of relationships between highway improvements and the timing and levels of residential, industrial, commercial, and office development. Although statistical relationships describing correlations of leads, lags, and contemporaneous change were found to be highly significant, the measures of those relationships were seldom constant. They differed from one time period to the next, from one location to another within specific time periods, and from one type of development to another. The weakest relationships occurred in the most recent era (1990s) for all development types. Generally, industrial development seemed to be most influenced by transportation and location over the eras, followed by office and commercial construction. New housing seemed to be least affected by transportation and location; this finding may have major implications for addressing issues of traffic congestion.