Marie Price

The Mixed Embeddedness of Ethnic Entrepreneurs in a New Immigrant Gateway

In this research the concept of mixed embeddedness is used to analyze how economic and political opportunity structures and the group characteristics of Ethiopian and Bolivian immigrants have affected the establishment and development of their businesses in metropolitan Washington, DC. The study relies upon interviews, focus groups, census data, and mapping to assess the entrepreneurial activities of both groups. As a relatively new immigrant destination, metropolitan Washington lacks many of the institutional supports found in older gateway cities. Our findings show that Bolivians and Ethiopians entered into entrepreneurial activities due more to experiences of blocked mobility and labor market segmentation than due to ethnic enclave formation. In addition, their settlement and associations within particular jurisdictions in the region played a significant role in their social and economic integration as entrepreneurs. The study concludes with an assessment of mixed embeddedness as a valuable lens from which to understand entrepreneurship at the metropolitan scale.

The World Settles in: Washington, DC, as an Immigrant Gateway

This study examines the ethnic geography of a new immigrant gateway, Washington, DC. According to Census 2000, more than 832,000 foreign-born individuals reside in the Washington metropolitan region. This research uses Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) data in an effort to map the residential decisions of immigrant newcomers by zip code from 1990 to 1998. Spatially, a very diverse, dispersed, and suburbanized pattern of newcomer settlement emerges, a pattern that contradicts many of the assumptions of the spatial assimilation model. Whereas the overall pattern is one of dispersion, an analysis of country-of-origin groups results in a settlement continuum ranging from concentrated (Vietnamese) to highly dispersed (Indians). Current research in Washington suggests that a pattern of heterolocalism (community without propinquity) may be a better model for understanding the role of immigrant settlement patterns and networks.

Migration, Development and a New Rurality in the Valle Alto, Bolivia

The relationship between migration and development is often discussed but seldom empirically demonstrated. In this case study from Bolivia, we examine the impacts migration has had on the small sending-region of Valle Alto in the Department of Cochabamba. Using data collected from interviews, surveys, and field observation, the study identifies distinct migration patterns and remittance flows and how they contribute to the material development of this region. The study highlights the diverse destinations that emigrants seek to maintain remittance income, the circularity of such income, and the development of diasporic knowledge networks. In some instances, a new rurality is observed, in which small rural communities are perceived to have more material resources than older colonial towns. While the Valle Alto offers many examples of migration stimulating development, there is concern over the sustainability of some of these networks as circular migration, particularly between the United States and Bolivia, becomes more difficult and costly.

Latin American environmentalism: Comparative views

This article examines three common generalizations from the literature on Latin American environmentalism. The validity of these generalizations, structured as hypotheses, is tested with four case studies from Costa Rica, Mexico, Venezuela, and Brazil. The first generalization is that tensions arise between international environmentalists principally concerned with wildlands conservation and national environmentalists engaged in a broader array of local and domestic issues including urban environmental quality and access to natural resources. The second is that environmental groups in Latin America are elitist in structure and participant base. The third is that the particular tactics employed by environmentalists will be closely tied to the relative openness of their nation’s political system. Through a cross-disciplinary case study approach we find the first two hypotheses quickly break down upon closer inspection, while the third is supported. We suggest a modified framework for interpreting environmental activism in the region, one that weights the role of the state as well as the competing strategies employed by grassroots, private voluntary, and professionalized environmental groups. Latin American environmentalism is highly diverse, presenting many faces in different time periods and different countries. Developing one general theory of environmentalism in Latin America is impossible, but more specific categorizations of the middle range may be achievable.

Critical Reflection Mapping as a Hybrid Methodology for Examining Sociospatial Perceptions of New Research Sites

We introduce critical reflection mapping as a novel and hybrid research methodology for examining the sociospatial perceptions of researchers in new research settings, particularly international ones. The methodology, theoretically situated within the critical geographic information systems literature, combines two existing research methods (qualitative sketch mapping and critical reflection) to elicit original ways in which researchers can critically reflect on an area new to them while spatially linking these qualitative place-based reflections to sketch maps. The methodology allows for synergistic data sets to inform each other and to be analyzed together rather than separately. Through critical reflection mapping, we demonstrate how multiple data sets and methods are combined so that critical reflection and word clouds add significant intellectual value by making another layer of textual information immediately accessible to qualitative sketch mapping data analysis. We present two case studies in Belize and Panama from our current community geography research agendas to demonstrate the viability as well as the caveats of this novel methodology for understanding and representing the immediate sociospatial perceptions of researchers. In the context of international research experiences discussed in this article, the methodology captures individual responses to features of the built environment including walkability and sustainability; documents the changing emotions a newly immersed researcher has in a largely unfamiliar geographic setting; and connects new experiences in a foreign research setting to an individuals everyday lived experiences, positionality, and multiple identities. It also makes these experiences more visible to fellow researchers in a large research team and thus lends itself as a potential forum for shared reflection.

Competing Visions, Shifting Boundaries: The Construction of Latin America as a World Region

Abstract Latin America is a popularly accepted world region. A systematic review of geographic interpretations of Latin America reveals that the origin of the term goes back to the mid-nineteenth century and that the regions boundaries have shifted over time. This article argues that four basic principles operate in the formation of world regions such as Latin America: contiguity, continentality, geopolitics, and human relatedness. The article considers different conceptualizations of Latin America in an effort to challenge students to consider how regional boundaries are constructed and what they tell us about places. This article is a case study with guided questions for high school advanced placement or college students in introductory courses. Students will encounter geographic elements that play into the definition of a region while undertaking an exercise in academic reading for primary themes and supporting illustrations.

Building collaborative research opportunities into study abroad programs: a case study from Panama

As universities increase their international study opportunities, enormous potential exists to create geography field courses that provide undergraduates and graduate students with primary research experience and intercultural collaboration. This paper draws from our experience leading a two-week collaborative field course in Panama. We outline our principles of engagement: focus on problem-oriented research; build upon local research; create a reflexive working relationship between host and home scholars; foster student collaboration in multiple study stages, including data collection, analysis and interpretation; and make results available, especially to community stakeholders. We conclude that research-driven, collaborative approaches can result in meaningful learning outcomes.

The Centennial Forum: An Introduction

The four essays presented in the Centennial Forum consider the diverse intellectual contributions of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers over the past 100 years. As the flagship journal for American academic geography, the Annals has provided a dynamic venue for the development of geographic theories, methods, and perspectives.1 In anticipation of this milestone, four Annals editors agreed to the daunting task of sifting through nearly 5,000 articles, commentaries, and book reviews that have appeared in the journal since 1911 with an eye toward recognizing trends, continuities, innovations, and ruptures in geographic discourse. To structure this undertaking, the four-field division (human, physical, nature/society, and methods) currently in use by the Annals was employed.2 The authors were tasked to review Annals publications—not the geographic literature as a whole—considering those articles that might fit into their respective sections were they to be published today. They were also limited to 5,000 words, which means that their reflections had to be succinct, selective, and also representative of major currents of thought. By comparison, the typical Annals article today is nearly twice as long. By their nature, these essays are descriptive and evaluative in tone. They also include substantial bibliographies that highlight many seminal works that will be appreciated by those leading or taking geographic thought courses. Finally, it must be noted that these articles, although written by Annals editors, underwent peer review. Specifically, each essay was read and commented on by anonymous reviewers and I acted as guest editor, overseeing the review and revision process. Combined, these four essays provide a literate, timely, and provocative assessment of the intellectual terrain covered by the Annals. The forum begins with Richard Aspinall’s chronological assessment of physical geography research. Aspinall was the editor of the Environmental Sciences section of the Annals from 2006 through 2009. He notes that physical geography was more prominent in the formative years of AAG, whereas from 2001 through 2009, only 15 percent of the articles published in the Annals were in that section. He traces the early development of geographical sciences based on observation and physiographic description that was influenced by the ideas of evolution and determinism. By the 1950s, processoriented approaches were widely adopted throughout the earth sciences, and this trend continues with the application of complex models and diverse methodologies. Aspinall attributes the relative decline in the number of physical geography articles to the growth in specialized journals that began in the 1960s. He concludes by challenging physical geographers to increase their rates of submission, perhaps enticing them with the journal’s high impact factor. Mei-Po Kwan delivers a spirited and methodologically rigorous assessment of Methods, Models, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Kwan is the current editor of this section, a position she has held since 2006. She performed a content analysis of key words in method article titles, their frequency of use, and when they were first and last used. The top term is map, closely followed by spatial. Kwan divides geographic methods research through the century into three main currents: (1) mapping and cartography; (2) spatial analysis, modeling, and statistics; and (3) GIScience, critical GIS, and critical cartography. Not surprisingly given the discipline’s history, method papers in the Annals peaked in the 1960s. Yet Kwan also graphs a surge in method-oriented research over the last twenty years, surpassing the number of method papers published in the 1960s. Looking forward, she offers thoughtful commentary on GIScience in decision making and public participation, and she speculates on the growth in volunteered geographic information through vehicles such as Google Earth mashups and how this will shape future geographies. Karl Zimmerer offers a multifaceted analysis of the human environment tradition in geography from the vantage point of editor of the Nature and Society section since 2004. His essay emphasizes articles published since 1990 when a significant up-tick in human environmental articles occurred. He organizes the contemporary literature into six major themes, including political ecology, vulnerability science, environmental landscape history, human–environmental interactions, environmental management, and landuse and land-cover change. He also extracts certain continuities with the past, pointing to the early dominance of nature/society traditions developed by

Unintended Return: U.S. Deportations and the Fractious Politics of Mobility for Latinos

A record-breaking 4.2 million people have been removed from the United States since 2000, with migrants from Latin America accounting for over 93 percent of all removals. The U.S. policy shift toward forced removals (commonly referred to as deportations) underscores many mobility politics and paradoxes that Latinos experience. Their determination to be mobile and leave their countries of origin often results in encountering various legal challenges in the United States that might limit their mobility within the United States and, sometimes, result in their involuntary mobility through forced return. This article is grounded in the politics of mobility literature interested in the frictions created within constellations of mobility that create unintended return. Drawing from administrative data produced by the Department of Homeland Security, Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) data, and the U.S. Census, this research (1) documents the scope and uneven practice of forced removal; (2) suggests how unintended return is affecting Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras; and (3) develops the unintended returnee as an important mobility subject.

Hispanic Entrepreneurship in a Global City: The Bolivian Diaspora in Washington, DC

Purpose – This study examines Hispanic entrepreneurship in the context of global city formation by focusing on metropolitan Washington and the entrepreneurial activities of Bolivian immigrants, a small but significant Latino immigrant population. Methodology – Employing a mixed methodology of analysis of census data, mapping, and conducting surveys and focus groups, this research highlights the socio-economic characteristics of Bolivians, the spatial patterning of residential settlement and business locations, as well as the network strategies the group employs. Findings – Metropolitan Washington is the hub for the Bolivian diaspora in the United States. This group distinguishes itself with higher levels of education, income, and self-employment among Hispanics as a whole. Yet despite their economic and educational attainment, they are overly concentrated in certain sectors and experience blocked mobility that manifests itself through greater interest in self-employment and entrepreneurship. The study concludes that by developing businesses that serve both the ethnic community and the larger non-Hispanic population, Bolivians have had certain economic success. Social implications – Strategies of residential concentration along with well-developed social networks maintain the ethnic community as well as support transnational linkages to towns and villages back in Bolivia.