Rainer Wehrhahn

Life expectancy and infant mortality in Latin America

Life expectancy and infant mortality in Latin America vary extremely on the national level as for example from 20 per thousand and less in Cuba and Chile up to 100 per thousand and more in Haiti and Bolivia. The range of these rates is even greater considering the regional level within the countries. Case studies from Costa Rica and Chile do not only show the contrast between rural and urban areas, but also give an example how regional differences can be diminished in the course of a rapid mortality decline. The development of primary and secondary health care, especially when applied to rural and marginal urban population turned out to be the most important factor for this reduction. In Costa Rica 75% of the decrease of infant mortality can be attributed to these measures. In addition to reforms in the public health system improvements of sanitary conditions have been proven to be very efficient in the fight against infant mortality in Chile. But the level of mortality remains relatively high in those countries where endogenous factors of mortality decline have not been added to the exogenous ones to a great extent. A close connection between social stratification and level of mortality is quite evident in Brazil, where difficult living conditions in rural areas as well as in a big part of the cities prevent a reduction of mortality rates.

A Psychological–Geographical Approach to Vulnerability: The Example of a Chinese urban Development Project from the Perspective of the Transactional Stress Model

Since the 1980s, reform, the open-door policy, and rapid economic growth have encouraged Chinese cities to become fast-growing and highly dynamic urban areas. They are subject to both innovations and international connectivity as well as to rising socioeconomic and ecological vulnerability. In this paper we sketch the main transformation processes of a traditional Chinese village in the megacity Guangzhou, South China, processes that are linked to the construction of a new railway station in its close proximity. Our research addresses the issue of how the inhabitants of this village view the restructuring of their living environment. What kind of demands or opportunities do they perceive? Do they feel stress with regard to ‘harm/loss’, ‘threat’, or ‘challenge’ and how do they cope with the changing structures and processes? People living in the same environment appraise exposure to certain risks differently, which explains varying coping modes. In this context the question is considered as to whether coping necessarily results in ‘visible’ outcomes (eg building houses to rent out and thus benefiting from in-migration) or whether it encompasses ‘invisible’ person-related processes. The primary aim of this paper is to enrich the geographical debate on vulnerability by taking a psychological perspective and presenting and applying the transactional stress model of Lazarus. This conceptual framework from cognitive psychology and schematises person and environment antecedents of stress and coping as well as appraisal and coping as mediating processes between the person and the environment. To facilitate understanding, the transactional stress model is exemplified on the basis of selected research data collected in the transforming village. With reference to different stress appraisals, examples of varying coping modes and coping efficiency are discussed.

Bevölkerung und Migration

„Weniger, alter, bunter“ – auf diesem plakativ skizzierten demographischen Weg befindet sich Deutschland wie viele andere Lander vor allem des globalen Nordens seit Langerem. Haufig werden aber damit verbunden Parolen ausgegeben, die das „Bunte“ in eine Gefahr umzudeuten suchen wie etwa „Deutschland schafft sich ab“, „Auslanderghettos“ oder „Integration Fehlanzeige“. Das stellt die betroffenen Gesellschaften vor ganz besondere Herausforderungen, denn die Bevolkerung eines Landes wandelt sich permanent und fordert entsprechende Anpassungen. Demographischer Wandel, Migration, Integration und Inklusion sind Dauerthemen in Gesellschaft, Politik und Wirtschaft. Dies gilt umso mehr als Globalisierungsprozesse, Fragen der EU-Erweiterung oder soziodemographische Polarisierungen beiderseits der globalen wie lokalen Trennungslinien zwischen Arm und Reich immer starker in den Fokus geraten. In vielen Regionen der Welt weitet sich die Arbeitsmigration von niedrig- wie hochqualifizierten Arbeitskraften gleichermasen bestandig aus, neue Fluchtlingsbewegungen aufgrund von Kriegen und Burgerkriegen entstehen fast im Jahresrhythmus, und alltaglich erfahren wir von verzweifelten Versuchen immer hohere Grenzbefestigungen zu uberwinden.

Debordering and rebordering in the residential borderlands of suburban Guangzhou

ABSTRACT Gated communities and enclave urbanism in China have recently drawn considerable attention of researchers and policy makers. The integration of urban space is now even on the agenda of the Chinese Central Government. This article therefore sets out to advance our understanding of how exactly urban borders function and how they change over time. This is done by applying concepts of border theory to what may be called residential borderlands. The empirical study is conducted in two such borderlands between gated communities and suburban villages in southern Guangzhou. It is based on over 70 qualitative interviews and the observation of spatial behaviour at the respective borders. Both debordering and rebordering processes are found to occur with regards to three dimensions: cross-border mobility, cross-border social connectivity and symbolic border functions. The identified dynamic processes at the neighbourhood borders are embedded in the overall urban spatial reconfiguration of Guangzhou.

Water Quality and Socio-Ecological Vulnerability Regarding Urban Development in Selected Case Studies of Megacity Guangzhou, China

The megacity Guangzhou in the South-Chinese Pearl River Delta is one of the most economically dynamic and rapidly urbanizing areas in the world and meanwhile home to some 15 million people. The urban growth, which also includes various spatial structural changes in the city center as well as in the peri-urban area, has created severe deterioration of water quality within the last 30 years.