Landscapes Of The Ethnic Economy

Immigration has expanded dramatically in both traditional and emerging receiving nations. This worldwide boom has profoundly altered urban areas as new arrivals have transformed inner cities and suburbs alike into bastions of new ethnic economic activity. Examining the essential role of space in assisting and modifying ethnic business activity, this book considers how ethnic economies are reshaping the urban landscape in the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada, Germany, and Italy. Each chapter explores the significance of urban space and local context in the development of an ethnic economy and how, in turn, ethnic economies have helped to recreate urban neighborhoods. With its international scope and rich case studies, this book will be invaluable for scholars and students alike in the fields of ethnic studies, urban studies, economic development, geography, and sociology.

Exploring the worldwide boom in immigration, this book traces the profound changes in urban areas as new arrivals have transformed inner cities and suburbs alike into bastions of new ethnic economic activity. Each chapter addresses the significance of urban space and local context in developing various ethnic economies and how ethnic economies have helped to re-create urban neighborhoods. With its international scope and rich case studies, this book will be invaluable for scholars and students alike in the fields of ethnic studies, urban studies, economic development, geography, and sociology.

This volume provides a comprehensive catalog of how various ethnic groups in the United States of America have differently shaped their cultural landscape. Author John Cross links an overview of the spatial distributions of many of the ethnic populations of the United States with highly detailed discussions of specific local cultural landscapes associated with various ethnic groups. This book provides coverage of several ethnic groups that were omitted from previous literature, including Italian-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans, and Arab-Americans, plus several smaller European ethnic populations. The book is organized to provide an overview of each of the substantive ethnic landscapes in the United States. Between its introduction and conclusion, which looks towards the future, the chapters on the various ethnic landscapes are arranged roughly in chronological order, such that the timing of the earliest significant surviving landscape contribution determines the order the groups will be viewed. Within each chapter the contemporary and historical spatial distribution of the ethnic groups are described, the historical geography of the group’s settlement is reviewed, and the salient aspects of material culture that characterize or distinguish the group’s ethnic landscape are discussed. Ethnics Landscapes of America is designed for use in the classroom as a textbook or as a reader in a North American regional course or a cultural geography course. This volume also can function as a detailed summary reference that should be of interest to geographers, historians, ethnic scholars, other social scientists, and the educated public who wish to understand the visible elements of material culture that various ethnic populations have created on the landscape.

"The idea for editing this book originated during an international conference titled ""Regional Development: The Challenge of the Frontier,"" held in December 1993 at the Dead Sea and which was organized by the Negev Center for Regional Development at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. In this conference we noticed that little has been said about the impact of Israel's complex mosaic of ethnic groups on the shaping of the country's social and spatial frontiers. We have therefore endeavored to bring together a number of perspectives on the evolution of ethnic frontiers in Israel and the role they play in shaping the cultural landscape of this country. Yet we later realized that ""frontier"" is too limited a term, and that it may through various processes have turned into a mosaic of spatial, social, economic, and political peripheries. More specifically we attempted to present the process of frontier development as perceived by Israel's ethnic and national minorities. We therefore invited contributions from various other Israeli experts on these issues: geographers, sociologists, anthropologists, and political scientists, which have now become the main body of chapters in this book. We trust that they are representative of the main dimensions of the subject."

Ethnic diversity has marked the United States from its inception, and it is impossible to separate ethnicity from an understanding of the United States as a country and “Americans” as a people. Since the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, the United States has experienced watershed transformations in its social, cultural, and ethnic geographies. Considering the impact of these wide-ranging changes, this unique text examines the experiences of a range of ethnic groups in both historical and contemporary context. It begins by laying out a comprehensive conceptual framework that integrates immigration theory; globalization; transnational community formation; and urban, cultural, and economic geography. The contributors then present a rich set of case studies of the key Latin American, Asian American, and Middle Eastern communities comprising the vast majority of newer immigrants. Each case offers a brief historical overview of the group’s immigration experience and settlement patterns and discusses its contemporary socioeconomic dynamics. All these communities have transformed—and been transformed by—the places in which they have settled. Exploring these changing communities, places, and landscapes, this book offers a nuanced understanding of the evolution of America's contemporary ethnic geographies.

Winner of the 2009 Book Award in Social Sciences, Association for Asian American Studies This innovative work provides a new model for the analysis of ethnic and racial settlement patterns in the United States and Canada. Ethnoburbs—suburban ethnic clusters of residential areas and business districts in large metropolitan areas—are multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural, multilingual, and often multinational communities in which one ethnic minority group has a significant concentration but does not necessarily constitute a majority. Wei Li documents the processes that have evolved with the spatial transformation of the Chinese American community of Los Angeles and that have converted the San Gabriel Valley into ethnoburbs in the latter half of the twentieth century, and she examines the opportunities and challenges that occurred as a result of these changes. Traditional ethnic and immigrant settlements customarily take the form of either ghettos or enclaves. Thus the majority of scholarly publications and mass media covering the San Gabriel Valley has described it as a Chinatown located in Los Angeles’ suburbs. Li offers a completely different approach to understanding and analyzing this fascinating place. By conducting interviews with residents, a comparative spatial examination of census data and other statistical sources, and fieldwork—coupled with her own holistic view of the area—Li gives readers an effective and fine-tuned socio-spatial analysis of the evolution of a new type of racially defined place. The San Gabriel Valley tells a unique story, but its evolution also speaks to those experiencing a similar type of ethnic and racial conurbation. In sum, Li sheds light on processes that are shaping other present (and future) ethnically and racially diverse communities. The concept of the ethnoburb has redefined the way geographers and other scholars think about ethnic space, place, and process. This book will contribute significantly to both theoretical and empirical studies of immigration by presenting a more intensive and thorough "take" on arguments about spatial and social processes in urban and suburban America.

This important book provides a novel perspective on ethnicity, nationality, and race by considering how they are shaped by their geography. Exploring the complicated terrain of ethnicity through an expansive global perspective, David H. Kaplan traces the spatial arrangements that convey such potent meaning to the identity and opportunities of members of any cultural group. With examples from around the world, the author considers the most important aspects of ethnicity—from segregation to place making to multiculturalism, culture regions, diasporas, and transnationalism. He frames ethnicity as a contingent phenomenon, showing how context and place determine the position, definitions, behaviors, and attitudes toward and by members of an ethnic group. Drawing on an impressive depth of historical and empirical detail, Kaplan’s analysis of the critical role of ethnicity in everyday geographies makes a major contribution to the field.

Table of Contents for Volume 53, Number 3 (Fall 2013) COVER ART The View from Huayna Picchu Carl A. Reese Introduction to Southeastern Geographer, Volume 53, Number 3 David M. Cochran and Carl A. Reese PART I: PAPERS High Temporal Resolution Land Use/ Land Cover Change from 1984 to 2010 of the Little River Watershed, Tennessee, Investigated Using Landsat and Google Earth Images Chunhao Zhu and Yingkui Li Look Away, Look Away, Look Away to Lexington: Struggles over Neo-Confederate Nationalism, Memory, and Masculinity in a Small Virginia Town Jon D. Bohland Web-Based Geospatial Technology Tools for Metropolitan Planning Organizations Rakesh Malhotra, Gurmeet Virk, Felix Nwoko, and Amanda Klepper Spatial and Temporal Patterns of an Ethnic Economy in a Suburban Landscape of the Nuevo South Nancy Hoalst-Pullen, Vanessa Slinger-Friedman, Harold R. Trendell, and Mark W. Patterson Toward a Publicly Engaged Geography: Polycentric and Iterated Research Jennifer F. Brewer PART II: REVIEWS Longleaf, Far as the Eye Can See: A New Vision of North America's Richest Forest Bill Finch, Beth Maynor Young, Rhett Johnson, and John C. Hall Reviewed by Grant L. Harley The Land Was Ours: African American Beaches from Jim Crow to the Sunbelt South Andrew W. Kahrl Reviewed by Heather Ward