Quarterly Journal of Geography
Online ISSN : 1884-1252
Print ISSN : 0916-7889
ISSN-L : 0916-7889
Volume 53, Issue 1
Displaying 1-7 of 7 articles from this issue
  • Taro OISHI
    2001 Volume 53 Issue 1 Pages 1-20
    Published: March 25, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: April 30, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    In this paper, the author argued language situation and its formative factors in New Brunswick, Canada. And, the author referred to linguistic territorialization, which is argued in some geographical studies in Canada. In New Brunswick, Canada, Francophones whose ancestors settled from early 17th century has about 30% of whole population in the province. They are called the Acadians because of their historical background. It is supposed that they have a distinct identity and are distinguished from Québecois, Francophones in Québec. The author analyzes Census data published by Statistics Canada mainly. The results are as follows:
    First, the author explores the distribution by mother tongue. Many Francophones live in northwestern, northeastern, and southeastern New Brunswick. On the other hand, many Anglophones live in southwestern New Brunswick including Saint John, the largest city in the province, and Fredericton, its capital.
    Secondly, the knowledge of the official languages is examined. The ratio of the population of understanding English only decreases and is below 60% in 1991. The ratio of the population of understanding French only, decreases too, and is a little over 10% in 1991. On the other hand, the ratio of the population of understanding both English and French increases and is 29.5% in 1991. This implies that not only Francophone became bilingual but also Anglophone became bilingual.
    Thirdly, the author calculates the index of the existence of monolingual to clarify the ratio of monolingual and bilingual person in each linguistic group. As a result, there is regional difference among Francophone regions, and many people could understand both English and French in both linguistic groups in mixed region, especially Westmorland County.
    As a result of the above discussion, some formative factors of language situation in New Brunswick are considered as follows:
    1) Linguistic persistence by Francophones: First, French language gained the status of the official language in New Brunswick and Canada in 1969. Secondly, separation of the school district by language has an important role in their linguistic persistence. Thirdly, because the endogamy is dominant, French is used in household. Furthermore, as they usually speak French, increase of bilingual person is regarded as an adaptive strategy rather than linguistic assimilation.
    2) Becoming bilingual by Anglophones: After French became one of the official languages in New Brunswick, Immersion program which educates English speaking children in French starts in Anglophone School Districts. After this, many young people become bilingual. And, French is one of the important languages in the world. This encourages some Anglophones to learn French.
    3) Situation of linguistic territorialization: Moncton, the second largest city in the province, locates in southeastern New Brunswick where Anglophones and Francophones contact each other. Many Francophones flowed into Moncton from the latter half of the 19th century. Furthermore Moncton has many institutions for Francophones such as Université de Moncton, the only French-language university in New Brunswick. But Anglophones learn French rather than move out. Hence, existence of city on linguistic boundary prevents linguistic territorialization.
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  • Wei CHEN
    2001 Volume 53 Issue 1 Pages 21-33
    Published: March 25, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: April 30, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The purpose of this paper is to examine the reality of the poor villages and attempts to overcome poverty in mountainous areas in China. This research deals with two villages, A and B, in Hechi Prefecture, Guangxi Autonomous Region. Through interviews with the peasants, the data concerning farm management, the income structure of each household, and measures against poverty were obtained.
    The findings are summarized as follows:
    (1) Even though the grain yield of Village A and B has increased by introducing new cultivation methods and high-yield crop variety, the situation of food shortage persists, because of low fertility of tillable land.
    (2) Village A has attempted to increase their income by goats raising under the leadership of the local government. The sales of goats have become farmers' main cash income source, yet this measure has not helped them to alleviate poverty.
    (3) In the case of Village B, the villagers started to plant bamboo and manufacture bamboo products. Owing to this new industry, the cash income of Village B largely increased. However, this income standard is still under the poverty line established by the Central Government.
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  • Some Considerations Derived from the Questionnaire Survey of Local Government Staffs in Japan
    Yoshiyuki MURAYAMA, Satoru MASUDA
    2001 Volume 53 Issue 1 Pages 34-44
    Published: March 25, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: April 30, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Land use control is one of the most powerful planning tools for hazard mitigation, which includes the building code of use and structure, affording incentives for relocation or quakeproofing, disclosure of information and so on. We have already carried out a questionnaire survey of inhabitants in Sendai to examine the social acceptability of these kinds of regulations. Serialized questionnaire survey was conducted at the end of 1999 targeting at the disaster prevention and urban planning section's staffs of local government. This article deals with the feasibility of land use control along active faults according to the questionnaire survey.
    The following conclusions are obtained. First, citizens are likely to show more acceptable and positive attitude toward the implementation of the regulation in general than administrative staffs. Second, among government sections, the staffs of urban planning are more passive or negative against the regulation than that of disaster prevention. Furthermore, the passiveness of planning staffs may also deviate from citizen's views. In case of the administrative staffs as well as citizens, especially of urban planning, the acquisition of disaster information tends to improve the rate of support to the regulation. Third, with regard to facilities handling dangerous materials, public facilities, customer attracting complexes, and apartment houses, more than the half of citizens and administrative staffs insist that facilities listed above should not be located on the active faults. Lastly, conspicuous opinions are observed among the staffs of local governments having the active faults that require scientific investigation in detail. They are negative about the adoption of severe land use control, but are active in forcing to investigate the active fault in large-scale development sites.
    In Japan, the disclosure of information on disaster, such as the publication of various hazard maps, is greatly advancing now. There already exist some tools with legal basis, but few of them are adopted in practice. Land use control is one of the most important prior-measures for disaster prevention in a long range, and should have been widely utilized. It is necessary to revise system to strengthen the collaboration and personnel inter-exchanges between two sections, and to prepare planning and regulation menus with variety and flexibility. Offering disaster information to the urban planning section is helpful to promote efficiency in planning effort for hazard mitigation.
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  • 2001 Volume 53 Issue 1 Pages 45-70
    Published: March 25, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: April 30, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • 2001 Volume 53 Issue 1 Pages 70-74
    Published: March 25, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: April 30, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • 2001 Volume 53 Issue 1 Pages 76-79
    Published: March 25, 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: April 30, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Download PDF (607K)
  • 2001 Volume 53 Issue 1 Pages 82
    Published: 2001
    Released on J-STAGE: April 30, 2010
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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