Until recently, knowledge of Georgia was limited in Western Europe, as this now independent country had been part of the Soviet Union until 1991. Georgia is well known for its hospitality, wine and cuisine, and also for the mountain peaks of the Caucasus which reach above 5000 meters. Otherwise few people know that there are different languages and ethnic groups in Georgia, that a separate Georgian alphabet exists and that Georgia has a fascinating history of more than 2000 years. The National Atlas presents detailed information with maps and accompanying text for the visitor as well as for scientists and business travellers. The National Atlas of Georgia, published for the first time in English by the Institute of Geography of Tbilisi State University as a strongly revised, updated and completed edition, offers the most current geographic information on Georgia today. The thematic maps are created using the latest digital techniques, detailing the physical environment, climate, economy, population, and historical milestones of the country. Maps, tables and texts are updated with the latest information from the following statistical sources: the National Statistics Office of Georgia, the Agency of Protected Areas and the Georgian National Tourism Administration. The accomplishment of this National Atlas of Georgia is the result of an intense cooperation between Tbilisi State University and Justus-Liebig-University Giessen and was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.Please note the ebook contains a large amount of data.

This e-book explores how the commodification of the Cuban Revolution affects Cuban identities. Contrary to prevailing beliefs, commodification does not inevitably lead to identity loss or alienation. Instead, it serves as a potent heuristic tool for comprehending social and political transformation.The Cuban Revolution, a powerful force shaping Cuban identities, presents an intriguing paradox. Surprisingly, tourism-driven commodification of the Revolution does not induce alienation, challenging prevailing assumptions. Rather, the waning identification with the Cuban Revolution stems from a complex interplay of perceived dysfunctionality, unmet aspirations, and economic inadequacies.Commodification in tourism is thus merely a symptom of alienation, revealing the discontent of marginalized individuals who criticize and disengage from the Revolution. This indicates transforming identities and socioeconomic realities, which are not caused by commodification, but are exposed through its examination. The e-book further explores the current state of the Cuban Revolution, where criticism and calls for market reforms challenge the states authority and imply a decline in its power.

Living with floods addresses flooding as a globally prevalent phenomenon that people deal with in different and contested ways. As empirical examples from the Mexican river Usumacinta show, local perspectives of floods can be highly ambivalent, wherein floods are described as both positive and negative dynamics. Different evaluations of floods by different actors imply different prevention, mitigation and response measures. In this study, the management of flood risks is understood as part of a complex network of social practices. Drawing on theories of social practices, especially on conceptual approaches by Theodore Schatzki, this study develops a practice theory view on flood risk management. In a social science oriented tradition of geographical risk research, flood risks are discussed as the result of social constructions and decisions. Dominant risk concepts and precautionary measures are questioned and new conceptual and methodological approaches are developed on the basis of extensive empirical field work in Chiapas. This study offers insight into "living with floods", its socio-cultural characteristics as well as its political relevance.

Existing research analyzes riverfront developments largely from a city-centric point of view, assuming a clear boundary between the river and the city. The research presented in this e-book shows that the complexity of urban environmental transformation along rivers in the megacities of the Global South requires a change of perspective, going beyond such a dichotomous view.By linking a discourse analytical approach with concepts from governance research and urban political ecology, this study introduces the theoretical framework of riverscapes as socio-ecological hybrids for a comprehensive analysis. The concept is applied to the river Yamuna.Delhis riverscapes have recently seen large-scale slum demolitions and the development of urban mega-projects. These dynamic land-use changes are deeply connected to changing discursive framings of the role and function of Delhis riverscapes in the remaking of the megacity. The study shows how dominant discourses and their associated narratives have remained persistent over long periods of time and the influence they continue to have on urban environmental change and governance.

Bangladeshs capital city Dhaka is one of the worlds fastest growing cities, passing from a population of one million to twelve million people in its extended area within three decades (19702000). This confronts its inhabitants, observers as well as planners with contradictions that ask for redefining our ways of living in and thinking about the city.In particular, Western conceptions of public space and urban societies are challenged by a symptomatic fragmentation.This empirical study observes the megacitys everyday spaces and situations directly and with a non-generalising approach. By means of ethnographic field research it describes the production of "enriched" or multifunctional spaces through everyday life practices, recognising in the inhabitants appropriation and adaptation processes a potential for sustainable mixed forms of urban development. For the first time, Henri Lefebvres theory of production of space is applied with all of its implications to an empirical study. City and urbanity emerge then as the result of three continuously interacting and interdependent production processes: physical, mental and social.

Cartography is one of the oldest forms of media. With cartography and media, meaning, ideology, and power are habitually arbitrated across and through space and time. Media has an underlying mapping impulse a proclivity to comprehend itself and be rendered comprehensible through metaphors of topologies, networks, and flows that lead to the constant evacuation of spaces in order to produce places of communication. Both media and cartography are never static, but instead, are ongoing scopic and discursive regimes that continually make and remake how we understand and interact with our world. Developments in mobile computing have not only increased the pace, flow, and interaction of media across space, but also the ubiquity, and thus the taken-for-grantedness, of mapping. Owing to the practices of the neogeographers of the Geoweb, media requires geographical situatedness in which and for which media can take place. Medias Mapping Impulse is an interdisciplinary collection that explores the relationship between cartography, geospatial technologies, and locative media on the one hand, and new and traditional media forms such as social media, mobile apps, and film on the other.

Vietnams cities are not only rapidly transforming under the countrys political and economic change, but are also increasingly exposed to natural hazards and threatened by the projected impacts of climate change. The interaction of both trends leads to substantial shifts in risk and to new challenges for adaptation governance which, however, remain poorly understood empirically, neglected theoretically and underemphasized politically. This e-book therefore draws on 14 months of empirical research in Can Tho City to trace the dynamics of urban vulnerability and to examine how the responsibilities and capacities for risk reduction are negotiated within the countrys transforming political economy.Based on a mixed methods approach, the study offers fresh empirical insights and innovative theoretical explanations targeting some of the most pressing gaps in current risk and adaptation science.These revolve particularly around the vexed causal relations between vulnerability and adaptation, the capture of (future) vulnerability pathways, the role of structural versus agentive factors for explaining adaptation action and the cross-scale synergies but also rifts between state and non-state measures for risk reduction.

In Bangladesh, the sale of food in public space is often contested: Street food is needed, but not wanted. 100,000 street vendors sell dishes, snacks, fruits, and beverages in the megacity of Dhaka. Street food is important for urban food security as mobile labourers and the poor rely on cheap, readily available and nutritious food. The authorities argue that encroachments of streets and footpaths are illegal and disorderly, and that street food is unhygienic. They therefore evict the vendors regularly. But the hawkers are somewhat protected through the informal rules of the street. While some of them are highly vulnerable to poverty and police raids, most navigate well through these contested governance regimes and can successfully sustain their livelihoods.In this e-book, different conceptual perspectives are integrated on the basis of Bourdieus Theory of Practice. It provides fresh insights into the role of street food in urban food system and contributes to a deeper understanding of the vulnerabilities of the urban poor, the informal governance of public space, and the dominant discourses on street food. From a relational and critical perspective it captures "the politics of street food" and sketches innovative solutions towards fair street food governance.

Access to public space is an essential asset of urban livelihoods. Pavements, street spaces, vacant plots, public parks and city squares are used intensively for all kinds of activities. As open space in rapidly growing and poorly planned conurbations is a very scarce resource, it is highly contested between different groups pursuing strongly vested economic, social and cultural interests. The research for this e-book is grounded in Bangladeshs megacity Dhaka, where more than 300,000 additional inhabitants have to be accommodated every year in highly densified settlements. Empirical evidence collected in a consolidated inner-city settlement with low to middle-income residents and in a low-income settlement without planning approval serves as the basis for analysis. Following a grounded theory approach that integrates elements of ethnographic research, the author applies a complex and innovative set of qualitative methods.With the newly coined term "spatiality of (urban) livelihoods" the research deconstructs the nexus between poverty and urban space in the everyday life of urban dwellers and systematises the negotiations for access to this scarce resource. The emerging actor constellations and power relations in negotiations are embedded in the recent discourses on urban informality and spatialities of (in)justice.

Almost universally, the loss of forest cover in Rwanda, Africas most densely populated country, has been explained by population growth. Imaginations of vast forest landscapes prior to colonialism shape todays ecological restoration policies, aiming at 30 % forest cover countrywide. Newly re-discovered historical photographs from 1892 to 1916 challenge this conventional account.The course of events over the past 100 years might not be consistent with the narrative of deforestation, where old-growth forests progressively disappeared as human populations increased. As systematically re-photographed viewsheds across Rwanda show, the contrary seems likely: increasing numbers of people in the 20th century appear to coincide with an increase in overall standing biomass. Deforestation has been less drastic than previously thought, primarily because of extensive landscape management by fire for pastoralism and subsistence agriculture by local peoples prior to colonial activity. In fact, the overall standing biomass has increased in all re-photographed viewsheds. Linking repeat photography, ecological restoration, and political ecology allow for a critical engagement with long-standing narratives on landscape change and restoration goals and practices.

In the essentially water-rich basin of Mexico City, water taps are now installed in most homes. Yet in many of the citys poorer neighborhoods in particular, water is supplied intermittently and taps often remain dry. How does such a socially constructed water scarcity affect water-related everyday practices in the home? And what is the relation between urban space and domestic practices of water use? In this study, Anke Schwarz employs a sociospatial approach which infuses Pierre Bourdieus Theory of Practice with a relational understanding of space. She draws upon in-depth interviews with 53 residents of Mexico Citys Federal District, taking subjective experience as a starting point, and adds a historical angle through the instrument of habitat biographies. With respect to the pressing issue of urban water supply, Schwarz offers a fresh perspective to urban geography by placing an emphasis on a sociospatial approach on the micro scale. She demonstrates how water use can be a demanding everyday task even in cities where virtually all dwellings do have water taps. Rooftop tanks and jugs of bottled water are only the most visible tokens of the differences made by such supply limitations.

This volume is a contribution to the decipherment of Ptolemys universal map, with focus on the territory known as Dacia. The information provided by Ptolemy was translated into modern data considering local features and complying with certain general principles. The difficulty of this task consisted in the way the ancient manuscripts transmitted the original location coordinates, as well as in the way Ptolemy patched together information from ancient itineraries and other sources. The author of this volume conceived a general formula for mapping Dacia based on the information found in the two oldest sources he used. Furthermore, he determined local patterns with the help of the other sources - therefore, defining locations resulted in a better determination of the surrounding relative positions. This information, as well as the correlation of the Ptolemaic locations with archaeological findings, provides an increased recognition of Ptolemaic Dacia, while also contributing to exposing the Ptolemaic universal map.

Offering an alternative reading of the contested nature of access to public resources in Dhaka, this e-book argues that the contestation of access cannot be explained only by the citys rapidly growing population; it rather describes it as a product of context-specific structures of power and dependency "the politics of regulation".This study gives a detailed account of the large diversity of local arrangements and their underlying strategies for negotiation and legitimation in the process of claim making to water supply. It presents constellations of influential actors and their interests and explains how their negotiations in an unbalanced power structure determine the distribution of and access to public water supplies.The author followed an ethnographic research approach and applied a complex and innovative set of qualitative methods for investigation in a low income inner-city squatter area and in a growing peripheral settlement of Dhaka. Frequent participation in adda (casual talks), and personal access to the water supply authority enabled him to observe the routines of everyday life and the complexities of public decision making.

The remains of the time-worn Aravalli Mountains that extend through Delhi are known as the Ridge. The range is also the site of Delhis once continuous but now scattered forests, four segments of which are legally protected as wildlife conservation areas today. How did a biodiversity park and a wildlife sanctuary come to be established in a large and rapidly growing megacity with severe competition for land resources? What does this mean for various citizens who use the forests for different purposes? Megha Sud provides an insight into the answers to these questions by examining the negotiations that led to the establishment of conservation as the dominant discourse in the Ridge, highlighting the role of various actors and the unequal power relations embedded in these deliberations and their outcomes. In this study she brings together concepts from political ecology and urban political ecology, using literature on local politics and development to ground the argument in the context. She argues that the forested spaces of Delhi must be understood as implicated in the socio-political structures of the city if urban conservation policies are to be sustainable both socially and environmentally.

Production and upgrading processes in emerging economies are studied by geographers and economists since many years. However, the relevance of institutions, in particular the informal ones, has not yet been fully understood. The institutional perspective of this e-book is relevant because regional production and innovation are embedded within multi-layered institutional settings which are enforced by actors at different spatial scales, e.g. local stakeholders, national policy makers, and multinational firms.This e-book analyses the electronics industry of the mega-urban region of Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta which is the worlds most important production cluster of the industry. A conceptual discussion on the institutional approach to informality and an overview of methods to measure it set the scene for five empirical chapters. The description of the spatial and organisational transition of the electronics industry in the region is followed by a thorough analysis of the role of personal relations for doing business. Finally, the most important issue for the long-term competitiveness of the region is discussed: upgrading and innovation.

Existing research on health seeking is characterized by an abundance of empirical studies and a lack of theoretical grounding. This e-book provides a new approach, a social theory that conceptualizes the various interlinkages and interdependencies of structure (e.g. regulation in health care and occupational systems, cultural norms and health beliefs), different types of agents (e.g. administration, health practitioners, NGOs, social organizations and networks) and individual action. It makes a substantial contribution to the social theory debate and expands existing approaches to health seeking with the concept of health seeking action. By providing a theoretical explanation of change it illustrates the impact of current dynamics in China.The approach is applied to rural-to-urban migrants in Guangzhou, China. Migrants are a new and constantly growing segment of the population that has emerged in Chinese cities since the beginning of the reform era. Their lack of access to health care has resulted in various different alternative health seeking actions. A considerable number of factors that influence health seeking are identified that have not been considered in existing works.

As a result of current urbanization dynamics the cultural heritage of Indian cities is under enormous pressure and threatened by decay. At the same time it makes a central contribution to social and societal identity of these cities and has a major influence both economically and aesthetically on the competitiveness of cities in international and national contexts.The responsibility for safeguarding urban cultural heritage, however, does not lie with public authorities only, but is embedded in the complex structures of public and private, individual and collective stakeholders acting at different levels with their respective interests.This study shows that social and professional discourses on urban cultural heritage and its protection highly influence conservation efforts. To overcome the sectoral perspective that dominates the existing research on urban cultural heritage in the Indian context, it draws on an analytical governance approach. This approach makes it possible to identify three governance orders and thus to make visible the interconnections between imagination, regulation and implementation.

Termed Hollywood South, New Orleans is the site of a burgeoning cultural economy of film and television production. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, this production plays an important role in the citys rebuilding. Down in Treme: Race, Place, and New Orleans on Television takes the HBO series Treme, filmed on-location in New Orleans, as a case study for exploring relationships between television production and raced and classed geographies in the rebuilding of post-Katrina New Orleans. Treme demonstrates how city efforts to attract film and television production collide with the television industrys desire to create new forms of connection for increasingly distracted audiences through the production of "authentic" connections to place. Down in Treme explores what is at stake in these collisions for local culture and struggles over the right to neighborhood and city space. By putting post-broadcast television studies, critical race theory, and urban studies into conversation, Down in Treme provides a poignant case study that enjoins scholars to go beyond the text to consider how media industries and production practices intervene into the contemporary media city.

In 2007 and 2008, Bangladesh was subject to a food crisis, which intensely hit the countrys capital. Dhakas food supplies were repeatedly disconnected due to floods and cyclones and world market prices for staple foods increased dramatically. In the middle of this situation, the national government launched eviction drives of numerous informal markets in Dhaka. Yet, despite of all these constraints, food traders still managed to guarantee steady supplies. Who are these traders and how did they make Dhakas food system robust enough to avoid a catastrophe? This study concentrates on Dhakas wholesale markets where food enters the city, and from where it flows into the urban food system. The e-book offers a fresh analytic perspective for economic geography by placing emphasis on "real markets", their institutional architectures, their actors and networks, and their specific political arena. Its focus is on the resilience of Dhakas food wholesale traders. The study demystifies megacities as synonyms for human misery and hardship not by overlooking poverty, exclusion and vulnerability, but by highlighting peoples strengths, their confidence and their capacities to cope with crisis.

Mobility not only challenges the everyday lives of millions of people, it also challenges scientific understandings of society, culture and space. Based on long-term mobile ethnographic research connecting Zanzibar, the Tanzanian mainland, Mombasa, Dubai and London, this volume takes up this challenge by exploring the translocal space emerging around contemporary Swahili trade. Examining translocality as a lived experience, the book succeeds in refining often overly abstract notions of mobile settings and relational space.