Class Messages

Date: Sat, 2 Mar 1996 09:11:11 -0800 (PST) From: Economic Geography Subject: Re: Final Project Let me try to answer your questions and, at the same time, calm your nerves about this relatively small project.... On Fri, 1 Mar 1996, student X wrote: > > I am nervous about the research paper..... > I have a few questions: > > 1. Looking in a style manual I have, it shows an outline at the > beginning and an odd way of numbering pages. Do we need to do that? Generally, an outline and subsequent subheadings improve on your (and the reader's) ability to keep track of the (hopefully) inherent structure of the paper. It helps, but is not absolutely necessary. I do appreciate subheadings! Any numbering systems is fine! > > 2. For the bibliography (which the style manual calls "Works > Cited"--should we call it that?) do we have the same requirement as for > phase 1, i.e., 2 of everything--books, journals, newspapers/magazines, > internet sites? Yes, everything you use for your paper should be part of the "Bibliography", "Works Cited" or whatever. I don't care how you call it. Everything quoted directly or fairly directly paraphrased should be cited by specific page number (or URL on the Internet) of the source. For this second part, the selection of sources is left more up to you. Ultimately, what is important is that the sources are appropriate for whatever you are doing. For a research paper, it would almost always be inappropriate to cite only newspaper clippings. Part of the learning process was that you found out where the appropriate sources are in your field of concentration. We do appreciate "academic" sources generally more than popular sources. > > 3. Are we allowed to express our opinion at all or any kind of > feeling about what we find? Yes, of course. If it is in the middle of your analysis, it should be well argued and documented (who else might be holding similar feelings?). "Raw" feelings are often better placed into footnotes, into your conclusions or a postscript (e.g. if you found no support for your feelings in the literature, and you do not have enough raw data to go through with the analysis yourself, then you probably have to relegate your feelings to the realm of "future research needed" as part of your conclusions). > 4. I'm not sure if I can stretch my paper to 8 pages. Is that a > minimum? My topic, narrowed down, as one of your suggestions, is the > MNC code of conduct of one particular organization. I picked the UN and it > turns out they abandoned their efforts (that's where the question about > our opinion comes in, by the way). There also is not a lot of previous > research on this. However, it's too late to switch to another topic that I > could read and write volumes on. I do not want you to "stretch", unless you were overly concise, compact, non-explicit before. Maybe you want to spell out "things" a bit more and articulate more links to 207. Or extend your literature review a bit (e.g. by including more from Dicken's Global Shift). Quality counts ultimately much more than quantity... > 5. Can you tell us what specifics we'll be graded on, aside from > grammar, punctuation, typos, etc. which you already mentioned. 1. content ("substance", quality of proposition(s), logic of arguments, appropriateness of sources and use of sources;......) 2. organization of content 3. format, appearance, 4. typos etc. 3 and 4 become very important for papers without much content or organization. G.K.

From econgeog@u.washington.edu Sun Mar 3 07:56:26 1996 Date: Sun, 3 Mar 1996 07:49:07 -0800 (PST) From: Economic Geography Subject: Re: My rough draft. Request for comments. Student Y: The general direction is fine. I'll insert some comments directly into the text, marked by { } On Sun, 3 Mar 1996, student Y wrote: > Let's see if I can import this correctly... > > ***************************************************************** > > The Effects of Trade Negotiations > On Industry: A Case Study of > The U.S.-Canadian Auto Pact and its > Effects on the Canadian/American Auto Industry > Introduction > > What can happen to the primary sector of an economy, the > manufacturing sector, as a result of changing trade policies? > This is a case study of one particular trade agreement, the > Automotive Products Trade Agreement (APTA), better known as the > Auto Pact, which was signed in 1965 by the United States and > Canada as an attempt to solve difficult relations between the two > countries with regard to the automotive sector. {You call your study "The effects of Trade Negotiations" and you are starting your paper with "What can happen to the primary sector of the economy, .....as a result of trade negotiations... 1)The manufacturing sector is the "secondary" sector.... you may need to use a different term if you do not refer to this primary, secondary, tertiary classification.... 2)I realize that the natural tendency is to suggest that you can start with any particular case... Think of it as using an example for what trade negotiations can do... before you give an example, you want to say what this example is an example for... You are really not doing that yet. On the basis of our "deductive reasoning skill drills in class" and your research, you should be able to "suggest", "propose" a very general "scheme" which would outline some general possibilities as to (1) why countries negotiate such agreements (there may be more than one reason), (2) what form such negotiations and agreements may take (again, there may be more than one...), and finally what kinds of impacts one can or should be able to anticipate (positive and negative, intended and unintended etc.etc.)... [possibly think about "backward linkage effects" on the Canadian economy in an input/output sense. The text should be able to give you other ideas...] You may not have to differentiate along all three dimensions... Since you are mainly interested in the "effects", maybe you just articulate different types of effects..... you surely need that to assess your "benefits" later.... The basic purpose for this exercise is to differentiate between different possible outcomes/results of your research early on and to develop categories which capture such differences.... (as much as you can before you start your specific case, given that you are already an "expert" in your "concentration") otherwise you come up with your particular Canadian results and you have no way to put them back into a more general context, i.e. to assess the Canadian "case" in the light of some more general "framework". Should you feel that the framework you have provided in your "concentration" is "just right" for your case study, then please provide the explicit links (references) to your concentration paper. One would have to assume that you will be using the same conceptual categories for your case study. Now all this does NOT have to be very extensive. It could be shorter than what I just wrote in less than 10 minutes...} > Primarily, this article will focus on the effects of the > Auto Pact on the Canadian auto industry with respect to the > American auto industry, as well as whether or not the pact met > the expectations of both countries. > The secondary focus will be on whether or not this pact > provides a good model for the effects of trade policies on > industry in general. References to the Canadian-U.S. Free Trade > Agreement (FTA) will be made, as well as to the North American > Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). {Well, you may want to use "this secondary focus" as a part of your initial "scheme"} > > A Brief History of the Auto Industries of Canada and the U.S. > > Prior to the 1960's, the automobile industries of the two > countries were primarily nationalistic. For the most part, the > auto industries of the developed nations had a highly insulated > domestic auto market. Almost all automobiles sold in Canada were > built there. "Even as late as 1966, vehicles imported from > overseas captured only 8% of the combined US and Canadian > market," according to J. Holmes of Queen's University in Ontario. > During the late 1950's, "sheltered behind tariff barriers > and domestic-content requirements and severely limited by the > scope of its market, the Canadian auto industry suffered > declining international competitiveness." (J. Holmes) This > decline continued to the point of being a "severe sectorial > crisis" by the 1960's. {This looks fine. Be sure that that you "twist" (select) your history towards the points you want to make in your case analysis (otherwise we do not need the history). You seem to be doing that quite well...} > > The Effects of the Auto Pact on the Auto Industry > > Leading up to the Auto Pact of 1965, Canada was showing a > large trade deficit with respect to the auto industry. However, > after the trade agreement went into effect, Canada's automotive > sector experienced rapid growth to the point of being rather > competitive in the North American market, but one must look at > the reasons why the pact had this effect. > The function of the pact was to remove tariffs and other > trade barriers which hindered trade between the two countries. {pull this last idea also into your scheme .... } > Of course, this was limited to finished automobiles and original > auto parts. When these barriers came down, and trade became > simply a matter of transportation costs, the focus shifted from > import/export costs to costs of production. With the average > wage in Canada having been considerably lower, much of the labor- > intensive work shifted to Canadian plants, such as final > assembly, while the components were largely built in the U.S. > This created a trade surplus in finished product (cars), and a > deficit in parts and components in Canada. Also, considering > that the market for cars is much greater in the U.S., the > Canadian assembly plants were, and are, quite dependent on the > decision making of the U.S. auto manufacturers (the Big Three). > > Who Benefited from the Auto Pact? {again, you need some "scheme" to identify how different sectors/ people etc. in two (or more) countries can benefit. What are "benefits"? You seem to be implying that the Canadians got all the "benefits"... Why would the Americans negotiate without getting any of the benefits...?"} > The Canadians. They definitely came out on top, and all > though there was some grumbling at first, once the trend was > obvious, the Canadians were all for it. > > How Does the Auto Pact Provide a Good Example of What > Changing Trade Relations Can Do for, or to an Industry? > > **This section will be largely speculation based on evidence > provided by research. Is that OK? > > > > This is rough. Very rough. It is largely an outline, > although I think it is a good case study. In case I haven't made > it clear what the case study is, in which case you should tell > me, it is the Auto Pact itself, and its effects on one industry. > The focus of the study is to provide an example of how trade > policies can profoundly affect the industrial sector. > Do you think this will work? Please e-mail me ASAP. > > > > *************************************************************** > What do you think? Good Luck. Hope this helps G.K.

I'm concerned about my case study (Project Part 2). . .the Service Learning Initiative I'm participating in right now ... deals with making WEB home pages so youth can access information about different activities that are going on in their community. Do you see any tie here? I would like very much for Part 2 of the project to deal with my service learning initiative, but what if there is no link? What should I do? Should I come visit you during your office hours?

Thanks for your help

Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 09:59:52 -0800 (PST)
From: Economic Geography 
Subject: Re: Project Part 2

In the meantime, please make a list of possible ties between your service learning experiences (past and expected) and 207. Follow up either all of these ties, a few of them or just one (in more detail) for your journal-report. I could think of

a) trying to understand the economic basis for the youth activities you are linking to by home page... how do they survive? cost pressures? financial sources etc.?

b) location and access problems of such youth facilities; spatial biases in their spatial distribution?

c) the economic basis of the specific home-page effort of the organization you are volunteering for. Who took the initiative? Who is financing? Cost pressures? Would there be better ways of organizing such activities?

d) has there been any analysis of the demand for your information-providing effort. How have youth received the information in the past? Will the new service replace or expand these past information distribution activities?

e) the economic and economic-geographic foundation and implications of volunteer activities in new sectors of the economy: strictly an urban phenomenon?

There must be others. Explore this a bit (including with the help of library and internet resources) and then let's talk early next week. GK

Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 08:05:06 -0800 (PST)
From: Richard Roth 
To: Geography Undergraduates 
Subject: Service Learning

All undergraduate and graduate students in the Geography department are invited to attend the upcoming colloquium/brown bag lunch discussion to take place on February 21 at 12:30 - 1:20 in the Communications building, room 126. This will be an excellent chance to dialogue about the campus-community partnerships taking place within the service learning program in the Geography department. We'll have the opportunity to hear from Professor Hodge and Professor Krumme, as well as student presenters and representatives from community agencies. For more information, see the flyers posted outside of the main office, the advising office, and in the commons room - or call the Carlson Office: 543-2618. Jenifer Gager, Student Coordinator

If this detail is confusing, blame those who asked. Sometimes more data provide less information.

Still, we hope this helps. GK

P.S. The "Location Quotient Exercise" which will be one of the bases for next Monday's Lab (and which will be due on Tuesday) has just been posted. You will find it as a "click" (hyper-link) in the agendas for weeks 5 and 6.

>  
> On Sun, 28 Jan 1996, Group ?5? wrote:
>    
> > Prof. Krumme,
> >     Our joint proposal group was browsing over the requirements for
> > the proposal due this Thursday, and we came across something that we did
> > not quite understand.  The part in the syllabus about five to eight
> > questions dealing with the project is something which we are unclear as
> > to what the requirements are.  If you could e-mail us with a response to
> > this question we would greatly appreciate it.


On Sun, 28 Jan 1996, Economic Geography answered:
> Hi:
>       The idea is to understand that your concentration is a course
> segment, not a specialized research topic yet. Thus, your segment should
> permit students who are taking your class to select student-research
> topics. I want you to think about what might be interesting topics (not
> just factually interesting but also, and maybe more importantly,
> interesting and challenging from a conceptual perspective and, if at all
> possible, from the point of view of "socio-economic relevance"). I would
> suspect that one of the topics you select will become your own topic for
> the second part of the project.
>                               I hope this helps.  G.K.

 
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 1996 20:59:02 -0800 (PST) 
From: Group ?5? 
Subject: Re: Proposal Question 

        Thank you for your quick response.  As to the questions, again,
what specifically do you mean by "questions"?  Do you mean that we should
include them somewhere in the proposal, such as in the syllabus as
suggestions for student research topics?  Is that what you mean?  Or is
it just something we should be "thinking" about for the weeks following
this first project?
        Also, we have written a rough cover letter, and would like you to
take a look at it tomorrow (providing they don't close the school), and
give us some useful feedback as to where to go from there.
        Even further, over the course of the last few weeks, we have lost
a few members of our group.  We are down to three (maybe, MAYBE four)  
people.  That limits the amount we can cover, and still have a cohesive  
class proposal (i.e., one that covers all the bases).  Suggestions??


Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 07:03:09 -0800 (PST) 
From: Economic Geography  
To:  Group ?5?
Subject: Re: Proposal Question

Loosing team members is a fact of daily life. You and I have to remain 
flexible. You may want to identify the topics of the lost souls to cover 
the inevitable gaps.

I think I suggested that these student research questions are added as an 
appendix and that they be annotated. I think I left it up to you whether
these questions are attached to your individual segements 
(concentrations) or are assembled as part of the joint effort.

We have some references on Reserve in OUGL (e.g. a book by Durrenberger
(ch.2?)) which cover the process by which research questions can be
identified. Often, these questions become "hypotheses" which express what
the researcher expects to find in a particular context on the basis of
prior research of other contexts and deductive logic. Without being
able to go into detail here, I would suggest that a poor question would be
one which strictly asks for raw facts (which can readily be collected),
such as whether and to what extent car imports from Mexico have increased
after the signing of the NAFTA agreements. Much better would be one
which would ask which states would be affected most by NAFTA, a question
which could be partially answered by your deductive suggestion that at
least part of the impact on states would depend on the state's industrial
structure (composition) and (maybe) distance and transport costs. 

If you list a couple of student research questions associated with your 
concentration, you cannot go into much detail, but you can add a sentence 
or so justifying your question and suggesting why (or under what 
conditions) you might expect a certain (type of) answer. Clearly, if you 
can answer the question already, you do not need further research.
However, partial or conditional answers help you to narrow down the 
question, zero in on what really has to be researched empirically and 
thereby improve your research. 
					G.K.




Date: Sun, 28 Jan 1996 11:33:13 -0800 (PST)
From: Economic Geography 
Subject: 207 News: Lab, Remote Option, Joint Project, etc.

E-Greetings!

1. Lab On Monday
----------------
	When you come to the Lab on Monday, try to select one of four 
options right at the beginning (you may change later), i.e. join
	(a) the group for Q&A related to class content (in Back-Room)
	(b) the group for Q&A related to class PROJECT (in Back-Room)
	(c) group working (by yourself or with other members of your 
	    proposal-group) on your proposals (in front of computers or 
	    elsewhere)
	(d) group starting (optional) home pages or working on existing
		 home pages	(in front of computers)

2. Remote Space Cadets:
-----------------------
	Those of you who by design or default (or due to snow) are not at
the Monday Lab Session are encouraged to make use of the above 4
opportunities by remote means (by E-Mail and your own Home Pages). 

	If you do not have any questions, have already established your own
Home Page (to facilitate your Remote Learning) and are in close contact
with your proposal group: Please send in a message to  stating
that you do NOT have questions and everything is running smoothly (This
statement is required for ALL permanent or occasional Monday-Remotees 
(due by Tuesday 11:30 for full credit)

	We still do not have the completed two Lab forms ("Skill-Checks")
from all (remote or Lab) students. These forms remain due and required!!! 
(by hard-copy or E-mail). See (or e-mail) Carlos if you have any questions.


3. Other Experiences (Bonus)
----------------------------
	There are Bonus points to be had for brief written contributions 
to this Newsletter. Tell the class about your Service Learning or 
Internship experience or about anything else which you feel is relevant 
and interesting to the rest of us (interesting web sites, electronic hints,
opportunities on and off campus, reference to  newspaper articles etc.) 
Send your contribution by E-mail with an explicit statement that you 
permit us to distribute it to the class as a whole. 


4. Joint Proposal Project
-------------------------
(a) We strongly encourage you to exchange within your group your
pre-proposals or drafts of your concentration efforts and/or your
contributions to the final letter etc. by electronic mail (or hard-copy)
and thereby not only facilitate the joint effort but, at the same time,
also gain experience with one or more electronic interfaces (e.g. from
word-processing to E-mail)

(b) Those of you who insist on going alone on this "Joint Proposal" may
want to avoid missing out on all of the points for the explicit
"collaboration" component of this Joint Proposal. You may gain at least
partial credit by adding an extra page in which you do not suggest why
this new course of yours is important (you will be doing that already in
your letter to the departmental chair), but (since your course is unlikely
to be implemented because you are the only one who wants it) suggest ways
in which your areas of interest could be incorporated into two or three of
the courses suggested by other groups (For example, if you are interested
in gender issues, make suggestions as to how a male or female perspective
would be a useful addition to some other specific classes). 

(c) You noticed that we did not return your Pre-Proposal. We 
intentionally want to have copies here for being able to respond when you 
have questions (Our time and departmental xerox budget do not permit 
unlimited copying). This will also apply to the Proposal due this week.
Thus, if you want to have your part of a proposal returned before the 
end of the quarter, you need to submit an extra copy (separately from the 
joint proposal)!


5. Office Hours 
---------------
Carlos, Ryan and I (I cannot speak for Anne) are frequently quite lonely 
during our office hours. Try to do something about that.

						Have a good (5th) week!

								G.K.

January 22, 1996
* Carlos and I have decided that all Project-Related Assignments will not be returned until the end of the quarter. Instead, these assignments will be available to us when we send you comments by E-mail or when you ask questions or drop by for appointments. We will staple all of these assignments together and they will represent the cumulative record of your efforts during the quarter.

* We again have to appeal to your sense of "peer community". Please, whenever you detect that a student in your group does not understand the basic requirements for this class or has not consulted the 207 Pages, send this student to us or somehow try to [that's all we can do] make sure that this individual receives needed help. Thanks.

Date: Sun, 21 Jan 1996 09:21:46 -0800 (PST)
From: Economic Geography 
Subject: Geog207 Monday Lab: Here and There (Remote), Home Pages

Cyber Greetings!

	Another week is dawning and with it (finally again!) our Monday 
Lab Session:

	Our emphasis will be on using a variety of "Resource Search 
Intermediaries" (i.e. Library Reference/Data Bases and Internet "Search 
Engines") for expanding the information base for our themes and 
concentrations. We will again use a "lab sheet" to guide us along, and
I encourage you to work with "like-minded" friends or members of your group 
during this lab-time. We (Carlos, Anne [our expert reference librarian] 
and I) will stand by and try to help (and learn ourselves!). 

	We have been encouraged to encourage you to come before 11:30 to
use the Lab since it is not used for any other class before our two sessions.
(However, I understand that that is not a good time for most of you; but 
as you know there are other times to use the Lab!)

	Remotees: Those of you who by design or choice will not be
present, will have to fill out the lab sheet (it will be electronically
attached to the Week 4 Agenda by Monday 11am at the latest) and to send it
back by Tuesday night. I expect that (as "remotees") YOU WILL ADD a
paragraph each on your experience with

(a) comparing two UWIN-based reference systems (one of which should be 
the "Expanded Academic Index") 

(b) comparing two Internet search engines (one of which should be "Alta 
Vista") 
	as to their usefulness for your Group Theme and/or Concentration 
research (i.e. how successful have you been expanding your information 
base using these information intermediaries?). 


Three more Items:  Location Quotients and Home Pages and Feedback
-----------------------------------------------------------------
(a) The Location Quotient Exercise (scheduled on the Calendar for this 
week) has been postponed due to the perceived need to deal with resource 
searches first.

(b) Those of you who feel that there is a "Home Page" or "Project Page" in 
your 207-Life, take note: You may want to start with:
	(1) consult our "Electronic Survival Guide" as to appropriate steps
	(2) open your account in "Saul" and then "Weber"
		(similar to starting a "Homer" account)
	(3) find out what HTML stands for ("Have the Time of My Life"?)
	(4) clip the article in the Seattle Times from this morning 
(Sunday Jan 21, p.I 1, in the Personal Technology Section) "Build a Web 
Page", especially the second page (I 3) and try one or two of those
"Help" sites listed there. 

(c) While you will be given an opportunity to share your frustrations 
with us at the end of the quarter, NOW is the time to do something about 
them. We are interested in your learning process and, particularly, in your
suggestions as to what we can do to help... including suggestions related to
improvements in the 207 page system, survival guides etc.
	This is YOUR class much more so than ours! Make it YOURS if you have 
not done so yet. Just send us your E-mail.... and then wait what happens... 
(and complain if nothing happens!).

				See you on Monday (in the flesh or virtually)

								G.K.

"Watch this Space Race": This is the title of a Business Week article (January 22, p.44) on vacant office space. Not knowing yet how many of you are interested in urban real estate, but having made the connection to urban land use pressures and competition in class yesterday, here are some interesting facts (numbers):

• BEST
  1. Seattle 7.1%
  2. Boston 8.6%
  3. San Francisco 9.9%
  4. Minneapolis 10.1%
  5. Washington (the other Washington) 10.6%

• WORST
  1. Dallas 35.3%
  2. Houston 25.4%
  3. Detroit 25.1%
  4. Baltimore 23.4%
  5. Los Angeles 23.2%

* * The OUGL Lab will be available for Geog.207 related work during selected times other than our formal weekly Lab Hour. Inquire for details.

Date: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 20:13:37 -0800 (PST)
From: Gunter Krumme 
Subject: Re: GEOG 207