Browsing by Subject "Economic geography"
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Item Exploring location patterns of gasoline stations on Virginia’s Eastern Shore: Field logistics and lessons learned(Material Culture Review, 2014) Macpherson, Bradley M; de Socio, MarkItem Gasoline station morphology on Virginia’s Eastern Shore(Southeastern Geographer, 2013) Macpherson, Bradley M; de Socio, MarkGasoline stations are a ubiquitous component of the modern built environment. Gasoline stations are largely included within people’s daily spatial routines given the nature of modern transportation, particularly in mobile societies like the United States, and represent a material infrastructure that underlies and facilitates daily economic activities. As such, gasoline stations are generally relegated to the background of contemporary cultural landscapes because the action of obtaining gasoline for one’s vehicle has become such a routine and mundane activity that it is hardly given any forethought. Yet, the changing form and function of gasoline stations (hence the term ‘‘morphology’’) along with changing technologies in transportation and transportation infrastructure has rendered many gasoline stations obsolete. Utilizing nearest neighbor analysis, this paper identifies and documents changing spatial patterns and functions of gasoline station locations throughout Virginia’s Eastern Shore by decade and documents changing cultural and economic uses of recycled gasoline stations.Item Universities and hospitals as agents of economic stability and growth in small cities: A comparative analysis(The Industrial Geographer, 2014) Parrillo, Adam J; de Socio, MarkInstitutions of higher education and health care (‘Eds and Meds’) have become increasingly recognized as stable centers of employment and important contributors to urban economic development. Existing research into the contributions of Eds and Meds on regional economies focus primarily on large research-based universities and health care facilities based in larger cities. These institutions and the cities in which they are based offer significant resources like access to global streams of financial and intellectual capital. In contrast, smaller teaching-based institutions of higher education and service-oriented health care facilities are largely overlooked, presumably because a lack of significant research monies would mean limited impacts in the regional economy. However, any cursory look at the economic base of various smaller cities and regional centers in the U.S. would indicate that the stature of non-research health care and higher education institutions are likewise growing in importance for regional economies. The purpose of this paper is to trace the rise of health care and higher education as agents of economic stability and growth, and their spatial impacts on urban land use, in two smaller regional centers, namely Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Salisbury, Maryland – two cities with different cultural and economic histories whose economic trajectories nevertheless are converging in which Eds and Meds play an increasingly prominent role.