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Spatially-explicit land cover land use change (LCLUC) models are becoming increasingly useful tools for historians and archaeologists. Such kinds of models have been developed and used by geographers, ecologists and land managers over the last few decades to carry out prospective scenarios. In this paper, we review historical models to compare them with prospective models, with the assumption that the ample experience gained in the development of models of prospective simulation can benefit the development of models having as their objective the simulation of changes that happened in the past. The review is divided into three sections: in the first section, we explain the functioning of contemporary LCLUC models; in the second section, we analyze historical LCLUC models; in the third section, we compare the former two types of models, and finally, we discuss the contributions to historical LCLUC models of contemporary LCLUC models.

Henri Lefebvre's intricate material-dialectical approach to the nature-society problematic, taken together with his advocacy of a praxis oriented to total transformation from the ground up through autogestion, offers a unified, critical, and dialectical approach to political ecology. Unfortunately, his work in these areas has too often been interpreted as divided and fragmentary, splitting his radical analysis of the production of space-time from his critical praxis related to autogestion. We offer a corrective to this by elaborating briefly on his use of Marx's material-dialectical approach, outlining how Lefebvre brings this method to bear on the nature-society problematic, and how his theorization of autogestion points to a radical praxis aimed at overcoming the social-ecological contradictions of capital. His engagement with Marx's theory of metabolic rift, and his advocacy of a radical project of autogestion as part of the critique of everyday life, serve to place the underlying issue of alienation in spatial terms, offering geography a transformative perspective that avoids positing closed systems and attempting to exhaust the various meanings assigned to nature. In this, Lefebvre demonstrates how the nature-society problematic overflows issues of ontological framing and language, calling for a unity of radical theory and practice to overcome the separations.

pp. 110 y 111: Pobladores de La Barca, comunidad na'savi de Cochoapa el Grande conmemoran cinco años de la fundación del pueblo, construido después de un sismo que destruyó sus viviendas. Como otras comunidades guerrerenses de La Montaña, su vida cotidiana transcurre entre la migración, el desempleo y la carencia de servicios básicos. Foto: Prometeo Lucero, abril de 2010.Este artículo expone un caso de desposesión territorial, destrucción del paisaje y dominación política de comunidades campesinas mexicanas protagonizado por la corporación canadiense Goldcorp en su afán por apropiarse de los minerales subyacentes mediante la brutal minería de tajo a cielo abierto. Se muestra cómo la corporación, con apoyo de agencias del Estado mexicano, establece vínculos de dominación sobre las comunidades locales fundados en el principio de "reciprocidad negativa", definida como "la intención de tomar impunemente algo sin dar nada a cambio". Esta práctica política de coerción otorga los beneficios a la corporación y transfiere impunemente los costos sociales y ambientales a las comunidades.Palabras clave: minería a cielo abierto, corporación minera, acumulación por desposesión, comunidad campesina, Goldcorp

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In this paper we analyze major research concerning the landscape concept in Mexico on the basis of a meta-analysis approach. Landscape is a polysemic concept, and may embrace different meanings depending on the academic arena in which it has been used, whether the social sciences or the natural sciences. Thus some confusion may have arisen concerning its proper use. This paper also contributes to a somewhat neglected area of Mexican geography: the theoretical reflection of our academic practice. The paper encompasses three sections, each with a historical contextualization, for what we consider to be the three major approaches to landscape analysis: the biophysical, the socio-cultural and the integrated.

En este artículo se analizan patrones clave de la investigación actual en geografía, en su vinculación con la cuestión ambiental. La pregunta básica es acerca de la presencia institucional de un campo que se presume como emergente: la geografía ambiental. También se revisan conceptos básicos de la geografía y su relación histórica con la noción de ambiente, así como temas de la práctica académica vinculada. Se examinan los orígenes y desarrollo de la geografía ambiental, con base en una revisión bibliográfica, historiográfica y en páginas electrónicas. Concluye con comentarios sobre la contribución de la geografía a la cuestión ambiental, con énfasis en México.