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Delta's Sky magazine claims to be an influential outlet for entities trying to promote places to investors and tourists. Claiming nearly 6 million readers monthly, the magazine's profiles of cities, states and regions have the potential to reach the niche audiences that shape the spatial practices of firms and influence individual decisions on tourism expenditures. This paper explores how Sky promotes places in the text of these profiles through the dual use of digital humanities tools and close reading-based interpretation to address the following questions. First, we ask how is the South represented in the Sky profiles? Second, what themes are present in the profile texts, given that all places seek to address both unique elements while addressing common themes of importance to business? We find that place promotion practitioners use very similar themes that have been identified in the literature since the 1980s, primarily accessibility. Efforts to attract the creative class are also present in the Sky profiles. The South poses unique challenges to place marketers, and our findings show a convergence in how profiles tackle the concept of southern culture and identity as it is leveraged in many of the profiles. La revista Sky de Delta Airlines afirma ser una fuente importante para las entidades que intentan promover varios lugares para la inversión económica y también para el turismo. Con más de seis millones de lectores mensuales, los perfiles Sky de las ciudades, los estados y las regiones tienen el potencial de llegar a audiencias específicas que dan forma a las prácticas espaciales de empresas e influyen las decisiones personales sobre los gastos en el turismo. Este artículo explora cómo el texto de Sky promueve varios lugares tras el uso dual de herramientas de humanidades digitales y una interpretación cercana basada en la lectura para abordar las siguientes preguntas. Primero preguntamos ¿cómo se representa el sur estadounidense en los perfiles Sky ? Segundo, ¿cuáles son los patrones en el texto de los perfiles, dado que todo lugar trata de presentarse como único pero también importante para el negocio? Encontramos que profesionales de la promoción usan temas similares que se han identificado en la literatura desde los años 1980—sobre todo la accesibilidad. Los esfuerzos para atraer la clase creativa también se presentan en los perfiles Sky. El sur estadounidense plantea desafíos únicos para el marketing. Nuestros hallazgos muestran una convergencia en la forma en que muchos de los perfiles abordan el concepto de cultura e identidad del sur estadounidense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite rapid population growth, parts of the southern United States often lag the nation in measures of productivity, wages, and wealth. This paper revisits Glasmeier and Leichenko's 1996 evaluation of Southern economic readiness for the global era in order to assess the region's contemporary adaptation to the global economy. Moreover, it explores the geographies of economic evolution within the South by measuring relative changes in population, productivity, poverty, education, and foreign direct investment. With the exception of population growth and high school graduation rates, these analyses suggest that the region has regressed relative to the nation in many measures. The findings intimate that this economic decline could be tied to region-wide policy regimes that are reliant on maintaining low wages and present a structural obstacle to economic evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural significance of college football is nowhere more pronounced than in the Southern United States where football assumes the characteristics of a civil religion in the sense of Rousseau (1762), as social cement, a means of organizing the state. The enormity of college football transpires a ritual expression of Southern pride and patriotism evolving from victories against college football teams on the national stage of athletics. The purpose of this study is to show the power of Southern football and portray its geographic dominance through an Index of Dominance (IOD). IOD identifies the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and its powerhouse teams as the strongest program in percentage wins and percentage margin of victory. The other conferences of the Bowl Championship Series rank below the SEC. Calculation of IOD assists in delineating a Pigskin Power Region comprising the Heart of Dixie and Louisiana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]