bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Ignoring a Level in a Multilevel Model: Evidence from UK Census Data
Authors: Tranmer Mark , Steel David G
Published: August 2002

Because of the inherent multilevel nature of census data, it is often appropriate to use multilevel models to investigate relationships between census variables. For a local population, the data available from the census allow a three-level nested model to be assumed, with an individual level (level 1), an enumeration district (ED) level (level 2), and a ward level (level 3). The consequences of ignoring one of the three levels in this model are assessed here theoretically. Empirical results, based on 1991 UK Census data, are also provided, comparing the variance components estimated from the three-level model with analyses based on models where the ED or ward level are ignored. The results show how the variation that occurs at the level not included in the models is redistributed to the other levels that the models do include.
The Impact of ‘Branchless Banking’ on Building Society Branch Networks
Authors: Willis Richard , Marshall J Neill , Richardson Ranald
Published: August 2002

The authors examine the impact of the remote delivery of financial services on the branch network of British building societies. The current phase of branch-network rationalisation in the financial sector in Europe and North America is argued in the academic literature to be the inevitable consequence of the growth of electronic and telemediated forms of delivery of financial services. In the British building society sector, despite some evidence of branch closure as the use of the Internet and telephone call centres in the delivery of financial services has grown, the picture that emerges is of a dynamic branch network that is responding to changing customer demands and new technological possibilities. Face-to-face advice and discussions between customers and trained ‘experts’ remain an important part of the mortgage transaction. In the savings market, where products have become more commodified, telephone call centres and, more recently, the Internet have become more prominent, but institutions still rely heavily on the branch network to deliver services. The authors suggest that, although there have been changes in the relative importance of different distribution channels as sources of business in the financial sector, it is wrong to view these changes in terms of a simple branch-versus-direct dichotomy. A more complex picture is presented, with most institutions adopting a multichannel approach to the delivery of financial services, and electronic forms of delivery of financial services being developed as an additional delivery channel alongside the branch.
Having Arrived, Time to Move on: Coupland's Brentwood as an Experiment with Space and Time
Authors: Hamers David
Published: August 2002

In “Brentwood Notebook” the Canadian author Douglas Coupland depicts Brentwood, an affluent community on the outskirts of Los Angeles, as a place that in many ways hardly deserves our attention, but that for some of its characteristics may nevertheless serve as a symbol of our hypermodern Western society at the close of the 20th century. Coupland's essay can be interpreted as a challenging experiment with time and space. His Brentwood has various faces and they are evoked in a text that relies on a number of creative and disciplinary traditions, including cultural philosophy, social and cultural geography, new journalism, and literature. His representation of Brentwood is not only based on his personal observations, but it is also informed by three powerful cultural myths, involving notions generally associated with utopia, dystopia, and the ideal of upper class suburban life. If we are to grasp the meaning of the “Brentwood Notebook” properly, we should focus on what the text reveals about this California community and especially on how it conveys the author's understanding of that place. A close reading suggests that the tension between presence and absence, between the visible and the hidden, as well as between progress, stasis, and decay characterizes Brentwood in particular.
Dying Epistemologies: An Analysis of Home Death and its Critique
Authors: Brown Michael , Colton Travis
Published: August 2002

Within the debate between medical and health geographers there are often calls for methodological and philosophical conciliation. The purpose of this paper is to detail some of the epistemological difficulties in ever achieving that aim. We do so by offering a foundational scientific analysis of home death in Washington State, and then turning to a postmedical deconstruction of that scholarship within the space of a single paper. Although the result is a reflexive self-critical paper on how we know the geography of home death, it is by no means a resolution of the debate. A key epistemological impasse is identified between the foundationalism in our quantitative analysis and our poststructural critique. This impasse leads to different and irreconcilable aims between the two halves of the paper. In our reflections we stress the need to recognize explicitly this epistemological irreconcilability in order to temper the promise of an easy solution to the debate between medical and health geography. We nevertheless suggest that scholarly, ethical, and political insights can be gained from this project.
‘Configuring New Tourism Space’: Exploring Singapore's Regional Tourism Forays
Authors: Chang T C
Published: August 2002

The concept of ‘regional tourism’ has gained salience in Asia since the 1990s. The traditional practice of single-country tourism development is increasingly complemented by cross-border collaborations in planning and promotion. Through these transnational practices, new tourism spaces are being configured with region-states emerging alongside nation-states. In this paper I explore the concept of Asian regional tourism from the perspective of Singapore. As a city-state with scarce land resources, Singapore has turned to regionalism (or ‘regionalisation’) to overcome its spatial constraints, and to stimulate its tourism industry. I have two main aims in this paper. Conceptually, I argue that regional tourism takes a number of distinct spatial configurations, as exemplified by the case of Singapore. Empirically, I reveal that tourism regionalisation brings manifold opportunities to a small country like Singapore, but that it also generates many challenges hitherto never experienced. Political sensitivites within Asia, incompatible working styles between societies, and cultural differences emerge when countries interact with each other.
Manipulative Features of Planning Styles
Authors: Sager Tore
Published: August 2002

This paper identifies features of well-known planning modes affecting the likelihood of manipulation. Results from social choice theory and the economic theory of organisation help to explain why certain combinations of planning styles and organisational characteristics stimulate or hamper manipulation. Although the planning process can be rigged in many ways, false revelation of preferences and strategic agenda formation are primarily studied here. When each decisionmaker can rank the alternatives any way he or she wants, the Gibbard–Satterthwaite theorem states that manipulation-free procedures for making recommendations do not exist unless cyclical decisions or high concentrations of power are accepted. In general, a low probability of cyclical recommendations and a strong organisational bias favouring certain interests and alternatives reduce the likelihood of successful manipulation. It is argued that these conditions are present particularly in advocacy planning and—perhaps counterintuitively—to some extent in disjointed incrementalism.
Ownership Constraints to Brownfield Redevelopment
Authors: Adams David , Disberry Alan , Hutchison Norman , Munjoma Thomas
Published: August 2002

The authors examine the nature and significance of ownership constraints within the urban redevelopment process. They suggest that such constraints derive from the distinctiveness of land as a commodity, the imperfect nature of the land market, the behavioural characteristics of landowners, and the institutional context for land ownership, exchange, and development. From this, they propose a common definition of ownership constraints as a basis for their practical classification. This divides ownership constraints between those that concern deficiencies in, or limitations to, the extent of ownership rights in potential development land and those that relate specifically to the strategies, interests, and actions of those who hold such rights. The various types of ownership constraints that fall under these headings are then explored, with research presented into the extent to which they each disrupted plans to use, market, develop, or purchase eighty large redevelopment sites in four British cities between 1991 and 1995.
Labour's New Trunk-Roads Policy for England: An Emerging Pragmatic Multimodalism?
Authors: Shaw Jon , Walton William
Published: August 2002

In 1998 the UK government introduced a new, integrated transport policy signalling a move away from the principles of ‘predict and provide’ towards ‘new realism’. Labour's approach involved promoting a reduction in car use through (among other things) seeking to improve public transport provision and, in line with the trend which had begun in 1994, scaling down the national trunk-road building programme. But despite claiming that building new roads to resolve traffic problems would generally be a measure of the last resort, Labour's most recent statement of transport policy, Transport 2010: The 10-Year Plan, makes provisions for a large programme of trunk-road construction against a background of continued traffic growth. In this paper we compare the scale of trunk-road completions achieved by the generally pro-road Conservative governments of 1979–97 against those anticipated in Labour's 2000–10 plans. We suggest that the annual level of trunk-road completions in England over the next decade will in fact be little different from that achieved by the Conservatives. At a broader scale, we identify the emergence of a new paradigm in transport policy which we call ‘pragmatic multimodalism’.
A Conceptual Framework for Understanding and Analysing Attitudes towards Household-Waste Management
Authors: Barr Stewart , Gilg Andrew W , Ford Nicholas J
Published: August 2002

The disposal of household waste has become a major problem for all industrialised countries. Public policy has focused on changing household attitudes by information campaigns. However, the link between environmental attitudes and actions is a very complex one. The authors develop a conceptual framework with three predictors: environmental values, situational variables, and psychological variables. This framework can be used to formulate both questionnaire design and data analysis. The paper demonstrates its utility with a report on recent research that has used the framework to provide important new findings about different attitudes and actions to waste minimisation, waste reuse, and waste recycling. These findings have clear implications for public policy as well as lending considerable empirical support to the original conceptualisation offered by the
Constructing a New Understanding of the Environment under Postsocialism
Authors: Herrschel Tassilo , Forsyth Timothy
Published: August 2002

This paper introduces a special grouping of papers on the theme of the environment and postsocialism. After the collapse of state socialism in Europe between 1989 and 1991, many immediate approaches to environmental reconstruction assumed that economic liberalisation and democratisation would alleviate problems. Since then, critics have argued that these proposed solutions were themselves problematic, and too closely reflected Western European and North American conceptions of environmental quality and democracy. The result has been a counterreaction focusing on detail and specificity at national levels and below. In this paper, we summarise debates about the environment and postsocialism since the period 1989–91. In particular, we examine whether an essentialistic link can be made between state socialism and environmental problems, and how far civil society—or environmentalism—may result in an improvement in perceived environmental quality. Finally, we consider the possibility for developing an approach to the environment and postsocialism that lies between crude generalisation and microscale studies.
Politics in Global Cities: Los Angeles Charter Reform and the New Social Movements
Authors: Purcell Mark
Published: August 2002

In this paper I analyze the recently completed struggle to rewrite the city charter of Los Angeles. I read charter reform in the context of an emergent literature on politics in global cities. That literature emphasizes the rising importance in global city politics of new social movements among marginalized populations. It argues that the new movements are increasingly playing a central role in global city politics. In the struggle over charter reform in Los Angeles, however, such movements were conspicuously absent. This finding does not invalidate the literature on new movements in global city politics, but it does point to the need for more detailed research into just what role such movements will play in global city politics. In particular, the case suggests that both formal political structures and electoral politics remain significant features of global city politics. If the new social movements are to have a lasting and transforming impact on global city politics, part of their project will have to engage such formal politics. In this paper I demonstrate the need for more research that investigates how and why new social movements engage the local state and electoral politics.
Downsizing Nature: Managing Risk and Knowledge Economies through Production Subcontracting in the Oregon Logging Sector
Authors: Prudham W Scott
Published: August 2002

The logging sector in Oregon is characterized by extensive subcontracting between wood-commodity manufacturing firms and independent logging contractors. Why is this so? Considerable recent scholarship has examined the dynamics of flexible production systems, including regional contractor networks, as prominent aspects of late capitalism. Although useful, existing accounts of flexibility are inadequate to explain why logging in particular would be subject to contract production relations. A second literature emphasizes the ‘difference’ of nature-centered sectors, particularly industrial agriculture. I argue that a similar logic applies to logging. That is, natural sources to unpredictable variation and extensive, inconstant geographies restrict the predictability and calculability of production, and the imposition of labor monitoring and discipline. Contracts are a strategy for firms to displace resulting risks and costs onto contractors, while at the same time inducing expert-based rationalization of production. Repeat contracting provides a means of capturing expert knowledge among reliable contractors with knowledge of the parent firm's lands and mills. This is a particularly appealing strategy for vertically and horizontally integrated firms with complex operational portfolios. However, though contracting is one flexibility strategy, Weyerhaeuser's Competitive Logging Program featuring restructured wage relations provides an alternative path to more flexible production, one that further illuminates some of the problems of nature-based production.
Organisational and Spatial Determinants of ICT Adoption: The Case of French Industrial Firms
Authors: Galliano Danielle , Roux Pascale , Filippi Maryline
Published: August 2002

The influence of the diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICT) on the organisation and location of firms has been the subject of an important debate in economic literature. In contrast we focus in this paper on the effects of the organisational and spatial structures and behaviours of firms on ICT adoption. These effects are tested by means of an original data set of approximately 5000 French industrial firms, which enables us to combine the different components of the firms' internal and external modes of organisation and their relations to territories, notably by taking into account the diversity of their spatial environments (urban, periurban, or rural areas). Beyond the traditional structural determinants, results confirm that organisational factors play a significant part in ICT adoption. Among these factors, the internal and external modes of coordination of firms and the codification of knowledge, practices, and relations considerably influence the adoption of ICT. Results also confirm the importance of spatial factors such as the type of areas where firms are located, and more generally the importance of the firms' spatial structure. These results theoretically emphasise the need to depart from a vision of the firm as a single-unit entity. Empirically they suggest that ICT do not only enable the firm to manage problems of distance or of proximity, but also to manage new organisational modes in space.
From State to Market?: Water Mercantilización in Spain
Authors: Bakker Karen
Published: August 2002

Many governments have recently initiated a process of water sector mercantilización—the introduction of markets or market-simulating decisionmaking techniques, and the participation of private companies and private capital in water management. This paper presents a case study of the mercantilización of water resources in Spain. State-led development of water resources was a key element of Spain's modernisation drive in the mid-20th century, intended to redress not only the high degree of temporal and spatial variation in water availability, but also to underpin the agricultural colonisation of the country's arid interior. Water-resources development, pricing, and allocation remained, with few exceptions, the preserve of the state. In 1999 the government reformed the national Water Law, introducing both water markets and water banks; this in addition to earlier reforms enabling the participation of private companies and private capital in water-resources development. The case study, situating the evolution of water policy within an analysis of key macro political – economic trends (in particular, Spain's transition to democracy and EU-mandated economic convergence) and the country's contested hydropolitics, is employed as a means of elaborating a more general political ecological – economic understanding of the mercantilización of water.
Relocating Regulation in Montana's Gold Mining Industry
Authors: Krueger Rob
Published: August 2002

In this paper I seek to make a preliminary link between the discursive representation of the ‘environment’ and the regulation of economic activity. The contemporary Montana gold mining industry belies accounts that economic regulation can be situated purely in concepts of structures and institutions. In the 1990s, the Montana gold mining industry was fundamentally transformed in the absence of concomitant changes in the economic structure of the industry or in the institutions of regulation. Indeed, the changes in the efficacy of the Montana gold mining economy can only be explicated by adding a discursive account of regulation. In particular, I link a regulationist account of reregulation with the post-structural sensibilities found in cultural economic geography. This analysis, which focuses on how nature is represented in the mine-permitting process, illustrates that how we perceive ‘environment’ in particular places and times can influence access to resources and their subsequent physical transformation.
The Role of Geographic Location in the Financial and Innovation Performance of Publicly Traded Pharmaceutical Companies: Empirical Evidence from the Untied States
Authors: Boasson Vigdis , MacPherson Alan
Published: August 2002

In this paper we examine the role of geographic location in the financial and innovation performance of publicly traded companies in the US pharmaceutical industry. Regional production clusters are identified and mapped. Particular attention is given to Porter's work on competitive advantage (the diamond paradigm) (Porter, 1990 The Competitive Advantage of Nations). Several metrics of business performance at the company level are collated with local factor conditions, the relative presence of related or supporting industries, and the degree of interfirm rivalry within production clusters (among other things). Our main hypothesis is that company performance responds positively to the location-specific assets identified by Porter. We explore this hypothesis using a series of t-tests and regression models based on secondary data. The empirical results lend partial support to Porter's model. Specifically, the data show that companies located within major clusters exhibit stronger financial performance than their counterparts located elsewhere. Cluster membership is also found to play a positive role in product innovation (as measured by patent counts). Overall, the data show that different metrics of company performance are influenced by different combinations of strategic and locational variables.
An Approach for Measuring Urban Deprivation Change: The Example of East Montréal and the Montréal Urban Community, 1986 – 96
Authors: Kitchen Peter
Published: August 2002

The concept of urban deprivation has emerged as an important theme in urban geography and urban studies. In light of the significant problems and issues affecting cities in North America and Europe there is a growing need for researchers to acquire a better understanding of the process of urban social change. In this paper the author proposes a model of urban deprivation change and applies it with the use of census indicators to East Montréal, a section of the central city, and the Montréal Urban Community. The changing spatial structure and nature of urban deprivation is examined at the neighbourhood level in this study area over the period 1986 – 96. The author finds that urban deprivation is largely an economic problem, with declining conditions apparent throughout a large part of Montréal's central city and in several inner-suburban municipalities. The model, selection of indicators, and statistical techniques presented in this paper can be used as a guide for further research into urban deprivation change in other urban centres.
Visioning in Planning: Is the Practice Based on Sound Theory?
Authors: Shipley Robert
Published: August 2002

Visioning became widely used in the planning process during the 1980s and 90s. In its simplest form it is the notion of creating images of the future to serve as goals or guides for planning decisions. For many people the idea of visioning became synonymous with or closely linked to public participation. While hundreds of communities have undertaken visioning, there has been little or no examination of the theoretical underpinnings of the practice. Practitioners of the technique, whether consultants or municipal planners, seem to have worked largely from a set of tacit assumptions about the usefulness of the practice. This study examines literature from various disciplines, refers to planning documents and reports on interviews and questionnaires in order to articulate the underlying assumptions or theory-like statements about visioning and then to measure those assertions against existing research. The resulting analysis shows that while there is a basis to support some of the assumptions about visioning there are also profound weaknesses in parts of the underlying theory. The paper is intended to help both advocates and critics of visioning, as well as those with a more general interest in planning, to better understand and assess visioning and other techniques that enter the professional lexicon.
Justice and the Spatial Imagination
Authors: Dikeç Mustafa
Published: August 2002

I attempt in this paper to conceptualize a notion of spatial justice in order to point to the dialectical relationship between (in)justice and spatiality, and to the role that spatialization plays in the production and reproduction of domination and repression. I argue that the city provides a productive ground for the formation of a spatially informed ethics of political solidarity against domination and repression. A ‘triad’ is articulated to inform such politics, which brings together three notions: the spatial dialectics of injustice, the right to the city, and the right to difference. The notion of spatial justice is employed as a theoretical underpinning to avoid abusive interpretations of Lefebvrian rights in a liberal framework of individual rights. The case of French urban policy is used for illustrative purposes. Finally, the notion of égaliberté is introduced as a moral ground on which the triad may be defended.
The Ecology of Technological Risk in a Sunbelt City
Authors: Bolin Bob , Nelson Amy , Hackett Edward J , Pijawka K David , Smith C Scott , Sicotte Diane , Sadalla Edward K , Matranga Eric , O'Donnell Maureen
Published: August 2002

In this paper we examine the spatial distributions of four types of technological hazards in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area. The focus is on the locations of hazardous industrial and toxic waste sites in relation to the demographic composition of adjacent neighborhoods. Our interest is to determine whether hazardous sites, including industrial facilities in the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory, Large Quantity Generators of hazardous wastes, Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facilities, and federally identified contamination sites, are disproportionately located in areas with lower income and minority residents. We examine patterns of environmental inequity in Phoenix, a sprawling Sunbelt city with a growing post-Fordist industrial sector. First, using 1996 EPA data for four types of technological hazards, and 1995 Special Census data for Maricopa County, we employ a GIS to map the spatial distributions of hazardous sites and to analyze the demographic characteristics of census tracts with and without point-source hazards. A second methodology is used to produce a cumulative hazard density index for census tracts, based on the number of hazard zones—one-mile-radius circles around each facility—that overlay each tract. Both methodologies disclose clear patterns of social inequities in the distribution of technological hazards. The cumulative hazard density index provides a spatially sensitive methodology that reveals the disproportionate distribution of risk burdens in urban census tracts. The findings point to a consistent pattern of environmental injustice by class and race across a range of technological hazards in the Phoenix metropolitan region.
On an Alternative Framework for Building Virtual Cities: Supporting Urban Contextual Modelling on Demand
Authors: Peng Chengzhi , Chang David C , Jones Peter Blundell , Lawson Bryan
Published: August 2002

For various purposes, virtual city applications have been developed around the globe to provide users with online resources and services over the Internet. Following our research on the Sheffield Urban Contextual Databank (SUCoD) project, this paper presents an alternative framework for building virtual cities, which goes beyond conventional static urban modelling. A three-tier system framework is described in conjunction with the design and implementation of the SUCoD prototype. We demonstrate SUCoD's novel functionalities by showing that complex urban contextual information sets, including three-dimensional interactive models, multilayer interactive maps, and hypermedia documents, can be retrieved dynamically by user-specified urban contextual attributes, spatial locations, and boundaries. The three-tier framework also facilitates system development in an extensible way, allowing continuous parallel extensions of system functionalities, user-interface components, and contextual data resources. SUCoD's dynamic capabilities are considered crucial in its future uses for urban contextual modelling on demand in relation to the past, present, and future of the City of Sheffield.
A Simplified Model of Urban Morphology: Application to an Analysis of the Environmental Performance of Cities
Authors: Adolphe Luc
Published: August 2002

The evidence for the influence of urban configuration on outdoor climate conditions, on the energy balance of buildings, and on diffusion of pollutants is quite conclusive. But the exact characterization of this complex link remains critical, especially because of the extreme morphological heterogeneity at a fine granularity level: the building and its close environment. In this approach I try to cope with this difficulty, by working at the district or city scale, by assimilating the urban fabric into a porous medium with a rigid solid skeleton, and by proposing a simple spatial model based on a set of original morphological indicators of environmental performance: density, rugosity, porosity, sinuosity, occlusivity, compacity, contiguity, solar admittance, and mineralization. This system of indicators has been embedded in a shell of development of GIS and applied to various urban fabrics. The possible applications of this model are diverse: simplified analysis of outdoor microclimate tendencies, sustained environmental evaluation of a neighborhood, interdistrict or intercity comparisons, or modelling of the climate effect on future urban amenities.
Analyzing Quality-of-Place
Authors: Andrews Clinton J
Published: August 2002

In this paper I assess the current state of knowledge about quality-of-place (QOP) analysis. I find that there are persistent problems in measuring QOP, highly personal links between individual QOP perceptions and aggregate QOP measurements, mostly unintended impacts of public policy decisions on QOP outcomes, and inadequate triangulation across model approximations and data limitations when building tools to support local decision-making. The analytical community should therefore acknowledge that people hold diverse preferences, increase efforts to detect and model the consequences of policies, look across levels of decision-making for influences on QOP, and build adaptive analytical capacity.
The Fractal Nature of the Everyday Environment
Authors: Crompton Andrew
Published: August 2002

If the size of a space is measured by counting the number of places available for a particular activity, rather than by using an absolute measure such as the square metre, then small people may find the world larger. Size measured by number of places becomes a function of the size of the user, and the form of this function suggests that the everyday environment has a fractal dimension, a single number which may be associated with architectural qualities. This measure was tested with an experiment based on children playing hide and seek and was used to explain some illusions of perception of size.
Supporting Imageability on the World Wide Web: Lynch's Five Elements of the City in Community Planning
Authors: Al-Kodmany Kheir
Published: August 2002

In this paper I examine the potential of the World Wide Web to augment traditional urban design methods and theories. Specifically, I describe how I used new web-based technologies in a university–community collaborative planning process to assist participants and planners in visualizing a community in Chicago. Lynch's five elements of city imageability (paths, nodes, edges, districts, and landmarks) provide the underlying structure for organizing visual representations of the community. The visual images include GIS maps, virtual reality, linear and nodal movies, and still and animated photographs. I explore web interface design, graphics, and cartography to communicate urban design. I argue that the web is an effective medium to visualize a community in an interactive, associative, realistic, and accessible way that is not available with traditional media. The web enables dynamic visualizations of urban design and architectural details that enhance participants' memories of the project's spatial context. I hope that the experiences described in this paper will assist others who want to utilize the web in community planning and design.
Nationalising Development Rights: The Feudal Origins of the British Planning System
Authors: Booth Philip
Published: August 2002

The planning system that was formalised in Britain in the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act is distinctive for the way in which it explicitly nationalised the rights to future development and distinguished between physical development and land-use change. Contingent causes for these characteristics can be found in the experience of planning in the first half of the 20th century which in turn was developed from sanitary legislation of the 19th century. There are, however, more fundamental reasons for the way in which the British planning system was constituted. In this paper I argue that the nationalisation of development rights and the separation of land use from building have their conceptual roots in medieval property law. As a colonial state in the period after the Norman Conquest, England saw the imposition of feudal law in its purest form. In such a system, owners of land were denied absolute rights to property of the kind available under Roman law and its derivatives. Legal theorists developed the doctrine of the estate which gave concrete existence to the limited rights of all those with an interest in a given parcel of land (those with tenure). Present and future rights to use could be distinguished. This conceptualising of property interest was to have profound consequences not only for property relations but also for the emerging planning system in the 20th century. It created a system which gave the state unprecedented control over changes to land, but which also had some significant disadvantages.
Urban Location and Transportation in the Information Age: A Multiclass, Multicriteria Network Equilibrium Perspective
Authors: Nagurney Anna , Dong June
Published: August 2002

In this paper we propose a multiclass, multicriteria network equilibrium framework for urban location and transportation decisions in the Information Age, in which the advent of telecommunication networks may provide a substitute for physical transportation. The framework interprets the option of telecommuting as a transportation mode choice and considers three distinct scenarios: (1) residential locations are known, as well as the number of residents, and one seeks to determine their places of work, along with their optimal routes of travel; (2) places of employment are given and the numbers employed are known, but one wishes to determine their residential locations and their optimal travel routes; and (3) the total number of individuals are given and one seeks to determine their residential locations, their employment locations, as well as their optimal routes of travel between. We allow each class of decisionmaker to have his or her own set of criteria associated with the route and locational decisions. We identify the underlying network structures of the problems, derive the governing equilibrium conditions, and establish the equivalent variational inequality formulations. We provide qualitative properties and propose a computational procedure along with convergence results. We then apply the algorithm to a numerical example and its variants.
Policy, Plan, and Programme Environmental Assessment in England, the Netherlands, and Germany: Practice and Prospects
Authors: Fischer Thomas B , Wood Christopher , Jones Carys
Published: August 2002

An analysis of existing (broadly defined) strategic environmental assessments (SEAs) in the spatial/land-use and transport sectors in England, the Netherlands, and Germany concludes that substantial practice exists and that three assessment types can be distinguished, each associated with distinct methodological tasks. By utilising existing terminology, these can be labelled policy-SEA, plan-SEA, and programme-SEA. It appears from current practice that, in order best to meet performance criteria derived from the SEA literature, these three types of SEA should be applied within a tiered system. Although the recently adopted EC SEA Directive includes provisions for the SEA of plans and programmes, the analysis of current assessment practice indicates that consideration should be given to extending the formal requirements to cover the SEA of policies as certain tasks are probably better dealt with in policy-SEA than in plan-SEA or programme-SEA.
Linking Infrastructure and Urban Economy: Simulation of Water-Disruption Impacts in Earthquakes
Authors: Chang Stephanie E , Svekla Walter D , Shinozuka Masanobu
Published: August 2002

In this paper a simulation approach to modeling the linkages between physical infrastructure systems and the urban economy is developed. A simulation approach based on probabilistically specifying the key model relationships is effective for situations that involve substantial uncertainty, and is particularly suited to assessing risk from natural hazards. In this paper, a model of economic losses from earthquakes is developed and applied to the Memphis, Tennessee, region of the United States. We focus on water as a critical infrastructure service supporting the urban economy. The methodological approach involves systems integration of natural-science, engineering, and social-science databases and models. The concept of infrastructure services provides the linchpin in this integration process. Key spatial, temporal, and functional dimensions of infrastructure services are explicitly modeled in the simulation framework. The resulting model permits the analyst to compare the effectiveness of alternative actions, including both predisaster mitigation and postdisaster emergency-response activities. The model is calibrated in part with data from the 1994 Northridge and 1995 Kobe earthquakes. Results for several scenario earthquakes indicate the likely range of loss from economic disruption as well as uncertainties associated with the loss estimates. Sensitivity analysis indicates that one type of risk-management strategy for the water system, retrofitting pump stations, appears to be highly effective in reducing expected losses from future disasters.
Modelling the Local Impacts of National Social Policies: A Spatial Microsimulation Approach
Authors: Ballas Dimitris , Clarke Graham P
Published: August 2002

The aim of this paper is to provide a new framework for the analysis and the evaluation of national social policies at the small-area level. In particular, the paper shows how microsimulation modelling can be employed to shed new light on the local impacts of major national policy changes such as taxes, regulations, government consumption, unemployment benefits, job seekers', and housing allowances, etc. Microsimulation modelling provides the possibility of defining the desired effects of economic and social policy, the instruments employed, and also the structural changes of those affected by socioeconomic policy measures. This paper builds on traditional economic microsimulation frameworks by adding a geographical dimension. More specifically, we seek to model national social policy impacts at a microspatial scale. First, spatial microsimulation modelling is used to synthesise a household micropopulation geographical database for an entire city. This micropopulation database has a wide range of demographic and socioeconomic attributes that are relevant to national social and economic policies and which play a major role in the determination of eligibility of households for various benefits and allowances. GIS software is used to identify the size and spatial location of particular groups such as the unskilled, low-waged, and undereducated. Finally, we explore potential social policies and demonstrate how microsimulation modelling can be used to perform what-if social policy analysis at the small-area level.
The Legal Basis of European Union Policy: The Case of Environmental Policy
Authors: Hovden Eivind
Published: August 2002

The choice of the legal basis for a given measure can influence the procedure by which legislation is adopted, and thereby the scope and content of EU policy. The ambiguity surrounding the choice of legal basis for environmental acts based in Articles 130s and 100a opened the way for a ‘legal-basis game’, where EU institutions chose the legal basis partly on the basis of political considerations. In the period 1987–93, the two most important legal bases for environmental acts (Articles 130s and 100a) were subject to very different procedures for adoption (unanimity and qualified majority voting, respectively). From 1993 onwards, both articles were subject to qualified majority voting. After a general discussion of the choice of legal basis and its significance for policy, this paper examines the choice of legal basis for environmental legislation during the period 1987–99. I conclude that, although the legal-basis game is played out with respect to certain acts, there is little evidence that it is a regular and systematic feature of the policy process in the EU.
Decentralisation, Enablement, and Local Governance in Low-Income Countries
Authors: Helmsing A H J (Bert)
Published: August 2002

Decentralisation to local governments has acquired new dimensions. These dimensions refer to delivery of basic services as well as to public or collective demands and goals. Enablement is central to new decentralisation in which the role of government is to facilitate and regulate the overall framework within which other actors can make their most effective contribution. After situating decentralisation, I explore the notion of enablement. Subsequently the concept of local-government enablement of communities is operationalised. Criteria are formulated and applied to a (nonrepresentative) sample of local governments in seven countries. It is concluded that introducing enablement in local planning is comparatively easy. However, changing regulatory, administrative and financial public decisionmaking processes is much more difficult. In the final part of the paper I examine a number of issues in the local-governance debate. Decentralisation to local government takes place in the context of decentralisation to market and to communities. Issues are identified on the supply and demand sides of governance, and on the question of embedding of government. New decentralisation raises a new class of problems, for which, as yet, few answers are available.
Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations in Fragmented Societies—The Case of Switzerland
Authors: Stauffer Thomas P
Published: August 2002

In Switzerland intergovernmental fiscal relations have evolved gradually over 150 years. Like other institutions they reflect first of all the comparatively successful attempt to hold together a society fragmented with respect to linguistic and religious diversity along territorial lines. This system is marked by strong territorial decentralization both of taxing powers and expenditure assignments and by low equalizing incidence in general combined with important redistribution in cases of high symbolic value. However, both the internal demographic changes and the pattern of immigration in the last 50 years bring into question the sustainability of the present arrangements. Therefore, federal fiscal equalization is under review. It remains to be seen, if the outcome will sufficiently take into account the new forms of fragmentation in Switzerland.
The Cost of Local Government Structural Reorganisation in Great Britain during the 1990s
Authors: Chisholm Michael
Published: August 2002

When the structure of local government in Great Britain was reorganised during the 1990s, considerable emphasis was placed by the government on the financial savings which would accrue to offset the costs incurred in making the changes. Previous work examined these expectations and found clear evidence that the ex ante estimates of transition costs given to the Westminster parliament were serious underestimates, and that the expected savings had not, at that time, materialised. This work was done at a time when it was known that some of the official data on transition costs would not be complete until after the close of the 2000/01 financial year. The author's primary purpose is to place on record what may be regarded as the final estimates of the transition costs in England, Scotland, and Wales. In addition, comparisons between the ex ante estimates of the costs of structural change and the ex post evidence concerning actual costs are updated. The discrepancy between these is such as to confirm the need for some form of independent scrutiny of new legislation at the time when it is being considered in parliament, to ensure that decisions are taken in the light of realistic assessments of the costs and benefits of proposed enactments.
Housing Policy, Poverty, and Culture: ‘Discounting’ Decisions among Pacific Peoples in Auckland, New Zealand
Authors: Cheer Tarin , Kearns Robin , Murphy Laurence
Published: August 2002

This paper explores the links between housing and other welfare policies, low income, and culture among Pacific peoples within Auckland, New Zealand. These migrant peoples occupy an ambiguous social space within Auckland: they represent the visible face of the world's largest Polynesian city, yet are occupants of some of the city's poorest and least health-promoting housing. Through considering the balance between choice and constraint, we examine how housing costs, poverty, and cultural practices converge to influence household expenditure decisions. Specifically, we are interested in the ways health-promoting behaviours (for example, obtaining fresh food) and utilising health care services are ‘discounted’ (that is, postponed or substituted with cheaper alternatives) because of costs associated with structural changes in housing and the broader policy context. We draw on narratives gathered from in-depth interviews conducted with seventeen Samoan and Cook Island families undertaken in the South Auckland suburb of Otara in mid-2000. Our findings illustrate a lack of ‘fit’ between state housing stock and its occupants. We conclude that, although a recent return to a policy of income-related rents may alleviate these conditions, further longitudinal and community-supported research is required to monitor whether health inequalities are in fact lessened through income-related interventions alone.
The Dilemmas of Interregional Institutional Learning
Authors: Hassink Robert , Lagendijk Arnoud
Published: August 2002

In recent research and literature in which regional development concepts and regional innovation policy have been addressed, a strong interest in the role of knowledge and learning has been shown. In this, a strange phenomenon can be observed. Whereas much work is concentrated on learning within regions, and some reference is made to learning from external sources, scant attention is paid to the interregional dimension. This seems to amount to a dilemma: although development concepts and policy strategies are themselves the subject of constant exchange and learning processes at an interregional level, the interregional dissemination of such concepts, and concomitant processes of learning, are largely ignored. Even where a supraregional perspective is adopted, little is said, either analytically or empirically, about the nature and role of learning processes between regions. One basic message that follows from this, the authors conclude, is that researchers working on regional development and regional policy need to become more reflexive. In order to achieve this, a model of knowledge cycles is presented. The model not only helps our understanding of how observations taken from regional experiences can be translated into more general analytical concepts and policy prescription, it also draws the necessary attention to the way that such general abstractions are part, as well as catalyst, of processes of interregional learning.