bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
President Carter's Comprehensive National Urban Policy: Achievements and Lessons Learned
Authors: James F J
Published: October 2006

In 1978, President Carter promulgated the first ‘comprehensive’ national urban policy for the USA. The major thrust of the policy was to ameliorate economic and fiscal problems of distressed cities. The policy achieved only modest success, and was quickly swept away by the Reagan Administration. In this paper, the policy is reviewed, and the major factors which limited its success are identified. It is concluded that the major problems were inherent political and substantive barriers to effective urban policy, not fortuitous events or mistakes of the Carter Administration. These inherent problems will likely forestall future US efforts to implement an urban policy. An understanding of the problems is important for policymakers in other nations, particularly European nations which are now facing urban problems similar to those which generated the US effort.
Collective Order and Economic Coordination in Industrial Agglomerations: The Technopoles of Southern California
Authors: Scott A J , Paul A S
Published: October 2006

We begin by remarking upon the pervasiveness of nonmarket institutional arrangements in capitalist economic systems. We then sketch out some typical generalized forms of collective order and economic coordination in industrial agglomerations—quasi-integration, voluntary associations, informal business cultures, and governmental institutions. With the aid of simple statistics we describe the growth of the high-technology industrial agglomerations (technopoles) of Southern California since the 1950s. The specific regulatory tasks and institutions engendered by this growth are reviewed in detail with special reference to transactional economies, innovation and technology transfer, labor supply, land development, and lobbying and local economic growth. We conclude with a brief discussion of some of the problems and predicaments experienced by high-technology industry in Southern California and in the USA in the current (neoconservative) policy environment.
Measuring the Benefits of Water Quality Improvement in Municipal Water Use: The Case of Lake Biwa
Authors: Hagihara K , Hagihara Y
Published: October 2006

The benefits of water quality improvement in municipal water use are measured empirically both from the supply side and from the demand side. On the supply side the benefits of water quality improvement are measured by means of a so-called cost-saving approach. On the demand side the costs of the averting behavior of consumers are considered to be one indicator of the benefits of water quality improvement. Whereas from the results of empirical application water quality improvement in Lake Biwa will bring cost saving of 40.8 billion yen year−1, the benefits on the demand side are estimated to be at least 200 billion yen year−1.
Intergovernmental Social Transfers and the Welfare State: Menace or Promise?
Authors: Ashford D E
Published: October 2006

A collaborative cross-national study involving teams from eight countries has examined how local social service officials and local politicians seek discretionary influence over targeted national grants for local social services in education and health. It is found that local need and local political orientation have little bearing on local success in obtaining discretionary concessions over rules, allocation, and reporting of such funds. On the contrary, local actors are valued for their ability to circumvent national guidelines, often with the assistance of intermediate-level officials. Administrators are rewarded for their skills in exploiting national grants for local purposes and in interpreting complex rules to fit local preferences. Politicians tend to see themselves as troubleshooters, but generally prefer not to become involved in local social assistance problems. The results show that, despite efforts to cut back social spending, an important reservoir of professional and administrative talent exists at the local level which has probably helped preserve local social services during a period of cutbacks. In more prosperous times, these same persons will be poised to revive the surge of local social spending seen in the early 1970s and thereby extend the institutional intricacy of welfare states.
Thatcherism—One Nation or Two? An Exploration of British Political Attitudes in the 1980s
Authors: Pattie C J , Johnston R J
Published: October 2006

Thatcherism is presented as an ideological project, seeking to reorient public attitudes in Great Britain to positions consistent with a new regime of flexible accumulation. Analysis of political attitudes, as surveyed in 1983 and 1987, suggests that the project has been much more successful among some social classes than others and in the country's southern regions than elsewhere.
Government Land Preservation and Communication Policies in Fast-Growing Counties of the United States of America
Authors: Greenberg M R , Popper F J
Published: October 2006

Most US counties undergoing rapid population increases rely on traditional land-preservation techniques (zoning, direct purchase, development regulations) to control land use and on public meetings to communicate with the public. Yet some of these rapidly growing counties also use tax incentives, conservation easements, and other innovative preservation methods; they also use the mass media to communicate. These innovative counties tend to be more populous, affluent, and located in states with stronger environmental protection programs than counties that rely on traditional techniques.
Stages in the Adoption of a Spatial Decision Support System for Reorganizing Service Delivery Regions
Authors: Honey R , Rushton G , Lolonis P , Dalziel B T , Armstrong M P , De S , Densham P J
Published: October 2006

A prototype spatial decision support system (SDSS) was used by a task force appointed by the State of Iowa to redraw the boundary lines of education service delivery regions so that “the total number … is no fewer than four and no greater than twelve”. Details of this regionalization problem are described and key stages are identified in the task force's adoption and use of the SDSS to arrive at recommended solutions. The approach separates the policy task of setting regionalization objectives and criteria from the more technical task of locational analysis which involves searching for alternatives that meet the requirements of the policy criteria. It is concluded that the SDSS contributed significantly to meeting the basic objectives of the Iowa Legislature.
Industry—Academic Links: The Case of Oxford University
Authors: Smith H Lawton
Published: October 2006

The scale and scope of industry and academic links are increasing. The willingness of industry to invest in university research is a response to changing economic and technological imperatives. In advanced industrialised countries, governments have played an important role in defining the relationships between industry and universities. Oxford University is used as a case study to examine the nature of industry and academic links, and their consequences.
The Economic Case for an International Law of the Atmosphere
Authors: Herber B P
Published: October 2006

In this paper economic theory is applied to the global atmospheric problems of greenhouse warming and ozone-layer depletion. Previous work by economists on the subject of environmental pollution has largely ignored the global dimension of the problem such as characterizes the greenhouse and ozone issues, thus resulting in the absence of an appropriate property rights basis for implementing economically efficient atmospheric utilization policies. The present analysis is an attempt to fill this void and, in so doing, to construct an economic basis for global atmospheric policies. Its analytical foundation will utilize such economic concepts as public goods and bads, externalities, common property resources, and Pareto-efficiency. The study will interact with the disciplines of international law and political science because of the relevance of political institutions and property rights to the analysis. The nature of the economic demand and supply for a clean global atmosphere is examined in section 1 and in section 2 the problems inherent in international collective consumption such as occurs in the utilization of the global atmosphere are considered. In section 3 the economist's Pareto-efficiency rule is applied as a basis for international agreements in pursuit of efficient atmospheric use and in section 4 global atmospheric policy options are considered within the parameters of contemporary international social choice institutions. The creation of a sovereign international body to implement an international law of the atmosphere that is founded upon the legal premise of global property rights to the atmosphere is recommended.
Transit Joint Development in the USA: An Inventory and Policy Assessment
Authors: Landis J , Cervero R , Hall P
Published: October 2006

The joint development of urban mass transit facilities and private real estate projects has become a popular practice throughout the United States. As of October 1990, 114 transit joint-development projects had been constructed in more than two dozen US cities, although the vast majority of projects have been concentrated in just five cities: New York City, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Boston. Of completed joint-development projects 58% have occurred at or near heavy-rail transit stations; another 18% of projects have been developed around commuter rail facilities. Transit joint-development activity can be classified into two basic forms: (1) revenue-sharing arrangements, and (2) cost-sharing arrangements. Of the joint-development projects completed to date, 40% have involved cost-sharing, and 25% have involved revenue-sharing. The remaining projects have involved both types. Joint-development projects have yet to generate very much income to local transit operators, either through capital contributions or through yearly lease payments. Except in New York City, capital contributions from joint development have generally amounted to less than 1% of yearly capital expenditures. This study reveals that there are four conditions necessary for successful joint-development projects. First, the local real estate market must be active and healthy. Second, the agency with the lead responsibility for pursuing joint development must have an entrepreneurial bent. Third, coordination is essential when joint-development projects involve more than one public agency. Fourth, sponsoring agencies need to understand that there are benefits to joint development that go beyond generating revenues. To date, in fact, the direct revenue benefits of joint development have been quite small. The best joint-development projects are those that encourage greater transit usage, create more interesting station environments, and reinforce other planning and development goals.
Taxation and Grants Policy in Multilevel Government: Options for the European Community
Authors: Spahn P B
Published: October 2006

The development of the European Community is likely to be financed through expansion of tax sharing on VAT and by introducing general-revenue sharing indirectly. Tax sharing on VAT does not necessarily imply the harmonisation of tax rates, however. Other options for revenue equalisation schemes are the transfer of tax bases to the centre that exhibits implicit distributional effects.

It is argued that capital taxation is the Achilles heel of any future tax system given the fact that—in globalised capital markets—effective marginal tax rates will more and more influence the international flow of capital, a phenomenon that forces governments into tax competition through market processes. A cash-flow corporation tax seems to be likely to become more and more prominent as an alternative to comprehensive capital income taxation. Applied at the Community level such a tax could serve as an implicit equalisation scheme that fosters developing regions by exempting new investment while taxing the proceeds from the more mature economic areas in the EC. It would also be neutral as to investment and financing decisions and it would attract savings funds from abroad to be invested in the Community.

As far as explicit equalisation is concerned, it is argued that differentials among regions are best dealt with by a system of matching grants that concentrate on aspects of allocation rather than by general-revenue redistribution.

Harmonisation of personal income taxation in Europe could also be achieved by introducing a piggyback tax onto the income tax system which taxes personal consumption at a flat rate. Shifting the centre of gravitation within these two-tiers of income–consumption taxation would allow national governments to maintain their sovereignty as regards allocative and distributive policy. The consumption tax part could also form the nucleus of a future supranational direct tax.
Strategies of Modernisation: The Market and the State
Authors: Dunford M , Perrons D
Published: October 2006

The strength of regional and national economies continues to depend critically on the success of manufacturing activities. Manufacturing therefore matters. With the increasing globalisation of economic activities, however, regional economies will also depend to an increasing extent on investments that are international in character, control, and ownership. Industrial modernisation and an optimal long-term allocation of resources require a series of state-led initiatives in the spheres of innovation and new technologies. There is, however, a contradiction between the internationalisation of production and the national character of economic regulation. The appropriate scale for industrial intervention is increasingly supranational. It is at this scale that capital is organised and where there is in any case a need for countervailing political power. At the same time there is evidence of a greater local embeddedness of successful productive activities. In these circumstances the development of local potential assumes increased importance. Attention is therefore paid to the respective roles of market and nonmarket modes of coordination of skill and infrastructure provision. In each of these areas, private and market provision are inadequate. Increases in regional resource endowments and the development of an advanced industrial and social infrastructure require organisation, collective action, and active interventionist regional and supranational states.
Flexible Internationalisation in the Electronics Industry: Implications for Regional Economies
Authors: Morris J
Published: October 2006

The world electronics industry has experienced a significant, and ongoing, restructuring in the past decade as a response to heightened competition and rapid technological innovation. This has resulted in a surge of globalisation and ownership concentration. At the same time new quality imperatives have changed occupational structures in the industry, and firms are moving to the adoption of localisation strategies to meet just-in-time scheduling. All of these issues have important implications for regional economies which have a heavy presence in the electronics sector.
The Electronics Industry: Inward Investment versus Indigenous Development—The Policy Debate
Authors: Brunskill I
Published: October 2006

In this paper the public policy implications of an active government strategy aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the electronics industry in Britain are examined. The author argues that as a general principle industrial policy should be both designed and applied at as low a level as possible. To achieve this a comprehensive but decentralised institutional economic development network will need to be created.
Unemployment, the Poll Tax, and the British General Election of 1992
Authors: Johnston R J , Pattie C J
Published: October 2006

The somewhat unexpected Conservative victory in the 1992 British general election was achieved because the party won seats, especially marginal seats in some southern regions, that it could have been expected to lose, given the impacts of its recent policies there. The initial analyses reported here show that the Conservatives were ‘punished’ by the electorate in constituencies with high unemployment and that the main opposition party, Labour, performed particularly well in areas with high community-charge levels. The ‘punishment’ was insufficiently hard to lead to Conservative losses on the scale needed for a Labour victory. The regional strength developed during the 1980s was not eroded substantially enough to yield a Tory defeat.
Measurement of Spatial Equity
Authors: Truelove M
Published: October 2006

In this paper, the question of how the spatial equity of a facility system can be measured is addressed. The varied meanings of equity in general and of spatial equity in particular are reviewed. The problems associated with the measurement of spatial equity are discussed. The issue of how to measure equity is difficult; for example, the analysis of spatial equity raises questions about the appropriate geographical scale of analysis. Four methods of measuring spatial equity are outlined. These methods are applied to the distribution of day-care centres in Metropolitan Toronto. The policy implications of measuring spatial equity for public facilities and agencies are examined.
Changing Regional Demography in the Federated States of Micronesia: Contrasting Planning Challenges in an Emerging Pacific Nation
Authors: Gorenflo L J
Published: October 2006

Island nations consisting of small landmasses separated by large expanses of ocean face particularly severe challenges in their quest for economic and social development. In this paper, planning concerns in one such nation, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), are examined. The study opens with a description of each of the four separate states in the FSM, emphasizing their geographical, historical, and cultural characteristics. Regional aspects of FSM development are then examined by a statistical analysis of the geographical distribution of population in the individual states. Strategies are explored to incorporate rural outer islands found in three states, as outlined in the first two FSM national plans. The study concludes with an assessment of the regional challenge of developing the FSM into an economically and culturally sustainable nation.
Child and Family Benefits in Eastern and Central Europe and in the West: Learning from the Transition
Authors: Kamerman S B , Kahn A J
Published: October 2006

As countries in Eastern and Central Europe attempt the transition to market economies, they challenge the theoretical and applied repertoires of political economy. It is the premise in this paper that the transition tests the social policy ‘wisdom’ of the pluralistic, democratic ‘Western’ societies and offers scholars the opportunity for monitoring and learning. The paper is focused on family benefits, a component of social policy, and is concentrated on Hungary, Poland, and the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic. A contrast is made to European countries of the European Community and the European Free Trade Association. The United States is also covered. The discussion is concentrated on maternity and parental leave, care for infants, toddlers, and preschool children, and family allowances. One important question addressed is whether with current financial constraints the East will be forced to relinquish its family benefit policies as the West expands such policies. Or, to the contrary, will these policies be expanded further in the East, as a substitute for unemployment insurance and to solve other labor-market problems?
Disablism, Planning, and the Built Environment
Authors: Imrie R F , Wells P E
Published: October 2006

In the last decade access for disabled people to public buildings has become an important part of the political agenda. Yet, one of the main forms of discrimination which still persists against disabled people is an inaccessible built environment. In particular, statutory authorities have been slow to acknowledge the mobility and access needs of disabled people, and the legislative base to back up local authority policies remains largely ineffectual and weak. In this paper, the interrelationships between disability and the built environment are considered by focusing on the role of the UK land-use planning system in securing access provision for disabled people.
Defense-Less Territory: Workers, Communities, and the Decline of Military Production in Los Angeles
Authors: Law R M , Wolch J R , Takahashi L M
Published: October 2006

The dominant role played by aerospace and other military-related production in the Southern Californian economy for decades has shaped the local geography of industrial development and contributed to the emergence of specialized spatial labor markets linking defense-related employment sites with the homes of defense-sector workers. But the recent decline in defense-related employment is bringing economic dislocation to the region, which will be felt most intensely by those workers and neighborhoods with strong and long-established ties to the sector. In this paper, the major sites of defense-related production in Los Angeles County are identified and the social and spatial position of segments of the defense sector labor force in the region are described. Defense-dependent communities are identified, and the implications of defense spending cuts on groupings of workers and on communities are discussed.
Telematics for the Community? An Electronic Village Hall for East Manchester
Authors: Ducatel K , Halfpenny P
Published: October 2006

Visions of the information city are mainly driven by the economic development potential of new information technology (IT). The role of information systems in community development remains relatively less well explored. The establishment of a municipal information system in Manchester, HOST, aimed directly at small businesses and community groups, provides a rare opportunity for a direct empirical investigation of IT policies for community development. The proposal for ‘electronic village halls’—community IT resource centres—in East Manchester is examined for clues on emerging best practice for such community IT initiatives. It is concluded that current policies which concentrate resources into a few centres are antithetical to the spirit of information network formation, and create barriers to future development in information flows. In addition, policies to develop information networks in the community should be grounded in the interest groups in the urban system. This requires closer coordination between grass-root needs and the agencies which initiate development projects.
Border Regions and Infrastructure Networks in the European Integration Process
Authors: Nijkamp P
Published: October 2006

This paper is focused on development strategies of peripheral areas. In particular, the issue of integration effects on (internal) border regions after the completion of the internal European market is addressed. After a review of recent EC policies, it is claimed that there is an urgent need for the design and evaluation of active development strategies for former internal border areas. A case study on two Dutch (peripheral) border provinces is described to see how the indigenous development potential of such areas can be exploited as a strategic vehicle for enhancing their international competitiveness. A multiple criteria analysis is used to identify the most plausible and desirable development scenarios for these regions.
Social Theory and the Region: From the Regional Planning Association of America to the Restructuring of Sociospatial Theory, with Policy Implications
Authors: Banai R
Published: October 2006

In this paper an argument is developed in support of the relevance of social theory for the region. Characterized by bridging across conceptual and methodological divides, by the increasing prominence of the role of space, context, and human agency, social theory exhibits an affinity with the regional development theory of the Regional Planning Association of America (RPAA) in the 1920s. This paper provides a brief account of the RPAA's approach to regional synthesis. The author aims to build upon insights offered by social theories in dealing with multifaceted regional development phenomena, identifying areas of overlap with the approach of the RPAA. The paper is concluded with a brief discussion of regional policy implications and the practice of social theory.
The State—Local Regulatory Nexus in US Growth Management: Claims of Property and Participation in the Localist Resistance
Authors: Clark T A
Published: October 2006

Influenced possibly more by volume than substance, some scholars have concluded that significant progress is being realized in state-level land-use regulation in the United States. In truth, more time must pass before a definitive evaluation of the more comprehensive efforts can be made. In this critical paper I examine the statewide growth-management legislation of the four states having tripartite (local—regional—state) administrative hierarchies: Florida, Vermont, Maine, and Georgia. There and elsewhere, numerous structural compromises have won adoption. Bold declarations of regulatory intent are found here often to be wrapped around ambiguous and easily subverted administrative mechanisms and standards. With prima facie evidence of significant structural shortcomings in hand, I then restore focus on the founding debates in search of a synthesis that might be more supportive of regional growth management.

Using the theory of local autonomy as a starting point, I disentangle the normative foundations of the Liberal ethic of local participation and ‘control’, and of private rights in property. The centralization of growth management is seen by its proponents as a means to regionalize the ‘public interest’ in land use, positing a new and more expansive norm defining the public's interest in private property. Opponents, on the other hand, resist the public encumbrance of private land, and find in centralization a regionalized ‘public’ desirous of greater control and less amenable to private influence. In these opposing views, however, lies the possibility of less conflicted, more efficacious regional growth-management enactments. Centralization, I conclude, can actually deepen the capacity for ‘local’ participation yet at the same time extend its domain to matters of regional concern. The result can improve the capability of the local state to manage spillovers, achieve more sustainable patterns of growth, and facilitate more satisfactory templates of private investment and equity accumulation.
Urban Productivity and the Neighborhoods: The Case for a Federal Neighborhood Strategy
Authors: Wiewel W , Persky J
Published: October 2006

In this paper the authors seek to build a new case for neighborhood-oriented government programs, primarily based on economic, rather than moral, political, or social policy considerations. Serious government investment can provide a base for much expanded service sector employment in neighborhoods in the central city and aging suburbs. Agglomeration effects in expanding service industries remain important for productivity, in spite of decentralization. Furthermore, the costs of decentralization impose constraints on further suburban growth. Urban neighborhoods can provide relatively high-productivity locales for service industries, because of existing infrastructure, a large labor force, proximity to downtowns, local entrepreneurs, and the enduring advantages of density. However, programs are needed to improve public infrastructure to increase productivity; invest in human capital; and strengthen the competitive position of neighborhoods through quality-of-life improvements.
TECs, LECs, and Small Firms: Differences in Provision and Performance
Authors: Parker K T , Vickerstaff S
Published: October 2006

In this paper the way in which the Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs) and Local Enterprise Companies (LECs) have been responding to the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector is considered. By reference to a questionnaire survey of TECs and LECs the organisational mechanisms and policy initiatives which have been developed to reach SMEs are evaluated. The analysis is concentrated on the differential performance of TECs and LECs and whether size and employment composition factors, or the complexity of the area the TEC or LEC operates in, affects its ability to encourage small-business involvement.
Analysing Italian Local Authorities' Expenditure Behaviour: A Tentative Interpretation
Authors: Levaggi R
Published: October 2006

After the reform of local government organisation and finance following Act 142/1990, Reforming local autonomy, Italian councils can exercise considerably more discretion in setting their expenditure and taxation levels; in this paper a model in the microeconomic tradition is developed to predict the likely changes in these councils' behaviour. The model is based on the assumption that local governments behave as if they were maximising a nested Stone—Geary utility function; at the first stage of the utility-maximisation process, they set up the overall level of taxation, and at the second level they decide how to allocate expenditure among the different services. The results suggest that in the first years after the reform a utility-based incremental budgeting model could explain the determination of expenditure and its composition. Although the model has strong microeconomic foundations, the interpretation of the results may need to be tentative because the data used in the estimation procedure are for a transition year from the old to the new system. The results of the estimated econometric model were then used to predict the likely changes in expenditure which will be brought about by the introduction to the system of a locally managed property tax.
Towards a Geography of ‘Solidarność’
Authors: Bivand R
Published: October 2006

A reflective review is undertaken of the initiation of Solidarność as a social movement and of its activity to date with special reference to its regional structure, Much weight is placed on the potential significance of the Union and its goals in the debate over human agency in history.
Spatial Distribution of Bargaining Power: Binding Arbitration in Connecticut School Districts
Authors: Finch M , Nagel T W
Published: October 2006

Traditionally, negotiations in Connecticut concerning teacher contract renewal are conducted at the local level between members of the district board of education and members of the district teacher union. However, with the adoption in Connecticut of ‘issue last offer’ binding arbitration, there has been an acceleration in the use of professional bargaining representatives, including attorneys and Statewide union agents. The proliferation of professional representatives, together with the introduction of professional arbitrators, helps explain many of the phenomena associated with the early years of this new procedure: namely, an initial increase in the proportion of school districts going to arbitration rather than settling during an earlier negotiation phase; an upsurge in the standardization of collective agreements at the expense of innovation and situational responsiveness; and, more important, a loss in the local ‘flavor’ of the negotiation process. This paper will critically examine the implications of these trends both for the political nature of educational dispute resolution in Connecticut and for the spatial distribution of bargaining power.
Planning for Women to Shop in Postwar Britain
Authors: Bowlby S R
Published: October 2006

In this paper, the ways in which changes in women's domestic and waged labour and changing ideologies of women's domestic roles have both been related to retail planning in postwar Britain are examined. Recent trends in retailing and retail planning in the light both of women's current shopping behaviour and of their attitudes towards shopping are then assessed. The paper is concluded with an exploration of the implications of a feminist approach to retail planning and research.
Community, Class, and Kinship—Bases for Collective Action within Localities
Authors: Hall R R , Thorns D C , Willmott W E
Published: October 2006

The relationship between community and class has largely been neglected. In this paper, this relationship is focused upon, and a model is developed which allows the identification of significant aspects of locality and class relationships. The model identifies three sets of relationships, those based on propinquity, those based on property, and those based on kinship, and argues that the basis of communion within a locality can be found within any one of these three main sets of relationships. The research which stimulated this paper started with a focus upon the relationship between space and class as expressed in the pattern of landownership. Working from this beginning point, the analysis moves to examine the nature of boundaries and the structure of local organisations which constitute ‘latent’ community. A further dimension, which was pivotal in many traditional rural community studies, is then explored, namely kinship. For each of these three sets of relationships, it is possible to identify objective patterns based upon boundaries and upon local organisation, property ownership, and kin connections. The process by which these objective relationships acquire subjective meaning is similar in each of the three cases. The possibility both of contradiction and of reinforcement therefore exists in the development of communion within localities. The conditions under which propinquity produces community through the development of subjective consciousness are then explored. In the conclusions a number of issues are highlighted which are brought into focus by this approach. These are the interconnections of community and class, the relationship between transience and social structure, and between male mateship and egalitarianism, the role of gender within communities, and, finally, the relationship between localities and the wider society.
Industry and Space: A Sympathetic Critique of Radical Research
Authors: Sayer R A
Published: October 2006

In this paper are developed a number of criticisms of radical research on industry and space, and it is argued that many of the problems are generated by three basic types of error, These are: an inadequate treatment of the relationship between abstract theory and empirical research on concrete phenomena; an inadequate treatment of space; and distortions arising from the particular theoretical and political priorities of radical research. The substantive criticisms include the treatment of technology and product innovation, stereotypes of spatial divisions of labour, ‘deskilling’ and feminisation, the role of the nation-state in the internationalisation of capital, and the social or institutional characteristics of capital. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of some of the implications of the discussion for practice.
Special Economic Zones: The Chinese Road to Socialism?
Authors: Lai C-F
Published: October 2006

The death of Mao Zedong signifies a change of policies in China. The balanced growth of city and countryside which occurred in the Maoist era is now replaced by a relative emphasis on an elitist urban-based development strategy which manifested itself in the establishment of the four Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in 1980. Although the utilisation of foreign capital and the import of capitalist management skills are justified by means of Lenin's theory of state capitalism, it shows that problems such as the flourishing economic crime, the creation of housing classes, and the undermining of socialist relations of production have already emerged in Shenzhen SEZ after a few years of development.

In this paper it is argued that the urban-based development strategy adopted by the new leadership should not be seen as a complete break with the Maoist strategy, as suggested by the employment of the dualistic approach—the radical line versus the revisionist line—in analysing Chinese development. In fact, the establishment of the SEZs and other commensurate measures do not necessarily indicate the Chinese road to capitalism or the complete victory of Deng Xiaoping and his followers, but they reveal that their ideas and policies continue to be counteracted and modified by the legacy of the Maoist vision.
Discontinuities in Regional Development
Authors: Gertler M S
Published: October 2006

Historically, geographers have been keen to adopt bodies of theory from other disciplines in a somewhat uncritical manner. This practice has surfaced again in the recent attempts to apply notions from catastrophe theory to the study of regional development. This paper is an examination of one such application to the modeling of interregional capital flows and critically evaluates it from a number of perspectives. On empirical grounds, there is little evidence that ‘catastrophic’ shifts in the geography of US manufacturing capital have indeed occurred. The presumption of a catastrophic shift is shown to be based on poor empirical indicators of capital mobility or on an incomplete understanding of the process of interregional investment decisions. The paper offers an alternative conception of this process in which the Kaldorian principles of scale economies, specialization, and division of labour are shown to be in continuing operation, albeit now in a spatially discontinuous manner.
The Growth of Sectoral Cleavages and the Stabilization of State Expenditures
Authors: Dunleavy P J
Published: October 2006

Existing radical explanations of the turndown in public expenditure and welfare state growth across most liberal democracies from the mid-1970s are of two types. In economic explanations the shift is attributed to the changing economic imperatives of capitalist economies in the new world recession, In ideological explanations it is argued that governments have tried to reestablish the predominance of market disciplines and allocation systems in social life, more indirectly responding to business pressure and fiscal strains. The economic approach does have a causal account of how these changes are translated into state policy via business pressure on governments undergoing monetary or fiscal crises. But neither approach can adequately explain how electorates are persuaded to convey functionally appropriate signals to governments in making their political choices, nor the apparently central, partially autonomous role played by political institutions in triggering major policy changes. By contrast, attention to the impact of state intervention in creating sectoral cleavages in consumption and production does offer a set of detailed causal mechanisms which would have the effect of rendering welfare state growth politically self-stabilizing. A brief theoretical model is provided of the main influences involved.
Housing-Consumption Sectors and Political Response in Urban Canada
Authors: Pratt G
Published: October 2006

The theory of consumption sectors and the domestic property class model are both examined in terms of their claims about the links between position in the housing market and political alignment. These contradictory claims are then assessed in the Canadian context. It is argued that the theory of consumption sectors, as outlined by Dunleavy, is less helpful in understanding the Canadian situation insofar as one does find a relationship between housing position and political alignment in a situation of largely individualised housing consumption. Further, the concern of homeowners for housing programmes as election issues plays a part in maintaining the objective basis for distinctions between housing tenures, also supporting the domestic property class model.
The City as Studio; The World as Back Lot: The Impact of Vertical Disintegration on the Location of the Motion Picture Industry
Authors: Christopherson S , Storper M
Published: October 2006

Motion picture production is currently carried out by small firms under contract to an independent producer rather than in large integrated firms, the major studios. In this paper the emergence of this vertically disintegrated industry is traced and its impact on the location of the motion picture industry is analyzed. Vertical disintegration has led to a reagglomeration of motion picture employment and establishments in Los Angeles, despite the dispersal of film shooting throughout the world. The processes that are shaping the present-day organization of motion pictures can be observed across a range of industries. An examination of these processes in motion pictures suggests that their association with reagglomeration in urban centers could have an important impact on patterns of urbanization.
Housing in an Internationalizing Region: Housing Stock Dynamics in Southern California and the Dilemmas of Fair Share
Authors: Baer W C
Published: October 2006

The Los Angeles region is undergoing an unprecedented internationalization of its population. This trend is introducing a number of Third World characteristics into the region, not the least of which are extremes in housing wealth, overcrowding, and reghettoization of its urban cores. The region is also attempting to implement a fair-share housing effort to counteract this reghettoization. Analysis of the housing-stock dynamics in the region reveals inherent dilemmas in this effort. It also suggests the need to reconsider local government land-use and housing regulations.
A Shadow State? Voluntarism in Metropolitan Los Angeles
Authors: Geiger R K , Wolch J R
Published: October 2006

The character of voluntary action and its relationship to the political economy are changing in response to recent policy shifts favoring service reductions, privatization, and a transferral of responsibility for services, under ‘new federalism’ policies. In an examination of new data for voluntary organizations in the Los Angeles metropolitan region, an extensively differentiated sector of significant size is found that is often highly reliant on public funding, but which is becoming increasingly entrepreneurial and has begun to shift more of the service cost burden onto clients as a consequence of reductions in funding support. These characteristics have important implications for the region and possibly for other urban areas in the USA, one of which is that this new reliance on voluntary services could lead to the existence of a shadow state: a new institutional form that fulfills many of the functions of government but also makes many public policy decisions in the absence of governmental preemption.
Regional Restructuring, Class Change, and Political Action: A Comment
Authors: Sunley P
Published: October 2006

In his analysis of the miners' strike in South Wales, Rees stresses the role played by labour institutions within a context of regional restructuring, but neglects the importance of popular interpretations of the strike. These interpretations revealed that the coalfields are characterised by differing political cultures which can only be explained historically.
Militarism, Capitalism, and the Nation-State: Towards a Realist Synthesis
Authors: Lovering J
Published: October 2006

Military activities currently play a major role in social and economic development, even in noncombatant countries, This fact has received remarkably little attention in the social science literature, until recently. As a result, the theoretical frameworks which are available for the analysis of military activities arc underdeveloped. In this paper it is argued that there are in effect two such frameworks, derived from the Marxist and Weberian traditions, respectively. The many weaknesses of these, and the conflicts between them, are blurred rather than resolved in most recent studies of military phenomena, such as the ‘military industrial complex’. This is because the theory of the relationship between capitalist production and state institutions embedded in each perspective is seriously inadequate. A realist reconstruction is presented which highlights the significance of the national form of the state, and the contingent nature of capitalist production. This is designed to provide a new framework for appraising military activities, but it has implications for a wide range of questions concerned with the relationship between capital and state.
From Fordism to Flexible Accumulation: Technology, Competitive Strategies, and International Location
Authors: Schoenberger E
Published: October 2006

Aspects of the transition from Fordism to what has been labeled a regime of flexible accumulation are analyzed. First the nature of the current crisis of Fordism is considered, with special emphasis on two elements of this crisis. The first has to do with the internationalization of Fordist production techniques without the corresponding elaboration of characteristically Fordist consumption patterns in the countries involved. The second has to do with the forms of competition that have arisen in conjunction with the Fordist regime of accumulation in the core countries. Both of these factors, it is argued, have played a significant role in the current predicament facing many advanced industrial nations. The shift to a regime of flexible accumulation is then considered with particular attention paid to the rise of new technologies and new ways of organizing production. These factors are related to changing competitive strategies and the spatial organization of production on an international scale.
Labour-Market Changes and New Forms of Work in Old Industrial Regions: Maybe Flexibility for Some but Not Flexible Accumulation
Authors: Hudson R
Published: October 2006

In the last decade or so it has become clear that significant changes are occurring in the organization of economic activities, work and employment, and living conditions in the advanced capitalist economies, They raise important theoretical questions as to the most appropriate way of interpreting them, Many of the answers that have been offered draw heavily, i one guise or another, upon notions of increased ‘flexibility’, a transition from a Fordist to a flexible regime of accumulation, from Fordist mass-production systems to flexible production systems. In this paper, these theoretical claims are set against the evidence of changes in the ‘old industrial regions' of the capitalist world. Whereas there undoubtedly are some economic activities and localities that can validly be characterized as exhibiting symptoms of flexible production systems or flexible accumulation, the evidence for the old industrial regions does not point to such a conclusion, This raises further important questions as to how to characterize the changes that are currently in progress.
Explaining Local Experiences of State Formation: The Case of Cooperative Housing in Toronto
Authors: Chouinard V
Published: October 2006

In this paper a Marxist theory of political reproduction in localities is developed and is used to help to explain recent experiences of state-assisted cooperative housing in Toronto. Different experiences of state formation are linked to changing forms of state regulation, and to the array of political relations and practices concerning housing and redevelopment issues that help to constitute a given locality.
Society and Spatial History: Books in 1988
Authors: Barnos T , Beauregard R A , Dear M J , Thrift N J
Published: October 2006

This paper is a review of books published in 1988 and likely to be of interest to readers of this journal.