bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Small Firms and Information and Communication Technologies: Policy Issues and Some Words of Caution
Authors: Fuller E C , Southern A
Published: October 2006

An area of increasing attention for policymakers is the potential for growth as small businesses take up new information and communication technologies (ICTs), This interest has added to the broad discussion on small firms which use information technology (IT) and the take-up of IT by small firms, Often it is an implicit assumption that benefits for the business will accrue as new information-processing technologies are adopted and, accordingly, there has been a flurry of concern over the take-up of ICTs by small firms. Much less attention has been paid within small-firms research to the policy mechanisms and programmes which are enabling take-up, and the reasons why small firms should use ICTs. It is not our intention in this paper to question the rights or wrongs of policy of this nature; rather we seek to make three main points. The first is that there is a scattered and piecemeal approach to this area, consistent with many other small-firm policy issues. We indicate the type of ICT programmes taking place, initiated by UK and European governments, and suggest that an important rationale to this rests with the notion of increasing economic competitiveness. A second point is that there is a clear distinction between the aims and ideals of ICT programmes and the perspectives of owner/managers in small firms. We suggest that policy has not been grounded in the experience of the small firm. The third is that there needs to be further work by small-firm researchers to develop a more rigorous conceptual base for small firms and ICTs. This needs to go beyond notions of use and towards thinking about the ways in which small firms do business in an informational economy. We draw on our previous and current work on small firms, local economic policy, and ICTs and the raison d’être for this paper is that there is a place on the policy agenda for further discussion on the way small firms are being encouraged to use ICTs.
‘Getting Tough’ and ‘Getting Smart’: Politics of the North American — Japan Wood-Products Trade
Authors: Hayter R , Edgington D W
Published: October 2006

The authors compare the Canadian and the US approaches to developing exports in the wood-products sector. They focus specifically on exports of sawn lumber and added-value wood products from the Pacific Northwest region (PNW), comprising the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC), and the US states of Washington and Oregon. Conceptually, a ‘get tough—get smart’ dichotomy for evaluating export-stimulation policies is outlined and elaborated on in the context of the PNW wood-products trade with Japan. The authors show that Canada and BC favored predominantly ‘get-smart’ strategies in the wood-products trade with Japan whereas the United States and Washington/Oregon preferred mainly ‘get-tough’ strategics. However, the authors conclude by pointing to the need for both styles in order to be successful in the difficult Japanese market. These two approaches are not mutually exclusive and both generate external economy effects that cannot be limited to one national or regional territory. Nevertheless, the ‘get-tough-get-smart’ continuum is an effective starting point for classifying US and Canadian positions, respectively, and for raising policy and research questions about their relative roles and the underlying bargaining and learning processes which are involved.
New Labourers? Making a New Deal for the ‘Workless Class’
Authors: Peck J
Published: October 2006

The author presents a critical early appraisal of the British Labour Government's ‘New Deal’ welfare-to-work programme for 18–24 year-olds. A key element in the Government's strategy for tackling social exclusion, the New Deal represents a major financial and political commitment, yet perhaps more fundamentally it reflects a change in Labour's thinking about the underlying causes of, and appropriate remedies for, unemployment. Drawing on a behaviourist, supply-side, explanation of ‘welfare dependency’, the aim of the programme is not to create jobs (as it was for ‘Old Labour’) but to (re)create a work ethic — to raise ‘employ ability’ amongst young people. This does not take sufficient account of the demand-side, structural, causes of unemployment a fact which is likely to lead to difficulties (both in implementation and in the achievement of positive outcomes) in precisely those parts of the country where the need is greatest: high-unemployment areas in the large cities and lagging regions. The author argues, therefore, that particular attention needs to be paid to the emerging geographies of welfare-to-work because, as the New Deal ‘treads down’ differentially into local labour markets around the country, its effects will begin to diverge from those anticipated by national policymakers. In labour-market terms, the programme may even begin to dispense different regulatory functions in relatively depressed compared with buoyant local economies, with institutional containment emerging as the dominant function in the depressed areas and economic coercion the dominant function in buoyant local economies.
Privatization in France: The Transformation of French Capitalism
Authors: Schmidt V A
Published: October 2006

Privatization has transformed French capitalism. By changing the structure of corporate ownership and control, it has moved the country from a highly state-controlled economy to a more market-oriented one. Companies are now more interdependent as a result of cross-shareholding, and less dependent on the state as a result of financing from the markets. Market pressures, however, have not done much as yet to change corporate governance structures and practices. What is more, state interventionism has not disappeared entirely, although it remains much more circumscribed than in the past.
Explaining State Intervention in Pollution Issues in South Korea: The Case of the Evacuation of the Pollution Victims in Ulsan and Onsan
Authors: Joo J
Published: October 2006

Although policy priority has always been on economic development in East Asian countries, these countries have also experienced some state intervention in environmental issues. However, explanations for the development of environmental policies in these countries have been relatively sparse compared with those of their industrial policies, The author attempts to widen our understanding of environmental-policy development in East Asia by examining one notable state intervention in pollution issues in South Korea—the evacuation of the pollution victims of Ulsan and Onsan in the mid 1980s under the authoritarian Chun Doo-Hwan regime. This Korean case study shows a pattern of policy development primarily driven by particular ‘interests' (the perceived political-survival needs of state elites), with changes in external conditions, policy legacies, and policy efforts playing supplementary roles. In particular, the state intervention is interpreted as an anticipatory concession to the pollution victims by the state elites who aimed to stabilize their regime by alienating the victims from antiregime activists. The author also indicates the possibility of applying the theories established in the context of liberal democracy to authoritarian political regimes, and draws attention to the change and continuity in the development of environmental politics and policy in East Asia.
Small-Firm Growth and Public Policy in Northern Ireland: Making the Difference?
Authors: Hart M , Gudgin G
Published: October 2006

The authors describe an investigation into the regional dimension to the process of small-firm growth and development in the United Kingdom in the 1990s. Recent trends in the growth performance of small manufacturing and service-sector firms are presented for the UK regions and an attempt is made to establish if there are regional variations in the set of factors which may determine faster growth. In particular, a detailed examination of the impact of public policy assistance to small firms in Northern Ireland, as delivered by the Local Enterprise Development Unit—the small-business agency for the region—is undertaken in an attempt to measure more precisely the contribution of the policy environment to small-firm growth within one region of the United Kingdom.
Innovation and New Technology in Rural Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Some Policy Issues
Authors: Smallbone D , North D
Published: October 2006

The authors are concerned with innovation in rural small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), their support needs, and the types of policies required to encourage and support innovation; the authors draw on a national study of innovation and the use of new technology in rural firms. Their aims are to present recent evidence of the nature and extent of innovative activity in rural SMEs; to identify barriers to innovation in rural SMEs, together with any weaknesses with respect to their innovative performance that may affect their future competitiveness; and to contribute to the development of a policy agenda designed to support and strengthen the innovative performance of rural SMEs. Using a broadly based definition of innovation (including product, process, marketing, and new-market development) the authors demonstrate considerable sectoral variations in the nature and extent of innovative activity in rural SMEs. This is explained in terms of sectoral differences in the ways in which SMEs seek competitiveness and of the role of innovation in this process. Nevertheless, the authors demonstrate a strong correlation between the level of innovation shown by firms and their performance, in terms both of sales and of employment growth. With the exception of marketing and new-market development, only a minority of managers perceived their rural environment to be a constraint on their ability to innovate, although more detailed analysis showed SMEs in the more technology-based sectors to be disadvantaged in a number of respects. Support needs are identified in relation to marketing, the use of the Internet, process innovation, and access to specialised training. Emphasising the distinctive characteristics of the rural environment, the authors describe a policy agenda for the encouragement and support of innovation in rural SMEs which includes a recognition of the so-called ‘rural premium’.
Existing Propensity to Cooperate: An Antecedent Influencing the Potential Performance of Small-Business Networks?
Authors: Chaston I
Published: October 2006

Various governments around the world have introduced small-firm structured networking as an economic-regeneration tool into their respective economies. Early observations of the initiative in the United Kingdom suggested that the ability of the broker to identify the propensity of firms to cooperate with each other has a critical impact on the successful formation of new networks. The limited number of existing networks vitiated any study of these trading entities by means of established techniques for measuring commitment or trust. Hence an alternative model, based on relationship and entrepreneurial marketing, was developed. A survey of small manufacturing firms was used to validate the model. The results demonstrate that the model can be used by brokers to identify rapidly propensity to cooperation among a group of potential network participants.
Modelling the Impact of Taxation on the Small-Business Economy: The Natwest/MBS Tax Index for the Self-Employed, Sole-Traders, and Partnerships
Authors: Poutziouris P , Chittenden F , Michaelas N
Published: October 2006

The authors describe the development of a model for the evaluation of the tax affairs of UK small unincorporated firms (with fewer than 20 employees). After a brief review of the literature relating to small-business taxation, the main parameters of the NatWest/Manchester Business School tax model for unincorporated businesses are established, Subsequently the model is employed to evaluate small-business taxation from two angles. First, the authors offer a post-1999 budget analysis of the impact of taxation on small-business owners and their employees. Second, the authors discuss a set of proposals which have the potential to improve the neutrality of the tax system towards small-business owners' decisions.
Business Associations: Their Potential Contribution to Government Policy and the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
Authors: Bennett R J
Published: October 2006

The author uses new survey evidence of sector business associations and local chamber of commerce services. He analyses the membership of these bodies by size and type of business. In the main part of the empirical analysis the author assesses association services in four categories: (1) individual services to members, (2) excludable collective services available only to members, (3) nonexcludable services available to all businesses, and (4) self-regulation. It is demonstrated that association services tend to develop in niche markets chiefly by diversification rather than by intensification. Most associations seek to develop excludable and individual services as their primary focus. Because of this inherent tendency, government policy is most likely to be successful if it works with the grain of these trends rather than against them. Hence, government policy is argued to have had too high an emphasis on using associations to develop the individual competitiveness of their members, rather than focusing on their role to improve collective industry standards and through this individual business performance. Failure to recognise the limitations of individual supports by associations may undermine the potential of the government's 1998 white paper on competitiveness.
An Examination of the Developing Role of Personal Business Advisors within Business Link
Authors: Lean J , Down S , Sadler-Smith E
Published: October 2006

The authors examine the developing role of personal business advisors (PBAs) within Business Link. Drawing on a national survey of PBAs, they highlight trends and variations in practice and perceptions relating to four key areas: the client focus of PBAs and the identification of growth firms, the nature of PBA — client relationships and factors affecting successful support, the nature of the PBAs' workload, and PBA staffing issues. The findings highlight issues that might inform future policy developments. These include most particularly, the effects of the increased commercialisation of the PBA's job and the impact of PBA turnover. Recommendations are made regarding implications for policymakers and concerning areas for future research.
Regional Development Agencies and the Knowledge Economy: Harnessing the Potential of Universities
Authors: Goddard J B , Chatterton P
Published: October 2006

The authors explore the bases for regional engagement by universities in the light of structural change within higher education and ongoing debates about the nature of regional economic development. They focus on the implications for a university's relationship with its region of the New Labour policy environment within England as set out in a series of White Papers and consultation papers concerned with industrial competitiveness, lifelong learning and Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), and assess how far these new policy proposals address Old Labour issues of uneven development within the knowledge economy. The authors conclude the paper by setting out new procedures on the part of government departments, RDAs, and universities themselves for linking universities and regions in order to create regional learning systems.
The Regional Development Agencies and Social Inclusion: Widening the Agenda
Authors: Lloyd P E
Published: October 2006

On coming to power the UK New Labour government made social inclusion a pillar of its mainstream policies. The run up to the creation of the Regional Development Agencies seemed, however, to be in danger of ignoring this and positioning them in a narrowly economic role mirroring the Welsh and Scottish Development Agency models and missing the opportunity for them address wider agendas. The author argues that the impact of European Objective One and Two policies for community economic development in the years following 1994 has sensitised local and regional interests in England to the opportunities of more locally owned actions dedicated to achieving social inclusion and that traditional regional policy portfolios will be seen as insufficient. He also explores the rising tide of interest in social economy and third system approaches generally, again with strong European influence, and examines a series of wider policy actions for the RDAs to consider under the banner of competitiveness with social cohesion.
Innovation Prospects in US — Mexico Border Water Management: The IBWC and the BECC in Theoretical Perspective
Authors: Mumme S P , Moore S T
Published: October 2006

Binational water management along the US—Mexican border is changing as a result of new institutions and approaches growing out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In this study we examine the two leading border water-management agencies today, the venerable International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) and the new Border Environment Cooperation Commission (BECC), to understand better the post-NAFTA prospects for policy innovation in this issue area. The two agencies, IBWC and BECC, are analyzed from the perspective of two prominent theoretical explanations for agency behavior, structural choice politics and interorganizational implementation, to identify their political and institutional limitations as binational water-management agencies. We then chart the prospects for further innovation in binational water management along the US—Mexico border.
Filling in’ the State: Economic Governance and the Evolution of Devolution in Wales
Authors: Jones Rhys , Goodwin Mark , Jones Martin , Pett Kevin
Published: October 2006

We examine the unfolding dynamics of devolution and economic governance in the United Kingdom. We maintain that devolution has set in train a series of far-reaching organisational and institutional changes in the various UK territories. Although devolution in the United Kingdom can be described, following Jessop, as an aspect of the ‘hollowing out’ of the state, we argue conversely that the various UK territories are being ‘filled in’ in a number of important ways. The notion of ‘filling in’, we argue, draws attention to the spatially contingent impact of devolution on the various UK territories. We examine this process of ‘filling in’ specifically in the context of the economic governance of Wales. In particular, we focus on the creation of Education and Learning Wales (ELWa) the body charged with improving the education and skills of the Welsh workforce, as well as with encouraging entrepreneurship within Wales. It highlights the need to consider: in an organisational context, the territorial and scalar structure of ELWa and its role in collaborating with other organisations of economic governance; and in an institutional context, the development of a new working culture within the organisation. Given the close associations between devolution and economic governance, we suggest that the success or otherwise of ELWa in overcoming these challenges has the potential to affect the future trajectories, and public and political evaluations, of devolution in Wales.
Explaining the Adoption of Innovation: An Empirical Analysis of Public Management Reform
Authors: Boyne George A , Gould-Williams Julian S , Law Jennifer , Walker Richard M
Published: October 2006

Innovation has become a cornerstone of many government programmes of public management reform. In this study we provide the first empirical analysis of innovation adoption in a programme of public management reform that involves an external authority decision. Studies of this nature have not formed a central element of innovation-adoption research, which typically focuses upon the voluntary adoption of innovations by public organisations. Over a two-year period seventy-nine services adopting a programme of innovative management in local government were studied. The empirical results indicate that innovation adoption in local authorities is likely to be achieved where there are dispersed populations, where adoption is concentrated upon a limited number of services, and where there is prior experience of facets of the programme of innovative management reform. Explanations of these results are identified and the implications of researching innovation in public organisations are considered.
Crisis, Planning, and the Quality of Life: Managing the New Historical Relationships between Space and Society
Authors: Castells M
Published: October 2006

We live in the midst of a major structural crisis. This crisis is multidimensional, cultural, and political, as well as economic. Spatial forms and urban issues are simultaneously being reshaped by this crisis and becoming powerful instruments for the policies aimed at managing the crisis from different viewpoints according to the pattern of contradictory social interests.

The first part of the paper tries to outline the main effects of the crisis on the urban realm, focusing particularly on the spatial consequences of the new technologies, that could be devastating if they were used to harden the dominant tendencies of corporate capitalism and authoritarian statism. The second part of the paper attempts to foresee some potential alternatives to managing the crisis, on the basis of the projects of defending collective consumption, affirming cultural identity, and enhancing political self-management, that are being fostered by grass-roots groups and progressive local governments all over the world. Relying on some recent experiences of local government in Europe and the USA, the paper ends by outlining some alternative urban policies that could also be socially feasible, technically efficient, and politically progressive. Between defensive struggles and shortsighted reformism, this paper tries to explore the field of the new paths of urban social change in our time and in our societies.
On the Determination of Social Action in Space and Time
Authors: Thrift N J
Published: October 2006

This paper is a preliminary attempt to work out what a nonfunctionalist social theory which still retains the crucial element of determination would look like. The paper is therefore arranged in the following way. A general synoptic overview of modern social theory leads to a consideration of the four major concerns of what I will call the structurationist ‘school’. I will argue that these four concerns are crucial to any nonfunctionalist Marxist social theory which must take into account not only ‘compositional’ determinations but also the ‘contextual’ determinations involved in the constitution of subjectivity. In the final section of the paper I outline a programme which is intended to show what this social theory might look like when extended to the smaller scale and to the consideration of unique events. The concerns of human geographers are integral to this programme, and this programme is integral to the concerns of human geography.
Towards an Understanding of the Gender Division of Urban Space
Authors: McDowell L
Published: October 2006

The paper contains a critical review of urban theory and of some current work in urban studies on ‘women's issues’. It is argued that the nature of the changing interrelationships between production and reproduction, as part of a single inseparable process that varies across space and over time, should be the key focus for a feminist urban studies. Ways in which an understanding of these changing relationships can add to the analysis of housing policy in postwar Britain are outlined.

The principal aim of the paper is advocacy, and the plea is for feminist theory and feminist analysis. It is beginning to be accepted that urban studies, by ignoring gender divisions, is neglecting an important structuring element of urban space and urban processes. Recognition of the significance of gender divisions, however, must not lead to an insistence on analysis focusing solely on women and women's behaviour. Thus the object of feminist research should not be women alone, but rather the structure of social relations that contributes to female oppression, this involving confrontation with the theoretical issues raised by an analysis of patriarchy (a term used here to refer to temporally and spatially specific relations between men and women, rather than to the oppression of all women in all forms of society). Despite the advances already made in integrating women's lives into urban studies, a large number of the studies about women and the urban environment are ultimately unsatisfactory. Their foci stop short at the description and analysis of women's behaviour only. However, this is not to denigrate the very real function they serve in bringing gender differences to the research forefront. After a review of the literature on gender differences in the organisation, use, and conception of urban space, a more specific focus for a feminist urban studies is outlined, with an example of how this might be applied to the historical analysis of postwar housing policy in Britain.
The Myth of Urban Politics
Authors: Paris C
Published: October 2006

This paper contains a critical review of the concept of urban politics by means of an examination of three theoretical problems: the specificity of the term urban, the question of the local state, and the separation of the economic and the political in capitalism. Recent work on urban politics is seen to rely on untheorised notions of politics which rest on ahistoric and ethnocentric conceptions of the urban. The term the local state, it is argued, misleadingly conflates theoretical and empiricist approaches becoming therefore a slogan rather than the name of a theoretically coherent object of study. A different perspective is proposed which rejects the label urban, but which focuses on state organisation and contradictory relations between central and noncentral government. This necessarily involves consideration of historical dimensions of state formation, and of class struggle within and against state institutions and their many and varied concrete manifestations. The conclusions stress the need to replace ahistoric notions like urban politics with theoretically rigorous historical analyses, and outline some research implications in the Australian context.
Aspects of a Theory of Transition within the Capitalist Mode of Production
Authors: Gibson K D , Horvath R J
Published: October 2006

Marx's primary focus in his theoretical and practical work was on the transition between modes of production; our concern here, however, is to offer a theory of transition within the capitalist mode of production which is consistent with the fundamental principles of historical materialism. The methodological solution to this problem, we suggest, lies in recognizing the levels of abstraction and corresponding degrees of historical specificity in theoretical concepts. Four levels of abstraction are identified: level I, universal theory; level II, theory of a mode of production in general; level III, theory of variants of a mode of production; and level IV, theoretically informed analysis of real concrete formations. It is at the more historically specific level III that a theory of transition within the capitalist mode of production is offered by identifying four variants of capitalist production: the transitional, competitive, monopoly, and global submodes of production. Finally, it is proposed that at level III a more satisfactory theory of uneven development is possible based on the articulation of submodes of production within given social formations.
The Spatial Diffusion of Rural Protest: An Historical and Comparative Perspective of Rural Riots in Nineteenth-Century Britain
Authors: Charlesworth A
Published: October 2006

A comparison is made between the spread of protests in two contrasting types of rural society, one predominantly capitalist arable, the other small-farmer pastoral. The first saw series of protests by agricultural labourers in 1816, 1822, and 1830. The second saw a major scries of collective protests by small farmers, primarily over the issue of turnpike tolls, between 1842 and 1844, Of these four series, only the 1830 labourers' revolt showed clear spatial patterns of diffusion. Accounts of the resistance to the coup d'etat in France of 1851 give a further comparative perspective. As in France in 1851, for a massive mobilisation to occur in Britain in 1830, in a relatively short time span, there needed to be a major political crisis. The complex nature of the analysis offered here to account for the different patterns of spatial diffusion of the four series of protests should be a salutory warning against the glib explanations of the spread of the 1981 urban disorders in Britain.
Unequal Exchange and Uneven Development
Authors: Foot S P H , Webber M J
Published: October 2006

Arghiri Emmanuel's theory of unequal exchange is criticised for its inconsistent use of Marxian categories. An alternative theory is proposed, and interpreted, not as a single cause of uneven development, but as a contributory factor. It is more accurate to record unequal exchange as a process which keeps the rate of profit high in developed sectors of production than as a geographical transfer of value which speeds the rate of accumulation in certain areas. Empirical evidence, obtained by calculating labour values in different countries from input-output data, shows that unequal exchange is an extremely important process in terms of its magnitude. The evidence also suggests that the deviation of observed prices from prices of production may be a more important component of unequal exchange than the deviation of prices of production from values.
Spatial Labor Markets and the Distribution of Transaction Costs
Authors: Clark G L
Published: October 2006

Incomplete information regarding the location of job offers, their contractual conditions, and tenure prospects typifies US labor markets. Crises of spatial coordination and the allocation of labor demand and supply, amongst other issues, are argued to result from such uncertainties. Assisted-mobility and spatial job-matching programs have been promoted as solutions to problems of inadequate information. These programs, however, ignore the fact that uncertainty is part of any rule-oriented exchange process. These programs also neglect the power relations between employers and employees which structure and sustain labor-market transaction costs. The crucial issue is the distribution of transaction costs between contracting parties. These principles are applied to a recent legal case in Michigan involving interregional labor migration.
The Household and Class Formation: Determinants of Residential Location in Ciudad Juaréz
Authors: Christopherson S
Published: October 2006

An increasing number of jobs in the Ciudad Juárez-El Paso region is directly attributable to the growth of export-oriented manufacturing activity. These jobs, particularly those in Ciudad Juarez, tend to be at the bottom of the production hierarchy, low-skilled, and impermanent. Sectoral diversification in the regional labor market is being accompanied by homogenization of skills required for available jobs. Analysis of a survey of 1236 households in Ciudad Juárez indicates how they are responding to the changing character of labor demand. The households most directly affected by the industrialization process, those of the maquiladora or assembly-plant work force, arc compared with other types of households in the city. In addition, determinants of income in spatial sectors of the city are analyzed.
Social Relations in Space: Books in 1982
Authors: Forbes D K , Thrift N J , Williams P
Published: October 2006

This is the first of a series of annual reports on books likely to be of interest to readers of Society and Space, which have been published in the year preceding the current volume of the journal The reports will not be exhaustive, but neither will they be random. Rather, what we have aimed for is to highlight the major contributions of the year and a sprinkling of other volumes which seem to have either potential importance or synoptic value. Two things need to be stressed. First, the inclusion of books in this report does not preclude their fuller review subsequently in the pages of the reviews section of the journal. Second, we are necessarily less familiar with the non-English-speaking literature. We hope to correct this bias by a series of short reports on literature originating from countries outside the English-speaking world. This report is divided into five sections—“Economy”, “State”, “Third World”, “Civil society”, and “Methodology and social theory”.
Urban Planning, the State, and Political Regimes: The Italian Case
Authors: Calavita N
Published: October 2006

In this article, a study of State intervention in urban planning in post-World-War-II Italy is presented. These interventions are explained dialectically as attempted solutions to the contradictions and conflicts surrounding the use of urban land. The major contradiction centers around the necessity for a more rational urban development and the private control of urban land. The conflicts generated by this contradiction arc seen as historically specific and tied to changes in the class struggle. Through historical analysis, I show how various planning laws were the response to legitimation needs raised by developments in the class struggle. The Italian State, however, is constrained by: (1) its commitment to supporting capital accumulation through the private appropriation of urban land; and (2) its political indebtedness to real-estate interests, thus making attempts at land-use planning cither stillborn or inadequate and contradictory, generating, in turn, other contradictions and struggles.
Region, Class, and the Politics of Steel Closures in the European Community
Authors: Hudson R , Sadler D
Published: October 2006

One expression of the changing international division of labour and the generalized crisis of capitalist production during the 1970s was that the steel industry in the European Community slid into a deep and seemingly intractable crisis with rapidly falling profits or escalating losses. In an attempt to restore profitability, private capital, national states, and the supranational EEC (European Economic Community) initiated a series of severe capacity and employment cuts, which were unevenly distributed within the EEC, concentrated both at national and at regional scales. This distribution was intimately related to the strategies of those directly employed in the steel industry and those indirectly dependent upon steel employment in contesting proposed closure plans. This paper examines in detail anticlosure campaigns in the Northeast of England and in the Nord and Lorraine in France, interpreting them in terms of territory and class as bases for social organization, and attempts to draw some more general theoretical and political implications from these specific cases.
Innovation in Mental Health Policy; Community Mental Health in the United States of America, 1965–1980
Authors: Smith C J
Published: October 2006

The Community Méntal Health Centers (CMHC) legislation in the early 1960s was the first real attempt at a national mental health policy in the United States of America. Federal funding was made available for the establishment of 1500 centers across the country. The goal was to provide access to quality mental health care for all US citizens by 1980. As a result of prolonged criticisms, the legislation was repealed by the incoming Reagan Administration in the early 1980s, In this paper, the twenty-year lifespan of this ‘innovation’ in mental health policy is reviewed and an evaluation of some of its most pervasive criticisms are presented.
A Materialist Basis for Planning Theory and Practice: Comments on the Papers by Roweis and by Forester
Authors: Jensen-Butler C
Published: October 2006

Analysis of the practice of planning is increasingly being used to develop planning theory, The papers by Roweis and Forester in the second issue of Environment and Planning D: Society and Space base analysis of planning practice on hermeneutic, linguistic, and phenomenological approaches, as an alternative to the technical -rational approach to planning theory, In the present paper, I argue that the approaches adopted by these two authors create more problems than they solve, and a critique of Roweis's and Forester's theoretical ideas is made, It is argued that these approaches rest upon idealist ontological assumptions, rendering explanation of qualitative change (development) impossible. Discussion of Giddens's concept of structuration and of the negative consequences for scientific explanation of Habermas's epistemological position is presented, as both approaches are used by Roweis and Forester. Criticism is also made of the separation of territorial relations from relations of substance. Finally, the serious consequences of their approaches for scientific and social practice are outlined. I conclude that this type of approach cannot provide a satisfactory basis for planning theory, and furthermore, that the approach is inherently conservative. Some ideas arc presented concerning planning theory based on materialist ontological foundations.
On Planning Practice: Materialism and Politics
Authors: Forester J , Roweis S
Published: October 2006

This paper is a response to Jensen-Butler's critique of our papers on planning practice. The critique asserts that our papers are predicated on an idealist cpistemology and that they lead to largely politically conservative conclusions. In this paper, we argue that this supposed critique of idealism: (a) cannot be sustained; (b) assumes its own idealist proportions; (c) evades practical issues; and (d) results not in a critique of idealism and conservatism, but, wittingly or unwittingly, in a denunciation of the democratic, antitechnocratic, antiauthoritarian, and non-avant-gardist political principles which emanate from our papers.
The Powers of Architecture
Authors: Knesl J A
Published: October 2006

The current crisis in architecture's effectual and significative power is the result of historical processes which have boon analyzed (by the Left) as the development of industrial capitalism and (by Foucault) as the development of technical-instrumental power. These processes have led to the loss of the authority of the divine referential, of the authenticity of the object, and of our sense of historicity. To recover the power of meaning (beyond mere instrumentality, nostalgic sentimentality, and power emblems), the communicative relations between spatial structure and human life-praxis must be investigated critically. Only then will architecture and urban space contribute their hermencutic power to the retrieval of the human potential to appropriate the world, The powers of architecture consist in (a) its ability to influence the spatiotemporal articulation of life-praxis and thus to condition one's fundamental relations to the world and to oneself, and (b) its ability to communicate to us about this world and ourselves, In a period of retrenchment and loss of nerve, the relative functional indifference of architecture can become an opening through which one may glimpse more humanizing relations with others and with nature, More specifically, the powers of architecture can be deployed to implant counterpractices resisting depowerment in the societal context, As part of economic praxis, architecture and urban structure can make possible and can communicate self-determined multiple uses and the life-values involved in them; as part of politics, architecture can encourage direct communication and local action and negotiation; as part of culture, architectural and urban space can open paths to reconstruct and reexperience the fundamental qualities of nature and the societal other, and it can allow us to reappropriate the world by enabling us to open up a horizon for new values and corresponding new forms of praxis; and finally, against the city conceived as an abstract network of instrumentalized powers, architecture could pose the open and articulated city, in which proximity with relatedness safeguards what cities historically have contributed to life-praxis and in which space is a liberative significant component.
Organized Labor and the Housing Question: Public Housing, Suburbanization, and Urban Renewal
Authors: Parson D
Published: October 2006

This paper examines those public-housing, suburbanization, and urban renewal policies in the United States of America that have evolved as a consequence of intraclass struggle. It is argued that the powerful constituency of organized labor was able, in the 1950s, to impose suburbanization as a valid answer to the housing question of the unions, while subsuming the housing demands, needs, and wants of less-powerful women and blacks. By the 1960s, the growing movements of women and blacks were able to challenge the dominance of the labor-liberal coalition and to successfully oppose the union-advocated policies of urban renewal and suburbanization.
The Emergence of Regionalism in a Centralized System: The Case of Israel
Authors: Gradus Y
Published: October 2006

In Israel, government and polities reflect a highly centralized system of operation, This situation, in combination with existing ethnic conflicts between European and Oriental Jews, has contributed to an increased consciousness of the asymmetry of core-periphery relations, thus precipitating a growth in political regionalism, The emergence of regionalism is viewed as a form of protest and rebellion within Israeli society. In this study, regional development policies in Israel arc examined, and a new approach to such activity is proposed—a synthesis between the centralized top-down system and the complementary system of participation from below. It is argued that bottom-up and territorially integrated policies can case the regional crisis in Israel.
The Spatial Approach to the Urban Question: A Comment
Authors: Harris R
Published: October 2006

Two ways of defining the urban question are possible, the social and the spatial. The former has received considerable attention and has been widely discredited. The latter has rarely been defined with clarity and has been inadequately treated in recent reviews. The spatial approach rests upon a view of cities as places where proximity offers uniquely urban opportunities and problems. Such a definition is inadequate, not because space is unimportant but because urban and nonurban space do not differ in kind.
Regionalism versus Realism
Authors: Hebbert M
Published: October 2006

This paper is a critical discussion of the ‘bottom-upward’ school of regional studies associated particularly with the names of John Friedmann and Walter Stöhr. First identified is the key argument of what we may call neoregionalism, namely its advocacy of regional self-government coupled with policies of local economic protectionism. Whereas neoregionalism approaches the problems of spatially uneven development from the point of view of the individual region, I argue, adopting a ‘realist’ perspective, that these problems can only be interpreted and resolved within a national framework. In particular, the prospects for regional self-government must be assessed in the light of their implications for national economic performance, political integration, and interregional competition. Federal systems offer a fruitful field for study of the national and interregional implications of regional autonomy, particularly where that autonomy is used for protectionist ends. The comparative experience is briefly reviewed and cautionary lessons are noted about some potential disbenefits of decentralisation to which insufficient attention has been paid within the neoregionalistic perspective. Finally, conclusions are drawn about regional reform and what can realistically be expected of it.
Beyond Geography and Literature
Authors: Silk J
Published: October 2006

Current work on Geography and Literature is almost entirely characterised by an experiential approach in which theoretical suppositions are implicit and in which ‘literary’ is very narrowly defined. Three major theoretical approaches to the study of literature are considered, and it is argued that elements of all three are required in a Marxist analysis which has the goal of exposing and combating bourgeois ideology. In conclusion, examples are given of areas of geographic research where such intervention might prove effective.
Reflections on Gunnar Olsson's Contribution to the Discourse of Contemporary Human Geography
Authors: Philo C
Published: October 2006

During the 1970s, the emphasis in Gunnar Olsson's work entailed a shift from linguistic investigations with a philosophical flavour to linguistic experiments seen as the core of a new social science. Both of these phases in Olsson's thinking have been received, however, with scepticism by human geographers. An attempt is made here to allay some of this scepticism by demonstrating the relevance of Olsson's concerns, first to the critique of a positivist and functionalist human geography, and second to the emergent ‘agency-structure’ debate as this touches upon the concerns of human geographers. In the latter respect it is suggested that Olsson's focus on the internal dimensions of the meshing of individual and society can perhaps complement the structurationist focus on the more external dimensions of the meshing of agency and structure.
Structuration, Biography Formation, and Knowledge: Observations on Port Growth during the Late Mercantile Period
Authors: Pred A
Published: October 2006

The impact of human agency and constraining and enabling structural conditions on the growth of ports during the late mercantile period is addressed from three vantage points. Fernand Braudel's works on mercantile capitalism are reassessed. A prepositional summary of my own theory of place as historically contingent process is presented. Finally, the interplay of biography formation, knowledge acquisition, and the growth of Boston, Massachusetts, between 1783 and 1812 is considered.
Territorial Reproduction and Transformation in a Local Labor Market; The Animated Film Workers of Los Angeles
Authors: Scott A J
Published: October 2006

The paper opens with a brief account of the economic and technical characteristics of the animated film industry, The specifications of a questionnaire survey of the animated film workers of Los Angeles are outlined, and some initial statistical summaries highlighted. The geographical outlines of the local labor market for animated film workers are described, An attempt is then made to analyze the observed spatial patterns by means of standard gravity-entropy equations, It is demonstrated that there is a trade-off between commuting distances and wage rates in this labor market. The relations between labor turnover, employment, and location are examined, and it is hypothesized that there is a positive correlation between high turnover rates and the geographical agglomeration of employment places. The politico-geographical consequences of these manifold relations are examined. It is indicated that animated film studios are in practice engaging in strategies of the redeployment of production capabilities and this is leading to a marked transformation of the local labor market. In the final section of the paper an attempt is made to distill the lessons of the analysis in terms of a suggested theory of territorial reproduction and transformation.