bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Urban Growth and Housing-Market Change: Aberdeen 1968 to 1978
Authors: Jones C , Maclennan D
Published: October 2006

The development of North Sea oil transformed the Aberdeen economy and created a rare example of recent, focused, and rapid urban growth in the United Kingdom. First, a comparative static view of housing-market adjustments induced by just such an exogenous shock is set out. This leads on to a consideration of the dynamics of urban change through the specification of a stages model. This model is examined by the analysis of local house-price trends, new house-building, and residential mobility patterns in Aberdeen during the 1970s.
A Stochastic Model of the Propagation of Local Fire Fronts in New York City: Implications for Public Policy
Authors: Wallace R
Published: October 2006

A stochastic model of block-level advancing contagious urban decay in New York City, under conditions of inadequate fire extinguishment services, is presented, based on earlier observations that spread of contagious urban decay in small areas of New York involves sudden clusters of fires which propagate from affected blocks to those nearby, as landlords withdraw maintenance services from occupied buildings near damaged structures, in preparation for abandonment. Earlier work on on propagation in time is thus generalized to propagation in space and time. It is found that, under conditions of contagious urban decay, programs of community stabilization, fire prevention, and fire extinguishment may interact synergistically. Thus, failure to address properly the adequacy of available fire extinguishment, and other, related, municipal services, may seriously compromise and undercut community rehabilitation activities. Simple generalization of the stochastic model leads directly to the inference that correlation between spatial patterns of susceptibility to contagious urban decay and to susceptibility to breakdown of municipal services can markedly raise the rate of propagation of urban decay—a phenomenon not as easily seen in deterministic analyses. Suggestions are made for further empirical and theoretical studies, in the context of recently announced and executed further cutbacks of fire extinguishment services provided for poor minority communities of New York City.
Retail Activity Allocation Modeling with Endogenous Retail Prices and Shopping Travel Costs
Authors: Oppenheim N
Published: October 2006

A model of retail activity allocation and shopping trip assignment, with endogenous zonal commodity prices and costs of travel, is developed, based on three main assumptions. First, the revenues from sales of retail goods in each zone are assumed to be in balance with the costs of supplying such goods. Second, shoppers in each zone of residence are distributed to shopping zones according to a logit function of a generalized cost of shopping and traveling. Third, shoppers choose a travel route to the store such that their cost of travel is minimized. The model solution thus represents an economic, market-clearing equilibrium and a transportation network equilibrium.

The model is then applied to assess the impacts, on a hypothetical commercial activity and travel system, of various changes in physical and economic conditions, as well as the result of the imposition of constraints on zonal retail activity and/or prices. The results provide some insight into the sometimes counterintuitive interactions between the key variables and illustrate the potential use of the model for policy analysis purposes.

Possible areas for further refinements of the model are discussed in conclusion.
Production Theory of Land Rent
Authors: Thrall G I
Published: October 2006

The production theory of land rent (PTLR) contributes to knowledge of the spatial distribution of production activities. The PTLR is a general theory of a multidimensional commercial landscape. The PTLR is a heuristic model that provides explanation and trajectory for the spatial pattern of commercial land use, land value, density, capital used, labor wages, and level of employment.
Residential Density Patterns in London—Any Role Left for the Exponential Density Gradient?
Authors: Crampton G R
Published: October 2006

In this paper the theoretical economic foundations of the exponential function is reviewed, prior to an investigation of whether the familiar flattening of density gradients may be easily explained by the factors and trends most often used in practice. These are the effect of real income growth on residential land consumption and of possible improvements in speed as well as cheaper fares in the means of commuting. Density gradient estimations are carried out for London, with use of data from wards and London boroughs. A variety of different functional forms are tested, and the possibility is examined of a density discontinuity generated by the River Thames. Weighted regression techniques are used to correct for biases caused by wide variation in the areas used for observations. Finally, the actual variation of real incomes together with real fuel prices and fares on public transport in London are studied. It is concluded that these factors do not explain the observed flattening of density gradients, so that explanations must rest in other directions such as vintage factors and employment subcentres.
The Interindustry Employment Demand Variable: An Extension of the I-SAMIS Technique for Linking Input—Output and Econometric Models
Authors: Coomes P , Olson D , Glennon D
Published: October 2006

Moghadam and Ballard's I-SAMIS (integrated small-area modeling of the industrial sector) approach of linking input—output and econometric models is extended in three ways: (1) the interindustry demand variable (IDV), which incorporates input—output linkages into time-series employment equations, is modified to reflect differences in labor productivity among industries; (2) the IDVs are calculated by using a regional, rather than national, input—output model; and (3) the industry focus is broadened to include nonmanufacturing industries. The paper is concluded by a discussion of the I-SAMIS model constructed for the Louisville metropolitan area.
Planning and Afforestation in Scotland: The Nature and Role of Afforestation Consultations
Authors: Mather A S
Published: October 2006

Afforestation is not subject to development control in Britain, but local planning authorities may exert an influence on it through consultation procedures relating to Forestry Commission planting grants. The operation of these procedures in Scotland in 1988–89 is reviewed. Their analysis suggests a high rate of outcomes in accordance with requests from local planning authorities. Nevertheless, dissatisfaction has been expressed over the working of the consultation procedures. The paradox of apparent performance and dissatisfaction is discussed.
Consumer Shopping and Equilibrium Market Areas in the Presence of Demands for Nonshopping Goods and for Leisure
Authors: Bacon R W
Published: October 2006

The standard model of the equilibrium spatial market area and price for a single shopping good is extended to the case where the consumer devotes some income to a nonshopping (outside) good or to obtaining leisure. The presence of an outside good, which does not incur transport or inventory costs, is shown to affect the market area and price of the shopping good according to the relative preference between the goods. The price of the outside good has no effect on the market area and equilibrium price of the shopping good when the utility function is of a simple Bergson type. The generalization to a model where leisure is a source of utility, and where shopping time and working time reduce the amount of leisure, yields richer results. In particular, not only do relative preferences affect the price and market area for the shopping good, but also the wage rate affects demands and prices. Variations in the time required to travel to the shop and the time needed to do the shopping are shown to have opposite effects on the equilibrium market area and prices. Numerical calculations of elasticities of market areas and prices show that variations in all time-related parameters have an important impact and hence should not be ignored in modelling the factors which determine the size of a spatial market.
AIDS Deaths in the Bronx 1983–1988: Spatiotemporal Analysis from a Sociogeographic Perspective
Authors: Wallace R , Fullilove M T
Published: October 2006

Patterns of AIDS deaths, in space and time, are examined for the populous Bronx section of New York City in view of the continuing massive destruction of housing and disruption of community which has affected the South Bronx since the early 1970s. Annual Bronx AIDS deaths are studied simultaneously in geographic space and in a dual ‘social variate’ space, and it is found that study of linked changes in each deeply illuminates patterns in both. This analysis reinforces a rapidly growing body of work which suggests control of AIDS in the United States, particularly prevention of a widespread and relentlessly rising heterosexual phase of the epidemic, may well prove impossible without a timely, general, and considerable program of reform and renewal for its disintegrating inner cities.
Business Reorganisation and Regional Development: The Case of the British Building Societies Movement
Authors: Gentle C J S , Marshall J N , Coombes M G
Published: October 2006

In this paper the impact of corporate restructuring in the British building societies movement is examined as an example of the changing organisation of the financial services industry, a significant component of the service sector. It is argued that regulatory changes, which have broken down the segmented and compartmentalised nature of the financial sector, have provided the opportunity for large building societies to diversify into new markets, and this in turn has encouraged a round of innovation in the financial services industry. It is also suggested that as the building society movement has become more deeply integrated into the financial sector as a whole, this has promoted a drift in employment towards the south and east of the country and a shift back to larger urban areas in the provinces.
The Bid—Choice Land-Use Model: An Integrated Economic Framework
Authors: Martínez F J
Published: October 2006

Alonso's bid-rent theory and the discrete-choice random-utility theory appear in the literature as well-established alternative frameworks to model urban land use. As both approaches share the support of microeconomic theory, the main issue addressed in this paper is the theoretical comparison of the two approaches. It is demonstrated that in perfectly competitive land markets these approaches are equivalent, therefore they should be understood as complementary rather than alternative. The case of markets subject to speculative land prices is then explored for the cases of speculative supply and/or speculative demand, with the discovery that both approaches are theoretically equivalent in every case studied, thus extending the previous conclusion for the general case. These conclusions provide the base for an integrated and more comprehensive urban economic theory and for the bid-choice land-use model.
Industrial Restructuring and the Dynamics of City-State Adjustments
Authors: Ho K C
Published: October 2006

This paper directs attention to the rapid industrial changes experienced by the city-state in the past thirty years and the problems associated with a maturing economy. To provide a deeper understanding of the adjustment process, the analysis is done within the context of firm, state, and labour interactions. The analysis indicates that with land and labour resources becoming fully utilised, the city-state adjusts to the requirements of international capital by increasing the regional, technical, and sectoral division of labour.
Human-Environmental Influences and Interactions in Shifting Agriculture When Farmers Form Expectations Rationally
Authors: Jones D W , O'Neill R V
Published: October 2006

This paper contains a study of the response of shifting agriculture to several social and environmental changes in circumstances in which farmers form in a relatively sophisticated manner their expectations of the future values of key economic variables. Farmers are ‘given’ a model of expectations formation in which the expected future value of variables interact in the same manner as in the current period. With this structure of expectations, the responses of the length of fallow period (the inverse of the percentage of available land cultivated in the initial period), the total area of land under cultivation and lying fallow in the initial period of a rotational cycle, and the initial-period wage rate and spatial structure of land rent to changes in several social and environmental parameters are examined. Several salient characteristics commonly attributed to shifting, or rotational, agriculture are replicated. Higher crop prices and increased population shorten fallow periods. Those same changes also increase the total area of land under shifting agriculture. Higher interest rates also shorten fallow periods. Fallows are longer at locations farther from central markets. Less commonly recognized is that social feedbacks operate to reduce pressure on more fragile land, although this does not imply that, other things being equal, fragile tropical land will not be ‘overused’ in an ecological sense.
Determinants of Fertility in Urban and Rural Kenya: Estimates and a Simulation of the Impact of Education Policy
Authors: Hyatt D E , Milne W J
Published: October 2006

The continuing high fertility rate in Kenya is of considerable concern as the resulting high rate of population growth makes improvements in living standards difficult, if not impossible. In this paper, the determinants of fertility in urban and rural areas of Kenya are examined through estimation of a probit model which includes variables in three categories: economic, biological, and social or cultural. Also simulated is the effect of increasing the levels of female education on the total fertility rate and the total number of births. Results show that improvements in female education can result in a substantial decrease in the number of births in Kenya, thereby suggesting that formulation of government policy in this area is desirable.
Geographic Influences on the Uptake of Infant Immunisations: 1. Concepts, Models, and Aggregate Analyses
Authors: Senior M L , New S J , Gatrell A C , Francis B J
Published: October 2006

This is the first of two papers in which the effects on the uptake of immunisation of transport, time—space, and gender-role constraints, among a wider range of influences, are assessed statistically. A critique of a paper by Jarman et al leads to the formulation of an improved conceptual and statistical framework for analyses of uptake. Within this framework, the possibility of explaining immunisation uptake by using readily available data at the District Health Authority scale is reevaluated. Results suggest that analyses solely at this highly aggregate scale are plagued by the statistical problem of overdispersion, and cannot provide reliable explanations of uptake. Rather, it is argued, disaggregate or, preferably, multilevel analyses are required. Such analyses form the subject matter of the second paper.
Energy-Saving Housing Improvements in Canada (1979–82): A Nested Logit Analysis
Authors: Ferguson M R
Published: October 2006

The determinants of energy-saving housing improvements are analysed in the Canadian context. The data used represent the time in which the Canadian Home Insulation Program (CHIP) and the Canadian Oil Substitution Program (COSP) were operating at their peak. A nested multinomial logit model is estimated, which predicts the likelihood that individual households will carry out different retrofitting measures. In the final model, socioeconomic variables have an impact that is less than anticipated, an indication that the government programs succeeded in reducing socioeconomic barriers to retrofitting. Dwelling characteristics and fuel-type variables are of more importance and provincial dummy variables are often significant. It is concluded that the likelihood of a dwelling retrofit had less to do with the simple socioeconomic surrogates of the occupants than with the nature and location of the dwelling itself. The data reveal further that CHIP and COSP were less effective since they operated separately, and that the hypothesized nested decision structure is an appropriate one.
The Land Market in Mexico under Salinas: A Real-Estate Boom Revisited?
Authors: Jones G , Jiménez E , Ward P
Published: October 2006

It is a central contention of urban political economy that changes in the macroeconomy will have demonstrable effects on land and housing markets. However, in few empirical studies has this relationship been investigated, particularly in cities of developing economies. The structure of the land market in Mexico under the changing economic conditions heralded by the election of Carlos Salinas de Gortari as Mexican President for the six-year ( sexenio) period 1988–94 is studied in this paper. It is argued that the immediate policies of Salinas, especially the control of inflation, brought about a return to the favourable conditions of real-estate investment that had existed throughout most of the 1970s. But more recent policies and particularly those of economic liberalization may not bode quite so well for those wishing to place a large part of their investment portfolios in real estate. The paper concludes with some comments on the development of the land market and land prices as the Salinas sexenio progresses and some speculations about the type of legacy that will be left for his successor.
From Production Systems to Learning Systems: Lessons from Japan
Authors: Patchell J
Published: October 2006

The need to advance the conventional understanding of production systems as fixed flows of goods and services to dynamic systems based on learning is discussed. The theory advanced is based on research on the Japanese robot industry. The paper opens with a discussion of the meaning of flexibility in a dynamic economy to expose the social division of labour as the foundation of the creation and evolution of production systems. Production systems are established to obtain the scale and scope economies offered by the independent firms of the social division of labour. The necessity to organize production requires the creation of some type of an internal or external governance structure. The Japanese have developed a social technology that resolves the transaction cost trade-offs confronting North American industry between internal and external governance structures. Asanuma's relation-specific skill is discussed as the crux for comprehending the shift from production systems to learning systems.
A Three-Dimensional Approach to Multistream Migration Modelling: Local-Level Flows in Hereford and Worcester
Authors: Boyle P
Published: October 2006

Population migration occurs for many reasons, or combinations of reasons. Subsequently, it is often useful to distinguish streams of migrants, within a given migration system, which are likely to exhibit similar characteristics in their pattern of search and choice of residential destination. This has often been achieved by using distance cutoffs to delimit the various flows into categories. In this paper, an approach is suggested which does not disaggregate migrant flows by distance criteria alone, but incorporates measures relating to the nature of the origins and of the destinations. Relatively homogeneous groups of migrants are therefore distinguished within the county of Hereford and Worcester with information from three dimensions rather than one. In comparison with a standard single-stream regression model this method improves the fit substantially, and the variability in the resulting parameter estimates for each of the eight streams supports the need for identification of distinct migrant streams. In particular, flows over short distances between wards with high population densities are estimated more effectively.
Geographies of Opportunity: A Regional Analysis of Gender-Specific Social and Spatial Mobilities in England and Wales, 1971–81
Authors: Fielding A , Halford S
Published: October 2006

First, a regional analysis of the social mobilities of men and women nonmigrants is carried out. Second, the way in which regional context structures the options open to men and women is discussed, and, third, the fortunes of male and female interregional migrants are traced. The principal empirical results are: (1) that nonmigrant social mobilities have gender-specific spatial structures; (2) that this gender specificity is greater for upward than for downward social mobility; (3) that women are especially likely to be upwardly mobile in the South East region, and particularly so for entry into managerial posts; (4) that migrant social mobilities have gender-specific spatial structures; (5) that flows to the South East involve upward social mobilities both for men and for women but are relatively to the advantage of women's careers; and (6) that flows from the South East often involve the exit of women from the labour market, imply sideways or upward mobility for men, but are strongly to the disadvantage of women's employment careers.
Approaches to Modelling Overdispersion in the Analysis of Migration
Authors: Congdon P
Published: October 2006

In this paper the modelling of overdispersion in generalised Poisson and multinomial models of migration flows and rates is considered, and its importance within the wider question of substantive model specification is shown. It is argued that substantive specification and the modelling of overdispersion are closely interrelated. Simplified ways of estimating the form of overdispersion—moments methods and pseudo-likelihood—are considered wherever possible. Overdispersion is set within the broader context of correlation effects which relate to migration—correlation across different destinations, between spatially adjacent origins and destinations, and between different time periods. The data used to illustrate the modelling development are drawn from the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys Longitudinal Study, the decennial Census, and the National Health Service Central Register.
The Preference for Owner-Occupation
Authors: McLaverty P , Yip N M
Published: October 2006

There have been a number of surveys of people's housing-tenure preferences in the last few years, all of which show large majorities preferring to own rather than rent their dwelling. Debate rages, however, about how the survey findings should be interpreted. The theoretical debate has not been helped by the limited information supplied in many of the surveys. Using data in the 1978 General Household Survey (GHS), Littlewood made a more detailed analysis of tenure preferences, providing a basis for future longitudinal studies of changing tenure preferences. In the 1988 GHS, respondents were asked the same questions as in 1978 about their housing-tenure preferences. The findings of the 1988 survey have been analysed and, in this paper, those findings are compared with the results of Littlewood's analysis of the 1978 data and provide some important information which can contribute to a theoretical understanding of changing tenure preferences and to the debates about the meaning of expressed tenure preferences. Where possible Littlewood's methods have been replicated; where this was not possible, an attempt has been made to give an explanation in the appropriate part of the text. Also, Littlewood's analysis has been extended in certain areas. However, it is argued that although some important information is provided in this paper, if an understanding of the significance of people's housing-tenure preferences is to be achieved, more in-depth interviewing of a qualitative or discursive nature is needed.
Foreign Direct Investment and Joint Ventures in East-Central Europe: A Geographical Perspective
Authors: Michalak W Z
Published: October 2006

Capital flows in the form of foreign direct investment (FDI) are becoming one of the major mechanisms of interaction between Western and East-Central Europe. The major objective in this paper is to assess the extent and distribution of FDI between Czechoslovakia (before its breakup), Hungary, and Poland at the beginning of 1992. A detailed examination of the new investment patterns is followed by an analysis of the capital flows by geographical origin of investors and sector of the economy. In addition, the political and economic reasons for emerging regional differences in terms of FDI are discussed. The conclusions are focused on possible scenarios for future FDI in the region and its importance in the European integration process. It is clear that the benefits of direct Western investment in the former Eastern Europe stretch well beyond narrowly defined economic interests.
Environmental Standards versus Structural Changes as Sustainability Alternatives: An Empirical Evaluation of Nitrate Pollution Control
Authors: Pan J H , Hodge I D
Published: October 2006

The debate on the appropriate criteria for environmental sustainability encompasses a variety of approaches, ranging from conventional environmental standards through to complete system changes. In this paper, the relevance of the sustainability debate to practical decisionmaking is tested in an empirical context of nitrate pollution control in eastern England. Five alternative criteria (no control, aggregate and uniform standards, low and zero nitrogen-input systems) are specified for examination. These are assessed and compared by using a linear programming model. Conventional environmental standards are seen as more cost-effective than low and zero input systems. It appears that various approaches can be consistent with sustainability objectives and are relevant to environmental management problems. The choice of approaches has significant environmental and economic implications in practice. However, all the control alternatives have their own strengths and each may be preferable in some specific circumstances.
Enter the Dragon: Lessons for Australia from Northeast Asia?
Authors: Webber M
Published: October 2006

The 1980s saw a conscious restructuring of economic life in Australia. The direction of that restructuring was derived partly from prescriptions about the virtues of free trade and government deregulation. Another influence has been the view that the economic success of Japan and the Asian ‘dragons’ is because of their adoption of free trade and liberal market regimes. In this paper, evidence from Korea and Taiwan is used to show that this interpretation is seriously flawed. The growth of the dragons was not driven by comparative advantage. Rather, the industries of the dragons were set up independently of their competitiveness; some became competitive by exporting. Industrialisation in the newly industrialised countries (NICs) exemplifies a variety of forms of local initiative by a state: how does it have the will and power to create industrial policy? The development of state policy depends on local class structures and perceptions of the global political and economic environment that nullify attempts simply to copy policy into different social and economic circumstances. The lessons of the economic success of the Northeast Asian NICs are improperly drawn in two respects: these are dirigiste, not free market, economies; and even if that intervention has been for the good it does not follow that similar policies could be applied, much less be successful, in the different place that is Australia. This is the geographic lesson: places differ, and so, therefore, must policies.
Business Service Use by Manufacturing Firms in Mid Wales
Authors: Hitchens D M W N , O'Farrell P N , Conway C
Published: October 2006

The use of business services by small and medium-sized independent manufacturing firms located in the Mid Wales region is quantified. A cross section of services which provide clients with strategic information and expertise is focused upon; for example, training, market research, and product design. The main concern is with constraints upon the use of services arising from the location. Internal and external provision of services is examined. The source of supply of external services and the use of grant-aided services and services supplied by the Development Board for Rural Wales are considered. Difficulties arising from gaps in service availability or quality are reported. The level of use of external services by matched manufacturing firms within close proximity to a regional concentration of business services in peripheral Northern Ireland is contrasted.
Climate Change and Agricultural Production: An Extensive Averaged Spatial-Ecologic Approach
Authors: Alden D M
Published: October 2006

In this paper, the ‘extensive averaged spatial-ecologic’ approach for assessing the direct impacts of climate change on international agricultural production is developed. The approach allows the temporal impacts of climate change to be determined, measured in terms of the degree of adaptation of the agricultural sector to climate change. Use is made of a world agricultural commodity markets model, constructed with the static World Policy Simulation modelling framework, to determine the combined direct and indirect temporal impacts of an ‘enhanced greenhouse effect’ climate scenario.
Labor Recruitment in Taiwan: A Corporate Strategy in Industrial Restructuring
Authors: Tsay C-L
Published: October 2006

In this paper empirical evidence is presented based on a recent nationwide survey conducted in Taiwan concerning industrial responses to rising labor costs and shortages. Four types of corporate strategies are discussed, namely, the recruitment of part-time workers, the importation of foreign workers, the provision of training for employees, and the substitution of labor with automation. It is found that all four strategies are increasingly being practised, particularly the employment of foreign workers as a short-term solution in the processes of industrial restructuring.
Housing New Zealand Ltd: Privatisation by Stealth
Authors: Murphy L , Kearns R A
Published: October 2006

Like a number of other capitalist countries, New Zealand has recently undergone considerable economic restructuring. As part of this process, and representing a major policy redirection, the state has introduced a process of corporatisation and privatisation into the social service sector. In this paper we examine the processes involved in the shift from social rented housing to the emergence of a state-owned, commercially-oriented company, Housing New Zealand Ltd. We propose that the policy changes are ill-conceived, risking fiscal blowout for the state, and are likely to increase the marginalisation and poverty of tenants.
Probable Writing: Derrida, Deconstruction, and the Quantitative Revolution in Human Geography
Authors: Barnes T J
Published: October 2006

The purpose of this paper is to use the work of Derrida in order to deconstruct the justifications and techniques associated with the quantitative revolution in human geography during the 1960s. The paper is divided into four main parts. First, the idea of deconstruction as proposed by Derrida is summarized. Second, the five justifications that have been proposed for the use of mathematics by early quantitative geographers are given—universality, logicalness, objectivity, simplicity, and precision. Those justifications, it is argued, act in Derrida's terms as ‘presences’ on which the logocentric system of mathematics is founded. Third, those five justifications are then deconstructed. It is argued that each justification is beset by a contradiction that, in turn, mitigates the realization of the final logocentric system of mathematics. Fourth, by way of a case study, one particular type of mathematics is examined, inferential statistics. It is suggested that inferential statistics is based not upon some final presence, but on a metaphor taken from eugenics. That metaphor, however, clashed with several existing ones within traditional geography with the result that it ultimately failed, a fact subsequently recognized even by the geographical proponents of quantitative methods.
Writing on Patriarchal Missiles: The Chauvinism of the ‘Gulf War’ and the Limits of Critique
Authors: Sparke M
Published: October 2006

The limits of critique are politically significant. Such politics become examinable through deconstruction as a form of interested closure. To do this, however, it is first necessary to distinguish the Derridean deconstruction of writing from the purely literalist interpretations it is commonly but mistakenly given. The example subsequently used as an illustration of limited critique is a conference paper on the ‘Gulf War’ previously presented by the author in 1991. This paper drew on feminist psychoanalytic theories in order to critique the geopolitical effects of masculinist nationalism made manifest in the war. It is reprinted here and then reexamined in terms of its problematic production of truth through writing. This reexamination is pursued at three levels: by considering the conference paper's instrumentalisation of feminist theories and the questions this entails about male academics and feminism; by examining the dangers of normalisation inherent to the normative frameworks of psychoanalytic criticism; and by indicating some of the specific differences that were concealed as this form of criticism was brought to bear in an explanation of the chauvinism of the war. Although deconstruction is shown to offer a way of monitoring how critique risks erasing the heterogeneous through an inevitable essentialism, it is also argued that it is vital to come to terms with the political definition of such risks.
Methodological Steps in the Development of Multivariate Indexes for Urban and Regional Policy Analysis
Authors: Coombes M , Wong C
Published: October 2006

Urban and regional policies are increasingly targeted by area. The common feature of this drive towards the targeting of public policy is the need for improved information on the candidate areas and better methodologies to aid the prioritisation process. The pressure for more and better information is also increased by recent academic and policy debates around the importance of identifying the distinctiveness of individual regions and localities in terms of their strengths and weaknesses. In this paper, four basic steps for a well-founded targeting analysis are identified. There is a need: to clarify the concept to be measured; to specify the key issues by which the concept is to be represented; to identify adequate statistical indicators covering those issues; and to create an overall index to summarise the information. In the penultimate section of the paper it is emphasised that there are numerous ways to produce a multivariate index and that the choice between them is not simple but will greatly affect the results obtained. Although it is stressed that different options will be more appropriate for different purposes, some ‘best-practice’ guidelines are identified.
Spatial Linkages and Subcontracting Relationships among High-Technology Industries in the Northeast Ohio Region
Authors: Clarke A E
Published: October 2006

In this paper the input, sales, and subcontracting linkages for a sample of high-technology establishments in Northeast Ohio are described. Viewed from theoretical perspectives on subcontracting, the types of linkages which these establishments maintain and the spatial extent of their subcontracting arrangements are investigated. Inputs to the production process and sales of intermediate and final goods are also examined to identify the regional and interregional patterns of activities. These establishments maintain the bulk of their linkages with the durable goods industries of the industrial heartland. Subcontracting transactions are confined largely to Northeast Ohio and the other major metropolitan industrial regions of the Midwest. Sales of products are more geographically dispersed, both interregionally and internationally. These findings demonstrate that interfirm transactions are both numerous and geographically specific. They support theoretical statements about the structure and extent of transactions in metropolitan-based industrial complexes.
Money Order? The Discursive Construction of Bretton Woods and the Making and Breaking of Regulatory Space
Authors: Leyshon A , Tickell A
Published: October 2006

In this paper we analyse the ‘ordering’ of the international financial system in the 20th century, focusing upon the making and breaking of ‘Bretton Woods’. We argue for a more reflective, reflexive, and historical economic geography and for the need to take economic discourse seriously. This argument is developed by providing two accounts of the rise and fall of the Bretton Woods System. The first of these accounts is drawn from regulation theory, the second from neo-Gramscian political economy. These alternative accounts of the creation of the Bretton Woods System, and of the later reactions to its crisis, focus attention upon the central role of economic discourse in ordering economic processes in general and financial processes in particular. In making sense of the making and breaking of Bretton Woods, regulationist and neo-Gramscian approaches have afforded greater importance to issues of discursivity and have been more attentive to matters of money and finance. These developments are seen to be constituent of one another. The world of money is increasingly one of interpretative power struggles, where competing sets of scripts and discourses conjure up alternative plausible ‘orderings’ of the economic world. Moreover, the speed at which the discursive world of money and finance transforms itself continues to accelerate, so that the time—space horizons of the financial world are now at odds with those of conventional political thinking and of extant political institutions. This ontological disjuncture signifies an important imbalance between the social power of financial capital and those who would wish to bring about a ‘reordering’ of the economic world in favour of less powerful social groups.
Visualizing Changing Social Structure from a Census
Authors: Dorling D
Published: October 2006

In this paper it is shown how new visualization techniques are being used to analyze the first results of the British 1991 Census and other large data sets. Of interest here are questions about how localities have developed over time; which neighbourhoods have experienced gentrification and in which places have the recessions of the previous decades had their worst effects? Overall, do we see a picture of polarization or a levelling out of social disparities either locally or nationally? It is argued that these questions cannot be answered by conventional quantitative techniques because the answers are unlikely to be simple enough to be presentable in tables or by equations. Pictures are needed to show how different processes occur in different places, and holistic patterns need also to be seen without generalizing out the detail. Neither traditional thematic mapping nor commercial geographic information systems can do this well. Spatial visualization is an alternative approach in which the researchers choose what they wish to see and how they wish to view it. Many problems require new methods of visualization for their exploration. A new census presents us not only with new statistics, but also with the opportunity and impetus to develop radically different ways of envisioning information to reveal more fully the human facts contained within a mass of social statistics.
Manufacturing the Electric Vehicle: A Window of Technological Opportunity for Southern California
Authors: Quandt C O
Published: October 2006

The California Air Resources Board has mandated that by 1998 2% of new vehicles sold in California must be zero emission, effectively, electric vehicles. This requirement is largely responsible for the electric vehicle development programs run by almost every global automobile manufacturer that does business in the United States. At present, no single electric vehicle technology, from battery type, to propulsion system, to vehicle design, represents a standard for a protoelectric vehicle industry. In this paper competing electric vehicle technologies are reviewed, leading public and private electric vehicle research programs worldwide are summarized, and the barriers faced by competing technological systems in terms of manufacturing and infrastructural requirements are examined.
The Exact Distribution of Moran's I
Authors: Tiefelsdorf M , Boots B
Published: October 2006

In analogy to the exact distribution of the Durbin—Watson d statistic for serial autocorrelation of regression residuals, the exact small sample distribution of Moran's I statistic (or alternatively Geary's c) can be derived. Use of algebraic results by Koerts and Abrahamse and theoretical results by Imhof, allows the authors to determine by numerical integration the exact distribution function of Moran's I for normally distributed variables. For the case in which the explanatory variables have been neglected, an upper and a lower bound can be given within which the exact distribution of Moran's I for regression residuals will lie. Furthermore, the proposed methodology is flexible enough to investigate related topics such as the characteristics of the exact distribution for distinct spatial structures as well as their different specifications, the exact power function under different spatial autocorrelation levels, and the distribution of Moran's I for nonnormal random variables.
Private Worlds and Public Places: Mapping the Environmental Values of Wheelchair Users
Authors: Matthews M H , Vujakovic P
Published: October 2006

For people with locomotor difficulties space can frequently raise insurmountable problems which at first sight may seem so trivial to able-bodied persons that they become ignored. Space is often difficult to deal with, but seldom are the views of the physically disabled acknowledged in mapping and urban design.
Middle-Class Territory? Some Remarks on the Use of Class Analysis in Rural Studies
Authors: Murdoch J
Published: October 2006

Class analysis per se seems to have fallen out of favour in rural studies. In this paper the way in which it might usefully be reinstated as a unitary perspective on rural change is examined. The middle class is used as a focal point for the analysis. First, a short review of recent developments in class analysis within sociology is presented, and it is argued that class should be considered as an outcome of the various processes of collective action contributing to class formation. Second, some recent examples of class analysis in rural studies in the United Kingdom are considered. It is argued that these have been insufficiently attentive to the ways in which the processes of class formation unfold in the rural arena and the constitutive role of rural space. Yet rural England provides a particularly fruitful context in which to study middle-class collective action, for collective action is increasingly dominated by this class. Other forms of action associated with other attributes, such as race, ethnicity, and gender, are only likely to be successfully asserted if they reinforce the general character of this class context. In conclusion, the argument is made for a symmetrical use of class analysis, one which is in a subtle and complex relationship both with empirical work and with other forms of interpretation and analysis. It is proposed that the performative definition which underlies this paper provides such a symmetry.
Sustainability, Agriculture, and Agricultural Policy
Authors: Bowers J
Published: October 2006

In this paper, the problem of achieving sustainable development in the context of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and other policy suggestions is examined. Sustainable development is defined as a commitment to conserve necessary biological, cultural, and aesthetic capital for future generations. This is not a costless process. Constraints are required on current economic activity, entailing sacrifices by the current generation, if sustainability requirements are to be met. Specific wildlife sites within the farmed landscape are critical to the sustainability programme. Conservation of these sites entails the continuation of specific and often technically obsolete farming practices. Their conservation cannot be ensured by the practice of efficient sustainable agriculture as advocated by the authors Pretty and Howes. Furthermore, those authors are wrong in believing that such agriculture could be profitable without continuing subsidy. The approach of the CAP is to make payments for the practices necessary to safeguard these sites. However, the economic sustainability of the CAP is doubtful. Its costs are excessive and reforms are not reducing the excessive financial burden and resource costs. Alternative reform packages involving conservation through cross-compliance have even greater resource costs. The ability to safeguard these critical sites in the long run is therefore questionable. This suggests there is a need to rethink sustainability requirements for cultural and biological diversity.
Constructing Quality: Emerging Food Networks in the Rural Transition
Authors: Marsden T K , Arce A
Published: October 2006

In this paper some of the main reasons for a renewed examination of the relationships between globalisation, the state, and rural development are analysed. It is suggested that there is a need for conceptual development that will allow a study of transnational and regional ‘food networks’ and an analysis of how these networks are embedded in social and political processes and practices. The approach is deliberately integrative and broad based, with existing tensions in current literature identified.
Modeling Store Choices with Cross-Sectional and Pooled Cross-Sectional Data: A Comparison
Authors: Thill J-C
Published: October 2006

Contrary to many other types of spatial decisions, shopping destination choice behavior is highly repetitive. For the practitioner looking for good predictors of store patronage, for reliable marginal utility estimates and reliable market share predictions, a central concern is with the type of data best suited to the research question, given the existing logistic and financial constraints. Different approaches can be recognized in the literature in which conventional discrete choice models are applied to shopping destination choice problems. In this paper, two of the most common practices are assessed and compared. First, the choice model is estimated with all choices of a relevant destination observed during a certain period of time (pooled cross-sectional data). The alternative approach consists in an estimation with the choice of the destination where the majority of purchases takes place (cross-sectional data). In the particular data set employed here, no evidence is found to support the idea that a multinomial logit model estimated with cross-sectional data does not perform as well as a model estimated with pooled cross-sectional data. Both models are found to be similar in their ability to identity the main predictors of store choice. Models developed on either data sets have marginal utility estimates that exhibit no statistically significant differences. Finally, market share predictions derived from both models are not statistically different. It appears, therefore, that there is no need to collect repeated patronage data over an extended period of time. The practitioner who wishes to use a conventional discrete choice model may avoid spending much time and money by gathering limited data on regular patronage patterns. In addition to this practical implication, the conclusions suggest that regular shopping destinations are chosen in accordance with the same behavioral motives as ancillary destinations are.