bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
New Developments in Area-based Initiatives in England: The Experience of the Single Regeneration Budget
Authors: Rhodes John , Tyler Peter , Brennan Angela
Published: January 2004

This article reports recent research that has assessed the achievements of one of the most extensive area-based initiatives (ABIs) that has ever been adopted in England-namely, the Single Regeneration Budget. This research has sought to ascertain whether, at least in relation to the findings from SRB, there is evidence that the ABI has delivered what was expected of it and thus whether the underlying rationale for its deployment was valid. The article focuses on three key areas of relevance to the attainment of local area regeneration. These are: targeting social deprivation; bringing about effective partnership working; and, `bending' the activities of mainstream service providers. This article concludes by considering what the lessons from SRB are for the future shape and form of ABIs.
Patterns and Concentrations of Disadvantage in England: A Rural-Urban Perspective
Authors: Midgley Jane , Hodge Ian , Monk Sarah
Published: January 2004

Concerns have been expressed with regard to the use of both single variables and indices in the assessment of disadvantage. In response, a 'bundles' methodology was adopted. Several variables were combined to define particular conditions acknowledged as representing the main elements posing a risk of disadvantage. Numbers of people facing these circumstances within particular locations were then identified. The approach offers a capability to represent the numbers of people facing different aspects of disadvantage separately. The analysis compares the patterns and concentrations of disadvantage within English rural and urban areas: the general incidence of different types of disadvantage, the correlations between them and concentrations of disadvantage amongst different populations. Consideration is then given to the implications of the analysis for current and future policy.
Airline Traffic and Urban Economic Development
Authors: Brueckner Jan K.
Published: January 2004

This paper provides new evidence on the link between airline traffic and employment in US metropolitan areas. The evidence confirms the common view that good airline service is an important factor in urban economic development. Frequent service to a variety of destinations, reflected in a high level of passenger enplanements, facilitates easy face-to-face contact with businesses in other cities, attracting new firms to the metro area and stimulating employment at established enterprises. The empirical results show that a 10 per cent increase in passenger enplanements in a metro area leads approximately to a 1 per cent increase in employment in service-related industries. However, airline traffic has no effect on manufacturing and other goods-related employment, suggesting that air travel is less important for such firms than for service-related businesses. These estimates are generated controlling for reverse causality between employment and traffic. The results imply that expansion of Chicago's O'Hare airport would raise service-related employment in the Chicago metro area by 185 000 jobs (this impact assumes that expansion raises traffic by 50 per cent). Thus, the expansion of O'Hare airport represents a powerful economic development tool, as argued by its proponents.
Testing the 'Popsicle Test': Realities of Retail Shopping in New 'Traditional Neighbourhood Developments'
Authors: Bartlett Randall
Published: January 2004

The economic viability of 'local walk-to shopping' districts in newly designed 'traditional neighbourhood developments' in the US is examined. Evidence is presented on: the scale and density of development acceptable to Americans; planners' preference for walkable neighbourhoods; and, the size of retail establishments necessary for economic profitability. Data on household expenditures in various categories are compared with the minimum scale for retail outlets to determine development density necessary to support such stores by walk-to shoppers. Alternatively, assuming acceptable development densities, the proportion of shoppers who will have to drive to the retail stores in the development area is examined. The evidence indicates little chance of neighbourhood retail districts surviving on local walk-to shoppers alone.
UK Commercial Property Lease Structures: Landlord and Tenant Mismatch
Authors: Crosby Neil , Gibson Virginia , Murdoch Sandi
Published: January 2004

UK commercial property lease structures have come under considerable scrutiny during the past decade since the property crash of the early 1990s. In particular, tenants complained that the system was unfair and that it has blocked business change. Government is committed, through its 2001 election manifesto, to promote flexibility and choice in the commercial property lettings market and a new voluntary Commercial Leases Code of Practice was launched in April 2002. This paper investigates whether occupiers are being offered the leases they require or whether there is a mismatch between occupier requirements and actual leases in the market. It draws together the substantial data now available on the actual terms of leases in the UK and surveys of corporate occupiers' attitude to their occupation requirements. Although the data indicated that UK leases have become shorter and more diverse since 1990, this is still not sufficient to meet the current requirements of many corporate occupiers. It is clear that the inability to manage entry and exit strategies is a major concern to occupiers. Lease length is the primary concern of tenants and a number of respondents comment on the mismatch between lease length in the UK and business planning horizons. The right to break and other problems with alienation clauses also pose serious difficulties for occupiers, thus reinforcing the mismatch. Other issues include repairing and insuring clauses and the type of review clause. There are differences in opinion between types of occupier. In particular, international corporate occupiers are significantly more concerned about the length of lease and the incidence of break clauses than national occupiers and private-sector tenants are significantly more concerned about leasing in general than public-sector occupiers. Proposed solutions by tenants are predictable and include shorter leases, more frequent breaks and relaxation of restrictions concerning alienation and other clauses. A significant number specify that they would pay more for shorter leases and other improved terms. Short leases would make many of the other terms more acceptable and this is why they are the main concern of corporate occupiers. Overall, the evidence suggests that there continues to be a gap between occupiers' lease requirements and those currently offered by the market. There are underlying structural factors that act as an inertial force on landlords and inhibit the changes which occupiers appear to want. Nevertheless, the findings raise future research questions concerning whether UK lease structures are a constraining factor on UK competitiveness.
Access to Water for the Urban Poor in Cape Town: Where Equity Meets Cost Recovery
Authors: Smith Laila , Hanson Susan
Published: January 2004

Local authorities in South Africa have responded to the post-apartheid promise of redistribution and democratisation by adopting market principles in the delivery of essential services. This article examines a five-year period (1997-2001) of intense local government restructuring in Cape Town, using water distribution as a case study. The focus is upon two cost-recovery policies, underinvestment in infrastructure and water cutoffs, which have been central to a five-year commercialisation process in the water sector. The impact of cost-recovery policies on low-income communities living in the townships is examined in light of the South African government's twin goals of achieving distributional and procedural equity in service delivery. The findings reveal that historical inequities produced through territorial variation in service delivery under apartheid are being recreated through contemporary 'basic needs' approaches and that historically entrenched service debts are leading to widespread water cutoffs (160 000 in 3 years). Both of these cost-recovery policies create local government inefficiencies in the management of water distribution as a public good.
Economic Development in Shanghai and the Role of the State
Authors: Zhang Le-Yin
Published: January 2004

This article examines the economic development process underlying Shanghai's rapid urban transformation in the 1990s. It analyses the key factors that have contributed to the economic development there and assesses critically the role of the state in this process. It concludes that the sheer scale of investment and the national contexts, rather than far-sighted economic management at the local level, are the keys to its economic success. The article further argues that the prevailing views regarding the local state-market relationship in Shanghai need to be revised: beneath the façade of a proactive and omnipotent state are numerous instances of failure and ineffectiveness. Moreover, the market is much more than a tool in the state's decision-making. It is a growing force that the state is trying hard to control, but with increasing difficulties.
Safety in Numbers? Modelling Crowds and Designing Control for the Notting Hill Carnival
Authors: Batty Michael , Desyllas Jake , Duxbury Elspeth
Published: January 2004

Events such as carnivals, parades, rock concerts, football matches, some types of shopping-indeed, any situation involving rapid exit or entrance from or to high-capacity buildings and vehicles—pose significant problems of public safety. Models designed to predict crowding at such events are in their infancy and the best so far simulate panic situations and evacuation possibilities within buildings and similarly confined spaces. In carnivals and street parades, movement is over a much wider area and crowds form as much through competition between attractions as through confinement in small spaces. A model is proposed in which the event space is first explored by agents using 'swarm intelligence'. Armed with information about the space, agents then move in an unobstructed fashion to the event. Congestion is slowly reduced by introducing controls until a 'safe solution' is reached. The latter stages of the simulation require intervention by those who manage the event, the police. The model has been developed to simulate the effect of changing the route of the Notting Hill Carnival, an annual event held over two days in August each year in a 3 sq km area of west central London. The event attracts over 1 million visitors and is widely regarded as posing a major threat to public safety.
Spatial Variation in Road Pedestrian Casualties: The Role of Urban Scale, Density and Land-use Mix
Authors: Graham Daniel J. , Glaister Stephen
Published: January 2004

This paper examines the role of urban scale, density and land-use mix on the incidence of road pedestrian casualties. It develops a spatial model at a disaggregate level that attempts to understand how the nature of the urban environment, with its associated traffic generation characteristics, affects the incidence of road pedestrian casualties. The results show that the characteristics of the local environment have a powerful influence on pedestrian casualties. The incidence of pedestrian casualties and KSIs is higher in residential than in economic zones and a quadratic relationship is found between urban density and pedestrian casualties with incidents diminishing for the most extremely dense wards. Distinguishing broad land-use effects, the paper explores the ways in which population and employment density influence pedestrian casualties.
The Aesthetic Experience of Traffic in the Modern City
Authors: Taylor Nigel
Published: January 2004

In spite of the ubiquity of the motor vehicle in modern cities, there has been relatively little study of its impact on our experience of urban life. After summarising the most significant objectively visible impacts of the motor vehicle on urban form, this article offers a phenomenological analysis and account of our aesthetic experience of road traffic, from the points of view of people both inside motor vehicles as drivers or passengers, and outside vehicles as pedestrians or cyclists. Two aspects of our aesthetic experience are described: our sensory experience of traffic, and then how traffic is experienced cognitively, or at the level of meaning. The article identifies various ways in which 'automobility' has come to dominate our contemporary aesthetic experience of cities.
The (Post-) Socialist Entrepreneurial City as a State Project: Shanghai's Reglobalisation in Question
Authors: Wu Fulong
Published: January 2004

To what extent is it possible to capture the experience of an entrepreneurial endeavour in the post-socialist transition within the thesis of the 'entrepreneurial city'? This paper applies an explicit definition of the entrepreneurial city-namely, the construct of three indispensable elements, including entrepreneurial strategies, entrepreneurial fashion and entrepreneurial discourses—to the city of Shanghai. It is argued that the formation of territorially based entrepreneurialism is a state project in the post-socialist transition. Marketisation and globalisation in this context are entangled processes. Whereas the state's legitimacy embedded in the public ownership of production has been eroded through marketisation, the entrepreneurial project allows the state to tap the market to restore its role in response to perceived, as well as real, globalisation. Through examining three historical metaphors of Shanghai's role in national development, this paper questions the process of the 'reglobalisation' of Shanghai as a transition to the 'global city' rather than its continuity as a globalising Chinese city.
Urbanity, Lifestyle and Making Sense of the New Urban Cultural Economy: Notes from Auckland, New Zealand
Authors: Latham Alan
Published: January 2004

Contemporary urban theory is marked by a division. Urban policy practitioners, planners, architects and town hall administrators have over the past two decades rediscovered an enthusiasm and belief in urban life—as indeed have significant numbers of ordinary citizens. It might have been expected that urban critics from the left would be enthusiastic about this rediscovered urbanity. In fact, the much-vaunted urban renaissance has been robustly criticised by academic urbanists, particularly by those working from within a political economy framework, as little more than elite propaganda. Rather than being defined by a renaissance, the contemporary urban landscape is almost uniquely riven by social divisions. In many ways, the critique offered by academic urbanists is powerful and convincing. But this paper argues that the academic—or urban political economy—critique of the contemporary urban condition comes at too high a price. Recognising the pervasiveness of many of the more destructive trends highlighted by the urban political economists, there is also a need to engage more positively with the broader contemporary enthusiasm for the city. Through a case study of a site in Auckland, New Zealand, the paper seeks to demonstrate how thinking carefully about both the context and the emergence of particular kinds of spaces and types of social practices associated with specific instances of urban change, can help us engage more productively with the current resurgence of interest in urban culture and cities.
Edge Urban Geographies: Notes from the Margins of Europe's Capital Cities
Authors: Phelps N.A. , Parsons N.
Published: January 2004

This paper places edge urban formations at the centre of understanding the rescaling of economic, political and social processes. In the European setting in particular, edge urban areas have been understudied and their contribution to the renewal of metropolitan-scale governance and the growth dynamics of major city-regions left largely unrecognised. Moreover, the diverse lineage and complexity of edge urban processes in the European setting militate against unifying analysis. Some contrasts are drawn implicitly with North American edge cities but in doing so, the concern is to contribute to a geographical analysis of edge urban difference. The paper develops three themes regarding European edge urban formations. Specifically, the paper argues that edge urban settlements have lent not only their economic dynamism but also their political and social dynamism to broader city-regions. It notes the manner in which some of these settlements have, in large measure, been created from spatial planning and redistributive policies. Finally, it notes the 'eccentric geometry' of these edge urban areas which display internal fragmentation and whose institutions have expanded their spaces of engagement within the metropolitan sphere. The paper draws upon research on the governance of three European edge urban areas-Croydon (London), Noisy-le-Grand (Paris) and Getafe (Madrid). The grass-roots political movements of Getafe have conferred a lasting political capacity that has been reactivated within recent metropolitan-wide politics and planning. Noisy-le-Grand is a good example of an 'administratively created nowhere'. The entrepeneurialism of council officers in Croydon has been part of a `Croydonisation' of emerging south London institutions.
Reconfiguring the CBD: Work and Discourses of Design in Sydney's Office Space
Authors: O'Neill Phillip M. , M'Guirk Pauline
Published: January 2004

This paper address the limitations in dominant interpretations of CBD work and workspaces to account for complex processes of reconfiguration currently being experienced in the form of office work, the positioning of office workers and the material and discursive processes shaping CBD workspaces. Drawing on a case study of Sydney, Australia, it examines the impact of economic financialisation on the constitution of office work, highlighting a movement towards practices of association, interaction and shared work space. Then, through an exploration of the design discourses driving the creation of new configurations of office space, an investigation is presented of the connections between new forms of office work and new subjectivities of office workers. Finally, it is argued that interconnections between new forms of work, workspaces and workplace subjectivities are transforming the process of producing CBD office spaces in complex ways that blur the boundaries between so-called public and private realms in a process termed communalisation.
Urban Marginality and Labour Market Restructuring: Local Authority Tenants and Employment in an Inner London Borough
Authors: Watt Paul
Published: January 2004

This paper examines the changing employment circumstances of local authority tenants in the inner London borough of Camden within the context of the radical labour market restructuring which occurred in London during the last third of the 20th century. It draws upon survey data from the 1960s and 1990s in order to assess the scale and impact of employment and housing changes on Camden's local authority tenant population. The final part of the paper uses qualitative work history data to illustrate how the tenants themselves have experienced the increasingly 'flexible' and precarious metropolitan labour market. Various types of employment trajectory are outlined in relation to labour market participation, unemployment and gendered patterns of paid and unpaid work.
Negotiating Their Way In: The Middle Classes, Gentrification and the Deployment of Capital in a Globalising Metropolis
Authors: Butler Tim , Robson Garry
Published: January 2004

In this article, a new approach is outlined to the gentrification of London which argues that it is a diverse phenomenon. This reflects not merely contested explanations for gentrification but more importantly the different ways in which individuals and social groups have reacted to the effect of living and/or working in global cities on their 'work-life balance'. As the middle classes have increasingly lost a sense of place-based rootedness at work, they have been struggling to build it in their domestic and residential lives. For many, this meant a move into the heart of the globalising metropolises. This has been associated with a proliferation of gentrified neighbourhoods in such cities. The paper reports on research undertaken in five such London neighbourhoods and presents three models of neighbourhood gentrification which have each produced their own patterns and narratives of settlement.
Political Economies of Day Labour: Regulation and Restructuring of Chicago's Contingent Labour Markets
Authors: Theodore Nik
Published: January 2004

Day labour and other forms of temporary, casualised and precarious employment lie at the centre of an emergent employment regime that is rewriting labour market rules in major US cities. Flexibilisation of work, processes of regional industrial restructuring and uneven development at the urban scale interact to create the conditions for the spread of low-wage contingent employment. The spread of contingent work has pursued a path of least resistance, destabilising and undermining the already difficult conditions in low-wage labour markets. This has contributed to the reproduction and reinforcement of patterns of labour market segmentation, racial polarisation and social exclusion within urban labour markets. This paper examines the restructuring of urban employment regimes through the lens of low-wage, temporary employment and its attendant social division of labour at the urban scale. The aim is two-fold: first, to examine the ways in which a 'regime of precarious employment' has been embedded within a regional growth model; and, secondly, to describe emerging forms of labour market regulation that are associated with this employment regime.
Domestication by Cappuccino or a Revenge on Urban Space? Control and Empowerment in the Management of Public Spaces
Authors: Atkinson Rowland
Published: January 2004

This paper explores some of the more extreme tendencies in the management of public space to consider whether current policy directions, in this case in central Scotland, are driven by a desire to empower or control users of such spaces. The title of the paper is taken from the theoretical lenses provided by Neil Smith and Sharon Zukin in their differential views on trends in the management and control of public spaces. The paper focuses on two local case studies to examine the possibility that a `revanchist' element is emerging in policies towards public spaces in Britain. The paper concludes that programmes designed to deal with urban and public space are a reaction to both real and perceived problems. However, there has been a privileging of a policy discourse which celebrates the displacement of social problems rather than their resolution. It is argued that such a discourse cannot ultimately provide sustainable policies for the regulation of public spaces and threatens the inclusion of some users of public spaces who may not be considered to be legitimate patrons. While this does more to foster fearful than inclusive public spaces, a thorny question remains over whether some degree of exclusion is a necessary price for policies which seek to secure public space and maintain a wider quality of life.
Zero Tolerance for the Industrial Past and Other Threats: Policing and Urban Entrepreneurialism in Britain and Germany
Authors: Belina Bernd , Helms Gesa
Published: January 2004

Recent years have witnessed changes in the discourses and practices of urban policing towards 'quality-of-life offences' and the presence of unwanted groups (beggars, drug-users) in city centres. The authors argue that the change towards a more 'law-and-order' style of law enforcement, often referred to as Zero Tolerance Policing, has to be examined not solely as a means of crime prevention but also in the context of interurban competition. Thus, it constitutes a moment of the urban political economy, often referred to as urban entrepreneurialism : especially for old industrial cities, safe and clean city centres are regarded as a necessary asset for competition and image promotion. These arguments are developed by discussion of two empirical studies: Glasgow, Scotland, and Essen, in the Ruhr region in Germany.
Remaking Place and Securitising Space: Urban Regeneration and the Strategies, Tactics and Practices of Policing in the UK
Authors: Raco Mike
Published: January 2004

Urban regeneration programmes in the UK over the past 20 years have increasingly focused on attracting investors, middle-class shoppers and visitors by transforming places and creating new consumption spaces. Ensuring that places are safe and are seen to be safe has taken on greater salience as these flows of income are easily disrupted by changing perceptions of fear and the threat of crime. At the same time, new technologies and policing strategies and tactics have been adopted in a number of regeneration areas which seek to establish control over these new urban spaces. Policing space is increasingly about controlling human actions through design, surveillance technologies and codes of conduct and enforcement. Regeneration agencies and the police now work in partnerships to develop their strategies. At its most extreme, this can lead to the creation of zero-tolerance, or what Smith terms 'revanchist', measures aimed at particular social groups in an effort to sanitise space in the interests of capital accumulation. This paper, drawing on an examination of regeneration practices and processes in one of the UK's fastest-growing urban areas, Reading in Berkshire, assesses policing strategies and tactics in the wake of a major regeneration programme. It documents and discusses the discourses of regeneration that have developed in the town and the ways in which new urban spaces have been secured. It argues that, whilst security concerns have become embedded in institutional discourses and practices, the implementation of security measures has been mediated, in part, by the local socio-political relations in and through which they have been developed.
Rising Metropoli: The Geography of Mergers and Acquisitions in Germany
Authors: Rodriguez-Pose Andres , Zademach Hans-Martin
Published: January 2004

High levels of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) were a characteristic of the global economy in the 1990s. The overall effects of M&As on economic welfare and their spatial implications, however, remain a profoundly neglected topic. Using three standardised indices representing the relative quantity of take-overs in each German Regierungsbezirk, the paper demonstrates that the recent wave of M&As has resulted in a major concentration of firms and economic activity in the main German metropoli. The paper then turns to a study of the flows of M&A transactions. By means of regression analysis, it identifies the main drivers of the geographical concentration of firms to be indicators of the general level of agglomeration (i.e. regional GDP and population) and the concentration of political power in the region. The results also indicate that investment in R&D, the general level of education, or unemployment, when considered in combination with agglomeration indicators, play a negligible role in determining M&A flows. With respect to the geographical distance between a merging or acquiring firm and its target, the results are twofold. While, when considered on its own, distance has a very weak or—depending on cases—insignificant association with the territorial distribution of M&A activity, when estimated in conjunction with agglomeration, proximity appears to play a distinctive role in the geography of M&As in Germany.
Expansion versus Density in Barcelona: A Valuation Exercise
Authors: Garcia Dolores , Riera Pere
Published: January 2004

This study provides an alternative empirical approach to identify optimal urban growth when accounting for its associated environmental effects. It is assumed that preserving outer landscapes and enjoying reduced density levels are inversely related, and so households must trade them off. The exercise analyses whether more disperse urban growth would be socially desirable in a particular area, the metropolitan region of Barcelona. A contingent valuation exercise using a double-bounded format was undertaken and an extended version of the spike model was used to estimate the willingness to pay of changing to a less dense urban path. The results show that a less compact scenario would be welfare-increasing in aggregate terms. It is suggested that general proposals on compacting cities should not necessarily constitute a desirable planning goal.
What Regions Do Rather than Make: A Proposed Set of Knowledge-based Occupation Clusters
Authors: Feser Edward J.
Published: January 2004

With the expansion of knowledge-intensive industries in the US, along with intensifying focus on workforce development policy as an economic development strategy, occupations are increasingly being used as basic units of analysis in applied studies of urban and regional economies. An heretofore underappreciated component of occupation-based regional analysis is the need to understand relationships, similarities and dissimilarities among occupations themselves, so that they may be aggregated or grouped in theoretically and empirically meaningful ways. This paper lays out a conceptual framework and empirical approach to identifying knowledge-based occupation clusters, or groups of occupations that share the same broad knowledge characteristics. Following an application of the clusters to a comparison of labour pools in a selected 38 metropolitan economies, the paper discusses the clusters' general value for regional economic analysis, especially their utility as an intermediate step in applied industry cluster analyses where necessary regional occupation data are limited.
Organising Capacity and Social Policies in European Cities
Authors: van den Berg Leo , van der Meer Jan , Pol Peter M. J.
Published: January 2004

This article compares two European cities—Rotterdam and Strasbourg—and analyses what strategies have been developed by the various actors involved to combat social problems. It argues that the success of the city's social strategies is largely dependent on its organising capacity. The social strategies of the cities have been analysed according to a theoretical framework of organising capacity. It is found from the comparison that social policies are not sufficiently integrated with other urban policies, such as economic, spatial and housing policies; that rigid public structures are a barrier to effective solutions; and, that public departments are not used to co-operation, which hampers linking problems to opportunities.
'My Voice: My Place': Tracking Transformations in Urban Governance
Authors: Coaffee Jon , Healey Patsy
Published: January 2004

This paper develops an institutionalist framework for analysing transformations in urban governance, focusing in particular on assessing the potential of initiatives designed to 'mainstream' citizen participation and 'voice' in local government processes. The framework centres on an analytical conception of levels of social formation: specific episodes of collective action; the on-going work of governance practices and discourse formation and use; and underpinning culturally embedded assumptions and habits. The central argument is that transformations in urban governance capacity need to penetrate all three levels to effect enduring changes in governance cultures. The framework is used to assess the early experience of an attempt to introduce 'area committees' by Newcastle City Council, UK, and their ability to act as a 'voice for place'. The paper examines how far the area committee initiative has the potential to achieve the objectives set for it, the qualities of the emerging governance processes in the initiative and their potential to transform the wider context of urban governance in the city.
Does Tax Increment Financing Raise Urban Industrial Property Values?
Authors: Weber Rachel , Bhatta Saurav Dev , Merriman David
Published: January 2004

The paper examines the impact of tax increment financing (TIF) on the value of industrial properties in Chicago. Because TIF designation may be self-selected, a two stage procedure is used to estimate the influence of TIF. The authors find that the value of industrial parcels located in mixed-use TIF districts (i.e. those that also contain commercial or residential properties) is higher than that of similar parcels that are not located in a TIF district. However, the value of industrial parcels that are located in homogeneous industrial use TIF districts is no higher and in some specifications is lower than that of similar parcels not located in a TIF district. These divergent results may be best explained by industrial parcel owners' desire to convert their properties to non industrial uses.
Setting the Rents of Social Housing: The Impact and Implications of Rent Restructuring in England
Authors: Walker Bruce , Marsh Alex
Published: January 2004

The question of how the rents of social housing should be set has been a matter of debate in many European countries. This paper draws on research into the probable impacts of the UK government's policy to restructure rents in England to explore some of the issues involved in determining the rents of social housing. The paper discusses why social rent setting is a particular issue in the UK and how the government is seeking to address it through the rent restructuring policy that is currently being implemented. Then, after outlining the nature of the study on which the paper is based, the local effects of the policy on social housing rents are examined. An assessment is made of whether the policy is likely to fulfil its explicit objectives and it is concluded that only some of these are likely to be met. It is also concluded that the current direction of UK policy raises some questions that are likely to be of concern beyond the UK.
Estimating the Effect of Land Leases on Prices of Inner-city Apartment Buildings
Authors: Janssen Christian T. L.
Published: January 2004

The effect of land leases as opposed to freehold tenure on selling price is investigated for income property in proximity to the city centre. Hedonic estimation with multiplicative and additive models in a cross-section analysis is used to estimate the relationship between property characteristics on the one hand and selling price on the other. If land leases are valued by the market as the present value of the lease payments independent of other property features, an additive lease component should be appropriate. If, on the other hand, the valuation of the land lease aspect is not independent of other property features, a multiplicative lease component should be appropriate. Theoretical arguments can be advanced for either point of view, making it interesting to study the issue empirically. A sub-issue of interest is the effect on value of distance to the city centre. The sample consists of major apartment buildings centrally located in downtown Stockholm sold during a selected three-year period.
The Structuring of Service-class Migration: English Migration to Scottish Cities
Authors: Findlay Allan M. , Stockdale Aileen , Hoy Caroline , Higgins Cassie
Published: January 2004

The paper explores the mobility implications of internationalisation and commercialisation of the service class. Theorisation of the survey points to five main issues: first, the role of migration of service workers as part of a network of flows linking the core of the state with regional economies; secondly, the disproportionate concentration of service-class migration in one particular city within a regional economy; thirdly, the inadequacy of a nested hierarchical model of service-class migration; fourthly, the functional disconnection of local service employment from the circuits of movement of new service-class migrants; and, finally, the necessity of professional transient migration for the successful economic performance of the wider regional economy. The study is based on analysis of English migrants living in four Scottish urban areas.
Rent-seeking Behaviour and its Economic Costs in Urban Land Transactions in Accra, Ghana
Authors: Antwi Adarkwah Yaw , Adams John
Published: January 2004

The existing body of knowledge attributes to informal land transactions in sub-Saharan African cities observed problems in city neighbourhoods. Substantial resources, often backed by donor agencies, are therefore being spent in revamping bureaux and governmental bodies in a bid to solve the problems. This paper examines the economic impacts of this aspect of market intervention. Employing insights from rent-seeking theory, it estimates costs brought to bear on agents by government agencies' involvement in the urban land market of Accra, Ghana. The sum of these wasteful diversions of resources is found to explain a great deal of the haphazard developments that have come to characterise many neighbourhoods in the city. Market-led regulation emerges as the needed focus of future land policy and management strategy. Towards this, the paper calls for the removal of existing unwarranted market interventions and the reorganisation of responsible bureaux in ways that would induce them to operate efficiently.
Beyond Polarisation versus Professionalisation? A Case Study of the Development of the Helsinki Region, Finland
Authors: Vaattovaara Mari , Kortteinen Matti
Published: January 2004

Starting from the polarisation (Sassen) versus professionalisation (Hamnett) discussion, the paper presents an analysis of the development of the Helsinki Metropolitan Region, the capital district of Finland. The analysis of new urban differentiation shows how modern ITC-based 'informational development' (Castells) seriously challenges the egalitarian basis of the Nordic welfare regime. The bimodal urban differentiation is not, however, regarded as a sign of polarisation, but rather as a new phase in economic development linked with a structural shift in the demand for labour that can result in very different outcomes in different cities and welfare regimes. In other words, both polarisation and professionalisation are interpreted as different versions or outcomes of a more fundamental structural shift combining both.
Neighbourhood Crime and Scattered-site Public Housing
Authors: Santiago Anna M. , Galster George C. , Pettit Kathryn L. S.
Published: January 2004

In this paper, an assessment is made of the extent to which proximity to 38 dispersed public housing sites opening in Denver during 1992-95 affected post-development levels and trends in neighbourhood crime rates. A new econometric specification incorporating pre- and post-controls for selection bias as well as spatial autocorrelation was employed to test for statistical relationships between the development of dispersed public housing sites and subsequent increases in various types of crime. The findings suggest that proximity to dispersed public housing was not associated with any post-development increase in reported crime of any type.
The New Economy in the City: Emergence and Location Factors of Internet-based Companies in the Metropolitan Area of Lyon, France
Authors: Moriset Bruno
Published: January 2004

This article focuses on the tendency of e-business towards urban concentration. The complexity of the Internet sector results in an increasing variety of business location. The survey of 92 firms in the multimedia sector in Lyon shows that enterprises do not have the same location needs, neither at regional nor at local level. Multimedia and software designers are more 'footloose' than Web agencies and Internet service outsourcers, which are linked to their clients and to broadband networks. The former may locate in picturesque renovated areas, or even in rural areas. The latter tend to share high-tech-suited locations with Internet and telecom carriers in state-of-the-art, wired premises. Finally, this considers the question of the status of a medium-sized city and its different districts in the context of a growing information economy.
Economic Specialisation in Metropolitan Areas Revisited: Transactional Occupations in Hamburg, Germany
Authors: Stein Rolf
Published: January 2004

To characterise economic activities in which metropolitan areas specialise, recourse is commonly taken to categories like producer or (knowledge-intensive) business services, derived from efforts to differentiate the notoriously heterogeneous service sector. An alternative approach to categorising economic activities is explored in this paper, building on the notion of transactional activities theoretically founded in 'new institutional economics'. To test this approach, which surpasses the manufacturing-services dichotomy, the 328 occupations of the German classification system are reclassified into three main groups (transaction, production/ transformation and R&D occupations) and sub-groups thereof. Comparing the occupational structure of Hamburg and Germany reveals that production/transformation activities still predominate nationwide, whereas Hamburg primarily specialises in transaction activities. Specialisation is particularly evident in certain transactional sub-groups, like advertising or agents/brokers/auctioneers. For other sub-groups, like publishing or wholesale, habitually undervalued in urban research, specialisation is also significant, while decisive R&D occupations are less important. In sum, a new and productive way to represent and analyse the complexities of the spatial division of labour opens up.
Estimating the Public's Value for Urban Forest in the Seoul Metropolitan Area of Korea: A Contingent Valuation Study
Authors: Kwak Seung-Jun , Yoo Seung-Hoon , Han Sang-Yong
Published: January 2004

Urban forests have various environmental benefits that contribute to the quality of urban life. These values, however, have been underestimated or have never been reflected in urban development planning in Korea. As a result, a number of forests in urban areas were either partly or wholly destroyed without their public's value being assessed explicitly. The objective of this paper is to estimate the value attached by the public to Kwanggyo Mountain in the Seoul Metropolitan Area of Korea using a contingent valuation survey, aimed at providing policy-makers with useful information to make an informed public decision in urban development planning. The survey was carefully designed and implemented to meet a number of recommendation rules suggested in the literature. The overall results show that the respondents received the hypothetical scenario well and would be willing to pay a significant amount for the proposed programme of conserving the mountain. The total value stated by the public amounted to approximately 3.77 billion Korean won (US$2.9 million) per year. This quantitative information can be used in policy-making process for urban development plans.
A Revenue-sharing Model of Residential Redevelopment Projects: The Case of the Hapdong Redevelopment Scheme in Seoul, Korea
Authors: Lee Chang-Moo , Lee Jong-Hyun , Yim Chang-Ho
Published: January 2004

The city of Seoul has devised a distinctive scheme of residential redevelopment, the Hapdong (partnership) Redevelopment. Its market-oriented approach differs from conventional public residential redevelopments and can be characterised as an owner-initiated gentrification process. However, the chronic problem of relocation in residential redevelopment has been aggravated rather than lessened. Also, considerable amounts of the project's profits have gone to outside investors rather than to residents, changing the old equity battles in urban renewal into a revenue-sharing game in the market system. Their financial vulnerability means that most residents lose the game in a relative sense. This paper analyses the behaviour of the owners in the framework of personal financing strategy rather than from an advocacy-planning point of view. The results indicate that the high degree of owners' relocation was inevitable following the introduction of the market-oriented scheme.
Synergy in Urban Regeneration Partnerships: Property Agents' Perspectives
Authors: Ball Michael , Le Ny Laurent , Maginn Paul J.
Published: January 2004

A major justification for urban regeneration partnerships (URPs) is that they provide synergistic benefits for their participants. Some argue that the major beneficiaries will be private-sector agencies. This proposition is examined in the light of evidence from a survey of property-related agencies. The opinions of developers and property consultants on the success of the partnership process in regeneration schemes with a significant property redevelopment component are examined. Many were found to have concerns about the URP model, centring on governance structures, decision-making, cost implications and time-frames. This suggests that synergy benefits may not actually exist. It is concluded that management and decision-making structures in partnerships need to be of greater concern in policy debate than is currently the case.
The Analysis and Prediction of Urban Office Rents
Authors: Orr Allison M. , Jones Colin
Published: January 2004

The focus of this paper is the analysis and prediction of local office rents and in particular the development of econometric models for two UK cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow. This paper reviews the current state of modelling and forecasting for office markets and notes the sparsity of urban office rent models. The urban models that exist suffer from data problems and either make the fatal flaw of ignoring supply constraints or consider supply in terms of net change in floorspace. The objective of this paper is to address some of the deficiencies in this empirical work on office market dynamics; it is the first attempt to use local take-up as a variable to model urban rents. Two approaches to modelling urban office rents are undertaken. The first model adopts a single reduced-form price equation using direct demand and supply measures, and suggests that variation in market dynamics exists between the two centres. However, these equations for the two cities have statistical weaknesses. The second model is a three-equation 'structural' model. The results of this analysis also suggest that Edinburgh responds more quickly to fundamental changes in supply-demand imbalances than Glasgow in the determination of office rents. The variation between Edinburgh and Glasgow, two cities within one administrative region of the UK, exemplifies the arguments in favour of urban analysis and the deficiencies in the regional approach to forecasting. The results of the empirical analysis also emphasise the importance of including local supply variables. Urban analysis still suffers from a paucity of published local economic data and recourse to regional data remains theoretically unsatisfactory. However, the use of a demand flow variable as demonstrated here is not only significant but arguably encompasses local economic drivers, and thereby negates to some extent the need for local economic indicators.
The Convergence of Regional House Prices in the UK
Authors: Cook Steven
Published: January 2004

The ripple effect hypothesis implies a long-run convergence of regional UK house prices. However, despite many authors believing in the existence of such an underlying constancy, statistical evidence has yet to be presented supporting this implication. In this paper, an alternative approach is proposed to analyse regional house price ratios. In contrast to the findings of previous studies, application of this new procedure results in the detection of widespread convergence of house prices in a number of regions of the UK. The results suggest that the failure of previous analyses to uncover convergence is due to an underlying asymmetry in the adjustment process being ignored. Interestingly, the form of asymmetry detected varies between regions. While regions in the South East experience faster convergence following downswings in prices, other regions exhibit more rapid convergence following increases in prices.