bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Dilemmas in International Migration: A Global Perspective
Authors: Papademetriou D G 
Published: October 2006

The impacts of the international migration process both on receiving and on sending societies are evaluated in this paper. For the former, the issue has become increasingly politicized and a mood of restriction is in evidence. This mood, in turn, and the policies which it spawns, clashes with the interests of individuals and of state actors among the less-developed countries who seek to expand access to ‘desirable’ destinations among advanced industrial societies—in spite of mounting evidence that emigration, in its current forms, has only marginally positive developmental effects. Also in this paper, international migration is placed in a theoretical context through a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of two major competing schools: The classical-liberal one and the Marxist-neo-Marxist one. It is concluded that for labor importers, resort to international migration has been a tentative economic success, though, increasingly, a social and political liability. Results are equally mixed for labor senders. Policy recommendations focus mostly on avenues through which the costs of the migration process can be contained while the benefits are enhanced.
The Public Choice Approach to Tax Reform
Authors: Brennan G 
Published: October 2006

The public choice approach to tax reform involves a number of distinguishable strands. In the first place, there is a strand in which there is posited a view that taxes emerge, like all other public decisions, from political processes and, therefore, are to be explained in terms of the characteristics of political institutions. In the second place, there is a strand in which it is conceived that taxes are part of the institutional structure, in some way logically prior to other policy choices. One element in this strand is the ‘cost-share’ perspective, in which taxes are seen as analogous to the prices that voters pay for public services. On this view, changes in tax arrangements by altering those prices can be expected to alter public expenditure levels. An alternative element is the ‘Leviathan’ perspective, in which taxes represent the fiscal powers of the state, and in which changes in tax arrangements will alter the extent of these powers and thereby the extent of state expenditure activities. In both these latter perspectives, taxes are to be treated quasi-constitutionally: The institutional arrangements under which tax reforms are decided become an important object of attention. Furthermore, the feedback effects of tax changes on expenditure levels become an explicit part of any proper analysis. These various strands are discussed in this paper, and the question is posed as to whether the public choice approach, in whatever variant, can be satisfactorily and coherently ‘tacked on’ to a more orthodox tax-reform line.
The Attempt to Reform Taxation in the United States
Authors: Davies D G 
Published: October 2006

In the first section of the paper the causes behind the demand for tax reform in the United States are investigated. They include issues associated with bracket creep, the redistribution of income, low rates of return on saving, sluggish economic growth, capriciousness of the tax system, and problems associated with the averaging of income, the marriage tax penalty, automatic stabilization, and the cost of administration. In the second part of the paper there is an examination of the four most influential tax proposals that culminated in the 1986 tax law. The economic effects of the new levy are investigated. In the final section of the article the prospects for genuine tax-reform in the United States are examined. It is argued that, under existing political institutions and incentives, there is little hope for meaningful reform. Data are produced to support this hypothesis.
Technology Policy at the Crossroads of Economic Policy and Physical Planning
Authors: Nijkamp P , Stöhr W 
Published: October 2006

Technology policy must be considered as a tailor-made endeavour towards the creation of specific innovative activities in specific sectors and at specific locations. It therefore cannot be implemented only from the national level but must be aimed at mobilizing also the self-organizing potential at regional and local levels. Technological change and regional structures turn out to be closely interrelated. For this theme issue contributions have been invited on general aspects of technology policy (Zegveld), on its regional implications (Malecki and Nijkamp), and on the relevance of sectoral policies and entrepreneurial strategies on the spatial diffusion of innovations (Dyckman and Swyngedouw). In further papers, three spatial types of technology policy are represented: A spatially deconcentrated major technology project in the form of the French technology city Sophia-Antipolis (Perrin), a decentralized three-tier national technology policy in Japan (Kawashima and Stöhr), and a federal setting of technology policy in the case of the USA (Premus). In drawing conclusions from the papers in this theme issue, its editors discuss the question of how technology policy and regional policy can join to help create a broad entrepreneurial and innovative climate at the local scale.
Trends in Israel's Agriculture Budgets
Authors: Shepher Z , Mevorach B 
Published: October 2006

The past two decades have witnessed widespread agreement that the incidence of budgetary allocations, requests, and more so approvals, is accounted for by both economic and political environmental factors, aside from incremental budgetary behavior. In accord with the emphasis on the environmental determinants of budgetary allocation, we find the gross investment in agriculture in Israel to follow the theoretical lines offered by Western researchers: The requesting side relies on inertia more often than the approving side; the approving side is more political, situating the budget in a larger, more universal, context. The results indicate that there is a relative drop in investments in agriculture under the Likud control in Israel and thus give further confirmation to the apparent Conservative discrimination against agriculture.
Gains and Losses from the Changes in the System of Grants Paid to English Local Authorities
Authors: King D N 
Published: October 2006

The principal purpose of this paper is to contrast the present rate support grant system that applies to local authorities in England with the revenue support grant system that will apply from 1 April 1990. The paper begins by describing the two systems briefly and then seeks to show how much grant receipts per head might change if local authorities maintained their present spending levels after 1 April 1990. At collection-fund level, there would be gains exceeding £150 per head in some areas and losses exceeding £150 per head in others. In the paper the factors causing these changes are analysed. In general, areas gain if they have high multipliers, overspend, and have high rateable values. Finally, the point is made that the people in any area also stand to gain or to lose if they end up paying less or more in nondomestic rates. It seems likely that changes in these amounts will do much to offset the changes in grant receipts.
Agricultural Land-Use Policies and Rural Spatial Differentiation in Colonial and Postcolonial Zimbabwe
Authors: Rambanapasi C O 
Published: October 2006

Agricultural development policies in colonial Zimbabwe were a specific outcome of the manner in which the country was colonised by British settlers from South Africa in 1890. The gold rush was the main motivation for colonisation of Zimbabwe and with its failure, agricultural land increased in value, which sparked off an unprecedented land scramble among the settlers which initiated the process of rural spatial differentiation. Successive colonial governments pursued dual agricultural policies aimed at developing European commercial agriculture while simultaneously underdeveloping African subsistence agriculture through systematic disinvestment. The attempt by the postcolonial African government to reverse this dual agricultural policy failed because of a combination of factors including the Lancaster House constitutional guarantees for rights to private property and the African politicians' failure by default or design to achieve a substantive ideological turnabout.
The Development Plan in Policy Implementation
Authors: Tewdwr-Jones M 
Published: October 2006

The ‘new’ planning system introduced in England and Wales by the Planning and Compensation Act 1991 has focused attention on the role of the development plan as a ‘material consideration’. Debate currently under way by planning lawyers and policymakers is concentrated on whether the plan is an effective implementation tool. This paper, through a case-study, provides a consideration of the problems the ‘new’ planning system has sought to tackle and is one of the first pieces of research since the introduction of the 1991 Act to include an assessment of the effectiveness of the British planning policy framework. It has been found that the use in the planning appeals system of what are termed ‘material considerations’ provides a clear indication of the effectiveness of local planning policies and, simultaneously, allows for assessments to be made of both the development control and the forward planning functions of local planning authorities (LPAs). An analysis of planning inspectors' decision letters has been used in this paper to identify the principal considerations in appeal determinations, indicating for the LPA how its development plan policies are operating in practice. The analysis shows the degree to which local policies are ‘standing up’ at appeal against other material considerations, especially national policy guidance from the Secretary of State. It can be seen that the scope of the term ‘material considerations’ is problematic for LPAs, and the relationship between local policies and national advice as principal considerations in appeal cases has caused a great deal of uncertainty and ambiguity. Finally, suggestions are given as to how local planning procedures can be improved in development control decisionmaking in the future under the provisions of section 54A of the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act.
The Taxation of Natural Resources and the Future of the Russian Federation
Authors: McLure C E 
Published: October 2006

This paper is an examination of the vertical and horizontal division of revenues from taxing natural resources, a crucial issue for the future of the Russian Federation. Assigning resource revenues entirely to subnational governments would undermine the fiscal capacity of the central government, Resources arc so concentrated geographically that allocating revenues primarily to jurisdictions where production occurs would create large fiscal disparities among subnational governments. Either of these policies could encourage the disintegration of the Federation—as could a contrary policy. After a brief review of the concept of economic rent, the theory of tax assignment is examined and applied to taxes on natural resources. Whereas economic arguments tend to favor centralization of resource rents, political realities suggest decentralization. It is noted that there will be many claimants to potential rents from Russian natural resources, including consumers, native peoples, suppliers of oilfield equipment, pipeline companies, foreign investors, and managers and employees in the energy sector and its suppliers. Last, consideration is given to whether resource rents should be placed in trust funds, by either native peoples or the government of producing regions, and the experience of Alberta and Alaska in this area is reviewed.
The State of Metropolitan Planning: Decline or Restructuring?
Authors: Yiftachel O , Alexander I 
Published: October 2006

In this paper the dynamic relations between the state, society, and metropolitan planning are explored. The changing role and function of the state in the context of rapid restructuring of economic and social relations in Australia during the past decade are discussed, along with the impact of processes such as globalisation, cyclic recessions, and the growing assertion of local communities on the state. The influence of these processes on metropolitan planning, as an arm of the state which mediates between development interests and local communities, is then assessed from a theoretical perspective. Given the identified processes and changes, it is argued that metropolitan planning has become increasingly constrained in its ability to influence the nature and location of urban development in 1990s Australia. The validity of this argument is examined against the case of metropolitan planning in Perth during the past decade. Three key aspects of the changing nature of planning in Perth are studied in detail: A 1987 proposal for a new metropolitan strategy; a 1990 adopted metropolitan plan which derived from the 1987 proposal; and several redevelopment initiatives currently under consideration. It is concluded that the Western Australian state—and subsequently metropolitan planning—have experienced significant challenges to their ability to influence urban change. The constraints imposed on metropolitan planning are simultaneously due to economic pressures ‘from above’ and community pressures ‘from below’. Finally, it is observed that this process possesses a regresive potential, and that metropolitan planning should restructure in order to respond effectively and equitably to recent economic and social changes.
Crisis, Planning, and the Quality of Life: Managing the New Historical Relationships between Space and Society
Authors: Castells M 
Published: October 2006

We live in the midst of a major structural crisis. This crisis is multidimensional, cultural, and political, as well as economic. Spatial forms and urban issues are simultaneously being reshaped by this crisis and becoming powerful instruments for the policies aimed at managing the crisis from different viewpoints according to the pattern of contradictory social interests. The first part of the paper tries to outline the main effects of the crisis on the urban realm, focusing particularly on the spatial consequences of the new technologies, that could be devastating if they were used to harden the dominant tendencies of corporate capitalism and authoritarian statism. The second part of the paper attempts to foresee some potential alternatives to managing the crisis, on the basis of the projects of defending collective consumption, affirming cultural identity, and enhancing political self-management, that are being fostered by grass-roots groups and progressive local governments all over the world. Relying on some recent experiences of local government in Europe and the USA, the paper ends by outlining some alternative urban policies that could also be socially feasible, technically efficient, and politically progressive. Between defensive struggles and shortsighted reformism, this paper tries to explore the field of the new paths of urban social change in our time and in our societies.
Towards an Understanding of the Gender Division of Urban Space
Authors: McDowell L 
Published: October 2006

The paper contains a critical review of urban theory and of some current work in urban studies on ‘women's issues’. It is argued that the nature of the changing interrelationships between production and reproduction, as part of a single inseparable process that varies across space and over time, should be the key focus for a feminist urban studies. Ways in which an understanding of these changing relationships can add to the analysis of housing policy in postwar Britain are outlined. The principal aim of the paper is advocacy, and the plea is for feminist theory and feminist analysis. It is beginning to be accepted that urban studies, by ignoring gender divisions, is neglecting an important structuring element of urban space and urban processes. Recognition of the significance of gender divisions, however, must not lead to an insistence on analysis focusing solely on women and women's behaviour. Thus the object of feminist research should not be women alone, but rather the structure of social relations that contributes to female oppression, this involving confrontation with the theoretical issues raised by an analysis of patriarchy (a term used here to refer to temporally and spatially specific relations between men and women, rather than to the oppression of all women in all forms of society). Despite the advances already made in integrating women's lives into urban studies, a large number of the studies about women and the urban environment are ultimately unsatisfactory. Their foci stop short at the description and analysis of women's behaviour only. However, this is not to denigrate the very real function they serve in bringing gender differences to the research forefront. After a review of the literature on gender differences in the organisation, use, and conception of urban space, a more specific focus for a feminist urban studies is outlined, with an example of how this might be applied to the historical analysis of postwar housing policy in Britain.
Collective Consumption, Urban Segregation, and Social Classes
Authors: Preteceille E 
Published: October 2006

Although collective consumption is recognized as a major issue for urban research, the specificity of the urban field should not be limited to it, thus reproducing theoretically the dominant separation enforced ideologically and practically between production and reproduction, Production, and more generally work relations and practices, should be considered as basic determinants of the urban, not only because of their direct spatial dimensions and implications, but also because of their relations to reproduction practices. These relations are not mechanistic determinations but complex, contradictory, mediated, and retroactive processes. Therefore social differentiations or cleavages related to consumption practices, like urban social segregation and unequal access to collective consumption, are not simple translations of class structure in the most general and abstract sense. They contribute both to the strengthening of class identities and social solidarities in certain situations, areas and conjunctures, and to class fragmentation and competition or conflict in others. Nevertheless, they are but another aspect of the complexity of class structures and not an independent mode of social cleavage. This can be seen in class differentiations of consumption practices as well as in the related stakes for urban social struggles.
Restructuring in the Motorcycle Industry in Great Britain and Italy until 1980
Authors: Cenzatti M 
Published: October 2006

In this paper the different forms of restructuring experienced by the British and Italian motorcycle industries over the last thirty years are outlined, In the British case the restructuring was limited to a process of concentration and rationalization of production among the existing producers and was unsuccessful. In fact, the industry, having been a world leader until the late 1950s, declined until its demise by 1975. In Italy the success of the restructuring process was not based on the reorganization of existing firms, but on the emergence of new producers and product differentiation. The major factor in the restructuring of the Italian motorcycle industry was a radical innovation in the production process of motorcycle frames. This innovation has led to the development of two types of motorcycle firms with different final products and in different locations. In Northwest Italy, the lower production cost of the new frame led to the appearance of several new, large, highly-integrated manufacturers geared to standardized mass production. At the same time, however, new motorcycle production also began in Central Italy in a large number of small, specialized firms. In this case, the success of the restructuring was based not so much on low production costs as on the flexibility of production allowed both by the new production methods and by the social characteristics of the region.
The Politics of Polyphony: Reconfigurations in Geographical Authority
Authors: Crang P 
Published: October 2006

This article contains a critical view of the displacement, into the field of human geography, of concerns with polyphonic textual composition. Questions of representational politics and poetics have increasingly come to occupy something of a central place in contemporary re-visionings of the human geographical imagination. It has been widely suggested that any ‘new’ human geography will require ‘new’ textual strategics for representing its subject matter. In what follows I look at one of these suggested ‘new’ textual strategies; one emphasizing the need for multifibred, multivocal texts, a form of composition which, using a term borrowed from the fields of music composition, novel writing, and most recently anthropology's so-called ‘new ethnography’, has been labelled as ‘polyphonic’ in character. I am rather ambivalent about the usefulness of such calls for polyphony in human geography. So in the first part of the paper I trace out what the term has been used to mean in the cultural fields from which it has been borrowed, and, quite deliberately putting aside my rapier-like academic cynicism, I try to highlight and enthuse about some of the possibilities polyphonic practices elsewhere might suggest for human geographers. In the second half of the article I try to think through more critically some putative objections to the calls for and the actuality of polyphonic texts; objections which I think serve to emphasize that newfound sensitivities to textual poetics in no way dissolve the problematic politics of representation, but instead reconfigure them, in this case around power relations of cultural capital.
Marxisms, Modernities, and Moralities: Development Praxis and the Claims of Distant Strangers
Authors: Corbridge S 
Published: October 2006

Development studies have sometimes been presented as a set of social practices which are concerned with helping or changing peoples and places in the Third World—a noble ambition, it used to be thought, but one now widely condemned as elitist, ethnocentric, and dirigiste. Modernisation theories have not been alone in attracting such criticism, Marxist development studies have also reached an impasse, and confidence in their supposed metanarratives has not been improved by the collapse of many socialist economies. In place of these modernist discourses we are now being presented with (amongst other things) a seemingly atheoretical populism—which triumphs a localist activism—and a cacophony of voices from the diverse traditions of postmodernism and postcolonialism. The project of ‘development’ is being rendered problematical in a way that it rarely was previously in the postcolonial period. In this paper, I explore the impasse in Marxist development studies and welcome the impetus behind many of these new voices (including new voices from the periphery). At the same time, I am concerned to promote a radically modernist post-Marxism in which the deepening logics of time-space compression that bind together the modern world economy are recognised and in which the obligations that some peoples and institutions should hold to distant (and not so distant) strangers are voiced. In this manner, I resist the nihilistic relativism which underpins some aspects of the new ‘antidevelopmentalism’. I also place geography at the centre of an argument for a minimally universalist account of human needs and our responsibilities to them.