Showing papers in "Environment and Planning A in 1996"
TL;DR: The notion of displacement is used to reflect on these constitutive geographies, and in particular as a way of understanding contemporary consumption neither as a homogenising nor a locally bounded social activity as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Increasingly attention is being paid to the ways in which consumption is a geographically constituted process. In this paper the notion of ‘displacement’ is used to reflect on these constitutive geographies, and in particular as a way of understanding contemporary consumption neither as a homogenising nor a locally bounded social activity. Two aspects of the geographies of displacement within consuming worlds are highlighted: the representations of origins, travels, and destinations—or geographical knowledges—that surround and in part comprise commodities; and the juxtapositional character of the arenas in which consumption takes and makes place. These geographies are illustrated and critically analysed through examples of commodities that deploy representations of the ‘global’, the ‘ethnic’, and the ‘hospitable’.
162 citations
TL;DR: Local exchange employment and trading systems (LETS) as discussed by the authors have spread rapidly throughout the United Kingdom during the 1990s and are more than a simple response to social exclusion, like all economic geographies.
Abstract: Local exchange employment and trading systems (LETS) have spread rapidly throughout the United Kingdom during the 1990s. Like all economic geographies, they are socially constructed and are more than a simple response to social exclusion. The economic activity generated by and conducted through LETS is based upon direct forms of social relations and a local currency which facilitate locally defined systems of value formation and distinctive moral economic geographies. Nevertheless, LETS take on some of the class and gender characteristics of the wider economy. Furthermore, the ways in which LETS are represented—not least in the media—may serve to stereotype them as exclusionary and marginal to the needs of those most in need and so to distance them from those excluded from the formal economy.
162 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that the geometry of urban residential development is fractal, and two methods for estimating fractal dimension based on varying the size of cities and the scale at which their form is detected are introduced.
Abstract: In this paper, we argue that the geometry of urban residential development is fractal. Both the degree to which space is filled and the rate at which it is filled follow scaling laws which imply invariance of function, and self-similarity of urban form across scale. These characteristics are captured in population density functions based on inverse power laws whose parameters are fractal dimensions. First we outline the relevant elements of the theory in terms of scaling relations and then we introduce two methods for estimating fractal dimension based on varying the size of cities and the scale at which their form is detected. Exact and statistical estimation techniques are applied to each method respectively generating dimensions which measure the extent and the rate of space filling. These methods are then applied to residential development patterns in six industrial cities in the northeastern United States, with an innovative data source from the TIGER/Line files. The results support the theory of the...
136 citations
117 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that maps and mapping have not been entirely the preserve of the powerful, and the main part of the paper is devoted to examining some specific challenges to the official cartographies of the city.
Abstract: It is increasingly recognised that cartography is a contested practice, embedded within particular sets of power relations, and that maps are bound up with the production and reproduction of social life. The author begins by emphasising the importance of these issues for considering how the city has been mapped and represented through cartographic schemes, and draws on debates around the power and politics of mapping, and contentions that maps are ‘preeminently a language of power, not of protest’. However, it is argued that maps and mapping have not been entirely the preserve of the powerful, and the main part of the paper is devoted to examining some specific challenges to ‘official’ cartographies of the city. The author focuses on the radical art and political group, the Situationist International, and its avant-garde predecessors of the Lettrist International, who sought to appropriate urban maps and cartographic discourses and to develop a new form of ‘psychogeographical mapping’ during the 1950s and...
116 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed binary logit models of telecommuting adoption and compared two approaches to dealing with constraints: incorporating them directly into the utility function, and using them to define the choice set.
Abstract: In previous papers in this series we have presented a conceptual model of the individual decision to telecommute and explored relationships among constraints, preference, and choice. In a related paper we developed a binary model of the preference for home-based telecommuting. Noting that there is a wide gap between preferring to telecommute (88% of the sample) and actually telecommuting (13%), in this paper we develop binary logit models of telecommuting adoption. Two approaches to dealing with constraints are compared: incorporating them directly into the utility function, and using them to define the choice set. Models using the first approach appear to be statistically superior in this analysis, explaining 63–64% of the information in the data. Variables significant to choice include those relating to work and travel drives, and awareness, manager support, job suitability, technology, and discipline constraints. The best model was used to analyze the impact of relaxing three key constraints on the 355...
110 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors presented empirical data from a nonrepresentative sample of 628 City of San Diego employees on key variables and relationships in a conceptual model of the choice to telecommute.
Abstract: A conceptual model of the choice to telecommute was advanced in an earlier paper. In this paper we present empirical data from a nonrepresentative sample of 628 City of San Diego employees on key variables and relationships in that model. The relationships among possibility, preference, and choice are examined. A key finding is the existence of a large group of people (57% of the sample) for whom telecommuting is a preferred impossible alternative. Dichotomous and continuous constraints are distinguished, and three dichotomous constraints are defined. ‘Lack of awareness’ is active for 4%, ‘job unsuitability’ for 44%, and ‘manager disapproval’ for 51% of the sample. For 68% of the sample, at least one of these constraints is active. Even among those for whom none of the dichotomous constraints is in force, most people do not choose telecommuting because of the presence of active continuous constraints. For only 11% of the entire sample, telecommuting is possible, preferred, and chosen. The potential impact...
106 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the implications of two eras of financial transformation in the 20th century for urban growth and inequality in Southern California are examined, and the historical and contemporary experience of Los Angeles is used to both develop and illustrate the arguments made.
Abstract: In this paper the implications of the two eras of financial transformation in the 20th century—that of the 1930s and that of the 1980s and 1990s—for urban growth and inequality in Southern California are examined. It is argued that financial structures have profound effects on the pace and distributional consequences of urban growth, in large part because urban development is characterized by widespread spatial spillover effects. The contemporary era of financial transformation has widened gaps between urban communities and banking customer markets. Banking markets that were once segmented by regulation are now segmented by market dynamics. In consequence, a financial system which once facilitated wealth building for households and communities now deepens social inequality and spatial separation. In this paper the historical and contemporary experience of Los Angeles is used to both develop and illustrate the arguments made.
99 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a review of some of the problems associated with modelling the relationship between improvements in infrastructure and regional economic growth specifically in the context of the attraction of new inward investment is presented.
Abstract: The continuous renewal and improvement of infrastructure within Europe are widely regarded as a very necessary part of any regional development strategy, particularly in regions which are economically and geographically peripheral to the core industrialised regions. This paper is a review of some of the problems associated with modelling the relationship between improvements in infrastructure and regional economic growth specifically in the context of the attraction of new inward investment. An illustration from northeast England is used to argue that it is increasingly untenable to regard infrastructure as an independent variable influencing the regional distribution of mobile investment. Although the presence of certain basic infrastructure may be significant in attracting the initial interest of potential new investors, success in winning inward investment projects depends increasingly upon the ability of public authorities to produce spaces which are customised to the changing needs of key firms. This...
92 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors evaluate critically the potential of local exchange and trading systems (LETS) as a new source of work and credit for the poor and unemployed, and advocate for a wider cross-section of the poor to become involved, changes are needed not only in the internal operating environment of LETS but also in the approach of the government towards benefit claimants worki...
Abstract: In this paper the aim is to evaluate critically the potential of local exchange and trading systems (LETS) as a new source of work and credit for the poor and unemployed. LETS are local associations whose members list their offers of and requests for goods and services in a directory and then exchange them priced in a local unit of currency. From the results of a national survey of LETS, it is found that LETS are growing rapidly and that a high proportion of the national membership are poor and unemployed. With use of a membership survey of Manchester LETS, it is then revealed that, although the poor and unemployed are capitalising on LETS to gain access to work and credit, it is utilised mainly by what can be called the ‘disenfranchised middle class’. In this paper it is advocated that, for a wider cross-section of the poor and unemployed to become involved, changes are needed not only in the internal operating environment of LETS but also in the approach of the government towards benefit claimants worki...
89 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a recent type of social and economic organization to appear in the United Kingdom, the local exchange trading system, is examined, from comparative research based on interviews with coordinators of six systems the motivation for involvement, the nature of the local money, and the relationship to business and state regulation.
Abstract: In this paper a recent type of social and economic organization to appear in the United Kingdom—the local exchange trading system—is examined. From comparative research based on interviews with coordinators of six systems the motivation for involvement, the nature of the local money, and the relationship to business and state regulation are explored. The internal coherence of the systems and the relevance of the ‘local’ is assessed. Contextualized by debates on the nature of economics, where the notion of embeddedness of economic life in social relations is gaining ground, the concept of an active ‘re-embedding’ is introduced in order to explore the significance of local exchange trading systems.
TL;DR: In other words, areas of high levels of deprivation may be home to high proportions of particular social or demographic groups, but it cannot be automatically assumed that these groups are themselves deprived as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In recent years have seen an increase in the analysis of deprivation in Britain. In most studies the unit of analysis has been geographical, such as local-government wards or districts. This reflects, in part, a reliance on small-area statistics and local-base statistics from the censuses of population. Although useful in identifying specific problem areas, this type of approach may be subject to ecological fallacy. In other words, areas of high levels of deprivation may be home to high proportions of particular social or demographic groups, but it cannot be automatically assumed that these groups are themselves deprived. Although some studies have been based on purpose-designed individual-level survey data, these often lack sufficient sample sizes to analyse effectively small subgroups of the population or to allow geographical disaggregation. The release of the Samples of Anonymised Records from the 1991 Census allows individual-level data to be used to investigate the social, demographic, and geographi...
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TL;DR: The authors trace the nature of the social sciences from their state-centric orthodoxy to a new heterdoxy consequent upon globalization, where the subtleties of space as scale are integral.
Abstract: In this essay I trace the nature of the social sciences from their state-centric orthodoxy to a new heterdoxy consequent upon globalization. The mainstream social science trilogy of sociology, economics, and political science neglected questions of space and place because they failed to problematize the embedded statism in which they developed. The social sciences marginalized geography in a nationalization of social knowledge. Globalization has exposed the geographical poverty of this thinking and a new heterodoxy of social knowledge is emerging in which the subtleties of space as scale are integral. This article consists of Peter Taylor's original article ‘Embedded statism and the social sciences: opening up to new spaces’ and the invited responses of a range of social scientist to that article.
TL;DR: The effectiveness of Taiwanese direct investment in southern China is achieved through the interpersonal networks established between Taiwanese investors and local Chinese officials, in turn, are based on two major conditions as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Transnational capitals have not been as footloose as theorists of a new international division of labor have proposed. Taiwanese direct investment in southern China represents a case where transnational capital flows are shaped by cultural and institutional conditions. The effectiveness of Taiwanese direct investment in southern China is achieved through the interpersonal networks established between Taiwanese investors and local Chinese officials. Such networks, in turn, are based on two major conditions. First, the newly gained economic autonomy of local governments in southern China, as well as the Chinese bureaucratic tradition of flexible interpretation and implementation of laws. Such an institutional context provided the space for the local state in China to bypass the scrutiny of the central state and to link up with the world economy directly through overseas Chinese capitals. Second, cultural and linguistic affinity between the Taiwanese investors and local Chinese officials have provided the to...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the relationship between the eroding competitive position of the banking industry and an unfolding geography of financial exclusion affecting one low-income community in Los Angeles, focusing on the mismatch between domestic financial regulation and the requirements of competition in retail markets through the 1980s.
Abstract: A changing regulatory environment, intensified competition, and the increasingly global and privatised nature of financial markets have taken a heavy toll on the US banking industry. In the 1980s over 1100 banks failed in the United States, more than in any decade since the 1930s. In this paper I examine the relationship between the eroding competitive position of the banking industry and an unfolding geography of financial exclusion affecting one low-income community in Los Angeles. First, I briefly outline the causes of banks' deteriorating competitive position, focusing on the mismatch between domestic financial regulation and the requirements of competition in retail markets through the 1980s. Second, I draw on research, using secondary sources and workplace-based interviews, to describe how some banks in Los Angeles are responding to these pressures by reorganising their production systems at an interregional, intermetropolitan, and intrametropolitan scale. Third, I concentrate on this intrametropoli...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce the concept of islands of sustainability, which is an area where sustainability is reached at a local or regional level by exchange activities within the regional network and with the environment.
Abstract: In this paper we introduce the concept of ‘islands of sustainability’. The basic assumption is that the development towards sustainability can be introduced starting from sustainable islands'. An island is an area where sustainability is reached at a local or regional level. Exchange activities within the regional network and with the environment are key points in creating an island of sustainability. One of the main theses is that the concept of sustainability addresses not only the interactions between the economic system and the ecosphere, but also structural aspects of the anthropogenic system, such as the economic diversity and economic connectedness. Hence, sustainability is linked to the complexity of the regional network. In order to attain sustainability the intensity, the speed, and comprehensiveness of internal and external interactions, as well as the connectedness of the regional network, have to be changed. In this paper we examine the regional system. The structure, elements, interactions, ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors use the concept of the palimpsest from historical geography as a stage on which other ways of portraying the city can be interrogated, such as the visions bound up in touristic sights, the pictures used in and created by heritage displays, and the dispersed memory of archive pictures.
Abstract: This paper is an attempt to juxtapose a variety of ways in which a city's history can be portrayed by working through various forms through which the history of Bristol has been envisioned. First, I hope to use the concept of the palimpsest from historical geography as a stage on which other ways of portraying the city can be interrogated. These other envisionings I subsequently stage are the visions bound up in touristic sights, that is in the pictures used in and created by heritage displays; and the ‘dispersed memory’ of archive pictures, principally the Reece Winstone archive of Bristol By studying the connections and disjunctures in this triptych I hope to suggest the importance and complexity of technologies used to envisage the city. I try to suggest that pictures of the city cannot be used as naive documents to illustrate the passage of time—despite how often they are used to do this. Different senses of historicity are manufactured through the space—times created by different processes of envisio...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined processes of change in grocery provision in Cardiff, a city of almost 300,000 population, mainly over a recent twelve-year period, and investigated the question of trading impact through associations over time and space of store openings and closures.
Abstract: The development programmes of major grocery retailers in Britain have transformed the retail systems of many urban areas. Impacts upon patterns of consumer behaviour and shopping provision have been substantial. Although many writers have discussed retailers' changing corporate strategies and their implications for new store development, there is still a need for local case studies. In this paper, therefore, processes of change in grocery provision in Cardiff, a city of almost 300000 population, are examined, mainly over a recent twelve-year period. An initial burst of superstore development was accompanied by closures of many small grocery stores owned by multiple and cooperative organisations. Since about 1986, rates of new store development and of store closure have diminished. These changes were superimposed upon a longer term decline in independent food retailing. The question of trading impact is then investigated through associations over time and space of store openings and closures. Although some...
TL;DR: In this paper, the notion of the labour market is discussed within the context of international migration of skilled labour in the accountancy industry, and the principal arguments reported are that the labour-market practices of large accountancy firms have restructured the demand for professional labour on a global scale.
Abstract: In this paper, the notion of the labour market is discussed within the context of international migration of skilled labour in the accountancy industry. The principal arguments reported are that the labour-market practices of large accountancy firms have restructured the demand for professional labour on a global scale. Accounting staff are subcontracted to their firm's international office networks or multinational clients through secondment, transfer, or exchange procedures. Equally, those firms who are members of global accountancy networks subcontract their staff to the international independent member firms.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on Toronto's bold metropolitan planning proposals and the difficulty to achieve sufficient support for planning objectives in the post-Fordist and post-postmodern context, marked by a fragmentation of values, attachment to the existing built environment and suspicion between social groups.
Abstract: Planning faces the predicament that as recommendations become bolder possibilities for implementation deteriorate. This is imputed to society's transition from a Fordist and modern to a post-Fordist and postmodern era. On the one hand, postmodern values account for more public participation and heightened environmental sensitivity, which translate into proposals for alternative forms of urban development. On the other hand, the implementation of these proposals is impaired by reduced public sector resources as a result of the economic instablity associated with post-Fordism. Another impediment is the difficulty to achieve sufficient support for planning objectives in the postmodern context. This context is marked by a fragmentation of values, attachment to the existing built environment, and suspicion between social groups. The empirical focus is on Toronto's bold metropolitan planning proposals. Most recent planning documents call for reurbanization efforts, a compact urban form, and reduced reliance on ...
TL;DR: It is concluded that representations of gentrification and their expression through sites of difference need to be more nuanced or mobile, especially as many of these dualisms are becoming or can be displaced.
Abstract: Since the earliest texts on gentrification appeared, the process has been represented in terms of binary oppositions, for example, inner city—suburb. I question these representations, which have been constructed as sites of difference. Some of these have become particularly prevalent if not dominant in the literature, some have become stereotypes. I illustrate these assertions through the analysis of four gentrification texts: academic, journalist, realtor, and gentrifier. I conclude that representations of gentrification and their expression through sites of difference need to be more nuanced or mobile, especially as many of these dualisms are becoming or can be displaced. A middle ground or space should be sought, for it is at the overlap and displacement of difference that the identity of gentrification is most traceable.
TL;DR: In this paper, data from the economic censuses are utilized to show that most job growth in the manufacturing, wholesaling, retail, and service industries in the 1982-87 period has been in the urban peripheries of the twelve consolidated metropolitan statistical areas (CMSAs).
Abstract: In this paper data from the economic censuses are utilized to show that most job growth in the manufacturing, wholesaling, retail, and service industries in the 1982–87 period has been in the urban peripheries of the twelve consolidated metropolitan statistical areas (CMSAs). Similar data for 1976, 1980, and 1986 from another source, the Wharton Urban Decentralization Project, confirm many of these trends, and for a larger set of metropolitan areas. The results show that Los Angeles is more in the middle of the twelve CMSAs than it is an outlier. It is suggested that these common results reflect a common process, that is, an initial movement of households towards the metropolitan edge in search of amenities (or flight from central city ills), followed by the decentralization of firms to increase their access to suburban labor pools.
TL;DR: In this article, stated preference and choice models are extended to the case of sequential choice behavior and design strategies and model specifications that allow one to predict sequential choice are discussed, illustrated in a study of sequential mode and destination choice behavior for shopping trips.
Abstract: Stated preference and choice models currently used in urban planning are focused on predicting single choices. In this paper the intention is to extend these modelling approaches to the case of sequential choice behaviour. Design strategies and model specifications that allow one to predict sequential choice are discussed. The approach is illustrated in a study of sequential mode and destination choice behaviour for shopping trips. The research findings suggest that the proposed approach may be a valuable extension of currently available stated preference and choice methods to analyse more complex forms of decisionmaking.
TL;DR: In this article, the effect of aggregation on common statistics when the geographic areas used in the analysis are equivalent to randomly formed groups of individuals is derived, and simple rules of aggregation are provided for use when analysis of such groups is performed.
Abstract: In this paper we derive the effect of aggregation on common statistics when the geographic areas used in the analysis are equivalent to randomly formed groups of individuals. Simple rules of aggregation are provided for use when analysis of such groups is performed. The expectations of common statistics such as means, variances, regression and correlation coefficients, are not affected by aggregation. However, the variation of these statistics is affected, mainly as a result of changes in the number of groups. This variation is related solely to random fluctuations associated with the generation of variate values. Weighting by the group population sizes is shown to be important in the calculation of statistics. Generally, unweighted statistics have larger variation than the corresponding weighted version, and the variation depends not only on the number of groups but also on the distribution of group population sizes. Methods for conducting statistical analysis of aggregate data in this situation are desc...
TL;DR: In this article, it is suggested that current debates on financial exclusion are often too narrowly drawn and institutionally focused, and as a consequence less recognition is given to the availability a...
Abstract: In this paper it is suggested that current debates on financial exclusion are often too narrowly drawn and institutionally focused. As a consequence, less recognition is given to the availability a...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse regional variations in the characteristics, performance, and growth of small and medium-sized manufacturing and business service enterprises in Britain, with particular reference to their impact on the "North-South divide" in British regional economic development.
Abstract: In this paper we analyse regional variations in the characteristics, performance, and growth of small and medium-sized manufacturing and business service enterprises in Britain, with particular reference to their impact on the ‘North—South divide’ in British regional economic development. Using a unique national survey of nearly 2000 smaller businesses, we identify regional differences in enterprise growth rates, market specialisation, innovation rates and research and development intensity, occupational structures, and labour-market problems. We also reveal differences in the frequency of use of government advisory agencies, and in the rating by firms in different regions of key competitive advantages and constraints on growth. These differences do not however conform to simple traditional stereotypes suggested by images of a declining North and a growing South. The implications of these findings both for understanding recent regional economic development in Britain and for policies such as those of loca...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors assess the spatial impact of branchless retail banking which integrates telecommunications and computer technology to provide personal financial services remotely, and show that, in Britain, financial institutions are concentrating retail services into a small number of low-cost sites on the edge of cities in the north of the country, and exporting the services to more expensive locations.
Abstract: In this paper we assess the spatial impact of ‘branchless’ retail banking which integrates telecommunications and computer technology to provide personal financial services remotely. We show that, in Britain, financial institutions are concentrating retail services into a small number of low-cost sites on the edge of cities in the north of the country, and exporting the services to more expensive locations. Associated with locational shifts is a rationalisation of corporate hierarchies and the introduction of a more ‘entrepreneurial’ approach to selling bank services, involving new types of gender-segmented work.
TL;DR: This article found support for the Mills and Ulmer hypothesis for three measures of civic welfare in US non-metropolitan counties, with regression procedures adjusted for spatial autocorrelation across counties.
Abstract: We build on earlier work by Mills and Ulmer in which characteristics of the local economic base, particularly establishment size, were related to civic welfare. They posit that small business is ‘good’ for local community welfare, whereas big business is ‘bad’ for it. Data from County Business Patterns and various population censuses are used to examine this issue for US nonmetropolitan counties. With regression procedures adjusted for spatial autocorrelation across counties, we find support for the Mills and Ulmer hypothesis for three measures of civic welfare.
TL;DR: This article examined the cultural implications of this phenomenon by looking at recent changes in the extended metropolitan region of Jakarta, Indonesia, and found that over the course of the 1980s, urbanization trends in Jakarta's periphery have resulted in a greatly expanded interface between urban and rural components of Indonesian society.
Abstract: Recent writings on Asian urbanization have stressed how the continuing outward expansion of the largest metropolitan regions has been eroding the long-standing distinction between rural and urban, particularly in terms of land use and economic structure. In this paper I examine the cultural implications of this phenomenon by looking at recent changes in the extended metropolitan region of Jakarta, Indonesia. Over the course of the 1980s, urbanization trends in Jakarta's periphery have resulted in a greatly expanded interface between urban and rural components of Indonesian society. Although this has created the opportunity for much broader popular participation in the urban economy, it may also be fostering a new perception within Indonesian society—that the primary social dichotomy lies not between the city and the countryside but between socioeconomic classes.