Showing papers in "Environment and Planning A in 1997"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide a framework for the development of accessibility measures and two case studies suggestive of the range of possible approaches are presented, as well as issues that planners must address in developing an accessibility measure.
Abstract: Accessibility is an important characteristic of metropolitan areas and is often reflected in transportation and land-use planning goals. But the concept of accessibility has rarely been translated into performance measures by which policies are evaluated, despite a substantial literature on the concept. This paper is an attempt to bridge the gap between the academic literature and the practical application of such measures and provide a framework for the development of accessibility measures. Issues that planners must address in developing an accessibility measure are outlined, and two case studies suggestive of the range of possible approaches are presented.
1,437 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the relationship between certain indicators of environmental quality and income, concluding on the basis of econometric estimation that in some cases an inverted-U relationship, which has been called an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), exists between these variables.
Abstract: Recent research has examined the relationship between certain indicators of environmental quality and income, concluding on the basis of econometric estimation that in some cases an inverted-U relationship, which has been called an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), exists between these variables. There has been speculation on the implications of this for economic and environmental policy. In this paper I examine this research as a whole and find that unequivocal evidence for an EKC relationship is very scant; that there are important indicators which show a monotonically increasing relationship; that even where there may be an EKC relationship, most of the world's population is still on the section of the curve that is increasing, so that growth in income on the basis of this relationship would result in considerable further environmental damage; and that reviews of overall environmental quality even in the richest countries show that it is still declining. I conclude that from the point of view of envir...
468 citations
TL;DR: It is found that polycentric development is associated with differentials in suburban and urban commute trip times: commute trips made by employees of suburban centers are shorter in duration than commute trips making by their counterparts in larger and denser urban centers.
Abstract: The San Francisco Bay Area has taken on a distinct polycentric metropolitan form, with three tiers of hierarchical employment centers encircling downtown San Francisco, the region's primary center. In this paper it is found that polycentric development is associated with differentials in suburban and urban commute trip times: commute trips made by employees of suburban centers are shorter in duration than commute trips made by their counterparts in larger and denser urban centers. Differentials were even greater, however, with respect to commuting modal splits. Lower density, outlying employment centers averaged far higher rates of drive-alone automobile commuting and insignificant levels of transit commuting. Smaller, outlying centers were also the least self-contained, with a large number averaging twenty or more times as many external as internal commutes. The effects of housing availability and prices on the residential locational choices of those working both in urban and in suburban employment cente...
360 citations
TL;DR: The cultural industries sector employed 4.5% of all employees in Britain in 1991, which was equal in size to the construction industry, or to the combined employment in the agricultural, and the extractive industries as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The cultural industries sector employed 4.5% of all employees in Britain in 1991; that is, it was equal in size to the construction industry, or to the combined employment in the agricultural, and the extractive industries. However, this sector has remained relatively underanalysed both in the geographical and in the planning literature. The author begins by defining the cultural industries production system (CIPS). In the second part he operationalises this definition with respect to secondary sources on employment in the CIPS in Britain. In the third part he considers the change in the employment structure of the CIPS between 1984 and 1991, and goes on to address the regional patterns of employment in the CIPS with particular emphasis upon London and the South East.
257 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore how the circulation of water is embedded in the political ecology of power, through which the urbanization process unfolds and attempt to reconstruct the urbanisation process as simultaneously a political-economic and ecological process.
Abstract: In this paper, I seek to explore how the circulation of water is embedded in the political ecology of power, through which the urbanization process unfolds. I attempt to reconstruct the urbanization process as simultaneously a political-economic and ecological process. This will be discussed through the exploration of the history of the urbanization of water in Guayaquil, Ecuador. As approximately 36% of its two million inhabitants has no access to piped potable water, water becomes subject to an intense social struggle for control and/or access. Mechanisms of exclusion from and access to water, particularly in cities which have a problematic water-supply condition, lay bare how both the transformation of nature and the urbanization process are organized in and through mechanisms of social power. In order to unravel the relations of power that are inscribed in the way the urbanization of nature unfolded I document and analyze the historical geography of water control in the context of the political ecolog...
250 citations
TL;DR: Jones, M. R. as discussed by the authors, et al. (1997). Spatial selectivity of the state? The regulationist enigma and local struggles over economic governance. Environment and Planning A, 29 (5), 831-864.
Abstract: Jones, M. R. (1997). Spatial selectivity of the state? The regulationist enigma and local struggles over economic governance. Environment and Planning A, 29 (5), 831-864.
247 citations
TL;DR: The authors investigates the manner in which cultural festivals have been theorised in the context of accounts of the role of civic boosterism, or what he terms "Urban Propaganda Projects" or "urban propaganda projects".
Abstract: The author sets out to interrogate the manner in which cultural festivals have been theorised in the context of accounts of the role of civic boosterism—or what he terms ‘Urban Propaganda Projects'...
122 citations
TL;DR: How domestic workers' constructions of their occupation are interwoven with their own national identities, the (partial) internalisation of others' images of them, and how they define themselves in relation to other domestic workers are explored.
Abstract: In Canada, paid domestic work is often associated with (im)migrant women from a variety of countries of origin. We critically analyse Canada's foreign domestic worker programmes, noting the shifting definitions of which nationalities should participate. We note how gendered, racialised, and classed constructions of national identities infuse these programmes. We then turn to an empirical analysis of how foreign domestic workers are constructed in Toronto, where demand is the highest in Canada. In particular, we investigate how the practices of domestic worker placement agencies reinforce images about which national identities supposedly have qualities that make them best suited to certain types of domestic work. Finally, we explore how domestic workers' constructions of their occupation are interwoven with their own national identities, the (partial) internalisation of others' images of them, and how they define themselves in relation to other domestic workers.
109 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the potential contribution of time-space diaries to the analysis of tourism behavior and paid particular attention to how such diaries can provide insights into activities and tourism activity spaces which are not available from tourism'snapshot' questionnaire surveys.
Abstract: In this paper we examine the potential contribution of time-space diaries to the analysis of tourism behaviour. We pay particular attention to how such diaries can provide insights into activities and tourism activity spaces which are not available from tourism ‘snapshot’ questionnaire surveys. These arguments are illustrated by the results of a time-space diary survey undertaken in Newquay, Cornwall, with which we explore differences in activities and activity spaces related to the types of accommodation used, occupational and family structures, diurnal and intradiurnal variations.
102 citations
TL;DR: Although the nonmetropolitan population growth rate is still below the metropolitan rate, it is concluded that in the 1990s some features of the ‘turnaround’ of the 1970s have returned.
Abstract: The Hoover index calculated across counties and larger spatial units is again declining--signalling a renewal of population deconcentration in the United States. After increasing for several decades the index declined in the 1970s when nonmetropolitan population growth surged past metropolitan-area growth but the index rose in the 1980s as metropolitan population growth recovered and surpassed nonmetropolitan growth. We update these trends introducing careful controls for changes in metropolitan-area boundaries and we incorporate a `functional urban region approach. Although the nonmetropolitan population growth rate is still below the metropolitan rate we conclude that in the 1990s some features of the `turnaround of the 1970s have returned. (EXCERPT)
81 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that models of consumer choice of shopping destination have included few attributes related to the selection of stores available in a shopping centre, and they seek to develop and illustrate empirically a way to define the store selection in shopping centres, such that effects of various modifications to the available selection can be modelled by conjoint analysis (or stated preference of decompositional choice) methods.
Abstract: In this paper it is argued that models of consumer choice of shopping destination have included few attributes related to the selection of stores available in a shopping centre. The authors seek to develop and illustrate empirically a way to define the selection of stores in shopping centres, such that effects of various modifications to the available selection can be modelled by conjoint analysis (or stated preference of decompositional choice) methods. Profiles of hypothetical shopping centres are developed that describe the total size of centres as well as the marketing mix positionings of the individual stores within these centres. The approach is implemented in choice experiments, one on food shopping and one on shopping for clothing and shoes. Logit models are estimated and compared for these two product categories and for large versus small centres.
TL;DR: Attention is drawn to the important contrasts between the modelling of categorical and continuous predictors and the emphasis is placed on the simultaneous consideration of complex variation at all levels.
Abstract: Geography is centrally concerned with difference and heterogeneity, yet much quantitative modelling has been concerned with finding average or general relationships thereby relegating vari ability to a single catchall 'error' term. Multilevel modelling, in contrast, anticipates complex between-individual and between-place heterogeneity. Previous accounts of the approach have stressed the modelling of higher level, between-place differences, but here the emphasis is placed on the simultaneous consideration of complex variation at all levels. A parade of models is presented each of which considers a particular facet of the model specification. Attention is drawn to the important contrasts between the modelling of categorical and continuous predictors. Illustrative results are provided for variations in British house prices, modelled with the MLn software. An appendix provides an example of the use of this software. Much statistical modelling has been concerned either with finding the generality or regularity that lies buried in the data, or with testing the validity of a general model at the local scale. Consequently, local specificity is often regarded as deviation which must be minimised during model calibration. Differences become deviations, background noise, even 'error' terms which must be filtered out in model estimation. There has been too much stress on the stereotypical and the average, not enough on variability; too much generality and too little specificity; the underlying trend has been sought by ignoring difference, or rather by assuming and then finding homogeneity. In terms of geographical analysis, there are two key elements to this need to retain difference: heterogeneity between places; and between individual 'cases'(1) within places (Jones, 1993a). Place heterogeneity can potentially be very complex with relationships varying in different ways in different contexts, so that it may be impossible to reduce the 'geography' of a phenomenon to a single map. Yet much quantitative geographical research in fitting a general 'unvarying' model, as Foster (1991) argues, denies geography. It is not only the higher level contexts that must be allowed to vary in their effect, for individual differences may also be too complex to reduce to a simple overall summary 'average'. Moreover, these two levels of hetero geneity may be confounded so that there is a need to consider both simultaneously lest one is misinterpreted for the other. Heterogeneity between individuals and between places must both be expected and modelled. As the name suggests, multilevel models operate at more than one scale or level so that an overall model can handle the microscale of individuals and the macroscale of places (Jones and Duncan, 1996). This paper has a strong practical intent; we aim to show how models with complex between-place and between-individual heterogeneity
TL;DR: In this article, a survey of unpriced woodland recreation is undertaken to test: (a) the impact of introducing budget-constraint questions; (b) the effect of varying temporal extent from willingness to pay (WTP) per annum to WTP per visit; and (c) the consequences of varying the order in which such WTP questions are presented to respondents.
Abstract: A split-sample approach is employed to test three potential design options for contingent valuation studies. A survey of unpriced woodland recreation is undertaken to test: (a) the impact of introducing budget-constraint questions; (b) the effect of varying temporal extent from willingness to pay (WTP) per annum to WTP per visit; and (c) the consequences of varying the order in which such WTP questions are presented to respondents. Some significant design effects are detected. Alternative explanations of such findings are considered and implications discussed.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use multiple regression analysis to address a central research question: what variables predict the location of pollution emissions? Data were extracted from the 1993 National Pollutant Release Inventory and the 1991 Census of Canada to assess relationships among socioeconomic class variables, industrial and land-use variables, and pollution emissions.
Abstract: In this paper, we attempt to contribute to the growing environmental justice debate by exploring environmental equity in the forty-nine counties of Ontario, Canada. We use multiple regression analysis to address a central research question: what variables predict the location of pollution emissions? Data were extracted from the 1993 National Pollutant Release Inventory and the 1991 Census of Canada to assess relationships among socioeconomic class variables, industrial and land-use variables, and pollution emissions. The results agree with the findings of recent US studies. Manufacturing employment, urbanization variables, dwelling value, and household income were all significantly related to pollution emissions. These relationships took the same direction as in most of the US studies. In total, the four variables account for about 63% of the variation in pollution emissions (adjusted R2 = 0.626, p< 0.0001). Contrary to a hypothesis of environmental inequity, the household income variable displayed a posi...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how farmers' responsibilities pertaining to environmental protection and nature conservation were formalised by policy elites at the supranational level to be supportive of the core principles of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Abstract: Recent studies of the ‘greening’ process in contemporary agricultural policy have been focused chiefly on its outcomes, rather than on an assessment of the public policy significance of the underlying process. We address this question by conceptualising how greening has been mediated by agricultural policy precepts of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union (EU). We examine how farmers' responsibilities pertaining to environmental protection and nature conservation were formalised by policy elites at the supranational level to be supportive of the core principles of the CAP. We suggest that this formalisation, culminating in 1992 with the EU's agri-environment Regulation, has enabled farming interests to use their new environmental management brief as a key element in the industry's struggle to legitimise its historic policy entitlements in the postproduction area. The theoretical basis of this paper draws upon Majone's discourse model of policy change, founded on political science and ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a property market paradigm of urban change and examine its relevance in the context of six major European urban regions in order to provide a more holistic understanding of contemporary urban change than that offered by conventional analysis.
Abstract: Conventional treatments of urban change almost uniformly ignore the role of land and property markets as essential mediators of such change. The urban built environment is assumed to be a passive adapter to structural change. However, given the complexity of property market process—in particular the disparate nature of market actors, decision rules, and institutions, the immutable characteristics of property, and the obvious constraints imposed by the existing built environment—simple adaptive adjustment is unlikely to take place. These factors can themselves be expected to play an important part in shaping urban growth and development outcomes. In response to these concerns, we propose a property market paradigm of urban change and examine its relevance in the context of six major European urban regions. The results suggest that this approach can provide a more holistic understanding of contemporary urban change than that offered by conventional analysis.
TL;DR: In this article, the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) is examined through the use of urban regime theory and the authors suggest that the discourses surrounding the SRB, which emphasise empowerment, the role of the community, and the importance of coalitions in procuring discretionary funding, outweighs the monies available and that instead it is participation in the competitive process that is important.
Abstract: The author critically examines the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB)—the latest urban initiative to be introduced by the British government—through the use of urban regime theory. Set against the backdrop of the shift from government to governance, the SRB is read as a mechanism through which those occupying ‘spaces of governance’ are further empowered. With the real costs of the competition hidden, the author seeks to unpack the bidding partnerships, seeing the SRB as a dynamic process. Grounded in the USA, urban regime theory seeks to explain the rise and management of coalitions. In conclusion, the author suggests that the discourses surrounding the SRB, which emphasise empowerment, the role of the ‘community’, and the importance of coalitions in procuring discretionary funding, outweighs the monies available and that instead it is participation in the competitive process that is important.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the relationship between the types of amenities generated by a greenbelt and the efficient location of the greenbelt, and found that greenbelt should be outside the urban fringe, and there is no discontinuity between the land rents of the urbanized area and the green-belt area along the inner boundary of a green belt.
Abstract: In this paper we examine the relationships between the types of amenities generated by a greenbelt and the efficient location of a greenbelt. This analysis illuminates the research question of whether urban development beyond a greenbelt could be efficient in an economic sense. The Herbert-Stevens model of spatial efficiency is used to see what economic-efficiency conditions might justify the leapfrogging of urban development over the greenbelt. Some interesting results are produced. When a greenbelt generates a distance-independent level of service, the efficient location of the greenbelt should be outside the urban fringe, and there is no discontinuity between the land rents of the urbanized area and the greenbelt area along the inner boundary of a greenbelt. Conversely, when a greenbelt generates a distance-decaying level of services, (1) a central park type of greenbelt is not an optimal location of the greenbelt in our model setting; (2) there is discontinuity in land rent at the inner boundary of th...
TL;DR: These issues of transnational sexual citizenship are explored in the context of the different policies towards the migration of lesbians and gay men in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Abstract: In this paper I consider issues of transnational sexual citizenship. I examine the issue of international migration of lesbians and gay men. For lesbian and gay prospective migrants, obtaining citi...
TL;DR: In this article, a detailed discussion and spatial analysis of current levels of retail provision is provided, with a view of the potential for future retail expansion, particularly given the profoundly different competitive conditions that characterise British grocery retailing in the 1990s as compared with the 1980s.
Abstract: The appreciably dramatic idea that British grocery retailing is facing imminent saturation has attracted increasing attention particularly since the mid-1980s to late 1980s. In this paper we seek to review and attempt to sophisticate the debate over saturation by providing a detailed discussion and spatial analysis of current levels of retail provision. This analysis, in itself, offers a view of the potential for future retail expansion. We argue here, however, that spatial patterns of retail provision must be interpreted carefully, particularly given the profoundly different competitive conditions that characterise British grocery retailing in the 1990s as compared with the 1980s. In considering both the spatial patterns of, and competitive processes underlying, British food retailing, we offer an account of recent retail geography in a way that synthesises approaches that are all too frequently presented as antagonistic.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that contemporary processes of telecommunications-based urban development provide challenges to how urban space is conceptualized and planned within advanced industrial cities, including invisibility, conceptual challenge, urban planning, and the challenge of containment.
Abstract: In this paper I argue that contemporary processes of telecommunications-based urban development provide challenges to how urban space is conceptualised and planned within advanced industrial cities. The paper has four parts. First, I briefly review the loosely integrated body of research on city—telecommunications relations and highlight the tendency of much contemporary research to adopt futuristic metaphors for explaining such relations at a general level. In part two, the argument that the current explosion of telecommunications applications across all aspects of urban development challenges old urban paradigms, for understanding and planning urban space, is developed. Four challenges are identified and explored: the challenge of invisibility, the conceptual challenge, the challenge to urban planning, and the challenge of containment. Given this context, the third part of the paper builds on recent insights in cultural studies to explore the potential for new conceptual frameworks which help explain th...
TL;DR: In the early 1980s, concern about environmental issues and pressure on manufacturing firms to decrease their environmental impact have both intensified as mentioned in this paper, and at present legislation is the most signifi...
Abstract: Concern about environmental issues and pressure on manufacturing firms to decrease their environmental impact have both intensified since the early 1980s. At present legislation is the most signifi...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review recent research on the characteristics and operations of service multinationals and provide an understanding of the determinants of internationalization, entry modes, and strategies of product and market diversification, examples are taken from producer service firms with specific emphasis upon accounting and advertising services.
Abstract: In this paper the authors review recent research on the characteristics and operations of service multinationals. To provide an understanding of the determinants of internationalization, entry modes, and strategies of product and market diversification, examples are taken from producer service firms with specific emphasis upon accounting and advertising services. The competitive advantage of service multinationals in the United States and Western Europe is at the core of most discussion; however, the competitive strategies of the Japanese advertising firms vis-a-vis their Western counterparts are discussed to highlight interorganizational differences. This paper is organized into five sections: the definition of services and the determinants of growth in producer services in the industrially advanced nations; theoretical explanations of international investments in services; empirical research on the determinants of internationalization, entry mode, and business strategies of service firms; industry-speci...
TL;DR: In this paper, the role played by forest struggles and forest intellectuals (notably Guha and Gadgil) in the rewriting of India's forest policies is considered and the utility of a moral economy framework in guiding joint forest management policies in India's Jharkhand.
Abstract: The government of India has embraced joint forest management as a key strategy for dealing with forest degradation and forest employment issues in the 1990s. This represents a significant movement away from the forest reservation policies that held sway from 1947 to 1988 and which criminalised many local forest users. In this paper we consider the role played by forest struggles and forest intellectuals (notably Guha and Gadgil) in the rewriting of India's forest policies. We also evaluate the utility of a moral economy framework in guiding joint forest management policies in India's Jharkhand. We draw on village-level fieldwork in Ranchi District, Bihar, to highlight the value of an approach to the management of Degraded Protected Forests that offers a key role to active and informed forest citizens (as per the moral economy framework). We also highlight five areas of present concern: the extent of local environmental knowledges, not least among women; questions of territoriality and excludeability in re...
TL;DR: An apparent threshold condition for regional spread of this synergism of plagues is uncovered, triggered through a stochastic resonance with public policies affecting the distribution of catastrophic events within central-city minority neighborhoods.
Abstract: In previous papers of this series we have shown how public policies of ‘planned shrinkage’ triggered contagious urban decay and massive destruction of low-income housing within poor minority communities of New York City. The resulting social disintegration exacerbated epidemics of infectious disease, including AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) and TB (tuberculosis), and such behavioral pathologies as substance abuse and violence. We extend this work on the neighborhood-level ‘synergism of plagues’ to the metropolitan regional scale for eight US urban areas containing more than 54 million people. Several have central cities, which, like New York, suffer from what Skogan characterized as a relentless ‘hollowing out’ of poor communities. We find AIDS, TB, violent crime, and low birthweight near the worst affected cities to be markers of an accelerating regional synergism of plagues, a diffusing system of interacting and self-reinforcing pathology fueled by, but spreading far beyond, the worst affecte...
TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that the music business should be regarded as an activity trading in information, and the music industry should be viewed as a trade-off between creativity and commerce and between global and local processes.
Abstract: In this paper it is argued that the music business should be regarded as an activity trading in information. The paper begins with a review of key themes in the conceptualisation of the music industry within the cultural economies tradition. These are the tensions between creativity and commerce and between global and local processes, and the characterisation of the industry in the terms of the flexible specialisation and reflexive accumulation theses. It is then suggested that these debates have downplayed a key characteristic of the contemporary music industry, its involvement with the creation, production, and distribution of information. The emergence of a global music business over the past decade is documented and analysed by means of this framework. Subsequently, two aspects of the integration processes taking place in the music industry are considered in terms of their relationship to the information economy: copyright protection and branding, and competition between producers of information stora...
TL;DR: In this article, a survey of professional employees in three of the City of London's merchant banks to assess arguments about the residential preferences and lifestyle decisions of the ‘new’ middle class is presented.
Abstract: In this paper I draw on a survey of professional employees in three of the City of London's merchant banks to assess arguments about the residential preferences and lifestyle decisions of the ‘new’ middle class. It has been argued that an increasingly polarised workforce within producer service industries has, in part, led to greater social polarisation in inner areas through the mechanism of gentrification. Further the effects of the feminisation of the labour market, especially the rise in the numbers of professional women in employment, have been adduced as a significant factor in housing-market change. A number of commentators have suggested that women in professional occupations are key players in inner-area gentrification, although the evidence here is limited. Further, middle-class anxiety about employment prospects has been identified by Lyons in a recent article in this journal as a further reason for increased preferences for inner-area locations. In this paper I assess these arguments.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the globalisation of labour from the Philippines in terms of its magnitude, its historical development, and its impact on restructuring state functions, arguing that the shift of attention on the part of the state to maintaining the economic functions of international labour circuits tends to undermine its national regulatory function thereby compromising the broad legitimacy of the State.
Abstract: The burgeoning literature on ‘globalisation’ tends to identify it as an economic and cultural process, paying little attention to the associated restructuring of the state. Not only does the state sponsor globalisation, but also it ‘globalises' itself in the process. Perhaps the most significant dimension of this new development is where labour markets are integrated with global capital circuits under state sanction. The systematic and state-promoted export of temporary migrant workers has transformed the Philippine state, economy, and society. In this paper I examine the globalisation of labour from the Philippines in terms of its magnitude, its historical development, and its impact on restructuring state functions. I argue that the shift of attention on the part of the state to maintaining the economic functions of international labour circuits tends to undermine its national regulatory function thereby compromising the broad legitimacy of the state. These propositions are examined through a case study...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how Korea's export-oriented economy has laid its new foundation for global competitiveness by deepening interfirm linkages and argue that the globalizing of economy in Korea is encouraged by efficacious global-local transactions via large - small firm networks.
Abstract: In this paper the author examines how Korea's export-oriented economy has laid its new foundation for global competitiveness by deepening interfirm linkages. Korea's interfirm linkages refer mainly to the relationship between large and small firms. Recent corporate restructuring in the large and small firm sectors has caused denser and highly dynamic intercorporate networks to arise. The author argues that the globalizing of economy in Korea is encouraged by efficacious global - local transactions via large - small firm networks, a matter ignored by most analysts. Major foci are on analyzing the forms, structures, governing mechanisms, and function of large - small firm networks.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors take issue with what they identify as a basic consensus in gentrification studies, arguing that the majority of studies have been conducted within a context framed by two basic models of urban development, namely the Burgess concentric-zone model and the Alonso bid-rent model.
Abstract: In this paper I take issue with what I identify as a basic consensus in gentrification studies. I argue that gentrification studies have been conducted within a context framed by two basic models of urban development, namely the Burgess concentric-zone model and the Alonso bid-rent model. These two models lie at the heart of what are more usually seen as the parameters of the gentrification debate, namely the ‘supply-side’ rent-gap account of gentrification offered by Neil Smith and his followers and the ‘demand-side’ consumption-oriented explanations offered by David Ley and his followers. Both sets of explanations are, however, fatally compromised by seeking to answer the question ‘why does gentrification occur?’ before answering the question ‘how does gentrification occur?’. Starting with the question ‘how?’, rather than ‘why?’, draws attention to the hitherto almost completely neglected role of domestic technologies in permitting gentrification to occur, thereby helping break the theoretical logjam in...