Urban Studies recent issues

Job Access, Employment and Earnings: Outcomes for Welfare Leavers in a US Urban Labour Market

Bania, N., Leete, L., Coulton, C. — 2008-09-05

This article examines the effect of job access on employment outcomes for welfare recipients in Cleveland, Ohio, leaving assistance during 1998—2000. A rich longitudinal dataset is employed, combining administrative and survey data with multiple measures of access to and competition for jobs. The focus is on both a population and a range of measures of employment outcomes not previously studied in this context. Empirical ambiguity in the existing literature has resulted from the difficulty of modelling causality when employment and residential location are jointly determined. In this study, labour market outcomes are related to the residential locations of welfare leavers prior to employment, thus overcoming much potential endogeneity. Virtually no evidence is found that job access influences labour market outcomes for this population.

Are Labour Markets Necessarily `Local'? Spatiality, Segmentation and Scale

Weller, S. A. — 2008-09-05

This paper draws on recent debates about scale to approach the geography of labour markets from a dynamic perspective sensitive to the spatiality and scale of labour market restructuring. Its exploration of labour market reconfigurations after the collapse of a major firm (Ansett Airlines) raises questions about geography's faith in the inherently `local' constitution of labour markets. Through an examination of the job reallocation process after redundancy, the paper suggests that multiple labour markets use and articulate scale in different ways. It argues that labour market rescaling processes are enacted at the critical moment of recruitment, where social networks, personal aspirations and employer preferences combine to shape workers' destinations.

A Framework for Housing Market Area Delineation: Principles and Application

Brown, P. J. B., Hincks, S. — 2008-09-05

A review is presented of the requirements of a framework for the delineation of housing market areas (HMAs) in the context of undertaking a housing market assessment. This prompts adoption of a methodology that features an iterative application of information obtained from estate agents, to identify HMA cores, and a functional regionalisation of 2001 Census interward migration flows. The approach is demonstrated using data for North West England. The concluding section explores some implications of the HMA framework for policy and future research.

Real Estate Regulations in Accra: Some Macroeconomic Consequences?

Buckley, R. M., Mathema, A. S. — 2008-09-05

Ghana has been one of the most rapidly growing economies in sub-Saharan Africa. This growth has been aided by Ghana's improving policy environment. In light of this, the paper addresses the question of why, given its higher level of per capita income and relatively strong growth, the housing conditions of the poor in Accra are considerably worse than those in a number of other African cities with lower incomes. There are not many data available to answer this question, so the method is indirect and takes two approaches. First, a variant of the monocentric city model is used to calculate Accra's housing supply elasticity relative to those of other similarly sized African cities. The model suggests that housing supply responsiveness is considerably lower in Accra, a result consistent with the observed higher housing costs. Secondly, a number of traditional housing demand and reduced-form equations are estimated for Accra and the other cities. This allows the formation of a quantitative judgment about Accra's housing supply elasticity. Taken together, the two approaches indicate that lower-income families in Accra have such poor housing conditions because the market is extremely unresponsive to demand. The welfare costs of current housing and land policies are considerable. The results suggest that making Accra's real estate market more responsive would go a long way towards improving the effectiveness of the broader policy environment. It would also no doubt improve the housing conditions of the poor and help to reduce the city's expanding footprint.

Why are Non-profit Performing Arts Organisations Successful in Mid-sized US Cities?

Poon, J. P. H., Lai, C. A. — 2008-09-05

This paper examines the locational success of non-profit arts organisations (PAOs) in six mid-sized cities and their metropolitan areas in the United States. The cities are located in the US rust belt and they do not fare well on Florida's creativity index. Yet they are ranked among the top 30 of some 400 North American cultural cities. Based on interviews with 63 performing arts directors, it is found that localisation economies as well as creative capital theories explain the attractiveness of mid-sized cities to the performing arts industry. While urbanisation economy factors were ranked lowly, this may be explained by the non-profit nature of the industry so that a significant share of interfirm or interorganisational linkages is voluntary, donated and informal. The results also reveal that non-profit organisations are relatively embedded in their local urban economies and rely rather heavily on local communities for patronage, performers and reputation.

Network Governance for Competitiveness: The Role of Policy Networks in the Economic Performance of Settlements in the Izmir Region

Eraydin, A., Armatli Koroglu, B., Erkus Ozturk, H., Senem Yasar, S. — 2008-09-05

Some cities and regions grow faster than others and they increase their relative shares in the global economy. The literature offers a wide list of factors of competitiveness, most of which define individual capacities of cities. Recently, however, there has been an increasing focus on the importance of network governance and the policy networks formed between different cities. This paper examines the importance of policy networks compared with other widely recognised factors of competitiveness to the economic performance of settlements in the Izmir region and investigates the importance of classical competitiveness indicators and network relations on their economic performance with the use of econometric methods. In conclusion, it discusses the importance of policy networks in administrative reform processes and economic development policies.

Summing Small Cities Does Not Make a Large City: Polycentric Urban Regions and the Provision of Cultural, Leisure and Sports Amenities

Meijers, E. — 2008-09-05

The paper explores whether a polycentric urban region can reap the advantages of its combined urban size to a similar extent as a similar-sized monocentric city-region. This question is elaborated for the provision of cultural, leisure and sports amenities. Their presence in 42 Dutch regions is expressed in an index, which serves as the dependent variable in a multiple regression model. An explaining variable is the extent of polycentricity of a region. Correcting for differences between regions in terms of population size, the number of visitors and average income, it turns out that the more polycentric a region is, the fewer cultural, leisure and sports amenities are present. Conversely, the more monocentric a region, the more such amenities.

Rethinking Urban Projects: Experiences in Europe

Salet, W. — 2008-09-05

This article investigates how decision-making processes relating to strategic urban projects are framed in order to achieve innovative urban developments. Three dimensions of framing are analysed: the cognitive framing, the framing of alliances in the metroplitan action space and the framing of the democratic process. The crux for success is in organising interconnectivity between the dimensions of framing in a multi-actor and multilevel context. The model's assumptions are tested by an application to four of Europe's largest urban projects under construction.

Book Review: Planning and Transformation. Learning from the Post-apartheid Experience Philip Harrison, Alison Todes and Vanessa Watson, 2008 London: Routledge 300 pp. {pound}89.00, hardback; {pound}30.99 paperback ISBN 978 0 415 36033 3 hardback; 978 0 415 36031 9 paperback

Peyroux, E. — 2008-09-05

Book Review: London Voices, London Lives: Tales from a Working Capital Peter Hall, 2007 Bristol: The Policy Press 512 pp. {pound}65.00 hardback; {pound}24.99 paperback ISBN 978 186134 9842 hardback; 978 186134 9835 paperback

Dedieu, I. — 2008-09-05

Book Review: Postcolonial Dublin: Imperial Legacies and the Built Environment Andrew Kincaid, 2006 Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press 296 pp. No price given, hardback; US$25.00 paperback ISBN 08166 43458 hardback ; 08166 43466 paperback

Whelan, Y. — 2008-09-05

Book Review: Skills for Planning Practice Ted Kitchen, 2006 Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 260 pp. no price given hardback; {pound}22.99 paperback ISBN 0 333 69071 0 hardback; 0 333 69072 9 paperback

Goodstadt, V. — 2008-09-05

Book Review: Enjeux de la sociologie (Issues Facing Urban Sociology) Michel Bassand, Vincent Kaufmann and Dominique Joye (Eds), 2nd edn, 2007 Lausanne: Presses Polytechniques et Universitaires Romandes 411 pp. Euros 22.30 paperback ISBN 978 2 88074 676 6 paperback

Ball, S. — 2008-09-05

Books Received

2008-09-05

Introduction: Faith-based Organisations and Urban Social Issues

Beaumont, J. — 2008-08-07

Faith Action on Urban Social Issues

Beaumont, J. — 2008-08-07

What evidence supports or refutes the claim articulated from various quarters that faith-based organisations (FBOs) have been repositioned as actors for combating social problems like poverty and social exclusion in cities? This paper explores FBOs as agents of social change in contemporary cities in Europe, with a glance at the US. The argument is, first, that we need to conceptualise changing dynamics between religion, politics and post-secular society in the conviction that cities are the pre-eminent loci where these new relations are forming with intensity. While state restructuring and the urbanisation of political action are well-documented processes, far less is known about similar changes in the governance of religious institutions and their consequences for the urbanising relations between religion and the public sphere. Secondly, there are a number of empirical instances of FBOs involving faith-motivated and other people who respond to problems of poverty and social exclusion in various cities across Europe and suggest a changing public role of FBOs in social and political issues. Such repositioning, however, does not relate to the public sphere without tensions and ambiguities and the paper draws out some implications for theory and practice that guide a new international and multidisciplinary research agenda.

Faith in Politics

Jamoul, L., Wills, J. — 2008-08-07

Civil society is often seen as providing a social foundation from which to combat injustices perpetuated by the state and the corporate sector. Faith institutions are an integral and often overlooked component of this abstract civil society. In this paper, it is argued that faith has an important role to play in offering answers to the challenges posed by increasing inequalities and urban injustice. The major faith traditions share a commitment to `looking out' to the wider community and testing faith through action. While this is often expressed as charity, service provision or interfaith dialogue, there is also the potential to politicise this impetus to engage. At present, faith institutions have been encouraged to get involved in `community cohesion' and `regeneration' schemes in urban areas, but it is argued that there is scope for faith organisations to develop a much more independent form of political engagement within their local communities. Using the example of London Citizens, a broad-based organisation, it is suggested that there is an alternative political route for faith institutions with an emphasis on the battle for justice. London Citizens is an alliance of about 90 civil society institutions, predominantly from the faith sector, but it also includes labour, educational and community-based organisations. It now has a decade of organising experience and the paper explores the basis on which people of faith join the alliance, how they work together and the effects this politicisation has on the institutions and people involved.

The Immigrant Church as an Urban Service Hub

Ley, D. — 2008-08-07

This paper draws from interviews conducted with leaders of 46 immigrant Christian churches in Vancouver. The congregations comprise newcomers from Korea, ethnic Chinese who are primarily recent immigrants and an older post-1945 German migration. The churches are identified as a hub in which relations of trust and compatibility generate bonding social capital; from this base, a wide range of personal and social services is provided, significantly aiding co-ethnic members to adapt to their new conditions. In a neo-liberal era, the state is facilitating such activities as part of a policy of contracting-out its own former in-house functions. The capacity of the immigrant church to serve both its own members and adherents and also a broader expanded constituency beyond its co-ethnic clients is important. The paper examines the activities of some of the churches in this transition from bonding to bridging social capital and the challenges that they confront.

Context Determines Content: Quantum Physics as a Framework for `Wholeness' in Urban Transformation

Rosado, C. — 2008-08-07

We live in a divided world dominated by a fragmentary worldview that treats the wholeness of the human family, urban environments and social reality as inherently discrete, distanced and disconnected. This fragmentary perspective, emerging from Greek dualism and fuelled by the Newtonian mechanical view of the world with its Cartesian split of either/or understanding of reality, does not lead to wholeness. Almost all discussion of urban social policies emerges from a context of fragmented thinking. Drawing from quantum physics, this paper presents a theoretical framework, a new `context' for understanding urban environments and the implementing of programmes of urban transformation, including faith-based programmes. The paper examines examples of effective change agents who have made a difference in people's lives. It culminates with an analysis of the broken window theory and how the differences in approaches—fragmentation or wholeness—generate different results. The critical point is in recognising the energy patterns and operative attractor fields from which emerge negative or positive patterns of behaviour.

When God and Poverty Collide: Exploring the Myths of Faith-sponsored Community Development

Winkler, T. — 2008-08-07

Inspired by British and American religion—state practices and social capital theories, South Africa's National Religious Leaders' Forum (NRLF) and the National Religious Association for Social Development (NRASD) seek similar policy directives to empower a local, but undifferentiated, `faith sector'. For the NRLF/NRASD, the `faith sector' is the best-placed agency to facilitate pragmatic community development projects with far-reaching poverty alleviation impacts, provided the state assists faith organisations via public-sector grants. This paper will, therefore, test claims made by the NRLF/ NRASD regarding faith organisations' social service capacities in a case-specific context—namely, Hillbrow, Johannesburg. And research findings will demonstrate that financial aid alone is insufficient to remedy existing development inadequacies. Case study findings may also highlight generic difficulties found in faith-sponsored development projects throughout South Africa.

Expressions of Charity and Action towards Justice: Faith-based Welfare Provision in Urban New Zealand

Conradson, D. — 2008-08-07

Christian churches have long been involved in responding to social need in New Zealand cities. Since the formation of city missions in the late 19th century, their engagements have variously encompassed emergency relief, social housing, orphanages and residential aged care. In recent years, the churches and their affiliated social service operations have also sought to intervene in the political and social processes that contribute to disadvantage in New Zealand. The article analyses this movement towards a more explicit concern for social justice, with specific reference to developments among a set of Christian social service organisations in the city of Christchurch between 1999 and 2006. Alongside transformations in local services, national lobbying to highlight the situation of disadvantaged social groups has been an important element of this transition. The analysis offers insights into the place of faith-based welfare organisations within socio-political settings that might be characterised as `third way' or `after neo-liberalism'.

'Prophets-for-Profits': Redevelopment and the Altering Urban Religious Landscape

Mian, N. A. — 2008-08-07

This paper examines the redevelopment activities of religious institutions in the greater New York City area. In recent years, more and more churches have been selling their property and air rights to create either commercial and market-rate housing or affordable housing. Through archival material and interviews with pastors, the purpose of this descriptive paper is to understand why and how religious institutions, primarily churches, decide to alter their function by becoming entrepreneurial and engaging in property development. The changing character of these institutions is explained through the lens of theories of religious ecology and institutional isomorphism. The paper concludes with suggestions for improvement of the development process.

Commentary: From Faith in the City to Faithful Cities: The `Third Way', the Church of England and Urban Regeneration

Dinham, A. — 2008-08-07

In 1984, the Church of England published a critique of urban life, Faith in the City, which Thatcher's government accused of `Marxism'. A new Church of England report, Faithful Cities, marks its 20th anniversary. This article asks how the challenges of the earlier report have been inherited, arguing that the new one accepts the logic of the `Third Way', problematising the city as a place of untapped `citizens', waiting to be transformed by the agency of civil society partners including faith communities. In doing so, it fails to criticise the political consensus of markets and social justice. The effectiveness of the Church of England in cities should now be understood, therefore, as predominantly associated with meso-level community interventions and not at the macro level where a critique of the political could occur. The article asks whether this also sets an example for the stances of churches elsewhere.

Employment Sub-centres and Travel-to-Work Mode Choice in the Dublin Region

Vega, A., Reynolds-Feighan, A. — 2008-07-17

In this paper, travel-to-work patterns are analysed for a number of key employment sub-centres in the Dublin region. Geographical information system (GIS) visualisations and regression analysis are used to identify a small number of employment sub-centres using a large sample of travel-to-work data from the 2002 Census of Population modified with travel-specific data by the Dublin Transport Office. The journey to work is then analysed across these employment sub-centres in the context of a travel mode choice model. The estimation results illustrate the varying effects that travel attributes such as travel time and travel cost have on the choice of mode of travel across employment destinations highlighting the role of trip destination as a main driver of travel behaviour in the Dublin region.

The Quest to Understand Self-employment in American Metropolitan Areas

Oh, J.-H. — 2008-07-17

The mechanisms shaping a shift in intrametropolitan self-employment remain poorly understood. In response, this study aims to examine shifts in both central-city and suburban self-employment by integrating the changing forces of intrametropolitan economy and population with their economic interdependence within an entire metropolitan area. Using a change-score model, data collected over two time-periods (1980—90 and 1990—2000) are pooled. The analysis shows that a decline in intrametropolitan manufacturing employment, which can be understood as an aspect of local economic restructuring, leads to an increase in intrametropolitan self-employment. Also, the data suggest that a rise in metropolitan-level immigrant population contributes to the growth of central-city self-employment. Moreover, this paper demonstrates that a shift in central-city self-employment is affected by both central-city and suburban economic transformations.

Does `Smart Growth' Matter to Public Finance?

Carruthers, J. I., Ulfarsson, G. F. — 2008-07-17

This paper addresses four fundamental questions about the relationship between `smart growth', a fiscally motivated anti-sprawl policy movement, and public finance. Do low-density, spatially extensive land use patterns cost more to support? If so, how large an influence does sprawl actually have? How does the influence differ among types of spending? And, how does it compare with the influence of other relevant factors? The analysis, which is based on the entire continental US and uses a series of spatial econometric models to evaluate one aggregate (total direct) and nine disaggregate (education, fire protection, housing and community development, libraries, parks and recreation, police protection, roadways, sewerage, and solid waste disposal) measures of spending, provides the most detailed evidence to date of how sprawl affects the vast sum of revenue that local governments spend every year.

Public Management of Urban Land, Enabling Markets and Low-income Housing Provision: The Overlooked Experience of Iran

Keivani, R., Mattingly, M., Majedi, H. — 2008-07-17

This paper examines the first 10 years (1979—89) of the implementation of the Urban Land Act in Iran in order to revisit the debate on the capacity of market-enabling policies to improve low-income housing provision in developing countries. The outcome of the Iranian experience during the study period shows that, at the very least, governments can play an important and effective role in low- and middle-income housing provision through direct provision of urban land in parallel with markets. This suggests that the best way forward may be a combination of market-enabling approaches that develop basic institutional functions plus proactive government intervention for developing public land banks to provide better access to cheap land for a range of housing providers including individual households, co-operatives and private developers.

"Moving Three Times Is Like Having Your House on Fire Once": The Experience of Place and Impending Displacement among Public Housing Residents

Manzo, L. C., Kleit, R. G., Couch, D. — 2008-07-17

The HOPE VI programme in the US displaces tens of thousands of low-income households to disperse pockets of poverty and transform sites of `severely distressed' public housing into mixed-income housing. A complete evaluation of this programme's impacts on residents must examine the meanings and functions of these communities before they are dismantled. Therefore, this paper examines residents' lived experiences of place in one site before redevelopment. This socially well-functioning community allowed residents to lay down roots, form place attachments and create bonds of mutual support with neighbours, contrary to typical depictions of severely distressed housing. Implications for US public housing policy and parallels with the discourse on social housing and social inclusion in western Europe illuminate overarching trends in housing policy for the poor.

The Multiple Sites of Urban Governance: Insights from an African City

Lindell, I. — 2008-07-17

Contemporary modes of urban governance involve a wide variety of actors. The present paper combines insights from several debates into a framework that considers the multiple sites where practices of governance are exercised and contested, various and entangled layers of relations and a broad range of practices of governance that may involve various modes of power, as well as different scales. The paper illustrates some of these complexities with an empirical study of the governance of marketplaces in Maputo, Mozambique. It shows how urban governance in a context of extensive informalisation and `democratic transition' can be highly fragmented and fluid, contesting some of the assumptions underlying Western debates on urban governance. It also questions notions of the hollowed-out state and an excessive focus on public policy.

The Territorialisation of a Pedestrian Precinct in Malmo: Materialities in the Commercialisation of Public Space

Karrholm, M. — 2008-07-17

This paper sets out to describe and conceptualise four different ways of investigating material stabilisation involved in the territorialisation and commercialisation of a centrally located pedestrian precinct. In recent decades, Swedish retail areas have tended to grow larger and more visible; a large number of new large shopping areas have been established on the outskirts of cities, whereas stores in the city centre tend to be concentrated in certain streets or pedestrian precincts. This paper investigates the case of Malmö. Malmö has been quite successful during the past decade in terms of retail business and the on-going pedestrianisation has resulted in a large and coherent pedestrian precinct, consolidating the city centre as a shopping district. On the basis of an empirical investigation, the paper discusses how this urban type (and its paraphernalia) has developed in Malmö and how it has stabilised over recent decades as a `territory for shopping'. This territorialisation has also been accomplished by material means. The main aim of this discussion is to investigate the delegations and mediations involved in the process. In so doing, a spatial perspective on materialities is proposed, discussing networks, bodies, framings and sorts, as four intersecting ways in which materialities can be described as having territorial impacts on the everyday life and culture of the pedestrian precinct.

Organic Intellectuals of Urban Politics? Turkish Urban Professionals as Political Agents, 1960--80

Batuman, B. — 2008-07-17

The post-war period in Turkey witnessed a rapid phase of urbanisation that widely shaped the social and political environment during the 1960s and the 1970s. In this period, which was marked by the extensive politicisation of the urban masses, urban problems entered into the realm of daily politics and urban politics evolved into an autonomous realm of struggle. This article analyses the role played by Turkish architects and urban planners, who will homogeneously be labelled as urban professionals, within this process. The intention is to scrutinise the counter-hegemonic potentials of a political agency on the part of urban professionals with reference to the Gramscian concept of `organic intellectuals'.

Agglomeration Effects on Regional Economic Disparities: A Comparison between the UK and Japan

Nakamura, R. — 2008-07-17

In this study, the reason and cause of regional economic disparities in terms of per capita value-added are investigated by comparing the UK and Japanese regions. Special attention is paid to agglomeration effects on the differences of regional productivities. The Gini coefficients of per capita values-added exhibit relatively higher levels for the UK regions than for Japanese regions over the period 1995—2003. The cause of this difference is found to be in labour productivities rather than employment rates or labour per population. Furthermore, a decomposition of labour productivity into main industries clarifies agglomeration effects on manufacturing and service-related industry between both countries. Based on these findings, the production functions are estimated by main industries and differences in agglomeration effects on industries between the two countries are examined. Taking a dynamic view of the changing disparities across regions, an increase in regional disparities is associated with the cumulative growth theory.

Design and Destinations: Factors Influencing Walking and Total Physical Activity

Forsyth, A., Hearst, M., Oakes, J. M., Schmitz, K. H. — 2008-07-17

Do people walk more, or less, depending on the physical character of their residential areas rather than merely their individual characteristics? This paper reports findings for the Twin Cities, Minnesota, about how walking and total physical activity are affected by street pattern, `pedestrian-oriented' infrastructure and amenities, and mixed use or destinations—in shorthand, design and destinations. The effects of density are dealt with in less depth. Like earlier studies, it finds that walking for specific purposes (i.e. travel or leisure) varies in relation to the physical characteristics of places. However, this study using multiple measures of overall walking and physical activity suggests that socially similar people do the same total amount of physical activity in different kinds of places and that level of activity is, on average, low.

Book Review: World City: Doreen Massey, 2007 London: Polity Press 262 pp. {pound}50.00 hardback; {pound}14.99 paperback ISBN 978 0 7456 4059 4 hardback; 978 07456 4060 0 paperback

Friedmann, J. — 2008-07-17

Book Review: Perspectivas Urbanas: Temas Criticos en Politicas de Suelo en America Latina: Martim O. Smolka and Laura Mullahy (Eds), 2007 Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy 416 pp. US$25.00 paperback ISBN 978 1 55844 163 7 paperback

Firmino, R. J. — 2008-07-17

Book Review: The Shek Kip Mei Myth: Squatters, Fires and Colonial Rule in Hong Kong, 1950--1963: Alan Smart, 2006 Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press 227 pp. US$65.00 hardback; US$ 27.95 paperback ISBN 962-209-792-8 hardback; 962-209-793-6 paperback

Rooney, N. — 2008-07-17

Book Review: Toronto Sprawls: A History: Lawrence Solomon, 2007 Toronto: The University of Toronto Press 120 pp. {pound}28.00 hardback; 13.00 paperback ISBN 978 07727 8619 7 hardback; 978 07727 8618 0 paperback

Foran, M. — 2008-07-17

Books Received

2008-07-17

Is There Long-run Convergence among Regional House Prices in the UK?

Holmes, M. J., Grimes, A. — 2008-06-09

This paper investigates the long-run convergence of regional house prices in the UK. Existing studies have failed to reach a consensus on whether or not regional house prices exhibit long-run convergence with each other. The application is proposed of a new test involving unit root testing of the first principal component based on regional—national house price differentials. Using mix-adjusted quarterly data for 1973—2006, it is found that the first principal component is stationary. This suggests that all UK regional house prices are driven by a single common stochastic trend. Further analysis suggests that those regions that are more distant from London exhibit the highest degrees of persistence with respect to deviations in house price differentials.

Housing Supply, Housing Demand, and Affordability

Fingleton, B. — 2008-06-09

The affordability of housing is a major policy issue that has increasingly become a concern for UK government as house prices have risen dramatically in recent years. This is partly because of the importance of affordability for the recruitment and retention of key workers, many of whom are on national pay scales and earning salaries that do not fully reflect the differences in prices that exist, in particular between London and the South East and the rest of Great Britain. Government policy is to increase the supply of housing in order to improve affordability in the greater South East. However, assuming that this expansion in housing supply is also to be accompanied by an expansion in employment, the outcome is that there will be both an increase in supply and in demand for housing, with the counter-intuitive result that, under one of the scenarios set out in this paper, in some areas affordability will worsen rather than improve.

Moving Window Approaches for Hedonic Price Estimation: An Empirical Comparison of Modelling Techniques

Paez, A., Fei Long, , Farber, S. — 2008-06-09

Recognition of the limitations of traditional hedonic models to account for spatial effects has led in recent years to the development and use of spatial econometric and statistical techniques in real estate applications. It seems appropriate, as the number of applications grows, to evaluate the relative ability of some newer approaches in terms of producing accurate spatial predictions. This article compares a selection of techniques to assess their performance. The focus is on moving window approaches that can be conceptualised as sliding neighbourhoods (i.e. soft market segmentations) and that can incorporate spatial dependency effects. Comparison of moving windows regression (MWR), geographically weighted regression (GWR) and moving windows Kriging (MWK) sheds light on the relevance of different spatial effects. Results using Toronto as a case study indicate that market segmentation may be more important than spatial dependencies. The findings suggest practical guidelines with regard to the use of the models investigated.

`Optimal' Accessibility Landscapes? Development of a New Methodology for Simulating and Assessing Jobs--Housing Relationships in Urban Regions

Horner, M. W. — 2008-06-09

Research into land use—transport relationships through the lens of the jobs—housing balance and the closely related excess commuting framework continues to draw substantial interdisciplinary attention. There have been several recent research efforts aimed at extending the excess commuting framework and its GIS-based spatial models to more prescriptive, policy-relevant situations. This paper puts forward the idea of a theoretical `optimal' urban jobs—housing balance and proposes a new spatial model for finding it. The developed model treats the region's theoretical minimum commute as a baseline indicator of the jobs—housing balance. Alternative patterns of workers and jobs are simulated in order to improve this indicator. The model is demonstrated in several scenarios using data from the decennial US census (2000). Results demonstrate the model's capability for finding `optimal' spatial distributions of jobs and housing, as well as pointing out inefficiencies in existing urban structure. Summary remarks and suggestions for future research are provided.

Redefining Rural Collectives in China: Land Conversion and the Emergence of Rural Shareholding Co-operatives

Po, L. — 2008-06-09

As land conversion has led inevitably to socioeconomic dislocations in China, a variety of bottom—up reforms have been designed to mitigate and contain the resultant conflicts. This evolves the creation of a mechanism both to allow peasants to benefit from the increase of land value in the urbanisation process and also to redistribute interests to individual rural villagers. This paper focuses on on-going shareholding reforms which aim to clarify villagers' property rights under the current structure of collective ownership. Three cases best exemplify these issues: Wusha village in Guangdong, Qunyi village in Jiangsu and Daliushu village in Beijing. The comparison reveals divergent experiences of reform among landless farmers and how the adoption of property rights reforms has restructured the concept and organisation of rural collectives.

Deconstructing the Global City: Unravelling the Linkages that Underlie Hong Kong's World City Status

Chu, Y.-w. — 2008-06-09

This paper questions the hyper-globalist orientation among some leading analysts of the global city and their tendency to define it in functional terms, accounting for its presence by the agglomeration of talents and therefore to underexamine the global city's actual linkages. It argues that an examination of the linkages (geographical scope as well as capital, knowledge and labour-mediated) will alert one to the changing configurations of a global city. It will also facilitate an exploration into factors other than the agglomeration of talents that have made for the changes. The paper examines Hong Kong's changing configuration as a global city from the mid 1980s to the early 2000s. It starts with an overview of three sets of trend data and goes on to examine the capital, knowledge and labour mediated by two types of producer service and the circuits they support.

Land Values and the 1957 Comprehensive Amendment to the Chicago Zoning Ordinance

Jian Zhou, , McMillen, D. P., McDonald, J. F. — 2008-06-09

In 1957 Chicago enacted a Comprehensive Amendment to the Chicago Zoning Ordiance of 1923. In contrast to the hierarchical zoning of the 1923 ordinance, the 1957 ordinance made each zoning category exclusive and mandated the removal of non-conforming uses. This study examines land parcels at the borders between residential and non-residential (commercial or manufacturing) zones, and finds that land values in non-residential zones enjoyed a one-time jump in growth over the time-period 1955—58 during which the 1957 ordinance was adopted. No significant change is detected in land value growth in residential zones. These results suggest that non-residential landowners valued the insurance that the 1957 ordinance provided against mixed land uses more than the value of the option to change land use that was terminated.

The Impact of Globalisation on Different Social Groups: Competitiveness, Social Cohesion and Spatial Segregation in Istanbul

Eraydin, A. — 2008-06-09

The main objective of this paper is to explore relations between competitiveness and social cohesion in Istanbul. It mainly questions whether it is possible to expect a positive change in socio-spatial inequalities if increasing competitiveness generates not only international business and high-level services, but also traditional low-cost production activities. The findings show that competition in different types of activities has generated large numbers of jobs, but has not been able to overcome existing income disparities. The increasing income differences, however, do not mean an increase in socio-spatial segmentation, since the non-market processes and policies related to education, gender and the urban land and housing markets have played important roles in the redistribution of different social groups within urban space, in addition to the endogenous dynamics of labour markets.

Race, Space and the Post-Fordist Spatial Order of Johannesburg

Crankshaw, O. — 2008-06-09

The deindustrialisation of Johannesburg has taken a particular spatial form. Service-sector businesses are increasingly located in the mostly White northern suburbs, whereas the mostly Black southern suburbs bear the brunt of unemployment and increasingly resemble an excluded ghetto. Some authors argue that Johannesburg's post- apartheid spatial order is just as racially unequal as it was during apartheid. This study tests this argument by using the results of the 2001 population census to examine the extent to which edge city development in Johannesburg is characterised by racial residential desegregation. The results show that the northern suburbs are undergoing fairly substantial desegregation. To the extent that this trend continues, the geography of apartheid racial divisions will be eroded and Johannesburg's racially mixed edge city will become an exception among world cities.

Improving Outcomes of Forced Residential Relocation: The Development of an Australian Tenants' Spatial Decision Support System

Baker, E. — 2008-06-09

The Australian public housing sector has undergone significant change in recent years. The public tenant profile has changed and public housing infrastructure has become largely unsuitable. At the same time, the Australian government has retreated from funding public housing infrastructure. The results of these changes are fewer public dwellings, fewer tenants housed and a stock mismatched to the needs of public tenants. Urban regeneration allows housing providers to trade unsuitable and run-down housing for fewer better-quality dwellings, but necessitates forced public tenant relocation. This paper explores residential choice among Australian public tenants and describes the development of a novel application of spatial technology—a tenants' spatial decision support system (SDSS)—to improve tenant outcomes in forced relocation.

Book Review: Care, Community and Citizenship: Research and Practice in a Changing Policy Context: Susan Balloch and Michael Hill (Eds), 2007 Bristol: Policy Press 299 pp. {pound}65.00 hardback; {pound}24.99 paperback ISBN 978 1 86134 871 5 hardback; 9781 86134 870 8 paperback

Scott, G. — 2008-06-09

Book Review: Rethinking the Future of Work: Directions and Visions: Colin C. Williams, 2007 Basingstoke Palgrave: Macmillan 343 pp. {pound}23.99 paperback ISBN 978 1 4039 9371 7 paperback

Mingione, E. — 2008-06-09

Book Review: Poverty, Wealth and Place in Britain, 1968 to 2005: Daniel Dorling, Jan Rigby, Ben Wheeler, Dimitris Ballas, Bethan Thomas, Eldin Fahmy, David Gordon and Ruth Lupton, 2007 York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation 111 pp. {pound}15.95 paperback ISBN 978 1 86134 995 8 paperback

Johnston, R. — 2008-06-09

Book Review: Vientiane: Transformations of a Lao Landscape: Marc Askew, William S. Logan and Colin Long, 2007 London: Routledge 265 pp. {pound}75.00 hardback ISBN 978 0 415 33141 8 hardback

Thompson, E. C. — 2008-06-09

Book Review: Raum, Uberwachung, Kontrolle: Vom staatlichen Zugriff auf stadtische Bevolkerung: Bernd Belina, 2006 Munster: Westfalisches Dampfboot 321 pp. E29.90 paperback ISBN 3 89691 635 1 paperback

Eick, V., Topfer, E. — 2008-06-09

Book Review: Blair's Community: Communitarian Thought and New Labour: Sarah Hale, 2006 Manchester: Manchester University Press 213 pp. {pound}55.00 hardback ISBN 0 7190 7412 6 hardback

Mackenzie, S. — 2008-06-09

Books Received

2008-06-09