Urban Studies
Volume 51, Issue 12, September 2014
1. Title: Can Centralization, Decentralization And Welfare Go Together? The Case of Massachusetts Affordable Housing Policy
Authors:Hananel, Ravit.
Abstract:The Massachusetts Affordable Housing Policy of 1969 (known as the ‘Anti-Snob Zoning Act’, or simply 40B), is one of the most admirable and controversial acts in the history of the state. It was intended to break through the exclusionary ‘snob’ zoning that was customary in United States suburbs at the time, and to open the suburbs to low- and moderate-income residents by encouraging the production of affordable housing statewide. The paper analyses 40B and the modifications it has undergone over the years in light of the relation between centralized state power and decentralized local government power with regard to planning. Understanding of the changes in local–state power relations can provide an explanation for the changes that have occurred over the years in implementing the law. The findings suggest that mutual learning, and understandings developed over the years among all involved, can provide the greatest benefit to low- and moderate-income residents.
2. Title:Competing Interests and the Political Market for Smart Growth Policy
Authors:Hawkins, Christopher.
Abstract:The broad intent of smart growth is to reduce development in environmentally sensitive areas by limiting the outward expansion of development and redirecting private investment to urban areas. Local decisions that shape and constrain land uses can pit narrow economic interests against broader-based environmental organisations and impact decisions on smart growth. Based on the political market framework, this study specifically examines the influence of pro-growth and smart-growth interest groups on smart growth policies adopted by local governments in the state of Massachusetts, USA. The results suggest both real estate interests and environmental groups influence local policy decisions, and depending on the policy, the characteristics of local political institutions mediate these influences.
3.Title:‘We don’T Have No Neighbourhood’: Advanced Marginality and Urban Agriculture in Detroit
Authors:Draus, Paul Joseph; Roddy, Juliette; McDuffie, Anthony.
Abstract:This paper is based on qualitative interviews (n=20) conducted with individuals working or residing within a heavily depopulated section of the city of Detroit. This area is the projected site of an urban agriculture (UA) project, which proposes to utilise vacant land and economically marginalised residents to produce marketable products and services. With a few exceptions, neighbourhood respondents had little hope of improvement occurring in the neighbourhood anytime soon, and few expectations for UA to alter the daily life or social dynamic of the area. These findings are framed and interpreted using Wacquant’s (1999) concept of advanced marginality and Sampson’s (2012) arguments concerning neighbourhood effects. While some neighbourhood improvement efforts were viewed positively, others were regarded with intense suspicion, indicating that idealistic UA efforts may have some work to do in terms of engaging residents and offsetting legacies of displacement as well as on-going marginalisation.
4. Title:Co-Evolution of Gated Communities and Local Public Goods
Authors:Woo, Yoonseuk; Webster, Chris.
Abstract:Gated communities are often seen as steps towards the privatization of the public realm. This is too simple a characterization, however: privately and publicly governed infrastructure and services exist and adapt symbiotically. There is little empirical research focusing on the co-evolution of private and public neighbourhoods. In this paper we focus on a specific question that has not yet been answered: does the spatial pattern of privately supplied public goods co-evolve with the pattern of publicly supplied public goods? We examine this question through a case study of Seoul, where club residential communities are common enough to test co-evolution hypotheses. We identify co-evolutionary relationships between club goods supplied in condominiums and public goods supplied by municipalities and market. We also find evidence of Tieboutian intra-urban market and show how the substitution of club goods for positive urban externalities seems to weaken the influence of general accessibility on residential locational behaviour.
5. Title:Regional Selective Assistance in Scotland: Does It Make A Difference To Plant Productivity?
Authors:Moffat, John.
Abstract:This paper examines whether receipt of a Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) grant has a causal impact on plant total factor productivity (TFP). To tackle the problem of self-selection into the treatment group, propensity score matching is employed. In order to control for the endogeneity of other variables in the model, estimations are performed using the system GMM estimator. The results show that for low technology manufacturing, receipt of an RSA grant leads to a fall in TFP.
6. Title:The Geographical Dimension of Innovation Collaboration: Networking and Innovation in Norway
Authors:Fitjar, Rune Dahl; Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés.
Abstract:This paper looks at the geographical dimension of firm networking in Norway, by examining the impact of manager-level, firm-level and regional-level variables on the decisions of firms to collaborate with partners at different levels of geographical distance. Using data stemming from a survey of 1604 businesses in five Norwegian city-regions, we model firms’ use of partners located within the region, elsewhere in the country and abroad, respectively. The results indicate that collaboration is affected in different ways by variables related to all three levels. At the level of the manager, trust is an important predictor of regional and national collaboration, but has no significant effect on the formation of international partnerships, which are fundamentally associated with factors such as education and the open-mindedness of managers. At the regional level, R&D expenditure tends to increase collaboration between regional actors, but reduces the likelihood of engagement with international partners. Education, by contrast, has the opposite effect: it encourages international collaboration at the expense of local links. The results highlight the need to balance policies for boosting regional social capital and R&D with investments in education and fostering open-mindedness as a means to prevent lock-in and develop innovation-enhancing global pipelines.
7. Title:Producing and Contesting The Formal/Informal Divide: Regulating Street Hawking In Delhi, India
Authors: Schindler, Seth.
Abstract:There is a consensus that urban development schemes in India bear little resemblance to the well-thought-out plans of their genesis, and that the boundary between formal/informal is often blurry. I seek to contribute to this literature by showing how, in spite of efforts to implement a regulatory scheme, street hawking in Delhi remains highly informal and in a state of negotiated (im)permanence. I compare two recent conflicts over street hawkers’ use of public space, which demonstrate that power is dispersed across a range of sites and rests with a number of state and non-state actors. I argue that preconceived notions of ‘formality’ and ‘informality’ are of little value in understanding urban processes, and instead it is necessary to understand how the boundary between formal/informal is produced and contested both juridically and through everyday practices of enforcement and evasion/subversion.
8. Title:Urban Crop Production And Poverty Alleviation In Eldoret, Kenya: Implications For Policy And Gender Planning
Authors:Simiyu, Romborah R; Foeken, Dick WJ.
Abstract:Urban agriculture (UA) has recently received increasing attention in both scholarly and policy cycles as a potential tool for poverty alleviation in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper focuses on urban crop cultivation (UCC) and examines men’s and women’s motives and needs in UCC, the (perceived) contribution of UCC to household livelihoods, and the benefits men and women derive from it. Although the contribution of UCC to overall household food and incomes appeared to be modest, for the majority of farming households such benefits were nonetheless greatly valued and bore varied and important meanings for men and women. The paper also examines the implications of recent national UA policy responses in Kenya for urban development and household livelihoods, and for equitable distribution of UA’s benefits for men and women.
9. Title:Geography, Policy or Market? New Evidence on the Measurement and Causes Of Sprawl (And Infill) In US Metropolitan Regions
Authors: Paulsen, Kurt.
Abstract:This paper proposes four metrics to measure sprawl in metropolitan regions as marginal changes in land use over time. The metrics (change in urban housing unit density, marginal land consumption per new urban household, housing unit density in newly urbanized areas and percent of new housing units located in previously developed areas) are computed for all 329 metropolitan areas in the continental USA for 1980 and 2000. Regression analysis is used to explain variations in sprawl metrics across metropolitan areas, incorporating variables representing market, geographic and policy factors. Changes in development patterns reflect interactions of market and geographic structures. States with a substantial state role in planning accommodate a higher percentage of new housing units in previously developed areas and with lower marginal land consumption, suggesting that policy can mitigate sprawl development.
10. Title:The Spatio-Temporal Pattern of Housing Redevelopment in Suburban Chicago, 2000–2010
Authors: Charles, Suzanne Lanyi.
Abstract:This study examines the process of housing redevelopment, using data of single-family residential redevelopment that occurred in all 128 inner-ring suburbs of Chicago, USA, located in Cook County, between 2000 and 2010. Using exploratory spatial data analysis techniques, I identify the magnitude and the spatial locations of redevelopment, revealing the different types of suburban neighbourhoods in which redevelopment occurs. I then examine how the location and extent of redevelopment changed between 2000 and 2010 and how the physical manifestation of redevelopment varied across different types of suburban neighbourhoods. Findings reveal that redevelopment is spatially clustered, occurring in a variety of places ranging from modest middle-income neighbourhoods to very highly affluent neighbourhoods. Redevelopment often began in areas with high property values, and as house prices rose rapidly through the first half of the decade, it expanded into adjacent, less affluent neighbourhoods, retracting again at the end of the decade.
11. Title:Interethnic Attitudes In Urban Neighbourhoods: The Impact of Neighbourhood Disorder and Decline
Authors:Havekes, Esther; Coenders, Marcel; Dekker, Karien.
Abstract:Previous studies of the relationship between interethnic attitudes and the ethnic composition of neighbourhoods have overlooked the impact of neighbourhood problems in ethnically concentrated neighbourhoods. This paper examines the influence of neighbourhood disorder and decline (i.e. increasing disorder) on interethnic attitudes, controlling for the ethnic composition of the neighbourhood. Neighbourhood disorder and decline are measured by indicators of social and physical neighbourhood problems. Additionally, we examine the extent to which the impact of (increasing) disorder on interethnic attitudes depends on the particular ethnic composition of the neighbourhood. Using a geocoded data set covering 1435 neighbourhoods in The Netherlands, we analyse interethnic attitudes among four ethnic minority groups and the native Dutch population. Multilevel analyses show that for both ethnic minority and native Dutch residents neighbourhood decline is associated with negative attitudes towards ethnic minority groups, particularly in neighbourhoods with many ethnic minority residents.
12. Title:Location-Demand-Based Residential Floor Area Ratio Distribution Method
Authors:Tsai, Yu-Hsin.
Abstract:Urban density policy, usually implemented through a floor area ratio (FAR) plan, may become increasingly important in achieving such goals as environmental sustainability or acting as an incentive to promote transit-orientated development. Nonetheless there seems a lack of guidance on FAR distribution. In order to provide FAR distribution guidelines, in particular with the goal of incorporating sustainability and market demand, this paper develops a step-by-step, quantitative residential FAR distribution alternative based on both the advantages of the location and the market demand for the locations. It consists of two major steps: floor area generation and FAR distribution; the latter being the focus of this paper. The methods applied involve the measurement of accessibility within geographic information systems and the hedonic price model. A simulation analysis of this FAR distribution method is conducted to develop a FAR plan for a plan area, and is then applied to demonstrate how the FAR plan can be modified if mass rapid transit stations are introduced.
以下是书评:
13. Title:Ethnography and the City: Readings on Doing Urban Fieldwork
Authors: Ege, Moritz.
Abstract:The article reviews the book “Ethnography and the City: Readings on Doing Urban Fieldwork” byRichard E. Ocejo.
14. Title:Roppongi Crossing: The Demise of a Tokyo Nightclub District and the Reshaping of a Global City
Authors: Liu, Chaoqun.
Abstract:The article reviews the book “Roppongi Crossing: The Demise of a Tokyo Nightclub District and the Reshaping of a Global City” byRoman Adrian Cybriwsky.
15.Title:Retailising Space: Architecture, Retail and the Territorialisation of Public Space
Authors: Coe-Galeotti, Martha.
Abstract:The article reviews the book “Retailising Space: Architecture, Retail and the Territorialisation of Public Space” byMattias Karrholm.
16. Title:Parkscapes: Green Spaces in Modern Japan
Authors: Cao, Kang.
Abstract:The article reviews the book “Parkscapes: Green Spaces in Modern Japan” byThomas R. H. Havens.