Environment and Planning D: Society and Space

Geographers have produced a host of different interpretations of the landscape. In this essay I aim to participate in such an endeavour by linking Mikhail Bakhtin's work to geographical inquiry. Concepts such as dialogism, heteroglossia, the chronotope, and polyphony are only a sample of his valuable contributions to the theory of knowledge, alongside the ‘carnival’ sense of the world that conveys a pathos of shift and change, of death and renewal. ‘Carnival’ sums up the rituals and diverse festivities that reflect popular culture. Together these notions lead to a better understanding of otherness and alterity. This understanding provides the basis for a conceptual landscape that indicates the moment and situation (time-space) of a dialogue whose outcome is never a neutral exchange. Landscape thus becomes not only ‘graphically visible’ in space but also ‘narratively visible’ in time through dialogue.

A critical survey is offered of various recent positions in the theory of land rent. An attempt is made to strip rent discourse of those peculiarities that have alienated some of its potential audience, thereby turning the theory into the esoteric property of an academic coterie. The discussion of the last fifteen years is divided into three phases, namely consensus (in the 1970s), transition (at the turn of the decade), and rupture (in the 1980s). The typical beliefs, claims, and tenets of each phase are reconstructed and discussed, and the transition from one phase to another is analyzed. In order to facilitate and incite further discussion the present, that is third, phase is purposefully construed in terms of two rival lines of thought: the idiographic line (that denies the possibility of a general theory of land rent, advocating instead the analysis of concrete situations), and the nomothetic line (that searches for general laws). The first line is rejected in favour of the second.

Neo-Schumpeterian, world system, and regulation approaches to the analysis of structural change in advanced capitalist societies are distinguished and the development of theories of regulation and their connection with Marx's conception of capitalism are outlined, A synthetic account of the structure of theories of regulation is presented and is used to discuss the development and the crisis of Fordism. The macroeconomic character of these theories and the macroeconomic evidence that supports them is emphasised as are the difficulties encountered in analysing the internationalisation of advanced capitalist economies.

A key distinguishing feature of British society in the 1980s was a redrawing of the legitimate extent and nature of state intervention in the workings of a market economy. Deregulation, intended to enhance the power of capital, depended centrally not just upon creating and sustaining new labour-market conditions, but also on developing an environment in which capital had freedom to invest and manoeuvre (inter)nationally and locally. One mechanism for the latter was a redefinition of planning, epitomised in the creation of Urban Development Corporations (UDCs). This paper uses the area of the largest UDC, Teesside in northeast England, as a vehicle through which to investigate these recent policies in a broad historical context. It proceeds in three stages, at each of which Teesside was at the forefront of key national changes. From 1945 to the mid-1970s an increasing array of national and local government policies sought to plan the development of the area. This contrasted markedly with the context of deregulation which was created from the late 1970s onwards, partly in response to the apparent failure of state planning. An enhanced role for the private sector was encouraged by parallels drawn with the past, in particular with Victorian city-founding entrepreneurs, Although such analogies were questionable, they were revealing, for the legacy of this period on Teesside in social and environmental terms was devastating. The paper concludes by pointing to the significance of these lessons of history; of the new context for planning in Britain in the 1980s; and of political–institutional arrangements as a means of solidifying capital's command over space.

In this paper the different forms of restructuring experienced by the British and Italian motorcycle industries over the last thirty years are outlined, In the British case the restructuring was limited to a process of concentration and rationalization of production among the existing producers and was unsuccessful. In fact, the industry, having been a world leader until the late 1950s, declined until its demise by 1975. In Italy the success of the restructuring process was not based on the reorganization of existing firms, but on the emergence of new producers and product differentiation. The major factor in the restructuring of the Italian motorcycle industry was a radical innovation in the production process of motorcycle frames. This innovation has led to the development of two types of motorcycle firms with different final products and in different locations.

In Northwest Italy, the lower production cost of the new frame led to the appearance of several new, large, highly-integrated manufacturers geared to standardized mass production. At the same time, however, new motorcycle production also began in Central Italy in a large number of small, specialized firms. In this case, the success of the restructuring was based not so much on low production costs as on the flexibility of production allowed both by the new production methods and by the social characteristics of the region.

The question of whether homeownership is an enduring source of accumulation, and the further question of class effects of any such accumulation, can only usefully be addressed in the broader framework of the role of housing in long-term restructuring of the economic and cultural spheres of society. That restructuring must, however, be considered in a context wider than that of a single city. Rather, housing-related accumulation, in a specific market or submarket, will vary with processes of global, national, and urban restructuring, and will in turn affect such processes.

A response is developed to King's charge that the estimates of capital gains obtained for Adelaide housing in the 1970s and 1980s do not reflect the most favourable conditions prevailing in Australia at the time; and, therefore, that one is not really in a sound enough position to challenge the contention that homeownership is an enduring source of real wealth. His related criticism is that the attempt to link intraurban differentiation in rates of house price change to processes of urban restructuring is too restrictive. It is argued that his prescription, by contrast, runs the real risk of degenerating into theoretical eclecticism.