Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space

Geographically weighted regression (GWR) is a way of exploring spatial nonstationarity by calibrating a multiple regression model which allows different relationships to exist at different points in space. Nevertheless, formal testing procedures for spatial nonstationarity have not been developed since the inception of the model. In this paper the authors focus mainly on the development of statistical testing methods relating to this model. Some appropriate statistics for testing the goodness of fit of the GWR model and for testing variation of the parameters in the model are proposed and their approximated distributions are investigated. The work makes it possible to test spatial nonstationarity in a conventional statistical manner. To substantiate the theoretical arguments, some simulations are run to examine the power of the statistics for exploring spatial nonstationarity and the results are encouraging. To streamline the model, a stepwise procedure for choosing important independent variables is also formulated. In the last section, a prediction problem based on the GWR model is studied, and a confidence interval for the true value of the dependent variable at a new location is also established. The study paves the path for formal analysis of spatial nonstationarity on the basis of the GWR model.

In negotiated land-use planning decisions there may be intractable opposition and the use of strength, strategy, and influence outside of formal public participation processes—forms of communicative behaviour neglected by Habermasian theory. I investigate the empirical reality of the importance of networks and lobbying as a form of informal action in influencing planning outcomes through a case study in Western Australia. I map the networks of social relations within which stakeholders act and the links and energy flows between them. I examine stakeholders' utterances and questions of who networks and acts informally; why, when, and how they do so, and with what implications.

The promotion of cities as tourism destinations is seen as a way to enable growth. This promotion involves the projection of selective imagery to specific target groups and often includes the physical reshaping of places to fit a promotable image. Attempts to understand these processes have often focused on one of two approaches: a global perspective stressing the consumptive nature of the tourist gaze and the resultant commodification of place at the local level; and a local perspective emphasising difference and uniqueness. In this paper the authors outline an investigation into the promotion of the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. They found that local place-promotional messages are a product both of global economic forces, which stimulate the growth of tourism, and of a local search for identity. The local ‘sense of place’, as constructed in place-promotional imagery, is constantly reviewed and reflects changing social relationships in place and through time. Christchurch, therefore, is not simply promoted in the image of tourism with, as it is often claimed, the inevitable commodification of place and destruction of meaning. Local claims to uniqueness are an expression of the current social relationships in place, which construct selective histories of the past based on ideas of the present that are linked to a search for identity both at the local and at the national level.

In this paper we explore key issues bound up with the existence of homelessness in rural England. Attention is directed to a variety of factors that combine to reduce the visibility or even deny the presence of homelessness in rural spaces. We suggest that the complexities of rural homelessness are such that it may only become visible in particular spaces; spaces that tend to be constructed as nonrural. The paper begins with a critical discussion of spatialised representations of homelessness and privileged constructions of rural spaces in England which together act to obscure visibilities of rural homelessness in a range of discursive environments. We then move on to examine the ways in which such representations and constructions impact on and connect with local experiences of rural homelessness by drawing on some key findings from recent research. Here we consider three main issues concerning visibilities and invisibilities of homelessness in rural spaces: first, visibilities accorded to certain manifestations of rural homelessness through discourses of official statistics; second, a series of invisibilities associated with localised representations and experiences of homelessness in rural areas; and, finally, the ways in which rural homelessness emerges and becomes obvious in spaces that may be described as nonrural.

The modifiable areal unit problem becomes apparent when incidence rates are mapped on the basis of areal units. Although small units with high spatial accuracy can present unreliable rates, large spatial units may remove relevant geographical variation. Regarding mapping as a kind of statistical modelling, this author proposes a new methodology to select appropriate areal units using the Akaike information criterion and two search methods for an informative geographical aggregation in map construction. The optimal zoning of similarity is suitable for finding spatial anomalies but presents a biased overall pattern. An alternative approach is to cluster areal units according to explanatory variables: this shows clear spatial patterns of elderly men's mortality matching the ecological structure in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Recent work on ‘collaborative planning’ has concentrated on applying Habermas's work on communicative action to the realm of urban and regional governance. This work has its parallels in other disciplines, notably geography, where institutional capacity building has been considered as part of local systems of governance. Both bodies of work are premised to a degree on the rationality of communication. Habermas contrasted his ideas on the possibilities for communicative action with the widespread presence of ‘strategic behaviour’ in social relations. The dual nature of governance as both an institutional and a political activity means that consideration of such strategic forms of behaviour is essential to a deeper understanding of the nature of collaborative and associative forms of governance and their outcomes. What social scientists refer to as ‘teleological/strategic action’, ‘normatively regulated action’, and ‘dramaturgical action’ together with communicative action are all integral to collaborative governance. In this paper, we consider examples of the manner in which institutional capacity has been exercised in attempts to attract a major inward investment project into the United Kingdom. The example illustrates the range of social actions that are present beneath the surface of collaborative and associative governance. More specifically, our example highlights the structuring of institutional and organisational interactions through the strategic behaviour of a dominant local organisation.

The authors explore the role of contact requirements in the locational tendencies of producer service establishments. Empirical evidence from two demand-side surveys suggests that close proximity between vendors and clients is required for contracts that involve frequent buyer–seller interaction (face-to-face linkages). These types of contracts are shown to be relatively low duration and/or low cost in nature. Specific activity classes that exhibit these characteristics include data processing, computer software development, product testing, and equipment repair services. In contrast, more advanced (and often more expensive) services such as management consulting and industrial design exhibit lower levels of contact sensitivity. The paper concludes with a discussion of forthcoming prospects for the development of a contact-based model of producer service location.

In this paper I investigate an institution which combines two forms of risk regulation commonly regarded as antithetical. In the governmental mode, associated with the rise of capitalism, the welfare state, and commercial insurance, regulation is centralised and spatially removed from the risk itself, and involves the surveillance, prediction, and control of risks posed by large-scale populations of atomised individuals or companies. This is in contrast to the older mutual form, in which social relations within communities allocate and minimise risks, evident in the moral economy of the peasantry, friendly societies, and the resurgence of discourses of community responsibility in the 1990s. Protection and Indemnity (P&I) Clubs are mutual associations of the world's shipowners, which insure marine liabilities (including environmental risks). Their communal structure and self-interest in minimising risks means that they could, and to an extent do, play an important role in regulating marine safety and environmental performance. However, their global scale means that social relations between shipowners are not simply analogous to those within a local community. The P&I Clubs do, in practice, employ centralised managers responsible for determining entry standards, setting premiums, handling claims, and engaging in loss prevention. These activities rest upon the ‘scientific’ calculation, allocation, and management of risks. At the same time the aim is to ‘maintain mutuality’ amongst members, and tacit knowledge and actively produced trust are essential to this end. I argue that the combination of a mutual structure and a global scale produces a hybrid style of regulation, and the successful application of rules, incentives, sanctions, and surveillance depends as much on the construction of specific sociospatial relations as on organisational form, with implications for new regulatory designs.

In this paper the interaction between the university and the community is addressed. Whilst previous work has concentrated on the economic roles of universities in the community, insufficient attention has been paid to their cultural roles. Drawing upon fieldwork undertaken in Bristol, United Kingdom, I highlight a number of cultural roles which universities undertake in the community. In particular I outline the historical development of the cultural role of the university through a shift from the high-cultural role of the elite university to a broader cultural role for the contemporary mass university. A new environment for universities, including the declining influence of national structures, the interplay of processes of localisation and globalisation, and the emergence of new regional governance structures in Britain, is reshaping the cultural relationship between the university and the community and is opening up new possibilities for the creation of a closer, and more equal, relationship between them. This in turn could open up new possibilities for a greater sense of a shared public culture and address the evolving idea of the university. However, concerns are raised in relation to how these are affected by the introduction of globalisation practices and discourses into the university.