Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space

The authors extend previous literature on variations in mobility rates across local housing markets by examining the linkage of mobility rates at the household level to the structure of local housing markets. The results suggest that residential mobility rates differ widely across local housing markets, substantiating the view that residential relocation is intimately intertwined with conditions at the local level. Local housing-market conditions also have different effects on mobility rates for renters and owner-occupiers. The results suggest that variation in residential mobility rates across housing markets can be in part explained by level of urbanization, the tenure structure, the degree of government intervention, and the size of the housing market. Remarkably, these differences in local housing markets cannot be seen to be related to housing-market features only. The results suggest that these differences can also be attributed to the behavior or attitude of households with respect to housing.

The author argues that organic-coffee certification enacted under the rubric of transnational certification norms alters the logic and practice of economic management and governance in an Oaxacan (Mexican) peasant producers' union. As the title indicates, these changes are productive of social and economic tensions. An economic and ethnographic analysis of ‘certification labor’ demonstrates (a) that the work of certification is distributed within producer organizations such that village and regional leaders become burdened by significant new responsibilities, and (b) that practical changes—including a new producer logic (‘market-price interdependence’) and village certification-service providers (‘peasant inspectors’ and ‘community technical officers’)—have a significant qualitative impact upon household and village economic governance. In addition, certification (c) affects the operation of statewide producer unions, altering the ways in which these interact both with their member organizations and with certifiers: unions must intervene to aid (regional) member organizations in their efforts to certify, yet also find that certification norms, such as conflict-of-interest provisions, constrain the union's ability to promote producer interests. Thus a qualification to an organic and ethical-products literature that conflates quality certification with the protection of smallholder cultural and economic independence is provided. The author concludes that a rethinking of certification norms, together with efforts to assist producer certification, should be a priority for supporters of sustainable agriculture.

Neighbourhood spatial accessibility (NSA) refers to the ease with which residents of a given neighbourhood can reach amenities. NSA indicators have been used to inform urban policy issues, such as amenity provision and spatial equity. NSA measures are, however, susceptible to numerous methodological problems. We investigate one methodological issue, aggregation error, as it relates to the measurement of NSA. Aggregation error arises when, for the purpose of distance calculations, a single point is used to represent a neighbourhood, which in turn represents an aggregation of spatially distributed individuals. NSA to three types of recreational amenities (playgrounds, community halls, and leisure centres) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada is used to assess whether aggregation error affects NSA measures. The authors use exploratory spatial data analysis techniques, including local indicators of spatial association, to examine aggregation-error effects on NSA. By integrating finer resolution data into NSA measures, we demonstrate that aggregation error does affect NSA indicators, but that the effect depends on the type of amenity under investigation. Aggregation error is particularly problematic when measuring NSA to amenities that are abundant and have highly localized service areas, such as playgrounds. We recommend that, when analyzing NSA to these types of amenities, researchers integrate finer resolution data to indicate the spatial distribution of individuals within neighbourhoods better, and hence reduce aggregation error.

The question of whether characteristics of urban form influence travel behaviour has a long tradition in transportation and urban planning. Positive evidence has been found, however, that serious methodological objections can be raised against many of these studies. Often no explicit attempt was made to disentangle the effects of spatial characteristics against personal and household characteristics. In addition, if both kinds of variables were included in the analysis, researchers were often not aware of the specific statistical problems that relate to the fact that the observations are made at different levels of aggregation. In this paper, therefore, the authors adopt a multilevel analysis to examine the relationship between urban form and travel behaviour.

In recent decades, increasing entrepreneurial activities among women have contributed to shifting livelihood strategies at the household, community, and regional scales. In this paper I examine home-based work in an economic network to highlight the intersection of gender and economic practices in rural Appalachia. The research demonstrates that these livelihood strategies both construct and are shaped by dynamic material conditions and social processes in place. Economic restructuring in the central Appalachian region has led to the reworking of economic strategies, despite a continued reliance by households on homework and informal activities. The case study for this project is an economic network comprised of sixty home-based workers who produce knitwear for regional and national markets. In-depth interviews and extensive fieldwork are used to examine the complexity of shifting economic livelihoods in the rural Appalachian context. The analysis focuses on the (re)negotiation of gender identities by home-based workers in the context of economic restructuring. The discussion also shows how participation in these activities contributes to economic and social empowerment. Overall, this study offers a critical approach to the economy, work, and gender in a way that analyzes diverse economic practices and the construction of gender identity in a rural, economically marginalized region.

It is widely acknowledged that the geography of film exhibition in the urban West has changed significantly as ‘traditional’ town centre and suburban cinemas have been supplemented, and in some cases supplanted, by multiplex cinemas in out-of-town locations. In this paper I explore the reasons for this shift, using case-study data from Leicester (United Kingdom) to explore the forms of sociality played out in different sites of film exhibition. These data suggest that multiplex cinemas are frequented predominantly by consumer groups seeking an ‘exopolitan’ leisure experience that is predictable and riskless. In contrast, it appears there are many who continue to frequent city-centre and suburban cinemas because they prefer the less predictable ambience of ‘urban’ leisure. The coexistence of these different forms of cinemagoing is discussed in relation to unfolding debates about the postmodern city—a city that accommodates consumers' predilection for ‘riskless risks’ by holding different forms of sociality apart.

The current mechanism for providing affordable housing through the planning system in England is based on negotiation within the framework of Planning Policy Guidance Note 3 and Circular 6/98. In this paper the authors examine three groups of questions. First, on the development of the policy, they look at how the need for affordable housing is assessed, how the policy evolved, and how it is currently operated. Second, on the principles and potential outputs of the policy they look at how the approach fits into the principles of betterment taxation, what the results are likely to be ‘on the ground’ in terms of price and output of housing, and whether these are consistent with taxation principles. Third, they examine what the evidence is so far on the impact of planning obligations on affordable housing provision. Finally, the authors develop a typology of likely outcomes, particularly regarding who pays for affordable housing.

The author demonstrates, through a case study of the Wise Use movement, that the insights and tools of political ecology have much to offer in the study of First World resource conflicts. He uses theories and methods drawn from the literature concerning political ecology and moral economies to argue that many assumptions regarding state capacity, individual and collective identities and motivations, and economic and historical relations in advanced capitalist countries are mistaken or incomplete in ways that have led to important dimensions of environmental conflicts in such locales being overlooked. The argument is based mainly on the author's own research on the Wise Use movement in the rural American West of the 1980s and 1990s but also draws on other recent work in political ecology, historical and economic geography, and environmental history.

Since their first elections in 1973, the thirty-six metropolitan borough councils in England's six metropolitan counties have been dominated by the Labour Party. In part, this domination reflects the normal exaggerative features of the first-past-the-post electoral system: the largest party in terms of vote share tends to get a diproportionate share of the seats. As well as an exaggeration effect, however, that electoral system is also prone to produce biased outcomes—in that with the same share of the votes cast one party tends to perform much better than the other. This has been the case in the English metropolitan boroughs throughout their existence, with consistent—and often very substantial—pro-Labour biases. As well as indicating the extent of those biases, this paper also decomposes them and shows to what extent Labour's significant electoral advantage there is a function of variations in ward size, turnout, the pattern of voting for the Liberal Democrats, and the efficiency of its own vote distribution relative to that for the Conservatives.