Urban Studies

This paper argues against the local trap-the tendency to assume that the local scale is preferable to other scales. The local trap is an important problem in the recent explosion of research on urban democracy and citizenship. The paper highlights one strain of that literature, the work on 'the right to the city'. It is argued that the right to the city is highly susceptible to the local trap, although it is not inherently so. As we continue to search for innovative new ideas like the right to the city that can help to democratise cities, it is critical to think carefully and strategically about scale.

This paper extends the discussion of the spatial Gini index proposed by Dawkins. Two spatial Gini indices, a nearest neighbour index and a monocentric index, are calculated for a sample of 237 US metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). For this sample of MSAs, an exploratory analysis is conducted to determine the relationship between the two spatial Gini indices and other traditional measures of residential segregation. Spatial segregation patterns across US census regions and selected US metropolitan areas are also examined. The analysis suggests that the Gini index provides a useful basis for a multidimensional investigation of residential segregation.

The purpose of this research is to explore the changing geographical distribution of high-poverty neighbourhoods both between and within American metropolitan areas between 1990 and 2000. Of particular concern is the relative shift in the number of high-poverty neighbourhoods between central-city, inner-ring and outer-ring suburbs. A classification scheme is developed for identifying these three types of area. The results indicate that there has been an increase in the number of high-poverty neighbourhoods in the urban cores of economically stagnant old industrial cities of the Northeast and an increase in the number of high-poverty inner-ring neighbourhoods in Los Angeles, metropolitan areas in California's Central Valley and a few selected rapidly growing Sunbelt metropolitan areas. The analysis indicates that an increase in the number of urban core high-poverty neighbourhoods is linked to the general health of a metropolitan area's economy and that an increase in the number of inner-ring high-poverty neighbourhoods is linked to rapid population growth.

It is now 40 years since the first area-based initiative (ABI) was launched in England. New Deal for Communities (NDC), announced in 1998, is one of the most ambitious of English ABIs in that it aims, over a period of 10 years, to reduce the gaps between 39 deprived areas and national standards in five outcome areas: crime, education, health, worklessness, and housing and the physical environment. Change data from the 2001-05 national evaluation are used to explore three considerations: change across the programme; drivers of mobility; and change at the partnership level. Barriers operating at the neighbourhood, city-wide and national levels have impacted on the implementation of the programme.

The aim of this study is to estimate the impact of neighbourhoods on educational outcome for adolescents in Sweden. Using a multilevel statistical approach and the PLACE database that consists of a census of individuals in 1990-2000 in Sweden, the paper explores different domains of neighbourhood characteristics that predict educational outcomes in adolescents. Educational achievement in year 2000 was measured for three cohorts, geocoded to their neighbourhood environments. It was found that neighbourhood characteristics related to socioeconomic resources and demographic stability are predictors of individual educational outcomes. A strong association between neighbourhood socio-cultural capital variables and education were also observed. Despite national policies on availability and access to education in Sweden, there are substantial inequalities in educational outcomes that are not simply a result of differences in individual characteristics.

A number of researchers have recently tried to map the contours of a transnational urban network. Although these empirical studies have great merits in making a closer connection to theoretical ideas on a genuine urban network, they sometimes fail to recognise that the whole idea of cities as 'nodes' in a transnational urban network is a heuristic at best. To assess this underdeveloped analytical connection, a taxonomy of dominant empirical and theoretical approaches is constructed. Contrasting both taxonomies reveals a mismatch between theory and measurement. This mismatch is addressed in more detail through four separate but entwined examples of conceptual conflation: a lack of rigour in the employed terminologies; inappropriate discussions of results against the background of other concepts; the inadequate delineation of the urban area; and, the limited analytical value of infrastructure-based analyses.

Fringe belts were long ago recognised as zones of spacious, often well-vegetated plots in relatively extensive use, which formed at the urban fringe during a hiatus in the growth of the built-up area and frequently became embedded within that area when it resumed its outward spread. Although rarely recognised as entities in planning documents, fringe belts have significance for both understanding and planning cities, not least because they have distinct physical characters and provide a frame of reference that articulates the physical make-up of an urban area in relation to its history. However, in recent decades in many countries, significant changes have taken place in the social and economic environments within which decision-making about fringe-belt plots has occurred. Among these changes in the UK have been the growing commercialisation of public services, such as higher education, health and leisure, many of which are strongly represented in fringe belts, and increasing encouragement from central government for the building of more dwellings within existing urban areas. At the same time, there has been increasing concern for the protection of sites of ecological significance. Detailed analysis of the Edwardian fringe belt in Birmingham, England, making use especially of development control records, reveals a strong tendency for decision-making to become more overtly economic, the increasing significance of financial payments associated with the granting of planning permission, a marked increase in the involvement of agencies remote from the fringe belt, greater economic exploitation of their land assets by charitable bodies and the increasing effectiveness of environmental lobbies. The imprint of the late 19th and early 20th centuries on the character of the fringe belt remains strong, but many fringe-belt plots are being subjected to increased pressure for change, including redevelopment for housing.

Potential asymmetrical adjustment in UK house prices is considered. The present analysis extends previous research in a number of crucial ways. First, a seminal examination of asymmetry in regionally disaggregated UK house prices is undertaken. Secondly, data are examined which are further disaggregated according to the age, or vintage, of the housing stock. However, the major development concerns the application of a non-parametric testing approach to detect cyclical asymmetry. In contrast to previously employed tests in the economics literature, the Triples test employed possesses high power and is not sensitive to outliers. It is found that extensive asymmetry is present in UK house prices, with cyclical peaks typically being greater in magnitude than corresponding troughs. The implications of these findings for the comparison and construction of economic theories of the housing market, the specification of econometric models and the construction and implementation of economic policy are noted.

This paper investigates the spatial distribution of employment in the region of Ile-de-France in 1978 and 1997. Exploratory spatial data analysis is used to identify employment centres and a sectoral analysis of the central business district (CBD) and sub-centres is performed. The results highlight a process of suburbanisation of employment in Ile-de-France between 1978 and 1997. A more polarised space emerges in 1997 than in 1978, with several employment centres specialised in different activities. Moreover, even if the spatial influence of the CBD declines over the study period, the CBD maintains its economic leadership by concentrating a large variety of high-order producer services.

The balance between jobs and housing has received considerable attention in the recent debates over sustainable urban development. The excess commuting technique, which measures the difference between the average observed commute and the average minimum commute, has been suggested as one means to identify the numerical imbalance between workplaces and residential locations. This paper extends the conventional approach through the development of an extended excess commuting technique, which can measure both the quantitative and qualitative imbalance. The empirical results show that commuters in the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA) have tried to reduce both qualitative and quantitative imbalance based on time rather than distance over the past 10 years (1990-2000). The results show how the spatial processes of decentralisation have been countered by the economic processes of faster travel, and how the net result is a saving in the journey to work travel time.