Urban Studies

A gap in the literature that remains largely unfilled is a discussion of how polycentrism relates to broader tensions between strategies of specialised industrial agglomeration economies and diverse regional portfolios. Relatively little is known about how strategies of polycentrism relate to the industrial composition and economic complementarity both at the regional scale and for individual cities within the region. In this paper, correspondence analysis is used to quantify complementarity in the economic profiles of cities in three polycentric regions. The findings suggest that the degree of complementarity varies greatly but has decreased in all three of the case study regions over time. Subsequent analysis of institutional structures in these three regions suggests that regions with weaker regional governments, stronger regional identities and intentional polycentric development strategies might experience higher levels of complementarity. A series of hypotheses that relate institutions to complementarity are proposed as possible directions for future research.

After a decade of tremendous population loss indicating severe decline, some large east German cities have been displaying signs of reurbanisation since the late 1990s. Using the city of Leipzig as an example, this paper identifies the major characteristics, progress and underlying spatio-temporal dynamics of reurbanisation, and examines whether it is a long-term process of urban living or features only short-term tendencies. Socio-demographic indicators are used to observe the development of inner-city districts. At the spatial scale of municipal districts, time-series data are analysed for the years 1993 to 2005. The paper argues that reurbanisation has occurred primarily in inner-city districts and has progressed considerably since the early 1990s. However, the spatio-temporal distribution of the relevant indicators shows that reurbanisation is far from being a homogeneous process. In light of this, the paper presents a ring of reurbanisation-sensitive municipal districts around the city centre.

This article takes a critical look at the exploitation of difference and at the impact of political forces of various kinds on ethnic segregation. It examines both external forces and forces from within ‘communities’ themselves through the case history of Bengali settlement in the East End of London. It assesses the different, though interacting, roles of immigration legislation and resource allocation, community and separatist politics, populism and multiculturalism, and brings the story up to date with an account of the incorporation of faith groups in local governance and of the wooing of the Muslim vote in the context of ‘the war on terror’. This understanding is presented as a necessary first step in combating ethnic division and focusing instead on social equality for all ethnicities.

Smart growth proponents suggest that the housing needs of low-income households can be better met by neighbourhoods of greater density, a greater variety of housing types and mixed land use than by neighbourhoods dominated by low-density, single-family homes. This research tests these relationships in two regions: one with and one without urban containment policies. The research provides evidence that neighbourhoods with a greater variety of housing types and residential density have a greater quantity of units affordable to very low-income renters and, at the same time, a greater quantity of units that are not affordable. An implication of the findings is that planners and growth management advocates should specify goals of housing types, in addition to density targets, when creating or updating comprehensive plans for future growth.

This paper critically explores the ‘politics of becoming’ in a ‘wannabe’ creative city in the United States. It shows how, in Baltimore’s policy sphere, Richard Florida’s theory has served as an ‘intellectual technology’ aiming at the invention of a new macro-actor (the creative class), while related urban regeneration outcomes and prospects appear to be more problematic. In particular, at the city-wide level, the creative class policy has favoured the interests of local politicians and their closer institutional partners; while, in the described context of a socially deprived neighbourhood, the embraced culture-led policy, albeit successful in redesigning a more attractive urban realm and thus in attaining its stated goals, has proved to be concerned more with real estate revitalisation than with issues of social inclusion and life-chance provision. It is concluded that the prevailing institutional imperative of networking and collaboration, as observed in Baltimore’s creative class initiative, overemphasises the importance of the politics of association in contemporary urban regeneration processes, while neglecting the relevance of classic goals of socio-spatial justice.

This paper presents a film and television production system theoretically framed using a network approach. The organisation and geographies of production are examined using the notion of project ecologies to incorporate non-firm actors including freelance individuals. Empirical findings from quantitative and qualitative data collection in Manchester are used to illustrate different hierarchical networks within and between production stages. The paper argues that inherent multiscalar network inequalities impact on the capacity for the film and television industry in Manchester to secure financing and distribution, and on the organisational logics of production.

The well-documented weaknesses of structural adjustment policies have led to a reconceptualisation of the World Bank’s approach to neo-liberal reforms. The ‘Doing Business’ reforms aim to foster a better climate for business in a number of ways. The main policy documents reject interventions targeted at specific groups but, although they identify informal small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as likely to benefit disproportionately, they specifically exclude micro-enterprises as a target group. The general argument of this paper is that reforms may well impact non-target groups through interactions with several areas of policy and law, with public attitudes and with multiple economic sectors. In particular, it is argued that the exclusion of micro-traders from the reforms contributes to their marginalisation in political and policy arenas, increasing their vulnerability to state intervention. The paper draws on a four-month study conducted by the authors in Tanzania in 2007.

The main purpose of this paper is to assess the existence of tax interdependencies among French local tax setting by taking into account the agglomeration forces. A model of tax setting for the local business tax is estimated using spatial econometrics techniques for 2002. First, it is shown that the mimicking behaviour between jurisdictions is not more intense in denser areas—in population or economic activity terms—suggesting that tax competition is not stronger as agglomeration increases. Secondly, a positive relationship is observed between tax rate and capital stock only for urban jurisdictions, suggesting a ‘taxable agglomeration rent’, as highlighted by new economic geography models.

This paper sets out to determine whether proximity constraints are more significant in new forms of production organisation in the automotive industry. An analysis is made of the extent to which new organisational technologies condition the internationalisation strategies of firms, with particular reference to whether geographical proximity requirements may condition the development of the automotive industry in the institutional and productive context of an intermediate region (such as the Basque Country) at risk from potential relocation towards central and eastern European countries (CEECs). The results derived from field work indicate that proximity constraints are not significant in the organisational configuration of the Basque automotive industry except in highly specific cases, thanks to the availability of solutions such as temporary agglomerations, new communication technologies and logistical systems.