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Copyright of Journal of Planning Education & Research is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The smart city concept has taken center stage as a paradigm shift in urban governance, promising innovation, sustainability, and strategic upgrades, and drawing the attention of researchers globally. However, existing frameworks for assessing smart cities remain incomplete and simplistic. This paper aims to address the following question: what is the process and current situation of 30 capitals in China after the implementation of smart city construction, especially from the new perspective of social, physical, and informational space development? To this end, we focus on 30 national and provincial capitals in China, proposing a novel, tri-dimensional SPI model—Social, Physical, and Information space—for smart city spatial development assessment. Employing a robust methodological approach, including entropy weighting, coupled coordination degree models, and the Dagum Gini coefficient, we conduct a spatial development and coordination analysis of these cities from 2011 to 2021. In addition, we utilize BP neural networks to evaluate the contribution of each indicator to the spatial coupled coordination. Our findings indicate a steady increase in the spatial coupled coordination development level of smart capitals in China, alongside a narrowing disparity in development speeds across regions, resulting in a staggered spatial distribution pattern. Specifically, the Information space subsystem represents the most influential driver of coupled coordination. The significance of this research lies in its unique tri-dimensional spatial perspective, offering valuable insights into the spatial development and coordination discrepancies in the smart city concept. These insights offer evidence-based support for regional planning and optimization strategies in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition ecologies, namely ecotones, are where life started. Deltas, estuaries, bayous, and wetlands are places where different ecosystems merge and evolutionary processes take place. This paper explores three time periods in four coastal cities to look at the relationship between environmental values and urban expansionist paradigms through reclamation projects. It argues that these thresholds, occurring contemporaneously in expanding metropolitan regions, correspond to changing conceptualizations of urban–nature relationships, in other words urban core's changing relationships to fringe ecosystems. The metropolitan regions used as case studies for this piece are Mumbai, Amsterdam, New York, and Tokyo. Each has used reclamation as a grand expansion strategy during political or economic transitions. During each grand alteration attempt in these regions, the developers, reclamation enthusiasts, or urban planners revisited the city's immediate ecological fringe for expansion, and following these revisitations, a new geographical order formed in their subsequent regions. The urban fringe has become the socio-spatial zone where new and experimental ideas about urban development encounter complex natural systems. The land-use negotiations and reclamation's role in shaping the urban–nature relationships are missing pieces of the planning field. Any future looking climate resiliency plan today should build on the reading of this palimpsest and understand how these environmental values were traded and how global expansion narratives transformed the urban–nature gradient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel approach to intersection improvement planning utilizing telematics data from connected vehicles to generate performance measures for mobility, safety, and emissions. Congestion, crashes, and emissions are three major issues in urban areas, particularly at intersections, and agencies often struggle to prioritize improvement plans because of a lack of objective data. Traditional infrastructure sensors provide limited information at selected locations, but it is not feasible to deploy them at all intersections. The use of telematics data from connected vehicles provides a high granularity of information on driving events and trajectories that can be used in conjunction with vehicle emission modeling to efficiently generate performance measures for all intersections. In a case study of over 300 intersections in Arlington, Texas, the Pareto front method was used to evaluate and rank intersections based on multiple criteria. Intersections falling on the Pareto front were identified as having at least one outstanding (poor) performance measure and were required to be given priority for improvement. The results were cross-validated with historical crash reports and the judgments of city traffic engineers, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed framework in generating objective and reliable intersection performance measures. This approach has the potential to significantly improve intersection safety, mobility, and environmental impact, and can serve as a valuable decision-support tool for transportation agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adoption of the European Landscape Convention (ELC) has wrought a profound evolution in the landscape planning discipline, contributing to the integration of the landscape into planning policy. This paper explores the operative significance of including the landscape dimension in local urban planning policies. Adopting an inter-scalar approach, the research analyses the renewal of local urban planning in light of the innovations introduced by the Apulia Regional Landscape Plan (PPTR), an exemplary case of ELC implementation in Italy. One of the spatial strategies indicated in the PPTR provides valuable insights into the complex relationships between the city and the countryside. That strategy, the City-Country Pact, interacts with urban transformations and, as a result, with municipal planning. The paper utilises PPTR indicators to explore how some Apulian municipalities interpret and implement the City-Country Pact. A comparative analysis of case studies outlines the approaches and conditions by which urban planning can effectively renew itself through the ELC landscape approach, influencing plan philosophy, regulations and practices. The paper also points out the current limitations of such processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Policy & Research is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Raumforschung und Raumordnung is the property of Oekom Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper proposes a simple analytical scheme and associated qualitative impact scales that capture the spatially varying effects of a regional disaster. Large-scale disasters that affect many towns and cities pose particular challenges for emergency response planning. For example, disruption to transportation systems can impede regional supply chains of critical goods, thereby exacerbating the impacts suffered locally in communities. Conventional metrics of disaster severity, such as number of casualties or intensity of ground shaking, do not adequately capture how community impacts and needs may vary across the affected region, and they do not typically consider regional transportation disruption. Using a series of impact scales, the approach in this paper captures essential attributes of three broad components related to community impacts from a regional disaster—local disaster impacts in a community, regional transportation disruption to the community, and the community's coping capacity—and aggregates them to an overall metric of community impact. The approach can be implemented with widely varying degrees of data availability, as demonstrated in two case applications. Both cases involve an M9 Cascadia subduction zone earthquake affecting a broad region of coastal British Columbia, Canada. The first application illustrates how in a pre-event planning situation, modeled results can be used to anticipate which communities are at greatest risk, and to help prioritize mitigation and emergency response planning. The second case demonstrates how in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, the approach can be used with limited information to help prioritize response and recovery activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Planning Education & Research is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Australia's population is projected to triple by 2101, yet the nation lacks coordinated planning based on systematic regional analysis. This paper documents a novel national-scale suitability analysis of Australia which identifies the most appropriate regions for future urban development. The central research question is 'Where should Australian federal and state governments encourage urban development to maximise climatic liveability, protect natural and cultural heritage, capitalise on previous infrastructure investments, and maximise economic productivity?' The results indicate that the south-east and south-west of the country, and Tasmania, are preferred. The federal government is yet to prepare a national settlement strategy and contemplates large scale urban development in areas to which it is not suited. Regional planning decisions not based on comprehensive, evidence-based analysis are likely to incur significant social, economic and environmental costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans have attempted to control nature since the dawn of time. This paper analyzes riverfront greenway planning in two continents with distinct geographic and climatic contexts: Central Arizona and Central Portugal. It is argued that both places had to innovate in urban design and nature conservancy to survive and flourish. A key finding is that traditions and innovations have unique idiosyncrasies endemic to the places where they are conceived, perfected and implemented. For innovations to travel, professionals ought to work with local communities to identify and implement more appropriate urban design courses of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Balanced development at regional level is a prerequisite for the progress and growth of an economy as well as to attain the better quality of life of their residents. The balanced regional development can be achieved by ensuring the compatibility between forward and backward linkages among the urban and rural settlements. However, the shifting of the overall economic base from agrarian to industrial and presence of more opportunities in urban centres has triggered a continuous stream of population from the country sides to urban centres. On the other hand, access to social, economic and physical infrastructure is inadequate in rural areas that are acting as push factors for rural populations towards urban counterparts. This paper highlights the lopsided urbanization scenario in India where 70.2 percent of the total urban population is accommodation in class-I towns. The inter-state migration accounts for 98.7 percent of the total migrants. Further the detailed analysis of the stream of migration reflects that 36.1 percent of the migration is occurring from rural to urban areas due to different reasons. The paper suggests that regional planning can act as a hope to check this situation and treat issues in a holistic manner to achieve the objective of balanced development through provision of appropriate infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have been largely sidelined during the mainstream international debate on city-regional (or metropolitan) planning and governance. As the formal institutionalization of city-regions in CEE is relatively weak, the voluntary bottom-up approach to city-regional visioning is the only alternative. Through the empirical analysis of the experience of the Poznań city-region in Poland, based on face-to-face interviews with policymakers and a study of planning documents, the paper discovers the political relations of power behind the consensus-based strategic visioning and limitations of a voluntary approach when confronted with long-lasting local development policies embedded within the formal planning system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resilience narratives have gathered increased attention in city-regional planning over the last two decades, emphasizing holistic foresight, long-term strategic visioning, cross-sectoral integration and collaborative modes of planning. Combining such resilience narratives with the established idea of socio-spatial imaginaries, we introduce the novel concept of 'resilience imaginaries' and explore its application in the city-region of Thessaloniki, Greece. This paper illustrates that resilience imaginaries can be viewed as dynamic and politically contested visions for long-term city-regional development, collectively structured by civic stakeholders, institutionally expressed through city-regional governance transformations and materially manifested through city-regional planning interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Raumforschung und Raumordnung is the property of Oekom Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Raumforschung und Raumordnung is the property of Oekom Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper clarifies the intention behind the design of the exhibition 'Urbanism Places Exhibition 2018' (UPE2018), and analyzes evaluations of exhibition visitors. It aims to develop a methodology for planning history exhibitions. UPE2018 was an exhibition that focused on plazas in the context of planning heritage. The 55 HIROBA of the Shinjuku Mitsui Building was selected as a venue so that people could experience a high-quality plaza, which is an example of planning heritage in itself. In addition, the organizer prepared content about the history of public spaces in both Japan and the Shinjuku area, as well as on contemporary methods of creating public spaces, and the exhibition featured talks about public spaces. The exhibition method was based on the following principles: 1) an exhibition should be woven into the everyday use of space and 2) the exhibition itself creates a plaza. The evaluations revealed that non-experts especially tended to appreciate the talk-type program. Planners tended to see the planning history exhibition as a source of knowledge that could be useful in urban planning, while non-experts reported the exhibition increased their awareness of surrounding urban spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion of globalizing cities into larger city-regions and, most recently, megaregions is posing fundamental questions about how best to plan and govern 21st-century urban regions. Nowhere is this challenge more acute than China, yet there is no clear understanding of Chinese megaregionalism. Debunking some inherent assumptions surrounding megaregions in China, this paper broadens the horizons beyond the narrow focus on what people have come to assume are China's megaregions to consider megaregionalism as an always evolving political–economic project. The paper argues the importance of distinguishing between planning megaregions (as discursive and imagined) and megaregional planning (as concrete and actual). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that planning in the Global South needs to be embedded within a more complex and systemic framework based on understanding cities' functions and transformations, at both local and regional levels, whilst advocating for and incorporating informal and temporary dynamics. This is to differentiate between two competing processes: formal planning and citizen-led place-making, here considered as a form of reactive alternative-substitute place-making that occurs when there is no available alternative. The paper calls for a better integration of such impermanent, adaptable, temporary and alternative forms of place-making into the planning process for regional futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The green belt, without question the most well-known and influential legacy of town and country planning in the UK, continues to attract interest from a wide range of interested parties – from those eager to maintain the protection it offers to the countryside, to others more concerned at the negative impacts it is argued to have on housing supply and consequently prices. In this paper we explore how the arguments for a green belt around a particular city in the UK – Liverpool – were built up over the middle years of the twentieth century, in particular through three important (sub-)regional plans. Analysis of those plans is situated within national policy and nationwide rhetoric to illustrate how perfectly justifiable arguments about the need to limit urban sprawl "baked in" resentment and opposition to much-needed housing growth. A situation which, as the final section of the paper briefly reflects upon, not only contributed to the wide-scale construction of high-rise flats in the city from the 1950s onwards, but continues to resonate today through the objections lodged against attempts to enhance the spatial footprint of the city through development on the green belt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While academic and policy analyses have explored universities' roles in urban regeneration and regional development, issues arising from intraurban collaboration and competition in multi-university city-regions have received scant attention. In response, this paper examines how higher education institutions (HEIs) connect and splinter urban space at multiple scales through a case study of Newark, NJ, USA. Newark's attempts to reposition itself as a hub for university-enabled innovation disclose the complex ways in which the infrastructures of knowledge urbanism are implemented, negotiated, and spatialized at local and city-regional scales. The study's multi-disciplinary analysis assesses the discourses, technologies, and territorial constellations through which HEIs (re)shape place and project urban peripheries into wider city-regional networks. The paper's findings reveal an emergent and decentred 'de facto' form of university regionalism crystallizing in Greater New York that illustrates the need for robust, scalar-sensitive assessments of anchor institution strategies as they are articulated within broader regionalization processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The General Urban Development Plan for Lourenço Marques (today Maputo) was approved on 25th April 1955. Coordinated by architect João Aguiar, director of the Colonial Planning Office. it was developed based on the first urban plan for the city, which had been drawn up by Joaquim José Machado and António José de Araújo in 1887. A further new Master Plan for Lourenço Marques was drawn up between 1967 and 1969. This new one was the last before Mozambique gained independence in 1975 and it was drafted by a specialist team coordinated by the engineer and urbanist Mário de Azevedo. The orientations applied in Aguiar's Urban Plan were quite distinct from those of Azevedo's Master Plan. The innovative element was that it opposed the 'conception of a city closed in on itself, limited in size and structure'. Azevedo's plan furthered a regional interpretation of the territory and placed the emphasis on the provision of an entire transport infrastructure network by land, sea, and air. This paper seeks to throw light on the evolution of Portuguese urbanism in the Portuguese African colonies in the last years of colonization with a view to highlighting the different approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cluster policy is often ineffective in peripheral regions with weak institutions and significant barriers to knowledge production and exchange. Nonetheless, many peripheral regions have pursued such policies in recent years, an example being technology districts in southern Italy. This paper examines one such district -- the aerospace district in Apulia -- where policy has focused on indirect support for networking through coordination. This has led to a substantial increase in knowledge exchange within the district, but also to a heavy dependence on the cluster organization itself as the key actor in the knowledge-exchange network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Space & Society / Tér és Társadalom is the property of Centre for Economic & Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper proposes a new conceptualization of scale as performative imaginary and deploys that to explore the what, the why and the how questions of scalar fixing. Drawing on city-regionalization in England, it argues that a distinct imaginary of city-regions as economic- and city-centric spaces has been normalized through two forms of knowledge: one rationalizing the scalar positioning of this imaginary, the other demarcating its spatial boundaries. It shows that despite the alignment between enacted scale (what), scalar imaginary (how) and neoliberal political project (why), institutionalization of this imaginary has failed, leading to variable geometries of subnational governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to give strategic direction to complex regional systems has never been greater, but reinstating a classic strategic plan model that failed to secure consistently positive impacts, or even sustain its own practice, is a mistaken route. With a mix of conceptual analysis, critical review of past experience and examination of population dynamics across England's Wider South East and its fringes, this paper argues for a decentred form of strategic governance based on the development of a capacity for negotiated collaboration and realistic engagement with powerful market and institutional processes on a sustained basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

To date, there has been scant research on place broadcasting activities (PBA) such as promotion, marketing and branding in Norwegian municipalities, especially research into effects. This paper examines two rural Norwegian municipalities in which place branding - i.e. the planned and strategic external communication of place qualities - has been a prioritized policy strategy. The research was designed as a comparative case study based on data acquired via methodological triangulation. An analytical model served as a framework to identify the effects of a focus on place branding in non-core municipalities. In the model, policies oriented towards place branding are treated as a variable that is thought to influence (1) employment, (2) settlement, and (3) the desire for rural living. The analysis revealed no quantifiable effects of such policies when compared with 17 comparable municipalities. However, based on the qualitative data and analysis, the authors found effects related to the desire for rural living, implying arguments in favour of non-core regional policy and planning beyond a focus purely on growth. Our results seem to indicate that strategies oriented towards place branding should also focus on material issues, housing development and job opportunities for example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the existing literature on industrial location by discussing the territorial levels that are used in location analysis. We use data for new manufacturing firms and analyse the advantages and disadvantages of performing location analyses at three levels: municipality, county and travel-to-work areas. We show that location determinants vary according to the territorial level used in the analysis and conclude that the level at which the investigation is performed should be carefully selected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By 2004 the English regions had completed the first set of Regional Planning Guidance (RPG) of the new century. The previous round, completed in the mid-1990s, was widely considered at the time to be weak in a number of respects. Efforts by government and the planning profession to raise the quality of planning at the regional level have been considerable since that time. There have been some extra resources, supported by much involvement of agents from the wider economy and society. This paper takes an overview of what these planning instruments (RPG) are proposing in substantive terms. What agendas are they promoting? Have the weaknesses of the last round been overcome? Is ‘spatial planning’ becoming a reality? Is delivery of RPGs being effectively addressed? These are large questions, and the paper only gives tentative answers. But an assessment is timely, given the planning legislation finally passed in May 2004, with the replacement of RPGs by Regional Spatial Strategies (RSSs) and the abolition of structure plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference on the topic "The Cities and Their Environment" was organized by Kerrie MacPherson, of the University of Hong Kong, sponsored by the University's Centre for Urban Planning and Environment Management, and held under the auspices of the International Planning History Society. It was the Society's sixth international planning history conference since its formation as the Planning History Group in England in 1974. The first international conference, at Bedford College of the University of London in 1977, was a considerable stimulus to the study of the historical antecedents and processes of town planning, and flushed out 39 papers covering a wide canvas. Tokyo was the venue for the third gathering in 1988, which focused on the international transmission of planning ideas. The fourth conference in Birmingham in 1989, sponsored by the Bournville Village Trust, took as its theme the "garden city tradition re-examine" and led to another edited volume. The fifth international conference in Richmond, Virginia, in 1991 looked primarily at issues and subjects in American planning history, being a joint venture with the Society for American City and Regional Planning History.

• The construction sector has foundational properties that exceed its embroilment in speculative urbanism. • Urban development policy should focus more on economic activities that maintain the daily functioning of the city. • "Freezing" ground rent dynamics guarantees urban spaces of consumption and production of basic goods and services. • Local governments can intervene strongly into production processes and working conditions through public procurement procedures. Although often embroiled in speculative urban development processes, the construction sector is in many ways fundamental to the social reproduction of the city and the functions it hosts. Moreover, in many contexts, a large and increasingly international labor force underpins the sector. Despite its ambiguity, the construction sector has received little attention from policy makers and academics alike, thereby rendering its mundane, yet fundamental role in the reproduction of the city invisible. Meanwhile, there is much more policy and academic interest in propelling industries, innovative sectors, finance, and knowledge-intensive business services. Work on global cities has made clear that such strategies often reinforce competition and that the expected trickle-down effects are left wanting. This paper claims that the "overlooking" of certain economic sectors by academics as well as by policy makers is a consequence of a rather narrow definition of what constitutes the economy and results in a restricted way of practicing urban economic development. Through reframing the definition of the economy, using the inspiring strand of thinking of the Foundational Economy Collective and connecting this to the older urban-base-and-non-base-economy debate, this paper aims to explore opportunities for broadening the practice of urban economic development. It takes the construction sector in the Brussels Capital Region as a case study, arguing that scholarship should make discursive and physical space for more mundane urban sectors and suggesting a set of policy strategies to support the grounded character of the Brussels construction sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Lasallista de Investigación is the property of Corporacion Universitaria Lasallista and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Planning systems throughout the world are rooted in the modern, western-oriented worldview and the rationale of liberal nationalism. In this view, society consists of relatively equal and free individuals, operating in a fairly free market, while state intervention in people's lives and in the economy is only required in extreme cases such as market failure, as with urban and regional planning, and is conducted via top-to-bottom regulations. However, whether this outlook is suitable for sociopolitical cultures other than liberalism is questionable. This paper examines the modern planning machinery with respect to traditional, family-based societies, in particular the Arab towns and villages in Israel. It claims that, in addition to the national conflict between Arab citizens and the State of Israel, the embedded tensions between the spatiality of the Arab city and modern planning systems have given rise to the informal, gray urbanism currently typical of Arab towns. The paper analyzes the different planning tools resulting from the two worldviews. The use of a culturally based urban code and mutual agreements between interested parties form central planning instruments in familial societies, while administrative planning and regulation are central to modern traditions. Based on this analysis, the paper offers a framework for overcoming existing tensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the UK, functional city-regions are usually determined by travel-to-work areas (TTWAs): discrete bounded areas defining a threshold for self-containment for commuters. Since their establishment in the 1980s, changes in commutes have pushed TTWA boundaries further. This can only be observed through historic comparison at the sub-regional level, which has not been possible due to data limitations. By systematically analysing commuting patterns between 1981 and 2001 using geographically consistent data, this paper looks at longer-term socio-economic dynamics affecting the structure of city-regions. The findings are critical in anticipation of updated TTWAs based on 2011 Census commuting data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the neoliberal reshaping of infrastructure provision in Brazil's extreme north since the mid-1990s, when roadway investments resulted in unprecedented regional connectivity. The BR-174 upgrade, the era's most important project, marked a transition from resource-based developmentalism to free-market transnationalism. Primarily concerned with urban competitiveness, the federal government funded the trunk roadway's paving to facilitate manufacturing exports from Manaus. While an effort was made to minimize deforestation, planners sidelined development implications in adjacent Roraima. The state's urban system has thus experienced reperipheralization and intensified primacy. Market-led growth now compounds the inheritance of hierarchical centralism and ongoing governmental neglect. Our study shows a vast territory dependent on primate cities for basic goods and services. Travelling with Roraimans from bypassed towns, we detected long-distance passenger transportation and surface logistics with selective routes. Heterogeneous Roraiman (im)mobilities comprise middle-class tourism and heightened consumerism as well as informal mobility tactics and transnational circulations of precarious labor. The paper exhorts neoliberal urbanism research to look beyond both EuroAmerica's metropoles and their Global South counterparts. Urbanization dynamics in Brazil's extreme north demonstrate that market-disciplined investments to globalize cities produce far-reaching spatial effects. These are felt even by functionally-articulatedyet- marginalized peripheries in ostensibly remote locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to discuss local and regional planning and development practices in a post-socialist country such as Estonia. Two approaches — central places and network theories — are used as a conceptual basis. According to the first hypothesis, planning and development of social infrastructure (e.g. schools, sports halls) has remained based on the central place theory — as an outdated planning approach — in Estonia. The second hypothesis argues that while, on the one hand, the application of the network paradigm and increased cooperation between local communities would considerably save public resources, on the other hand, because of the path dependency of Soviet centralized planning and development practices, the networking and lobbying takes place vertically rather than horizontally. This restricts both administrative cooperation and networking on the local and regional levels. The paper consists of three parts. The first part describes the turn in Western planning theory: the shift from normative top-down planning to a bottom-up approach and networking. The second part analyses critically the Soviet and post-Soviet planning theory and practices: the planning and development culture created during the Soviet era. Finally we present a case study of a community planning procedure in the Suure-Jaani locality — a good example of the influence of historical changes in the settlement system and planning culture of the past on current development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can we understand head office location in a knowledge-intensive urban economy? This is the basic question addressed in this paper. Even if proximity is important in understanding location, a study must also emphasise the multiplicity of connections that surpass the cluster or city level, which are critical for the operation of the head office. The study offers new insights into the categorisation of head office location and illustrates the importance of a multilevel perspective by analysing head offices as nodes within a system of internal, regional and external flows of knowledge and information. This theoretical approach is inspired by the work of Amin and Thrift. The paper's theory-informed discussion is based on empirical data from a survey of the largest companies in Norway and on intensive case studies from a selection of these firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban planning in many Western cities in the period 1945–1970 has been defined as modernist. Although this is generally true, it is an oversimplification. This paper presents a more complete picture by identifying urban ideal images in the public debate in Rotterdam in 1946 and comparing them with popular international ideas about the ideal city at the time. Several groups of participants are identified on the basis of their urban ideal images. Both within and between these groups there was great variation in the number and character of modernist elements used, derived from various international urban developers and as a result of the differences between their urban ideal images. It seems, however, that these images did not influence the final plans. Had the planning authorities been aware of these ideal images, they could have not only improved the quality of their urban planning, but also increased public support for their plans. In order to extend the knowledge about urban modernist post-war planning, this paper identifies different urban ideal images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a broad overview of urban and regional planning in post-independence Mozambique, the paper inevitably touches on a number of issues that requite much more elaboration than can be attempted here. The civil war, which must be both the starting point and the backdrop to the subsequent analysis, is just the first of these; for its complexities are manifold. The Instituto Nacional de Plane ent Fisico or National Institute of Physical Planning (INPF) is the coordinating body for territorially based planning. It was lot actually established until 1983, some eight years after Mozambican independence. Since then the impact of the war, specifically the loss of state control over large swathes of territory, as referred to above, has limited the scope for planning in rural areas and for regional planning in general. However, in practice, its role has principally, remained that of an advisory body to other institutions and its impact has depended very much on individual contacts and collaboration. Moreover, many of the provincial offices have become increasingly ineffective through the lack of financial and technical support.

Copyright of Sociologia Ruralis is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

European Union spatial policies have become a key institutional context in which to study policy transfer processes in European border areas. These policies are, however, only the most recent part of these transformation processes which raises a need for more historically sensitive approaches. An historical perspective is important, since border regions are historical processes with particular path-dependent development trajectories and power structures. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion concerning the transformation of European border regions by looking at the policy transfer of regional development discourses in the Finnish Torne Valley. The study material consists of strategic development documents produced by the Finnish border municipalities and the municipal-based co-operation organizations from the 1930s to 2013. The examination, based on critical discourse analysis, shows that the transformation process is driven by national trends and the dominant planning discourse. Nevertheless, the particular border setting and local discourse on ‘united Torne Valley’ have also intertwined with political and economic processes during different time periods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Moral issues in urban planning involving technology, residents, marginalized groups, ecosystems, and future generations are complex cases, requiring solutions that go beyond the limits of contemporary moral theory. Aside from typical planning problems, there is incongruence between moral theory and some of the subjects that require moral assessment, such as urban infrastructure. Despite this incongruence, there is not a need to develop another moral theory. Instead, a supplemental measure that is compatible with existing moral positions will suffice. My primary goal in this paper is to explain the need for this supplemental measure, describe what one looks like, and show how it works with existing moral systems. The secondary goal is to show that creating a supplemental measure that provides congruency between moral systems that are designed to assess human action and non-human subjects advances the study of moral theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metropolitan areas have become the battleground for human rights, particularly the "right to the city". The New Urban Agenda (NUA) recognises this principle as an ideal way to build a city for all. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) present a sustainable (also urban) development model with multiple economic, social and environmental aspects. How does the metropolitan institutional framework influence the implementation of the SDGs? Do the necessary resources and competencies exist to meet the ideal expressed in the NUA? Using examples from all continents, the paper examines the extent to which actions and objectives aimed at sustainable urban development take a metropolitan approach and how institutional variables (i. e. metropolitan governance, fragmentation, degree of decentralisation and local autonomy, and role of the state) enhance or jeopardise these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper assesses whether cities enhance the technical efficiency of nearby rural counties by allowing for heterogeneous urban effects both by region and city type. An empirical application is demonstrated using the Chinese county-level agricultural data from 2005 to 2009. We find that urban proximity significantly enhances efficiency in the Eastern region, while its effect is lower and less significant for the Central region and not significant at all for the Western region. In addition, urban effects vary across the urban hierarchy. We find that provincial-level cities have a deteriorating impact on technical efficiency, while lower-level cities enhance technical efficiency in most regions. Implications of these findings in terms of urban and regional planning are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a computable general equilibrium model of a stylized linear city that simultaneously minimizes transportation costs while satisfying labor, and, and goods equilibrium conditions, in the tradition of Anas and Kim, while introducing a monetary balance. This model has structural similarity with Davis's design of an optimal transportation system under user equilibrium conditions. The model includes three industries: manufacturing, retail, and services. Their economic transactions are empirically modeled using national input-output data, which allows for the endog-enous determination of import and export pricing and flows. Numerical applications show that more efficient transportation increases utility and leads to a centralization of the population, and that zoning, under various restriction scenarios, decreases utility, with the most detrimental effects on residents in unrestricted zones. Finally, a zero trade deficit scenario results in lower utility, a larger transportation system, and smaller residential lots, with higher CBD population density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to an emerging literature focused on cities and regions as strategic sites for systemic sustainability transformation processes. We analyse how aspiration and ambition for transformation of the energy system in the Paris-Ile-de-France region of France translates more vividly into the transversal strategic spatial planning policy arena than in the energy policy sector. The intensity of inter-actor tensions here suggests that these are key contested issues for future orientations of energy systems on any level. Some of the contradictions and competing viewpoints around energy-concerned planning issues are discussed. It is argued that this highlights the importance of understanding the socio-political geographies of systemic change. We suggest that thinking through the multiple spatio-temporal rhythms of transitions could be a useful way of pushing research and policies towards more explicit, sympathetic and political engagement with the socio-spatial differentiations and inequalities inherent to place-based transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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During the past two decades, the concept of commuting efficiency has been used to evaluate the relationships between the journey to work and land use at the regional scale. The common approach of calculating regional statistics masks the intraurban variation of commuting efficiency. This paper develops an alternative approach to commuting efficiency and spatial structure assessments based on spatial disaggregation. The extension of existing regional measures by estimating zonal average trip lengths for workers leaving home and employers attracting workers facilitates analysis of intrametropolitan commuting efficiency. Spatially disaggregated metrics are formulated and applied to journey-to-work data for the cities of Warsaw, Poznań, Łódź and Kraków in Poland. At the regional scale, excess commuting varies from 48 per cent (Warsaw) to 67 per cent (Łódź). Intraurban variations in excess commuting indicate that estimates of commuting efficiency are impacted by the jobs–housing balance and are sensitive to locations of zones within the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]