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This paper uses social network analysis methods to explore how the spatial mobility of students to attend university creates regional divisions and socio‐spatial hierarchies of schools and universities. Using community detection methods as our methodological lens we stitch together regional economic geography, the student mobilities literature and the sociological and geographical analysis of elite education. Combining these statistical techniques with qualitative data from our broader study, we explore student flows between different geographical areas in the UK for universities. The clusters or 'communities' of areas underline how student migration to attend university in the UK is a moment which reflects and re‐creates regional and national boundaries. The second part of the paper examines school to university student flows, highlighting a distinctive, predominantly English cluster of elite schools and universities. Examining student mobility patterns with network methods allows us to distinguish a distinctive archipelagic geography of elite formation through higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 21st-century Ireland, Canada and the Great Britain, significant changes to sexual and gender legislation, abortion access and associated social and cultural life include the legalisation of same-sex marriage, employment rights, access to abortion and self-identification/gender recognition. This paper draws on interviews from the Beyond Opposition research to explore the experiences of those who are concerned about and/or actively oppose these socio-legal changes. We consider participants understandings of themselves as losing power within social relations and the ways in which their positionings can be seen as excluded or marginalised in public spaces. Examining their experiences of public space offers insights into experiences of new power relations, including state sanctions, that contest binaries of marginalisation/privilege. These positions between marginalisation/privilege, illustrate the effectiveness and limitations of framing these views as 'unacceptable' in public arenas. Operating between marginal/privileged requires a reworking of these 20th Century paradigms for 21st Century social divisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper addresses the challenge of measuring the extent of immigration to the UK following EU Accession in 2004, and argues that the most commonly used databases (UK Census, Labour Force Survey and Worker Registration Scheme) can be supplemented by the National Insurance Number (NINo) Allocations database, and demonstrates the utility of this data for future research by outlining the geography of immigration derived from NINo. The paper makes three important contributions through the thorough analysis of a data source currently underexploited in migration studies; first that the NINo, when used as a indicator of migration per se offers some interesting insights into migration in the UK, and secondly that as a tool for comprehensively measuring the registration of migrants working legally in the UK, it offers a means of constructing a internal geography of (legal) labour migration, as the paper demonstrates. Third, the analysis also identifies self-employment as a potentially important missing driver behind EU Accession Migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown measures implemented by the United Kingdom government from 23 March 2020 led to unprecedented adaptations from individuals and communities including places of worship, their clergy and congregations. This paper through a multi‐disciplinary dialogue between human geography and theology explores the interrelations between place, space and the spiritual. It identifies the bricolage mechanisms that were developed rapidly by churches to shift towards providing virtual church services. This was an uncommon practice by Christian denominations in the UK. COVID‐19 changed the rules requiring new practices to emerge resulting in a new form of infrasecular space to emerge. Such rapid transformations through the provision of online services and virtual embeddedness blurred the lines between sacred and secular spaces. During virtual services, the minister's home is temporally linked to the homes of congregants forming an intersacred space. Homes and spaces within homes are transformed into temporary sacred spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarises the usefulness of the differential urbanisation model, to characterise regional urban development in terms of a temporal sequence of stages from urbanisation through polarisation reversal to counter–urbanisation, as revealed in nine empirical tests (Britain, Estonia, Finland, Western Germany, India, Italy, Russia, South Africa, and Turkey). First, results of the testing are summarised. Based on the results of these nine empirical tests, we attempt to answer the question ‘Did the differential urbanisation model fit reality?’ Also discussed are modifications to the model suggested during the course of empirical testing. Then directions for future testing and improvements to the model are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the advent of the knowledge economy it has become evident that the territorial footprint of investment in intangible assets is largely asymmetrical. First, these types of assets tend to be distributed unevenly across space. Second, intangible assets are an important source of productivity growth and competitiveness. Although significant advances have been made in measuring intangible assets and accounting for their effects in economic outcomes, their exact nature remains vague. Within the national accounts framework the majority of intangibles are, even now, still treated as intermediate expenditure. Consequently, intangibles are largely excluded from conventional measures of output and investment, making it difficult to account for their spatial effects. The present paper adjusts gross value added (GVA) data for NUTS 3 regions in Great Britain for intangibles. The adjusted series are then used to investigate trends in regional inequalities in GVA per employee in this country during the pre‐recession period 1995–2007. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper asks the question – who moves into what kinds of neighbourhoods and what kind of residential sorting is occurring in the ethnically diverse metropolitan region of Los Angeles. The study examines residential selections across a typology of neighbourhood types in the Los Angeles metropolitan region using residential mobility data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (LAFANS). Similar to recent work in the UK and Canadian contexts, ethnic groups demonstrate moderately strong relationships between their socio‐economic statuses and their neighbourhood contexts. Both behaviour, that is, actual moves and preferences, are consistent with a tendency to increased mixing and declining segregation in the residential mosaic. In particular, the expressed residential preferences and the choices of these households provide an explanatory context for the overall decline in segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores satisfaction with the political domain of local government performance, using survey data from a contemporary British city as the empirical context. It employs a factor-augmented ordered logit analysis of data emerging from a representative city-wide series of over 1,000 household interviews. Affective reactions to local economic performance and policy effectiveness are constructed in the spirit of the approach used in earlier work by social scientists. The key significant influences that raise or depress satisfaction at this geographical level are presented. Affective reactions to past policy and the economy are both shown to be statistically significant, but with reactions to the economy being negative while those for other policy reactions seemingly positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge intensive services (KIS) have grown rapidly across Europe in recent years and are often regarded as critical to economic growth and knowledge diffusion. This paper focuses on the factors determining spatial variations in the growth of these services. Combining insights from the regional innovation systems approach and modern growth theory, it is argued that local economic diversity may be beneficial to the growth of KIS. An empirical study of Great Britain over the period 1991–2002 reveals significant regional variations, with rapid growth occurring in a central cluster and major urban areas. The results of an empirical model provide support for the positive impact of diversity on employment growth but no evidence of a positive effect of sector specialisation. From a policy perspective, the analysis suggests that greater attention needs to be devoted to enhancing economic diversity and understanding sector specific effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper elaborates on the concept of ‘knowledge economy’ as a prelude to demonstrating its incidence at regional and sub-regional levels in the UK, EU and Israel. The paper shows consistencies in the incidence of knowledge economies across the countries and georegion. This is a good test of the basic methodology, which is simple, and suggests its underlying theory is robust for distinctive spaces and times. It should thus contribute to standard methodology in academic and policy environments. The future economy will be characterised by more knowledge-intensive activities, and as shown in the paper, will be a highly disequilibriated one in spatial terms. Consequently the need for counter-measures is growing in order to continuously follow up and to take the needed actions in lagging regions. This is an acute challenge for future policy, namely to correct market failure in the knowledge economy for peripheral and otherwise deprived areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines patterns of persistence, mobility, convergence and divergence in the shape and evolution of the distribution of GDP per head across Great Britain (GB). Using a distribution dynamics approach, the evidence suggests that there is no pattern of overall convergence and a number of counties are persistently located at the extremes of the distribution. While there is some evidence of a north-south divide, fragmented islands and sub-regions of persistence are located across geographical space. This pattern of persistence and divergence coexists with upwards and downwards intra-distributional mobility, some of which appears to exhibit specific spatial patterns. The evidence is more consistent with approaches emphasising uneven development than theories predicting economic convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little research has been conducted on the changing geographical distribution of organic farming in England and Wales in the 1990s. Using officially published secondary data, this paper examines the changing patterns of organic farming between 1993 and 1997, based on the number of organic farms, the area devoted to organic farming, the number of exits from and conversions to organic farming, and specific organic enterprises. The analysis indicates a process of spatial rationalisation, in which organic farming is becoming increasingly concentrated in a core area in Central-Southern England. Further, more detailed work is required, of both an empirical and conceptual nature, before a full explanation of such patterns can be given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to trace community and regional responses to the economic downturn of 2008/2009 in Northern British Columbia, Canada. Our research during this period (2009-2011), the Northern Economic Vision II (NEV II) project, sought to investigate whether communities in the region were incorporating some of the core findings, lessons from an earlier project, the NEV I project (conducted in 2002-2005), in terms of preparing for both economic uncertainty and opportunity through place-oriented community planning and enhanced regional collaboration. Findings suggest that in the face of economic hardship, many communities continued to pursue community and regionally-oriented strategies in an attempt to preserve services and quality of life for local residents, and did not engage in reactive budget cuts in the face of economic decline, as experienced in previous bust periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends the analysis of foreign direct investment ( FDI) location in the UK by exploring the determinants of manufacturing and non-manufacturing inbound FDI location within and between the UK's core (the Southeast) and non-core ( West Midlands; Wales; Scotland and the Northwest) regions. Use is made of multiple regression techniques to analyse a set of official, longitudinal data gathered for the period from 1980 to 2005 as a means to this end. The findings offer new insights into the relative influence of regional, national and EU level factors and government policy over FDI location at the UK regional level, and into their variation between regions and sectors of industry. The resultant implications for government policies towards inbound FDI are also considered, including the desirability of allowing them to vary from region to region, if FDI inflows are to be maximised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine one aspect of agglomeration, namely the geography of human capital. In some contexts, human capital may be very mobile, and understanding local agglomeration processes therefore requires us to consider inter-regional flows of human capital. In particular, here we discuss the flows of students in Great Britain from domicile into university and then the flows of graduate human capital from university into first employment. We then estimate the local/non-local pattern of these flows as a function of the characteristics of the university, of the student population, and of the local region. Our findings suggest that university attendance in Great Britain is generally associated with very significant levels of human capital mobility, and only certain types of higher education institutions play a significant employment role in their local economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the relevance of the differential urbanisation model for depicting the spatial urban development of Great Britain. Population change is studied for eight, mainly decadelong, periods from 1901 to 1991 using a version of the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS) Functional Regions framework. Rates of population growth are calculated for a Britain-wide classification of settlements based on population size and for a sixfold typology based on status within the national urban hierarchy. The differential urbanisation model is then tested for Great Britain as a whole and for four broad regional divisions. The results suggest that the British urban system had very largely moved beyond the urbanisation stage by the beginning of the twentieth century and that counter-urbanisation was the prevailing pattern before mid century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent developments within the regulation approach have highlighted the importance of discourse in securing the conditions for the stabilisation of new modes of regulation. This paper considers the discursive construction in the UK of Britain's relationship to European integration. Despite claims that the politics of the ‘Third Way’ offer an innovative and coherent framework for New Labour's political strategy, the evidence suggests that discourses of national sovereignty and pragmatic economic national self-interest dominate. In conclusion it is suggested that the development of transnational discursive formations is a necessary precondition for the consolidation of regulatory forms and processes that break with previous nationally focused modes of regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The varying spatial and socio-economic impact of large-scale privatisation of the British housing system since 1980 is well documented. However, the effects of this policy extend beyond the initial privatisation of ownership. By 1995 over a fifth of the 300,000 public sector homes sold to sitting tenants in Scotland had been resold on the open market. In this paper, we show that the pace of commodification varies significantly between areas, and examine the factors that underlie this pattern. Our results suggest that significant influences include the characteristics of the initial purchasers, the nature of local housing markets and the vitality of the local economy, as well as the time series profile of initial sales. The process of commodification has the potential to make a major impact on the socio-economic character of former public sector estates, changes set in train by the slow-burning fuse of privatisation. It may also result in the restructuring of local housing markets. It is clear that the full effect of these changes will be felt in some areas before others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the 1985-93 influx of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the UK automotive component industry from European and Japanese companies. The study of 27 investors found that the market and growth potential of the Japanese car transplants Honda (Swindon), Nissan (Sunderland) and Toyota (Burnaston) was by far the most important reason for their location decision overall, regardless of whether the firm was European or Japanese owned. The Single Market programme was not directly important to the component firms' location decisions overall, though indirectly it could have been influential in the decisions of the Japanese car assemblers to locate in the UK. Interviews revealed the effects that FDI was having on the UK industry in closing product gaps and on research and development. These results may have important policy implications for government agencies concerning the attraction of FDI, where it should be attracted, and the effects of such FDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the interplay of factors that produce specific local patterns of interaction between firms and universities, using survey evidence from a comparative study of two e´lite locations, the Oxford and Cambridge regions. It uses these examples to examine why innovating firms have external links, why they have them with universities, which spatial mechanisms are significant in the place-specific technology transfer links universities have with firms in their immediate hinterlands, and what kinds of institutional factors influence the form links take. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, urbanisation in Europe has been characterised by the development and expansion of functionally integrated urban regions. Areas around Copenhagen, Denmark, have also experienced continuous urbanisation and a considerable in-migration, which has contributed to the development of a wider metropolitan region. Most recently, however, a shift of migration towards the urban centre has occurred. Was the emergence of the urban-rural region just an ephemeral phenomenon? Migration patterns are used to analyse urban-rural relationships. Generally, in-migration was concentrated in areas located at medium to long-distances from the city centre from 1996-2005, while in the years since 2006, this trend has been reversed. However, a differentiated view on migration shows a very diverse and non-linear development. We focus on three migration types, Ex-urbanisation, Displaced urbanisation and Anti-urbanisation and compare their development since 1986 in three time periods. Each type shows a different behaviour, partially unstable over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social and economic benefits have accrued from medium- and long-distance travel, but at the expense of the environment. Since the travel behaviour literature tends to concentrate on short-distance trips or trips within daily urban systems, a better understanding of the factors shaping medium- and long-distance travel is needed. Using the 1998 National Travel Surveys for the UK and the Netherlands, the study reported here characterises medium- and long-distance travellers in terms of socio-economic attributes, time availability, day of travel, and land-use related factors. The results suggest that, in both countries, males and individuals with a higher socio-economic status are more likely to engage in medium- and long-distance travel. The analysis further shows that the overall structure of the urban system in combination with the size of the country and the local population density affect the participation in medium- and long-distance travel. Such factors should be considered explicitly in future studies of medium- and long-distance travel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article compares the housing allocation system in Netherlands with that of Ireland, Spain, Great Britain and Germany. An overview of the housing allocation policy in Netherlands is provided. A discussion of the housing allocation process under the distribution model and deft allocation model is presented. The composition of the housing stock in each of the countries is explained.

High levels of stability over the five-year period 1991–96 are observed in the supply chains of plants in Yorkshire and Humberside in the UK owned by multinational enterprises (MNEs). Stability is explained by a lack of alternative suppliers, satisfaction with existing suppliers, perceived benefits derived from continuity, sunk costs in existing suppliers and managerial complacency. Where supply chain patterns have changed, changes are associated with changes in production, changes in supply chain strategy, or exogenous factors, such as heightened competition and changes in the geography of potential suppliers. High levels of stability in the geography of the supply chain provide a challenge to arguments that there is now a rapid process of globalisation within MNEs. Nevertheless, where change is taking place, MNEs are moving towards increased globalisation in their sourcing strategies rather than towards a deeper embeddedness in their host regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few geographical studies have explicitly examined the place use and place behaviour of young teenagers, especially within the UK. In this article we report on a survey of a group of 13 year olds, living in a socially and economically deprived neighbourhood in Midland England. Attention focuses on the 'fourth environment', that is how these teenagers come into contact with a range of everyday places beyond their home, school and playground. For each individual, the sum of this relationship constitutes a microgeography, which when grouped together provides a spatio-temporal map of experience. The results suggest four recurrent themes, which we present as important aspects of the microgeography of this group of teenagers. We label these as: worlds apart; emblems of difference; special places; and landscapes of powerlessness. The environments of teenagers are not just appendages of the adult world, but are special places, created by themselves and invested with their own values. We argue that teenagers are not adults in waiting but are active cultural producers in their own right. When discussing the results we draw upon research and concepts in cognate disciplines to provide additional insights into teenagers' microgeographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central thesis of this article is that the recent transformation of the economy of the North East of England must be understood as reciprocally related both to the changing position of the UK economy in the international division of labour in a globalising economy and to the restructuring of the UK state. Regional changes are both a product of and a condition for wider projects of restructuring the UK state and its relation to economy and society within and beyond the UK. Such changes are not unique to the North East within the UK; nor are they confined to the UK. The trajectory of change in North East England can be seen as exemplifying more general tendencies within contemporary capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]