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Real estate, encompassing housing, land and commercial property, is a key driver of the urban economy--in terms of economic development, the distribution of opportunities across space and through the evolution of the local built environment. Certain aspects of real estate research are not directly related to urban issues but, through finance and investment decisions, for instance, they do have a major bearing on our towns and cities. Thus, a Review Issue on urban real estate is timely and important. This paper both introduces and provides an assessment of the articles within this Review Issue. First, the paper sets the issue in its wider context. Secondly, it then pulls out the main themes from each contribution before elaborating on the cross-cutting themes that emerge from the collected papers taken together. The final main section outlines a forward-looking research agenda for real estate analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of the knowledge-base in regional and urban competition is generally recognised, although causal relations between urban and regional economic growth and knowledge level are far from clear. This paper presents the first analysis of the strength, interrelations and nodality of the global research centres. The data are records in the Science Citation Index 1997-99 of papers produced by authors from the 40 largest 'greater' urban regions of the world as measured by research output. The network of research co-operation depends on nationality, distance and other factors. The top-level nodes in the co-operation network of the world are London, Genève-Lausanne and the San Francisco Bay Area. In absolute number of co-authored papers, Los Angeles, Boston and New York constitute a second level and, when observed links are related to expected links, the second level combines Amsterdam-Hague-Rotterdam-Utrecht, Paris, Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg and Copenhagen-Lund. As expected, the networks of citation are, by contrast, very independent of distance, but not of nationality. The primary categories of research centres for the total number of citings presented are San Diego, Seattle, Boston, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area. When we turn to the international data-set, it is Mannheim-Heidelberg, Genève-Lausanne, Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg and Cambridge which are in the lead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses considerable heterogeneity which is a reflection of the modern location theory and its potential for application. Question of spatial competition from a dual perspective; Changes in urban-system theme from the interurban to the intraurban; Discussion on location theory.

Drawing primarily on some concepts in social theory, sociobiological reasoning and neo-classical economics, this paper provides an introductory overview to a collection of papers on an urban sexual theme. The papers address this theme from a wide variety of disciplinary perspectives and each contribution examines various facets and dimensions of the interplay of sexual desire and urban living. A simple conceptual model is offered to provide some guiding framework to the discourse on urban sexual consumption, which is a central feature of this brief overview commentary and also of the entire collection of papers. A number of research gaps and suggestions, that may help further to advance this research agenda, are then highlighted for possible future attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent paper, we argued for the need to develop an understanding of property development processes which combines a sensitivity to the economic and social framing of development strategies with a fine-grain treatment of the locally contingent responses of property actors. This is a response to Ball's criticisms of that paper, which offer a misleading characterisation of our methodological and theoretical position with regard to property research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If finally accepted, the new concept of territorial cohesion could mean a formal planning role for the European Union. The paper traces the French roots of this concept. As other concepts in European integration, it is subject to multiple interpretations. The initial focus has been on regional economic development as such. At present, territorial cohesion is also held to mean (for example, in the White Paper on European Governance) the co-ordination of policies with an impact on one and the same territory. Originally adhering to a more interventionist approach to spatial planning, the French have learned to factor balanced and sustainable development, concerns of the so-called comprehensive integrated approach, into the equation. Germans, in turn, are seeing sense in the new French focus on 'services of general economic interest'. Experts from both countries agree on the need for a spatial framework for Community policies. Such a framework would look somewhat like the European Spatial Development Perspective, but as part of territorial cohesion policy as a shared responsibility of the Union and its member-states. This would vindicate ideas of the French pioneers of European spatial planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was originally prepared as the keynote address for a 12 April 2003 Research Symposium "Understanding Isolation and Change in Urban Neighborhoods", sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The conference sponsors provided the paper's title and in that way suggested the central theme. As often happens, however, considerable license was taken in interpreting and implementing the brief. For example, the phrase 'spatial mismatch' is used in two ways. First, the paper examines the origins of the spatial mismatch concept that was the central focus of the author's 1964 and 1968 papers. These papers were concerned with the effects of housing market segregation/discrimination on the employment and earnings of Black Chicago and Detroit residents. The spatial mismatch concept was then broadened to include a number of other, perhaps more important, ways in which serious restrictions on the residential choices of Chicago and Detroit Black residents affected their welfare. These included the effects of housing market discrimination on housing prices, home-ownership and educational opportunities. Reflecting the two-way linkages between the author's research on racial discrimination and involvement in on-going policy debates and civil rights litigation, the discussion of these issues was imbedded in something of a personal history of his involvement in these areas in the 30 years following the publication of the original spatial mismatch papers. The paper ends with a discussion of the author's research during the past 10 years into what may be the most serious example of spatial mismatch and its negative impacts on Black welfare—the continued concentration of Black children in low-achieving inner-city schools and the impact of these patterns on the achievement of individual Black children. This research, which is based on data for Texas public schools, provides substantial evidence that continued Black segregation and the resulting concentration of Black children in low-achieving schools accounts for a large part of the Black-White achievement gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first analysis of scientific strength by output (papers in the Science Citation Index 1994-96) produced by authors from the 'greater' urban regions of Europe. Top lists of European centres are indicated. Four agglomerations constitute the European super-league of science: London, Paris, Moscow and the Dutch urban agglomeration of Amsterdam, the Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht. The next layer could be named the primary league and comprises 19 large research centres. A third group of 16 cities forms a secondary league of 16 smaller research centres. These upper-level research strongholds are categorised in the paper where patterns of specialisations by absolute and relative distribution of research disciplines for each city are identified and families of cities by research pattern are analysed and compared within the perspective of urban economic growth and change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offers an introduction to the paper 'Transportation and Land Use', submitted to the journal 'Urban Studies.' Evidence that emerging or continuing trends in urban development influence the relationship between transport and land use; Worldwide prevalence of several trends which characterizes modern urbanization.

Focuses on the national and international policy perspectives on housing markets, neighborhood dynamics and societal goals. Housing market dynamics and neighborhood change; Housing policy responses in various organization for economic cooperation and development; Non-housing approaches to urban poverty alleviation.

This paper suggests that including urban renewal as a factor in analysis contributes to more nuanced understandings of educational policy change in inner Sydney. The educational policy change investigated is Building the future, with a focus on a newly created school. Urban renewal is positioned as a component of convergent processes and practices that aim to 'revitalise' the inner city and inner-city education. This paper illustrates how educational policy draws, in part, on geographical aspects to argue for the restructuring of state schooling in inner Sydney. The paper also explores how policy practices conflate discourses of urban renewal with the constitution of 'middle class' and 'non-Aboriginal' subjects, a practice that consequently repositions the new school in an education market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the theory-policy interface of local economic development. It traces the transmission chain through which academic knowledge on competitive city-regions is developed, formalised and institutionalised in local economic development theory and practice. The major thrust of this paper critically examines the increasingly influential role of academic consultants in shaping local economic development policy. In particular, it addresses the extent to which these experts directly influence policy formulation in case studies of Cardiff and Liverpool. Another dimension is the use of experts by local authorities, the reasons for selecting certain names and not others, and the extent to which their work helps to frame the context of local economic development policy. The paper ends by offering some comments on the relationship between the theory and practice of local economic development, and the similarity of local economic development policy approaches in Cardiff and Liverpool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces regulatory components influencing city soundscapes in Europe and the UK, illustrating the abatement approach taken within noise policy, demonstrating the importance of individual experience in assessing the soundscapes of urban environments and identifying a terminology to facilitate an introduction of soundscapes into the planning process. Drawing on work from soundscape ecology, a way is demonstrated to coalesce these divergent positions. Reviewing interviews undertaken in Clerkenwell, the paper demonstrates that it is not simply noise levels that are important to people in an urban area. Context, source, distance, temporariness and control over noise, are all relevant to whether people would want to see a particular sound eliminated from their soundscape. Using Schafer's terminology 'keynote sounds', 'soundmarks' and 'sound signals', a rationale is proposed through which experienced soundscapes may be articulated, challenging the strategy of noise abatement which could produce a conformity of soundscape that homogenises place and dissolves local uniqueness. This paper arises from research undertaken as part of the EPSRC project 'Vivacity 2020: urban sustainability for the 24 hour city' GR/S18380/01(P). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the results of research to explore a range of attempts to develop new regional forms, and considers the degree to which they accord to conceptualisations of the ‘new regionalism’ and accounts of the changing territorial structure of the state. It highlights the array of new regional configurations which now extends across the territory of the European Union, discussing the influence exerted by the growth of interest in European spatial planning over the course of the 1990s and considering the degree to which readings of new regionalist rhetoric have informed both the creation and substance of a number of recently conceived regional entities. The paper concludes by considering the implications posed by the growth of these new regional configurations for attempts to interpret the rescaling of governance and the reterritorialisation of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a unique labour force survey to document workplace communication patterns in urban, suburban and rural areas. A number of interesting stylised facts are distilled relating to workplace communication: its intensity, within-firm communication, communication external to the firm and the media being used with a special focus on information technologies. The paper also investigates the complementarities across different media of communication and the evolution over time of workplace communication patterns. It is found that cities foster communication external to the firm and the use of telecommunications. By contrast, the hypothesis of a greater prevalence of face-to-face communication in cities does not receive much empirical validation. Also, complementarities across media do not lend much support to popular predictions about the forthcoming demise of cities following the replacement of face-to-face meetings by telecommunications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, amid the debates of sustainable development and urban compactness, there has been a widening interest to reintroduce high-rise living in cities. Several European cities including London and Manchester are once again building high-rise housing as part of their urban housing strategy. Elsewhere, in Asia, Hong Kong and Singapore are distinguished by their high-rise public housing developments. With nearly half of the world's population living in urban areas, the unfolding trend is towards a more urban-style development with taller buildings included as an inevitable housing solution. Drawing on findings from a study of Singapore public housing residents' living experience, this paper aims to look at the increasingly important question of the liveability of high-rise living by discussing the occupants' appreciation and concerns of high-rise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK economy has enjoyed an unprecedented period of positive economic growth since the early 1990s. The absence of recession for more than a decade has been accompanied by a sustained decline in the level of mortgage arrears, as reported by major lenders. This paper seeks to examine the factors which have driven the reduction in mortgage arrears and, in doing so, identify those factors which are most likely to cause arrears to increase in the future, should economic conditions deteriorate. The paper employs the Johansen methodology to test for the presence of multiple cointegrating vectors. An error correction model is estimated in order to examine long-run and short-run dynamics in mortgage arrears. In line with previous research concerning the causes of mortgage arrears, the results presented here emphasise the importance of changes in the rate of unemployment, loan–income and debt–service ratios. More importantly, our results highlight the statistical significance of unwithdrawn housing equity as an explanatory variable with respect to mortgage arrears. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper uses data gathered from both the demand and supply side in the North East. Insights are gained from two studies of owner-managers of small businesses and one study of the five universities in the North East of England, to characterise enterprising skills as a new employability skills set. Whilst there is a plethora of studies which consider different aspects of employability, such as employability representing the capabilities of being employed for a job, and a growing recognition of the difference between 'old' and 'new' employability skills sets required to compete with an increasingly flexible labour market, there is a lack of studies that have unpacked the key aspects of this new employability skills set. This paper addresses this gap. The paper concludes by presenting an employability policy outline that could be used by bodies such as Regional Development Agencies to ensure that individuals are equipped with the skills to cope with, and flourish in, the changing conditions of the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper views clusters as a specific spatial configuration of the economy suitable for the creation, transfer and usage of knowledge. It investigates how the modern exchange-economy becomes organised as rent-seeking firms build network relations to create knowledge and obtain resource efficiency while keeping transaction costs at bay. It moves on to consider the cluster as an emerging, self-organising, attractive alternative for interfirm relationships in cases where (global) network formation becomes a less feasible strategy. The paper empirically investigates two industries where clustering for different reasons might be considered superior to other forms of market organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the sustainability of current urban regeneration practice, through the application of weighted indicators and a points scoring framework. The analysis applies the hierarchical model discussed in the preceding paper of this journal issue to case studies of waterfront areas and cultural quarters in three European cities: Belfast, Dublin and Barcelona. The evaluation permits performance comparisons to be made between the case studies regarding the sustainability of regeneration areas and projects, variations on an indicator set basis and the sensitivity of scores. Conclusions are drawn concerning regeneration practice, the extent to which sustainability principles are adhered to, potential policy benefits and the applicability of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces a series of articles on exclusionary land-use regulations in the U.S. Effects of land-use regulations on the cost of housing; Effects on housing supply; Contributions of the regulations to income and racial segregation within metropolitan areas; Impact on the spatial mismatch in the labor market for low-skilled workers.

It has been argued that collaborative and associative forms of governance can enhance the economic competitiveness of cities and regions. Institutionalist approaches to urban and regional economic development have been particularly influential in emphasising the potential role that collaboration between firms, governance agencies, labour and supporting institutions can play in enabling communities to promote progressive competitiveness. At the same time, there has been relatively little discussion and empirical analysis of the actual process of institutional change and institution-building that characterise city-regions situated in liberal political economies that are not historically endowed with 'pre-existing' stocks of social capital and associative governance. In addition, institutionalist perspectives on urban and regional economic change have produced economistic explanations, while underplaying the importance of political factors. This paper offers an analysis of the various institutional barriers to associative governance by examining the case of 'Canada's Technology Triangle', a city-region which has experienced several attempts to develop associative governance institutions since the early 1990s. The evidence from this case study suggests that the experience of institution-building in this city-region has been intertwined with a struggle to create a regional scale of engagement for a range of governance actors. The analysis in this paper demonstrates the importance of paying careful attention to the factors that shape the political mobilisation of actors into associative institutional structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing body of knowledge attributes to informal land transactions in sub-Saharan African cities observed problems in city neighbourhoods. Substantial resources, often backed by donor agencies, are therefore being spent in revamping bureaux and governmental bodies in a bid to solve the problems. This paper examines the economic impacts of this aspect of market intervention. Employing insights from rent-seeking theory, it estimates costs brought to bear on agents by government agencies' involvement in the urban land market of Accra, Ghana. The sum of these wasteful diversions of resources is found to explain a great deal of the haphazard developments that have come to characterise many neighbourhoods in the city. Market-led regulation emerges as the needed focus of future land policy and management strategy. Towards this, the paper calls for the removal of existing unwarranted market interventions and the reorganisation of responsible bureaux in ways that would induce them to operate efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable city has now become a leading paradigm of urban development throughout the world. Although the practices, discourses and ideologies associated with the sustainable city have been widely disseminated, analyses of sustainable urban development remain surprisingly anodyne. Drawing upon the insights of regulation theory, this paper attempts to develop a critical engagement with the sustainable city as a space of socio-ecological regulation. Focusing upon two examples of sustainable urban development in practice—the first, the struggle over work-place environments in Stoke-on-Trent; and the second, the reinsertion of nature into the Black Country urban region—this paper explores the regulatory geography of the sustainable city and the environmental visions and practices with which it is associated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attracting investment and finance into inner-city and other renewal areas poses particular difficulties and is frequently reliant on strong public-sector commitment through special incentives or other mechanisms to provide the conditions to lever private-sector activity. This paper initially links the concept of market failure and the rationale for regeneration and examines policy responses from UK, European and US perspectives, followed by a consideration of public- and private-sector financing approaches. International perspectives draw particularly upon the use of tax-based mechanisms in regeneration--notably, those used in the US. In the European context, the paper highlights implications for regeneration stemming from the in terpretation of State Aid rules and competition policy. Conclusions reflect upon the complexity of regeneration and the importance of the different stakeholders within the regeneration process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in the influence of the neighbourhood on the life-chances of individuals has been increasing. However, methodological problems in identifying causal models of these influences suggest the need for caution in such inference. This paper uses data from the British Household Panel Study linked to local area characteristics to explore how far there is evidence that outcomes associated with social exclusion (non-monetary poverty measures, measures of labour market engagement, entry into jobs and flows in and out of poverty) may be associated with neighbourhood characteristics. The paper finds significant associations even when controlling for a substantial range of individual characteristics. There is also limited evidence of a non-linear effect with worse outcomes in the very worst areas for at least one measure. Analysis of the spatial scale of associations suggests mixed results, with stronger associations at the most local scales for some but not all outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With an evolutionary theory of technological change as a conceptual framework, the paper examines the economic geographies of manufacturing production within the Copenhagen Metropolitan Area (CMA) in comparison with two growth regions in Jutland. The paper examines the economic processes underlying the industrial development patterns and reveals that there are fundamental differences between the two growth regions in Jutland and the CMA but also that the economic processes within the CMA differ between three urban regions examined. These economic processes have had a significant influence on the regional patterns of technical change and the paper shows that, although there has been an economic convergence between the regions examined, the regions follow different paths or trajectories of technical change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we have developed a model that sets out to explain the existence of megacities in developing countries, in the context of a Krugman-type core-periphery model. The paper also suggests that agglomeration can be fostered by manufacturers mainly serving the domestic market. However, the analysis goes further by emphasising that megacities are not only the result of protective trade policies, but also the consequence of the relative position of a country, in terms of industrialisation, with respect to the rest of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well established that moving costs make households adjust their housing consumption far less frequently than they would have done in a world in which relocation was costless. This paper adds to our understanding of the dynamics of housing demand by constructing a life-cycle model of housing demand on which several numerical experiments are performed. Among other things, it is shown how the sign of price elasticities may be indeterminate because of changes in moving careers induced by price changes. The paper also demonstrates that planned (endogenous) moving activity and stochastic forced moves should be analysed within a common analytical framework. One simple version of such a common analytical framework is presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes an initial venture into thinking about the uses of the terms 'public' and 'private' space in the context of Vietnamese urban life. It is argued that these terms, while they are critiqued and debated in Western academia, still retain substantial descriptive power at an everyday level. In non-Western societies, however, these terms may be more difficult to apply and the paper provides an empirical section which argues that the boundaries between public and private spaces are fluid and routinely transgressed, as in Western societies, but for reasons and in ways which are distinctive to the Vietnamese situation. The paper concludes by noting that Vietnam is experiencing both a divergence from the Anglo-American urban experience, in that Vietnam displays a resurgence rather than a death of streetlife and a convergence with it in the construction of 'pseudo-public' leisure spaces. Local specificities must therefore be acknowledged when using these otherwise useful Western terms in non-Western contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic solutions are increasingly a part of urban management and development. Whilst these have been viewed mainly in terms of their potential for reducing public expenditure, this paper argues that there are other major social, economic and political issues for which electronic solutions offer potential, but which have received less attention. For example, in terms of one of the most pressing challenges for urban managers across the developed world-that of the reduction of social exclusion and the redevelopment of deprived neighbourhoods-electronic solutions can offer directions that improve access to public services and increase participation in their design and operation. The literature on contemporary urban environments has, for the most part, paid little attention to the development of such electronic solutions. Taking the issue of transport and its role in social exclusion as a key consideration in urban development, this paper will highlight the role that the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) can play in improving access to information and services, the deprivation of which is often seen as a characteristic of being socially excluded. Furthermore, given that social exclusion is about lack of control and participation in the decision-making process, this paper will also highlight the potential that ICTs have in redefining the relationship between expert and client, manager and user within urban management and development, with significant social and political consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been a number of recent attempts to represent Britain's regional shopping centres as potentially being the cores of new towns. Using the example of the Merry Hill Centre in the West Midlands, this paper debates that issue. The paper suggests that new town centres such as the one in formation at Merry Hill pose a number of challenges to UK planning policy. Such centres might fruitfully be regarded as developing 'edge cities' and are likely to have a considerable impact on Britain's urban futures into the 21st century and beyond. This paper serves as a plea that, whatever our prejudices, it is surely now time to take these new urban forms seriously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws upon the poverty literature and examines the desirable properties of a descriptive statistic of affordability--namely, that it should satisfy three axioms, monotonicity, transfer and transfer sensitivity. The descriptive statistics of headcounts and averages do not satisfy these three axioms and policies using these statistics as allocative tools may be misallocating resources. The paper advocates the use of a Foster, Greer, Thorbecke statistic (FGT). Examples of different hypothetical households are used to show the contradictory results that can be obtained by using the current statistics. As a case study, the paper compares regional affordability rankings in England by looking at the FGT, headcount and mean values of the rent--income ratio using the 1995/96 Existing Tenants' Survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary. This paper makes contributions to long-established debates about the meaning of home-ownership and to the growing interest in discourse and language in urban and housing research. It outlines a theoretical framework in which analogy and metaphor are crucial devices in the social construction of home-ownership knowledge. The paper draws upon some results from qualitative fieldwork undertaken amongst a small group of home-owner households in Bristol, UK, to illustrate metaphorically structured, common-sense aphorisms as rhetorical techniques in the mobilisation of tenure prejudice. The paper concludes by outlining new directions for research exploring the cultural significance of housing tenure, and makes some more general observations regarding the significance of analogy and metaphor in urban studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, the private rental sector has changed its role within the Australian housing system as it has moved from being a tenure of transition, comprised principally of young households saving to enter home-ownership, to a tenure of long-term occupancy. Rising real house prices, soaring interest rates, changes in the nature of paid work and an increase in the number of household deaths through divorce or separation, has seen an increasing proportion of households either unable to enter home purchase, or unable to maintain their position within this tenure. In addition, access to publicly provided housing has declined. This paper considers the changing environment for private rental housing in Australia and examines the nature of investors and the size of their investment in the housing stock, as well as the impact of their investment strategies on the operation of the housing market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introduction to selected papers from the Tenth Urban Change and Conflict Conference (UCC), held at Royal Holloway University of London in September 1995, we offer some thoughts on the contemporary health of urban studies. UCC conferences have always been characterised by their commitment to analysing the social relations of (political) oppression and domination which underpin the dynamics of cities. This has entailed some commitment to political economy yet, in recent years, the so-called 'interpretative' turn has challenged the relevance of political economy approaches to the study of cities. However, the papers presented at the Tenth UCC conference point towards the importance of (re)engaging with political economy and with recognising the ways in which a political economy of urbanism is able to capture the complexities of contemporary social and economic life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets out a research agenda for using regulation theory to analyse local governance in the global city. It initially considers results from the 1991 census to explore social inequalities in London, and investigates how these differ from inequalities in other British metropolitan areas. The paper then looks at the changing nature of local governance in London, examining the notion of post-Fordist local governance as well as the idea of local governance in a post-Fordist society. Finally, the paper examines the ways in which the recent emergence of London as a global city articulates with the changing structures of governance. Whilst on the surface there appears to be a good fit between the restructuring of local governance and the globalisation of London's key economic sectors, the paper argues that there are both empirical and theoretical grounds for rejecting the claim that we are moving towards a new mode of regulation in the global city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines a reconceptualisation of the relationship between employment, housing and transport in cities that draws upon insights drawn from structuration theory and institutional sociology. It identifies the need for a new focus, one that lies between the structural and the individual-the institution-as well as the need for the integration of time-space into analyses. Institutions are embedded social action. The unique formations of institutional matrices (households, labour markets, housing markets and transport systems) are identified as sites for further research and policy development. The paper calls for future research to identify who gains and who loses within the current, and future, configurations of institutions in cities. Changes in individual behaviour and the policies to enable or to constrain such behaviour should be evaluated in this light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the wind-up of the British new towns programme in Scotland, and the way in which housing tenure became a critical issue. The origins and development of the new towns are outlined, and the parts played by the main actors in the wind-up are considered. The paper is based on primary and secondary sources, and on interviews. The outcome-the transfer of a large proportion of the rented housing to local authorities-was not government policy, and this is explained by reference to models of policy termination and succession, and to developments in the creation of 'quasi-markets', which created expectations of consumer choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes that housing quality ought to be considered in terms of economic, political and ecological dimensions in addition to traditional, architectural, technical and qualitative dimensions. The relative nature of these dimensions, and hence of housing quality, varies according to the societal context in which they occur. Consequently, this paper suggests that more integrated studies of housing availability, affordability and quality in precise localities should replace the transposition of generalised concepts and normative criteria from one locality to others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the concept of knowledge-based city. Contribution of economic knowledge to the competitiveness of cities; Transmission of knowledge to and from cities; Significance of the governance mechanisms.

Poverty remains a persistent problem in central cities across the US and the government's approach to measuring it is not without shortcomings. This paper applies recently developed innovations in poverty measurement and presents improved estimates of central-city poverty across time. A broader and more comprehensive income concept is employed to measure family resources and important distributional aspects of poverty are incorporated by using the Sen index. In general, Sen indexes for the central city are significantly reduced when comprehensive income is used to evaluate poverty. Motivating these changes are the substantial reductions that occur in the depth of poverty and the relative income inequality among poor central-city residents. Regionally, the results suggest that the elements of comprehensive income have their greatest impact on estimates of poverty in Southern central cities, while the central cities of the West are least affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The property development industry is a key actor in UK brownfield regeneration projects. UK policy has attempted to interlink 'sustainable development' and 'sustainable brownfield' policy agendas, which have found an additional focus through the UK government's 'Sustainable Communities Plan', part of a growing international emphasis on sustainable development. This paper examines the emergence of these agendas and related policies, and the role of the property development industry in the regeneration of six differing brownfield sites, based in Thames Gateway and Greater Manchester. Using a conceptual framework, the paper investigates aspects of the sustainability of these projects and highlights key lessons from them for both the UK and overseas. The research is based on structured interviews with a variety of stakeholders, including developers, planners, consultants and community representatives to highlight emerging best practice and related policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the EU Structural Fund intervention framework is critically assessed in an effort to reflect on the problems faced by policy-makers when trying to make sense of the complexity associated with innovation. An assessment is made of the 'evidence-based' approach for reporting on EU Structural Fund interventions in the Welsh economy. It is argued that the measurement of quantifiable inputs and outputs fails to engage sufficiently with the process qualities of innovation. Building on this critique, the paper reports on a study of innovation practice and performance in a sample of Welsh manufacturing SMEs to demonstrate empirically the problems of assuming universal best practices and linear models of innovation. The evidence leads to recommendations for policy improvements in two areas: the need to improve the identification and support of innovative practice in SMEs; and the need to improve the monitoring and evaluation of innovation effects from policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines social agglomeration externalities. Using survey data from the German Socioeconomic Panel, it examines the link between city size and different measures of consumption, social interaction and social capital. There is strong evidence of agglomeration effects in consumption, while positive effects of city size on social interaction and social capital variables seem to some extent to be driven by sorting. Further, using responses to satisfaction questions, the paper analyses whether individuals are compensated for diseconomies of agglomeration by positive agglomeration externalities in other areas. This hypothesis cannot be rejected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines taxable sales in the Los Angeles and Miami metropolitan areas to find evidence of the short- and long-run effects of the Rodney King riots and Hurricane Andrew on their respective economies. The comparison of these two events shows that the King riots had a long-term negative effect on Los Angeles' economy while Hurricane Andrew had a short-term positive effect on the Miami economy. The paper also applies the contrasting experiences of Los Angeles and Miami to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. In some ways, Katrina is a hybrid of these two events since it combines elements of both a natural disaster and a social disaster. The paper examines how Katrina is similar to each of the previous incidents and how these similarities might affect the recovery of New Orleans following the storm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polycentricity is often used descriptively with regard to a regional system of settlements, usually referred to as a polycentric urban region (PUR). Although presented in much of the literature as in essence a morphological concept, polycentricity possesses a functional element that receives less attention. Polycentricity is also seen as a normative concept. However, it has not been rigorously defined using formal techniques. This paper argues that defining polycentricity in terms of both morphology and function is possible by drawing on techniques originating in social network analysis. The paper sets out a formal definition and derivation of functional polycentricity based on these techniques, which is then extended to a derivation of an index of regional functional polycentricity. The paper sets out worked examples to show how the techniques described might be utilised. The paper closes with a discussion of issues that may arise when putting these definitions into practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public housing programmes in Hong Kong affect half of the population directly and the other half indirectly. This paper assesses the redistributive effect of public rental housing on income distribution. It uses a subsidised-to-market rent ratio method and an imputed rent method to convert transfer-in-kind of public rental housing into equivalent monetary value. Empirical results show that the provision of public housing alleviates the income inequality problem. However, the amount of public expenditure required achieving the same improvements in Gini coefficient and other inequality measures is small relative to the actual public expenditure on housing. Policy-makers should thoroughly review the existing public housing programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]