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This paper challenges inherited twentieth-century assumptions of suburbia by teasing out existing interrelationships between the city centre and its peripheries. This is done through a content analysis of promotional material and spatial plans guiding the development of 'City Edge', a proposed 700-hectare regeneration scheme over an industrial development in the periphery of Dublin, Ireland. The analysis of new land-use ambitions for City Edge elucidates tensions around the 'highest and best use' of land, the role of non-local speculative approaches, and how the demand for housing in global cities, combined with an ideal of 'mixed-use' is reshaping suburban landscapes. In so doing, we draw upon the concepts of 'blandscape' and 'blendscape' to examine some contradictory forces at work in shaping contemporary suburban space.

This article reports a study which uses a unique dataset compiled from listed companies in Hong Kong to demonstrate the relationship between corporate political connection with the corporate structure, ownership background and industry type of companies. The study shows that companies with political connection tend to be larger companies while Chinese family-controlled companies and more regulated companies have a higher level of political connection. Identifying the inadequacies of the existing theories in explaining corporate governance in Hong Kong, the article suggests adopting corporate political connection as a determinant of corporate governance in Hong Kong and elsewhere.

In this essay, I undertake a critical analysis of the UN-Habitat publication, The Quito Papers. I begin by unpacking the representation within The Quito Papers of the Charter of Athens of 1941 as an outcome of CIAM IV in 1933. Here, the ways in which the authors centralize the Charter of Athens within their critique of contemporary urbanization is critically analysed. Ultimately, I argue that what emerges is a simplification of the complex intertwining of urbanization and urbanist ideals. Based on this, I situate what is presented in The Quito Papers as alternative imaginaries?centred largely on European ideals of urbanism?within the context of urban change since the 1970s. This includes a discussion of the manner in which these ideals are promoted within urbanist discourse, including the role of the authors themselves in their engagement with UN-Habitat. Finally, I situate some of the arguments contained in The Quito Papers within current debates in urban theory. I contend that the relationship between processes of urbanization and the ideals of modernist urbanism are more genealogical than direct. Furthermore, I argue that it is through this relationship that broader power dynamics and their resultant inequalities can be further examined and challenged.

We live in turbulent times, but when has this not been the case? The history of regions and the ‘regional studies project’ has always had at its core concerns relating to new and increased social a...

This paper argues for an unbounding of approaches within gentrification theory with a renewed and broadened focus on the intertwined dynamics of uneven development and socio-spatial formati...

With an increasingly financialized real estate industry now becoming manifest on a global scale, there has also emerged an ever-increasing tendency for the circulation of images used in its promoti...

Dir. Matthew Gandy. 2017. UK and Germany [Film, 72 min., color]. Matthew Gandy, ed. 2019. Natura Urbana: The Brachen of Berlin. Collection of essays to accompany the DVD publication with contributi...

In Social Imaginaries of Space: Concepts and Cases, Bernard Debarbieux sets out to examine the relationship between spatial and social imaginaries. More explicitly, he aims to show how the former g...

This paper undertakes an analysis of the shifting dynamics of gentrification through the lens of the films of Woody Allen. With his focus upon the spaces of residence and high-end consumption for the upper and middle classes, the paper argues that Allen’s films can be used as a lens to examine the changing dynamics of gentrification in contemporary (Western) cities from something deemed almost novel in the 1970s, to a dominant approach to urban transformation in the early twenty-first century. In so doing, the paper demonstrates the constant tension between the desire to carve out a particular urban idyll and that of a sense of loss perceived by gentrifiers themselves of the rate of change taking place in the contemporary city.

This paper seeks to situate narratives of sustainable urban development within the wider context of political economic urban transformations shaping urban city regions. In drawing upon the development of a master-planned sustainable development called Adamstown, situated on the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland, the paper will unpack the relationship between ideals of urban and suburban sustainability within the context of Ireland’s recent economic boom and bust, along with its repackaging via national and international actors. The paper demonstrates the shortcomings of the ideal of sustainability in the context of neoliberal urban development dominated by private actors, and facilitated by state-led governance mechanisms. It argues that while the official invocation of urban sustainable communities attempts to highlight them as ‘different’ and ‘unique’, they remain inextricably intertwined with wider urban regional processes, which are themselves becoming increasingly internationalized in terms of reality.

This paper presents a panel data analysis of general government spending on health, education, and the major components of social protection in light of demographic trends (aging and migration) and selected domestic revenue sources (personal and corporate income taxes) across 27 E.U. member states, excluding the U.K., from 2006 to 2018. The countries are grouped into developed and transitional economies. The model employed produces statistically significant and intuitively reasonable results for spending on education, old age, sickness and disability, and unemployment in developed economies. The author suggests that an omitted variable, lobbying, might be a determinant of the developed economies’ spending on health. In the case of the transitional economies that emerged from the former Soviet bloc, interdisciplinary research might aid in the development of a more suitable model.

What is the relationship, if any, between age dependency ratios (ADRs) and macroeconomic growth in low-income countries versus emerging economies? This paper probes the hypotheses that (1) ADRs and GDP growth are inversely correlated at both stages of development and (2) an equivalent rise in ADR is associated with a greater change in GDP growth in low-income countries than in emerging economies. The approach to testing the corresponding null hypotheses is to conduct linear fixed-effects regression analyses with AR(1) disturbances using annual World Bank and United Nations data on 38 low-income countries and 63 emerging economies over the 24-year period from 1994 to 2017. Model 1 is a simple bivariate regression of GDP growth against ADR by group; Model 2 adds population growth, unemployment, human capital (represented by Human Development Index scores), and technology (reflected in gross fixed capital formation) as control variables. The ADR coefficients have greater statistical significance in low-income countries than in emerging economies, but the differences themselves are more likely to be statistically significant in Model 2 than in Model 1, and tests of the null hypotheses produce mixed results. The paper closes with a comment on the implications for fiscal policy in low-income countries.

Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) sought to align economics with modern scientific thinking by recasting it as an evolutionary theory of the process of cultural development that unfolds in response to changing material and social conditions. Central to this program was his conception of the interplay between the instincts that define human nature and the institutions that give force to inherited ideas. This short paper characterizes the innately human propensities that find expression as communities struggle to survive in the physical environment, and describes how, in Veblen’s view, those instincts shape ways of thinking, or institutions, which prove in turn to be efficient factors of selection. In “Why Is Economics Not an Evolutionary Science?” Veblen said that economic change “is always in the last resort a change in habits of thought.”

This research note describes a cross-sectional study of the relationship between population growth and GDP growth across 181 countries, including subsets of 51 emerging market countries and 36 low-income countries. The bivariate model produces a statistically significant result only for the entire sample, while a multivariate model additionally controlling for total factor productivity and gross fixed capital formation generates statistically significant betas for all countries and the subset of emerging market countries. Thus, although the model with three independent variables (population growth, total factor productivity, and gross fixed capital formation) does not apply to low-income countries, it contributes to an understanding of GDP growth in emerging market countries (r-squared = 0.56). The author tentatively concludes that population growth is conditionally associated with macroeconomic development where investments in technology support higher productivity.

While concentrating primarily on the Hong Kong experience this paper will analyse the nature of the Hong Kong Chinese corporation from the point of view of corporate governance. Only in very exceptional circumstances do Chinese business organisations in corporate form develop into anything like the traditional model of the Anglo-American Berle-Means corporation characterised by a separation of ownership and management. Rather, they have strong, culturally based, characteristics which determine a particular type of hierarchical structure and often a tendency, as elsewhere, for a relatively short life cycle of two to three generations. For those, often family dominated, companies which do become listed, problems of compliance with standards of corporate governance imposed by the corporate law and listing rules regimes are common. One of the problem areas which will be explored in this paper is the recent attempt to introduce independent non executive directors, as an example of the imposition of a corporate governance norm which may not be easily accepted in the context of the Chinese family dominated listed company. The corporate and securities regime of Hong Kong is about to undergo a major review. This paper will argue that any review which fails to consider and take account of the cultural context in which legal business vehicles, including registered companies, operate, is liable to exacerbate rather than remedy the compliance and governance problems currently encountered. Before doing so I wish to make some points concerning recent research on the Berle-Means corporation and the influence of history, politics and culture on the various types of governance structure prevalent on today's worldwide corporate scene.

Throughout recent decades, a significant amount of attention has been given to the notion of the ' European city' within policy formation and academic enquiry. From one perspective, the ideal of the ' European city' is presented as a densely developed urban area with a focus on quality public transport and a more balanced social structure. More recently, however, the particular elements of the ' European city' associated with pedestrianized public space, urban design and image-making strategies have become central features of entrepreneurial urban policies throughout Europe. This article undertakes an examination of the notion of the ' European city' in urban change in Dublin since the 1990s. Specifically, the article illustrates the degree to which a wholly positive spin on the urban design and image-making elements of the ' European city' in Dublin has served as a thin veil for the desired transformation of Dublin according to neoliberal principles.

In the past decade international competitiveness has become the top priority of national, regional and urban governments in the advanced capitalist economy. Attracting and retaining creative and high-educated talent as well as creative and knowledge-intensive firms are considered essential ingredients of urban and city-regional ‘recipes for success’. Amsterdam and Dublin have, at both city- and city-regional level, been very active in preparing and implementing competitiveness strategies in which fostering and stimulating creativity, knowledge and innovation play a leading role. The crisis since 2008 has made a reconsideration of these strategies necessary. Is ‘creative knowledge’ still the preferred road ahead, and if it is, can existing competitiveness strategies be continued or should new strategies be developed?

The desire for ‘vibrant’, ‘bohemian’ neighbourhoods forms a focal point of the amenity preferences of Richard Florida’s ‘creative class’ thesis. Here, a vibrant street culture, which includes cafes and restaurants spilling onto the pavement, is implied as being of key importance in the selection of a residential area for creative and knowledge workers. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, this paper examines the residential preferences of the ‘creative class’ in Dublin, Ireland. The results illustrate the continued importance of classic factors in residential decision-making, including housing cost, accessibility and travel-time to place of employment. Moreover, the results also illustrate how changes in the life-cycle, including the decision to have a family, have a direct influence on residential location choice. While there is a tendency for younger workers to select the city centre, older workers predominantly opt to live in suburban areas with good transport connections to the city centre or their place of employment.

In this paper, we argue that new social media produces new forms of public geography and digital praxis in which the relationship between reader and writer is radically altered and which enables geographers to engage in timely conversation and debate with the public on unfolding issues, and provides new avenues to connect with older forms of broadcast media. Social media can strengthen geographers engagement with the existing fourth estate and forge new relationships with an emerging fifth estate – dynamic, responsive and empowered publics. We illustrate such potentials by drawing on our own experiences of contributing to IrelandAfterNAMA, a collective blog that provides critical analysis of the present crisis in Ireland which has established a regular readership and has led to significant media work (over 500 newspaper articles and radio and television interviews). Such public geography projects are not without their challenges and pitfalls, not least because they alter and challenge the ways in which academics work, communicate and are assessed. Nevertheless, we believe that at the very least their quotidian practices enact what Macgilchrist and Bőhmig (2012: 97) term ‘minimal politics’, creating ‘tiny fissures in the mediascape’ that inform and engage with wider publics in ways that academic articles rarely do and work to challenge hegemonic formations.

In response to the commentaries, we discuss further how social media disrupts and remakes the creation and circulation of geographical knowledges and potentially reconfigures the moral economy of the social sciences. In particular, we examine questions of what is meant by public geography, the publics which such geographies serve, alternative and complementary approaches to social media, the politics of authorship within collective blogs, the politics and mechanisms of knowledge circulation, and the extent to which social media has an impact beyond the academy, enacting ‘minimal politics’.

This is a translation of Georg Simmel’s 1912 article, “Der Schauspieler und die Wirklichkeit,” which originally appeared in the Berliner Tageblatt and Handelszeitung. In a society characterized by mass democratic movements, the general public’s understanding is that an actor makes a literary character real by conducting himself as such a character in such circumstances would behave in life. But this view, which makes the actor either a puppet of the role or an imitator of nature, loses sight of the fact that actors, no less than writers and portrait painters, are artists in their own right. For Simmel, it is axiomatic that “the actor’s art, as such, stands as far beyond the literary work as it stands beyond reality.” Guided by the play, the actor plunges to the same depth of reality that the playwright sounded, and, organically integrating the literary work and the truth of the world, he creates through his personality an inner unity that is his own incomparable work of art.

This is a translation of Georg Simmel’s paper, “Zur Philosophie des Schauspielers,” which was published posthumously in Logos: Internationale Zeitung fur die Philosophie der Kultur, Band 9 (1920-1921), 339-362. Given that a play is already a work of art, Simmel explores the relationship between the actor as a real person and the prescribed role he physically brings to life onstage. In the course of this study he explains, among other things, how the actor’s art differs from the functional roles people play in ordinary life, how it resembles painting and poetry, how artistic freedom draws near to moral freedom, and how two great actors can have strikingly different yet equally correct interpretations of the same role. Artistic creation in general, he argues, is rooted in a metaphysical depth of being, and acting is the most radical of the arts.

Urban entrepreneurialism has been well investigated, but few publications focus directly upon the role of urban public space in renewal strategies associated with such. Although generally acknowledged as important, public space is often seen as supportive rather than a driving force of urban redevelopment. We compare two cases, Rotterdam and Dublin, in which, in contrast, public space was regarded as essential to urban renewal. We show how municipalities have been active in improving public space with a view to attracting private investment. Additionally, these cases underscore the importance of the local context in examining entrepreneurial planning agendas in different cities.

Byron Harris’s short play, “Exit Interview,” calls for interpretation. This essay argues that the play dramatizes a spiritual journey from intense involvement in everyday life to serene awareness of its impermanence. In this reading, one of the central characters, the Interviewee, would subscribe to a “moralistic therapeutic deism” as described by Christian Smith in the sociology of religion, while the other, the Interviewer, is closer to practicing a form of mindfulness as passed down in Buddhist thought.

Samuel Beckett studied the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer intently in the late 1930s. This paper demonstrates that familiarity with Schopenhauer’s major work, The World as Will and Representation, can contribute to a richer understanding of Beckett’s short play, Krapp’s Last Tape.

Purpose – The paper aims to explore the extent to which the legal experience of minority shareholder actions in Hong Kong supports the sociological model of the Chinese family firm as developed by Wong Siu‐lun and reports some preliminary findings for the period 1980‐1995.Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based upon the analysis of 275 minority shareholder petitions in the High Court of Hong Kong between the years 1980 and 1995 inclusive. It also draws upon material from a questionnaire sent to law firms involved in those petitions and interviews with members of the Hong Kong judiciary with experience of hearing minority shareholder cases, members of the legal profession and accounting and company secretarial professions directly or indirectly involved in the administration of companies in Hong Kong and regulators.Findings – The findings indicate that the problematic early, emergent stage of the model as described by Wong Siu‐lun is quite accurate. Whilst there is considerable support for some a...

Notions surrounding ‘creativity’ have become key elements of Dublin’s policy formation over the last decade. Predominantly, this policy focus has been influenced by Richard Florida’s ‘creative-class’ thesis. For Florida (2002), the future of urban economies revolves around the attraction and retention of the ‘creative class’. Loosely speaking, the ‘creative class’ comprises workers in fields such as the arts, academia, the sciences as well as the legal profession and business management. Florida suggests that in order to remain competitive, cities must promote the type of environment to which the ‘creative class’ is attracted because companies (and highly mobile investment capital) are attracted to where these individuals are located. This environment comprises city centre locations with high-quality amenities, such as bars, restaurants and good quality public space. Given the attraction of the city image projected by the ‘creative-class’ thesis, it has proved popular with city authorities on a global scale, and particularly in North America and Europe (Peck, 2005; Houston et al, 2008; Zimmerman, 2008). While the ‘creative-class’ concept emerged during a period of relative economic prosperity, it has proved a particularly resilient form of policy in the context of the global financial crisis. Indeed, in the example of Dublin, the influence of the ‘creative class’ has, if anything, taken on a greater significance during the economic downturn.

Throughout recent decades, socially-mixed neighbourhoods have become a key element of urban policy and debate. This paper argues, with Amsterdam as an empirical case, that the design, layout and everyday use of social space—including public and private space—is of key importance in understanding the experiences and perspectives of social-mix policies amongst ‘urban practitioners’, such as planners, architects and management personnel. While the promotion of ‘liveability’, through the management of social problems, is often highlighted as a key element of social-mix policies, the findings presented indicate the degree to which the mixing of different groups according to ethnicity, race and social class presents a number of new challenges for liveability and management within both public and private space. Furthermore, it is argued that these challenges play a significant role in dictating the scale at which social mixing takes place, from the urban block to the street and at the neighbourhood level. It is concluded that a greater amount of attention is needed to such factors in understanding the dynamics of social interaction in public and private communal space when seeking to understand the everyday realities of socially-mixed neighbourhoods.

The concepts of consciousness and the unconscious have been problematic for cognitive science. This paper is an attempt to determine if artistic and, especially, scientific creativity, taken as a paradigm of cognitive activity, can be explained without recourse to the concept of the unconscious. It opens with a description of creative experience, guided by the works of Arthur Koestler and Abraham Pais and illustrated by anecdotes from the history of science. It then offers a summary and critique of the classical Freudian account of creativity. Next, adopting the perspective of connectionism or parallel distributed processing, the paper proceeds to examine the possibility of creative insight in neural networks. It closes with some observations on the brain/mind problem and with remarks on the necessity and usefulness of the unconscious as an explanatory construct.

Throughout the last decade the ‘creative class’ thesis has received significant attention within academic and policymaking circles. This paper analyses the role of the ‘creative class’ thesis within recent urban and economic policy formation in Dublin. In methodological terms, the study uses in-depth analysis of recent policy documents which is supplemented by interviews with key stakeholders involved in the formulation and implementation of policy at various scales. The paper argues that weaknesses in the structure of local government and current fiscal rectitude in Ireland combined with the flexible nature of Florida’s ‘creative class’ ideas have ensured its easy adaptability as ‘fast policy’. Here we focus on two particular areas of policy formation: ‘place-making’ and the formation of new networks of power. We contend that the shortcomings of this approach are based on the lack of causal evidence linking the promotion of a ‘vibrant place’ with economic prosperity and the lack of democratic accountability within the formation of networks of elite actors. Not applicable

Once colonised by the British, Malaysia inherited the British political and legal system, as well as written and judge-made laws. We trace the development of the law on the shareholders’ oppression remedy in Malaysia, and compare it with the development in England. We found that the influence of English case laws is still very pervasive in the courtroom. The reasons for this includes, among others, the use of a company law statute based on the British statute, the reliance of English case laws and other legal materials, the legal training of members in the legal profession, as well as the use of the English legal tradition and the English language in the Malaysian courtroom. We conclude that despite a similarity in the written law, the sharing of a common legal heritage and a propensity by Malaysian lawyers and judges to use English laws, the laws as applied by the courts in Malaysia is not identical to the law in England. There was a desire to keep up with English developments, but in the whole the Malaysian courts have not been able to keep pace. In the courtroom, the lack of resources and expertise are probably the main factors contributing to the underdevelopment of the law. The propensity to rely on the reforms in other countries with little emphasis to the peculiarity in the local environment has undermined law reform. We argue that an effective law-making process and legal institutions are as important as the law itself.