Talking while walking: an investigation of perceived neighbourhood walkability and its implications for the social life of older people

This qualitative research examines the perceived walkability of different neighbourhood built-form patterns and their implications for the social life of older people. The findings suggest that both transport and leisure/exercise walking are more frequent within master-planned communities (MPC) as opposed to conventional suburbs. The main reasons for this are the proximity of destinations, the provision of aesthetically attractive areas, and residents’ feelings of being safe from crime and risk of injury within MPCs. The research reveals that walking within MPCs significantly contributes to more frequent social interactions and the establishment of weak and absent ties among older age residents.     

Fear of crime in gated communities and apartment buildings: a comparison of housing types and a test of theories

Dramatic increases in crime and fear of crime in Mexico have encouraged interest in research questions about the relationship of fear with new housing developments. We have seen increases in the number of gated communities and apartment buildings in Mexico City as a response to fear of crime. But there are two problems. First, it is not known if these housing options actually help control fear of crime. Second, fear of crime theories are pending further empirical testing worldwide. The end results include general misunderstanding and weak connections between theory and reality. This study shows that neither gated communities nor apartment buildings seem to provide lower levels of fear of crime when home alone. This statement was verified through non-parametric bivariate tests, ordinal logistic, and binary logistic regression analyses. Other variables held constant, fear of crime was unrelated to the type of housing. Instead, fear of crime when home alone was associated with gender, years of schooling, social marginality levels, neighborhood fear of crime levels, and the opinion on the local police.     

The influx of high-income foreign nationals and the housing market in a developing country: a case study of Suzhou Industrial Park,China

Increasingly globalising human and capital mobility has created new dynamics to the housing market. Foreign nationals, strengthened by inflows of foreign direct investment, have appeared in major Chinese cities. However, little scholarly attention has been paid to the impact of foreign nationals on China’s housing market. By using a case study of Suzhou, this research investigates the following research questions: How are foreign nationals associated with housing price increases in a globalising city? Where and why these impacts have been felt? This research conducted a survey questionnaire with 508 expatriate foreign nationals and built housing price data sets in Suzhou. A consumer theory provides a framework to understand different housing consumption behaviours of heterogeneous socio-economic groups. Findings represent that expatriate foreign nationals played a key role in a high-end housing market due to their higher income levels and housing subsidies provided by their employer. They tended to form ethnic communities in a prime location to better access language-specific services and quality amenity facilities.     

Living together privately: for a cautious reading of cohousing

The paper analyses cohousing as a part of the phenomenon of private residential communities. First, we provide an overview of cohousing and we identify its five constitutive characteristics. Second, we propose a comparison between the constitutive features of cohousing and of other kinds of private residential communities. Third, we argue that the interpretation of cohousing within the context of private residential communities raises some doubts about a completely positive interpretation of the phenomenon and about policies for promoting it.     

The impact of European integration on labour market institutions

Explanations for ‘social exclusion’ are often derived from an apparently new set of employment circumstances that have developed since the beginning of the 1980s. Economic restructuring is said to have driven restructuring in the labour market which has led, in some accounts, to the growth of the underclass and, in others, to the marginalization of particular social groups. This paper criticizes such analyses by questioning the spirit of ‘novelty’ that has imbued social theory in recent years, and insists on a balanced assessment of change and continuity in recent social development. The idea of labour market restructuring is interrogated and the alleged collapse of traditional employment systems is challenged. Much of the paper is focused on the pressures for adjustment within the public sector labour market in Europe that have arisen in the cold fiscal climate of the mid‐1990s. It is concluded that national systems of labour market regulation are deeply ‘embedded’ institutions and are remarkably resistant to change. In these circumstances fiscal pressures are often resolved in a welfare reform programme of a more broadly encompassing nature than is implied in the contemporary discourse of social exclusion.     

ESTIMATING THE MARKET FOR LIMITED SITE CASINO GAMING IN NORTHERN INDIANA AND NORTHEASTERN ILLINOIS

ABSTRACT: Public policy makers at the state and local levels will continue to face the issue of gaming in spite of recent public backlash. Many state and local governments have looked toward gaming as a means to increase revenues without raising existing taxes. There are several issues that a community should consider when deciding to take this approach, such as: Is the local market sufficient for what is being proposed? What will happen to state and local revenues when more and more casinos are added to an area? Do the funds come from inside or outside the community? Does the availability of gaming create demand or just fill existing demand? In response to these issues, this article utilizes ZIP-code level and aggregate data on casino operations in 1994 in the Chicagoland area to model the market for casino gaming. The findings of these simulations estimate the effects on the market created by the opening of four Indiana casinos. Local decision makers will find this report a useful tool as they consider similar proposals in their own communities.     

Classification of production systems for industrialized building: a production strategy perspective

The purpose is to develop a matrix for classifying production systems for construction with various degrees of industrialization. Previous attempts to classify industrialized production systems for construction focus on dimensions such as the design process, the product technology, or the supply chain structure, but none of them acknowledge the importance of how orders are actually won in the market and that different market segments have different requirements. Using production strategy theory as a base, a matrix is developed linking market requirements, via the product offering, to the design of the production system. The matrix positions typical production systems based on their respective degrees of product standardization and volumes relative to the degree of offsite production. Similar to production systems in manufacturing, production systems for construction also deliver manufacturing outputs at different levels, indicating that the choice of production system will affect the competitiveness of the company. The applicability of the matrix is exemplified through three case illustrations of concepts for industrialized building, and these show that the matrix can be used to analyse the production systems’ relative strengths and weaknesses. The matrix can also be used as a guide when developing new, or adjusting existing, production systems for industrialized building so that they will match market requirements and offer competitiveness.     

Ethnically bounded homeownership: qualitative insights on Los Angeles immigrant homeowners’ experiences during the U.S. Great Recession

Immigrant homeowners’ function within ethnic boundaries in the housing market may have helped or hindered them during the recent U.S. Great Recession. This research explores this theme through interviews with immigrant and non-immigrant homeowners from four ethnic communities in Los Angeles County and the non-profit organizations that tried to assist them. Immigrant homeowners turned to co-ethnics for advice and support and formed multigenerational households as a strategy to achieve and sustain homeownership. Language and cultural barriers primed them for risky loans and thwarted their pursuit of refinance and modification when they struggled to make mortgage payments. These findings conform to existing evidence of ethnic segmentation in the housing market and imply that analyses of home buying and homeownership in areas with significant immigrant populations should factor in the role of ethnicity.     

社区总体营造视野下乡村活力的维系与提升——基于新旧“莫干乡村改进实践”的案例比较

在快速工业化和城镇化过程中,"社区总体营造"理论和实践曾助力我国台湾地区克服了乡村社区下行发展的困境。在今天的浙江莫干山村,一个曾经有过"民国莫干乡村改进"历史的地方,也正在开展着一种类似于我国台湾社区总体营造的乡村建设实践。其间利弊得失,对于今天大陆如何维系和提升乡村活力或将有着多维启示,包括政府、市场、社会力量如何相互交织发挥作用,以及在此期间,自下而上和自上而下力量又将呈现怎样的利益博弈,又如何定位乡村活力激发的主体及其利益属性。     

FINANCING COMMUNITY: Methods for Assessing Residential Credit Disparities,Market Barriers,and Institutional Reinvestment Performance in the Metropolis

ABSTRACT: Many urban areas in the 1980s have witnessed the revitalization of a community reinvestment movement, one directed at encouraging private financial institutions to make loans in low and moderate income communities and particularly in minority communities. Research has played a strong role in promoting reinvestment efforts by documenting metropolitan housing finance patterns. Accompanying the growth of community reinvestment activity will be expanded research opportunities to investigate how credit patterns underlie metropolitan development trends and to help promote more responsibile community reinvestment activity. To aid the continuation of research efforts, this paper addresses a series of methods used to assess housing credit disparities and market barriers to finance. It discusses data availability and the strengths and limitations of these data, methods for measuring credit disparities, techniques for assessing racial bias and market barriers in lending patterns, and methods for assessing the community reinvestment performance of individual financial institutions. The final part addresses a more comprehensive research agenda that focuses on investigating the housing market institutional sources of residential investment disparities, particularly by race. Knowledge of metropolitan credit patterns and market barriers to credit can be enriched by studies of the housing market processes that lead to uneven credit flows and, thus, to metropolitan-wide inequality.     

FDI and immigration: a regional analysis

Does immigration affect foreign direct investment? Existing studies on immigration and FDI have all looked at aggregate flows at the national level, arguing that immigrant networks lower the risk of foreign investment through increased information flows and a built in market. However, these national-level studies suffer from identification problems since many of the factors that attract immigrants also attract FDI. This study improves upon identification by looking at the regional distribution of both FDI and immigration from 10 source countries to the 50 US states. Using a unique measure of immigrant network size in each state, I find that immigration is not only positively correlated with FDI, it tends to lead it as well. Comparing a state with an average sized immigrant network to one with a network twice as large, I estimate that the stronger network state will get on average 20 more foreign-owned affiliates opening per year, an effect that is quite persistent over time. On average, more skilled immigrant communities attract more FDI, while the pull effect of immigration on FDI also increases with immigrant ties to native countries and with immigrant influence in local communities. These results suggest that immigration creates a positive externality in foreign investment that must be considered when assessing the costs and benefits of labor mobility.     

The rise of gated housing estates in Ghana: Empirical insights from three communities in metropolitan Accra

In metropolitan Accra, Ghana’s economic and administrative hub, the global phenomenon of the gated housing estate is burgeoning, representing a substantial part of the new housing market. It has a recent history dating back only to the neoliberal era of the mid-1990s. Because it is a new phenomenon in Ghana very little is known about the motivations and contentment of residents, interactions within and outside the gates, and perceptions toward gated residents. This paper takes the first step by providing empirical insights from three communities (Manet Court, Devtraco Villas, and Regimanuel Estate) located in Metropolitan Accra. The data suggest that perceived concern for security is the primary motivation for the residents to live in these communities. Contrary to findings of other studies, the current research reveals that there are appreciable levels of interaction among the residents in these communities, although such interaction exists purely on the economic level, with gated housing estates providing a considerable level of low-income employment opportunities to surrounding residents. The paper concludes by identifying some of the key urban planning challenges that have so far accompanied gated housing development.     

Spatial Segregation in Seven Cities: A Longitudinal Study of Home Ownership, 1971-91

Globalisation has been associated with the development of 'command node' cities in the global economy (Friedman, 1986; Sassen, 1991). Some scholars have argued that the social and spatial structure of such cities has been polarised, because of changing demand for labour and land. A number of debates have developed around this hypothesis, challenging the general applicability of these socio-economic trends to all global cities (e.g. Bruegel, 1996; Hamnett, 1996), while the spatial changes in the housing markets of global cities have been shown to be varied (Marcuse & van Kempen, 2000). They are heavily dependent on local context, but always associated with increased segregation of rich and poor, whether through displacement of the poor from the urban core (Smith, 1989) or through their displacement within it (Lyons, 1996). The present paper suggests that much can be learnt about urban change in an era of globalisation, from analysis of the differences between global and other cities. The hypothesis is that spatial restructuring of housing markets in London, a global city, is likely to have important similarities with those of other cities in England, which occupy lower positions in a global urban hierarchy. A comparison of the extent of socio-spatial clustering of home ownership in London, with six English cities at various levels of the urban hierarchy is presented, which partly supports the hypothesis, comparing change over a 20-year period, based on cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of ONS Longitudinal Study data for the years 1971, 1981 and 1991. Findings were that, despite its more socially polarised labour market, London's home ownership market was less spatially segregated than that of other cities in the sample. Implications for global city theory, and for the interpretation of the dynamics of other urban markets, are discussed.     

Housing Market Failure in a Booming Economy

This paper presents national data and two case studies investigating the links between housing market failure and the context of Australia's recent resource mining boom. It demonstrates how unprecedented international demand for mineral resources resulted in critical, local housing issues in mining communities. We conclude that without careful strategic planning and understanding of the economic and social role of housing, international market dynamics can create local housing situations that are vulnerable to market and social failures. While this paper highlights the challenges inherent in managing housing issues in Australia during a mining boom, there are likely to be lessons which can be applied in international settings. These challenges include the diversity in scale, cyclical and often unpredictable nature of booms; differences in housing policy and institutional arrangements across jurisdictions and the importance of leadership in growth management and planning.     

Non-metropolitan Gated Retirement Communities in the Western Cape

Gated communities are a global phenomenon that has taken root across the globe. They are a defining residential feature of the post-apartheid built environment and are not only found in major cities, but in smaller settlements as well. There are gated communities that cater for specific niche markets. Gated retirement communities are such a niche market as they accommodate a particular market segment, namely, retirees. Gated retirement communities, as with non-retirement gated communities, are seen to promote class segregation and are viewed as sites of age clustering. This paper maps the distribution of retirement gated communities in non-metropolitan Western Cape. The towns of Oudtshoorn and Swellendam are case studied to identify the reasons why retirees have chosen to reside in these secure developments. By using questionnaires and face-to-face interviews, it is established that the towns have a number of pull factors that appeal to retirees. Furthermore, contrary to the widely held belief, security is not the foremost reason for retirees choosing to reside in gated communities. Consequently, a more nuanced view is necessary when investigating different types of gated communities in non-metropolitan locales. Furthermore, the application of rural-change theories could possibly provide a better theoretical underpinning than traditional, urban-biased gated community theories.     

我国房地产行业的外资参与及其影响

当前,外来投资者正在快速且全面进入我国房地产市场的各个环节,受到各方的广泛关注.本文总结了进入中国房地产行业的外资来源和投资形式,分析了我国房地产行业利用外资的现状和表现,认为日趋成熟的市场环境、丰富的投资机会和逐渐清晰可控的房地产投资风险是当前外资进入我国房地产市场的主要原因.同时提出,应该肯定外资的引入有利于推动我国房地产行业的竞争和成熟;也应对外资进行政策引导,保持我国房地产市场发展的独立和稳健.     

Gating and conflicting rationalities: challenges in practice and theoretical implications

Gated communities have grown significantly in many parts of the world, including South Africa. This paper focuses on gated communities in the City of Tshwane. The discussion is based on a study carried out between 2013 and 2014 on enclosed neighbourhoods – a type of gated community – and the processes involved to apply for permission to close off existing neighbourhoods. These neighbourhoods are used as a lens to highlight the challenges facing the planning practice and the consequent tensions that emerged due to conflicting rationalities and deep differences between the various stakeholders. Planners are caught in the middle. The paper indicates that planners are aware of the tensions but have limited means to address them due to strong political pressure, emotional upheaval from community members and a restricted legal base. This has several implications for both planning theory and practice.     

An Assessment of Tenure-Specific Housing Market Areas for Housing Planning

Planning for housing in Britain has embraced the use of housing market areas (HMAs) as appropriate geographies to address calls for greater market responsiveness. Tenure is a crucial dimension of the housing market, so it must be central to assessing local housing demands. Despite the wide cleavages between social and private rented sectors, and between both of these sectors and the owner-occupying majority, the geography of tenure-specific HMAs has remained largely unexplored. This paper assesses the importance of tenure-specific HMAs for housing planning within the current policy frameworks aimed at meeting housing needs. The paper then reports analyses to delineate tenure-specific HMAs, with these boundaries then compared with HMAs defined by analysing the whole market. The case for a national system of tenure-specific HMAs based on migration is found to be unproven. Nevertheless, such HMAs can provide the basis for meaningful affordability measures and a tool to address segregation and reshape housing markets in cities.     

Three different phototrophic microbial communities colonizing a single natural shelter containing prehistoric paintings

Three different cases of deterioration were identified in a single natural shelter containing prehistoric paintings. The microbial communities induced by run-off water, a black crust covering a portion of the shelter, and a cryptoendolithic microbial community, were studied. Molecular analyses based both on DNA and RNA were performed to identify the major components of these microbial communities present and metabolically active, respectively, at the studied location. While similar microbial communities were expected due to the proximity of the studied sites, clearly different communities were detected suggesting that specific microorganisms adapt to different micro-environments. Phototrophic microorganisms represented the major portion of total RNA and DNA in the studied microbial communities. Run-off water induced the presence of a large proportion of putative photosynthetic bacteria belonging to Chloroflexi. Different groups of bacteria were associated to phototrophs and were represented by Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Gammaproteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Planctomycetes. The present study confirms a need for careful monitoring of microbial communities associated to distinct cases of deterioration even within a single location, underlining the interest of phototrophic microorganisms as indicators of colonization on cultural heritage at natural shelters.     

An Institutional Approach to Analysis of State Capacity in Housing Systems in the Developing World: Case Studies in South Africa and Costa Rica

Mutually balanced roles and activities within state, market and society are needed to underpin effective and equitable housing systems. How these develop and interact necessitates negotiation, which in itself requires certain basic structures to be in place and certain capacities to be available. In the developing world this is often not the case, leading to theories based on the limitations of the command economy, market failure, or promoting state-market partnerships. While it draws on a political economy analytical framework, the paper is grounded in the application of new institutionalism to the study of housing systems, which it argues provides a more relevant theoretical framework for housing system analysis than previous structural analyses. The paper focuses on the constraints that state capacity can have on state-society relationships within the broader context of negotiations between the state, the market and society on housing policy and delivery issues. The empirical experience of state capacity vis-à-vis housing policy development and delivery is investigated in South Africa and Costa Rica, which, despite being very different in many respects, display a number of striking similarities in the analysis.