Okun’s law,asymmetries and regional spillovers: evidence from Virginia metropolitan statistical areas and the District of Columbia

The purpose of this paper was to examine the strength of the relationship between unemployment and GDP, to determine the extent to which this relationship has been stable in Virginia metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) during the Great Recession and to examine the importance of regional spillovers in Okun’s law. Our results suggest that regional spillovers are very important in local labor markets and in defining the relationship observed at the national level. The MSA level data further supports asymmetries in Okun’s law. The weaker direct relationship between GDP and unemployment at the local level suggests that while federal fiscal and monetary policies to stimulate aggregate demand during periods of economic recovery may be effective, over time, in reducing the unemployment rate, local economic development policies are not effective in achieving the substantial short-term reduction in unemployment needed during recovery. The strong business cycle effects observed in the state MSA, relative to the U.S., suggests that countercyclical policies are fundamentally important and should be targeted more generally to exploit regional spillovers.     

Spanish urban law,changes after Aznar´s law

It is common to blame 1998 urban law, promoted by the president Aznar, the present Spanish urban situation defined by the unnecessary construction of housing units. But the analysis of the Aznar´s urban law requires to briefly describing the Spanish urban law development, at least since the 1956 urban law. In 2007, after that ´marvellous decade´, and along with the real estate bubble burst, Spain went through a major change on urban law model which ended in the 2013 3R Act, the law for the urban sustainable development and the existing city intervention.     

Climate change and China’s mega urban regions

China’s mega urban regions are focal points of economic development and environmental concerns. This paper positions four mega urban regions (i.e., the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, the Bohai Bay Area, and the South-eastern Fujian Province) along China’s coast into the national economy and elaborates their development challenges and planning innovations. Mega urban regions in China are spatial consequences of rapid economic transition. They deserve close scrutiny and demands for innovative planning responses in order to maintain their key role in driving economic growth but limiting their greenhouse gas emission.     

What explains unemployment in US–Mexican border cities?

The unemployment rate of US–Mexico border cities has stood remarkably higher than the US average. Using annual data from 1990 to 2005, we contrast large border MSAs (Brownsville, McAllen, Laredo, and El Paso in Texas and El Centro in California) to a panel of MSAs in the same states (Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Los Angeles and San Francisco). Focusing on the industry composition of employment and population growth, we report several panel data results confirmed by error correction adjustment. First, the national unemployment rate does not help explain the local border cities unemployment but does so for the panel of large MSAs. Second, the relative employment indices have statistically significant effects only for the border panel: increases in employment concentration within an industry lead to higher local border unemployment. Third, higher population density lowers unemployment for border cities. Two anonymous referees of this journal provided useful comments on a first draft. The usual disclaimer applies.     

Transnational urban spaces and urban environmental reforms: analyzing Beijing’s environmental restructuring in the light of globalization

In this era of globalization, ‘transnational spaces’ are being created within urban settings, providing a direct connection between the ‘local’ and the ‘global’. Corporate headquarters, hotels, shopping malls, and airports are typical examples of such spaces, which while located within an urban territory, are often conceived by foreign designers, developers, and manufacturers, as well as maintained by multinational companies and banks. Such local–global interconnection is giving urban management a new shape, as urban management practices are now frequently intertwining with global construction and property management approaches. This paper argues that, at the same time, a set of new mechanisms that may help to tackle problems related to the urban environment and infrastructure is unfolding. Starting with a conceptual discussion of the role of globalization in urban environmental restructuring, this paper subsequently explores the context of Beijing and the environmental management possibilities introduced in this city by global actors (through the examples of World Tower, IBM Tower, and ABN AMRO and ING head offices). Beijing, due to China’s recent economic opening process, provides an intriguing backcloth to demonstrate how transnational urban spaces—standing in-between the local and the global—may canalize environmental innovations from the ‘global’, putting globalization at work for a better urban environment.     

Between urban and national: Political mobilization among Mizrahim in Israel’s ‘development towns’

In the face of persisting deprivation, marginalized ethno-classes generally mobilize against their governments and/or against rival groups. Two key arenas of such mobilization are extra-parliamentary protest and local electoral campaigning. The paper examines these arenas in Israel’s peripheral ‘development towns’, established during the 1950s, and populated primarily by “Mizrahim”—Jews who migrated to Israel from the Muslim world. The public protest by Mizrahim in the towns has been consistent, though not intense. Generally, it voiced ‘external’ demand to the state for a fairer share of public resources, falling within the ‘legitimate’ boundaries of Zionist political discourse. In local elections, however, the Mizrahim raised a more militant political voice, focusing mainly on their competition against the large number of ‘Russians’ immigrants who arrived during the 1990s. Local election campaigns often transgressed the acceptable boundaries of Zionist discourse, by questioning the core values of immigrant absorption and Jewish unity. In explaining the different agendas and discourses, we argue that the answer is rooted in two related phenomena. First, on a national level, Mizrahi identity at the Israeli periphery has been ‘trapped’ by the settlement agendas of the Zionist project. The local election discourse, however, demonstrates the centrality of place for the Mizrahim in both their communal identity and political power. While the towns were created as peripheral and impoverished places in the attempt to Judaize the land, they have now become a significant, and threatened, ethnic and political resource. The external and internal discourses therefore combine as two key ‘layers’ in the making of the peripheral Mizrahi ethno-class.     

Complexity in urban agriculture: the role of landscape typologies in promoting urban agriculture’s growth

This research identifies the potential shortcomings of local initiatives to encourage urban agriculture projects by comparing citywide efforts with existing community projects. It investigates how more effectual policy might be developed to accommodate a fuller range of urban agriculture projects, and how urban agriculture stakeholders might use clearer promotion processes to meet stated goals. It hypothesizes the important role of clear urban agriculture definitions, typologies, and links to associated benefits towards meeting the stated goals of policy-makers. Utilizing San Francisco in California as a case study, this paper investigates recent efforts at citywide urban agriculture promotion.     

Urbanizing villages: informal morphologies in Shenzhen’s urban periphery

The phenomenon of urban villages in China has received much scholarly attention in recent years, mostly about their socio-economic aspects and its role in accommodating rural migrants. While the link between the socio-economic functioning and the morphology of urban villages has been recognized, detailed spatial research, and morphological research in particular, is limited. Morphological research has generally focused on either rural villages or centrally located urban villages and much of the peri-urbanity that constitutes the majority of informal development in China remains under-researched. This paper explores the morphologies of urbanizing villages in Shenzhen’s urban periphery, with a particular focus on the distinctions between the old village core and newly built expansions. The paper opens up a series of questions about the morphology and morphogenetic processes of these villages and establishes a framework for future enquiry. How do we understand the informalized planning mechanisms in urban villages? How do we explain the morphological variation of urban villages? Are the processes that characterize urban villages restricted to the Chinese context or is there scope for regional comparison?     

Topographies of the future: urban and suburban visions in Edward Bellamy’s utopian fiction

In Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897), Edward Bellamy offered two distinct but interrelated visions of a utopian future. The first and more famous book was set in a luxuriant, centralized metropolis. The sequel detailed decentralized, suburbanized infrastructures. Within the literature on Bellamy these emendations have been treated as evidence of regressive anti-urbanism. This paper argues instead that Bellamy used correlations between topography and technology to mediate an evolving approach to social reform. The discrepancies between the two texts did not represent abandonment of the city but rather an expansion of the scale and scope necessary to ensure social progress. While Looking Backward has often been invoked in relation the Garden City and City Beautiful movements, a new reading of Equality offers opportunities to rethink Bellamy’s relationship to planning history.     

The relationship between exposure to natural and urban environments and children’s self-regulation

Research suggests that children living in areas with more greenspace may have better self-regulation, but to date no studies have investigated this capacity immediately following exposure to natural vs. urban environments. To explore this, two studies using between-subjects experimental designs were conducted. Participants, between eight and eleven years old, completed a delay of gratification task (as an indicator of self-regulation) before and after a short (3 min) video of either a natural or built environment or a control display. Potential cognitive and emotional mechanisms underpinning any self-regulation effects were explored using a selective attention task (Stroop test) and by monitoring mood (adapted Cantril’s ladder). Results were mixed. Supporting earlier work, post-test delay of gratification scores were significantly better after exposure to a natural than urban environment, however, compared to controls, it appeared that this effect was due to the depleting effect of the built condition, rather than any restorativeness of the natural condition. Although we also found a marginally significant increase in mood after exposure to the natural environment, this did not mediate the effects of environment on self-regulation.     

Challenges and opportunities for participatory planning approaches within Dubai’s urban context

Dubai has been in the midst of a profound physical transformation, radically affecting the lives of residents and newcomers. Within US and European models of planning, the rapid change Dubai is experiencing calls for public involvement in charting the city’s future. However, Dubai’s neo-patrimonial governance concentrates planning decisions into the hands of trusted elites, lacking public participation. How might a participatory approach to planning be successfully implemented in Dubai? First, this article applies Delphi to obtain experts’ knowledge about the feasibility of implementing a participatory planning approach in Dubai. Second, the first author interviewed government officials to identify constraints for implementing strategies intended to widen public participation. Last, recommendations for the implementation of a more transparent approach to planning are provided. The article concludes with questions that explore the challenges associated with participation in planning decision-making specifically for neo-patrimonial systems.     

Running hot and cold in the urban home-ownership market: The experience of Japan’s major cities

Urban home-ownership in Japan was destabilised when the bubble economy collapsed at the beginning of the 1990s. This paper looks beyond the social and economic changes in Japanese housing in the post-bubble recession to focus on the ups and downs in current home-ownership markets in Japans major cities. Since the mid-1990s, social fragmentation has created a novel environment for urban home-ownership. The combination of a prolonged recession and a policy to promote housing construction and urban redevelopment has split urban space into hot spots, where the housing market is increasingly active, and cold spots, where the market is persistently inactive.     

Shaping Seoul’s memories: the co-evolution of memorials,national identity,democracy and urban space in South Korea’s capital city

This paper examines the evolving subjects, forms, symbolism, and spatial constellation of the diverse memorials erected in Seoul since 1953. It explores how these memorials have expressed shifts in national identity towards democracy since the end of dictatorship in 1987. It illustrates how commemorative intentions in this massive, rapidly-changing metropolis have intersected with other urban design aims and pressures. The analysis reveals an evolutionary progression in memorial themes, from heroic statues that re-establish roots of Korean national identity and independence, to marginal grassroots memorials and wider themed precincts that present more inclusive, democratic, complex narratives of identity and history.     

Exploring how urban design has sought to inspire confidence and longevity in Western Australia’s Pilbara region

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, architecture in mining settlements often acted as a measure of wealth, as if to arouse confidence and longevity in places with an infamously brief lifespan. Arguably, recent planning for upgraded town centres in the Pilbara region of Western Australia has similarly employed urban form to provide reassurance to current and potential future residents of these settlements. Using Karratha, the largest urban centre in the Pilbara, as a case study, this paper explores the ways in which urban form has been used to further a narrative of longevity through references to traditional cities characterized by urban density, spatial delineation and economic diversification. While only six years has elapsed since the launch of a plan to guide Karratha’s transformation from a town into a city, the current mining downturn highlights the limits of urban design interventions in relation to broader issues facing the mining industry. The paper concludes by pointing to the implications of such urban design efforts for the development of cities in Northern Australia.     

European urban culture,Javier de Mesones-Cabello’s planning practice and its legacy in city of Valladolid

Javier de Mesones-Cabello was an influential and active planner of the 1960s and 1970s in Spain, who passed away in December, 2016. His professional career as a self-taught urban planner was extensively linked to his academic and institutional activities. These connections supported the establishment of relationships with prestigious professionals working in urban planning practice. In planning the 1969 masterplan for the city of Valladolid, in Spain, de Mesones-Cabello made several intellectual references to the Greek urban planner Doxiadis. This masterplan covers a relatively unknown example of directional city growth in a European context. My findings elucidate the extent to which de Mesones-Cabello was influenced by Doxiadis, and the circumstances in which these ideas have continued to dominate thinking about Valladolid's urban development.     

Retailers’ resilience strategies and their impacts on urban spaces in Turkey

Recent developments in the retail sector in Turkey have created a dynamic environment, with different resilience strategies of actors forming the sector providing a new context in which to discuss urban transformation. The developments have contributed to the public’s awareness regarding multifaceted problems in the retail sector, many of which have a negative impact on urban space. Retailers, citizens and governing bodies variously contribute to this issue with different perceptions of and strategies on how to adapt to the changes. How these dynamics work and influence urban space in the Turkish context is the main focus of this research. A field survey in Ankara revealed that the resilience strategies of traditional retailers are reactive rather than proactive. This situation provides them with the flexibility to adapt themselves more quickly to the changes in the sector. However, as there is no holistic retail policy in Turkey, reactive strategies also result in unplanned use of urban space.     

Transnational urban policies: ‘relocating’ Spanish and Brazilian models of urban planning in Buenos Aires

This article examines the transnationalization of urban policies by analysing the adoption of two ‘foreign’ models of participatory urban planning in the city of Buenos Aires. Both schemes are modelled on internationally acclaimed experiments: Barcelona's Strategic Plan and Porto Alegre's Participatory Budget. In Buenos Aires, however, these policy transfers have failed to produce the remarkable results for which their Spanish and Brazilian exemplars have been internationally praised. Traditional accounts of policy transfers ponder on the institutional compatibility between imported schemes and host environments. The author argues that these works tend to overlook the significance of the stochastic conditions presiding over the adoption of particular policy models in different cities. She proposes to deviate from traditional approaches by seeking an explanation for the poor results of the schemes in Buenos Aires in (a) the contextual conditions framing their adoption in the Argentine capital, and (b) the circumstances surrounding their emergence in Barcelona and Porto Alegre.     

Shaping an urban Amazonia: ‘a planner’s nightmare’

This paper discusses the massive colonization plan and settlement scheme implemented in the early 1970s by the Brazilian government as part of the development of the Amazonian territory, and accounts for some of the reasons for its failure. Building on the notion that the Amazonian settlement scheme had taken a mid-twentieth-century private-colonization enterprise in northern-Paraná state as a planning model, this paper reveals that they were both grounded in garden-city repertoire; particularly the ideas of decentralization, satellite towns, and the marriage of town and country. However, unlike its model, the Amazonian settlement scheme failed badly. The adaptations made to the model and the innovations of the new scheme will also be identified.