Planning for Small-scale Retailing: Evidence from Scotland

This article aims to discuss whether there is a need to have a fully integrated national spatial planning framework for the UK to: (1) improve the co-ordination of different policy frameworks; (2) provide completed national spatial coverage and consistent monitoring frameworks; (3) develop a national spatial vision of development; and (4) provide more effective national solutions to the pervasive force of changing spatial structure. A test case of housing and employment is used to explore inter-sectoral issues and the spatial impacts brought by their close interactions. Finally, a future policy and research agenda is outlined to shape the continuous debate and development of a UK Spatial Planning Framework.     

新型城镇化带动西部大开发——以南疆为例

众所周知,我国西部大开发已经进行了很多年,总体上取得了很大的成绩但是在一些特定的地区效果却并不理想。本文以新疆维吾尔自治区南疆地区为例,阐述目前遇到的问题以及怎样用创新型的城镇化战略来促进这个地区的发展。     

Testing Home Ownership as the Cornerstone of Welfare: Lessons from East Asia for the West

In recent years, one driver behind the promotion of home ownership in Western countries has been the belief that owner-occupied housing assets provide a means to build up individual welfare security, potentially offsetting pension shortfalls in retirement. In contrast, many developed East Asian societies have both long focussed on advancing ‘asset’ or ‘property-based welfare’ systems as well as experienced the late-1990s Asian Financial Crisis which forced changes in housing and welfare practices. This paper examines how home ownership and asset-based welfare fared in these contexts and the lessons to be learned. It begins by considering the role of owner-occupied housing assets in different welfare regimes before empirically examining how asset-based welfare systems have been realized. It then considers how East Asian home ownership and asset-based welfare systems have stood-up to economic crises. The final section considers what the East Asian experiences contribute to an understanding of the housing assets–welfare relationship.     

智能家居系统中家用中央空调控制系统的地位

针对具有中国特色的智能家居(Smart Home)系统,探讨在该系统中家用中央空调的控制系统可以扮演的角色,以及实现的方法。     

Explaining the Pace of Foreclosed Home Sales during the US Foreclosure Crisis: Evidence from Atlanta

As the US foreclosure crisis approached its climax in 2007 and 2008, the buildup of lender-owned homes had been building for some time. Around this time, however, lenders began selling homes, especially low-value properties, at a much faster pace, releasing them into local housing markets. This paper examines the sales of foreclosed single-family homes into the Atlanta market from January 2005 through early 2009. A primary goal is to understand the drivers of such sales. A proportional hazards model is used to identify factors affecting the time that homes spend as ‘real estate owned’ properties, with a special focus on low-value properties. We find that the pace of sales of low-value properties accelerated during 2007 and, especially, in late 2008 and early 2009, and the rate varied based on lender type, neighborhood characteristics, and submarket location. These findings have implications not simply for understanding real estate markets more broadly, but especially for housing market recovery and neighborhood stabilization policies.     

The relationship between output and unemployment: Evidence from Greek regions

This research note investigates the relationship between output and unemployment in Greece at a regional level through the implementation of Okunss law. Current practice is primarily restricted to the national level, and thus ignores the regional dimension of this relationship. To this end, we apply modern unit root test and cointegration techniques based on panel data settings. Using panel data is necessary because typical spans of economic time series are short, so the entire panel must be exploited in order to draw sharper inferences. The empirical results reveal that Okuns law can be confirmed for six out of the 13 regions we examine.Received: 20 November 2002, Accepted: 5 November 2003, JEL Classification: C23, E32, O18Dimitris K. Christopoulos: I would like to thank two anonymous referees and the European editor, whose comments greatly strengthened the notes content. Thanks are also extended to Dr. V. Arapoglou for helpful suggestions on an earlier version. The usual disclaimer applies     

The hilmer paradox: Evidence from the Australian retail grocery industry

Evidence of spatial competition and prices in the Australian grocery retail industry is presented from case studies in Sydney and Adelaide. The evidence is considered against the backdrop of the National Competition Policy Report (Hilmer Report) and deregulation of retail trading hours. It appears that in an industry as concentrated as the Australian grocery retail sector, the applicability of Hilmer Report principles may be fundamentally flawed.     

The hilmer paradox: Evidence from the Australian retail grocery industry

Evidence of spatial competition and prices in the Australian grocery retail industry is presented from case studies in Sydney and Adelaide. The evidence is considered against the backdrop of the National Competition Policy Report (Hilmer Report) and deregulation of retail trading hours. It appears that in an industry as concentrated as the Australian grocery retail sector, the applicability of Hilmer Report principles may be fundamentally flawed.     

The Greening of Urban Hotels in South Africa: Evidence from Gauteng

Responsible tourism and climate change mitigation are issues on the South African policy agenda. This paper offers a contribution to the limited existing scholarship dealing with greening of hotels in the developing world. Against a backcloth of international debates on green hotels, the findings are presented from interviews conducted with urban hotels in Gauteng, South Africa. The key argument is that in the absence of any government regulatory measures progress of hotel greening initiatives is limited in scope, mainly driven by a mix of enterprise profit and corporate social responsibility considerations which are undertaken amidst low local consumer interest in green hotels as tourism products.     

Home is Where the House is: The Meaning of Home for People Sleeping Rough

Contributors to the housing field broadly agree that home is a multi-dimensional concept. Indeed, informed by the proposition that home and housing should not be conflated, the social, psychological and emotional elements of home have been well documented. Home is thought to be subjectively experienced. As such, some have shown that people defined as homeless may not actually feel homeless, but rather experience their accommodation or situation as home. This paper is based on ethnographic research with a group of people sleeping rough in Brisbane, Australia. It argues that their problematic experiences residing in public places, together with their biographies of feeling disconnected from society, underpinned their ideas of home. For people in this study, housing and home were synonymous. The physical structure of a house was important to assume control over their day-to-day lives. Home, however, stood for something beyond housing. Home was constructed as a signifier of normality, and as a commitment to participation in Australian society.     

The place of neighbourhood in social cohesion: insights from massey, West Auckland

Within public health discourse there is growing recognition that the social structures and ecology of neighbourhoods impact on health and wellbeing. A clearer understanding of the pathways through which this influence occurs will inform locality-based interventions to tackle inequalities. In this paper we report on an interview based study with parents of young children living in Massey, a suburban neighbourhood of metropolitan Auckland. Locational access to community resources is comparatively poor in Massey as measured by a community resource accessibility index. The findings provide insights into the impact of such access to services and amenities on neighbourhood social cohesion. We conclude by suggesting planning strategies for strengthening neighbourhood identification and attachment for this population group.     

The Decline Of The Political Consensus For Urban Growth: Evidence from Los Angeles

This article explores growth politics in the United States by examining the case of Los Angeles. Recent observers of Los Angeles have noted that growth interests in the city increasingly lack the political coordination to effectively accomplish their projects. One writer has even announced the collapse of the growth machine in the region. Such an assertion is extraordinary, given the power most authors ascribe to growth coalitions and given Los Angeles' strong pro‐growth history. The article presents evidence that the machine has not collapsed, but the political consensus for growth has eroded severely over the past 15 years by a variety of factors. The article then argues that the same general processes that have caused the demise of the growth consensus in Los Angeles are in place in other cities and will likely have similar effects on growth politics there. The article ends by detailing some implications that the end of the growth consensus might have for local politics in the United States.     

The influence of owner power in fostering contractor cooperation: Evidence from China

Trust and power are considered to be two necessary mechanisms for promoting cooperation among construction partners. In this paper, trust is regarded as a mediator between power and cooperative performance. A model of the relationship between trust and power is developed and tested using the results of an empirical study based on a sample of Chinese contractors. The results show that an owner's expert power can influence a contractor's cognition- and affect-based trust in the owner and that coercive power has little direct impact on the formation of trust. However, coercive power is found to moderate the relationship between expert power and cognition-based trust, in that the relationship is more positive when the level of coercive power is lower. Moreover, affect-based trust has a significantly greater positive influence on cooperative performance than cognition-based trust. These findings are interpreted in light of Chinese culture, and provide some suggestions for how owners can exercise power to foster cooperation with their contractors.     

健康城市视角下的城市中心区滨水空间:理论机制、科学证据、关键要素

城市中心区滨水空间是陆地与水体交接的过渡区域,是多种景观资源和城市功能的混合体,是承载和激活城市居民公共生活的重要场所。其品质对广大市民的健康和福祉有着重要且深远的影响。尽管现有文献从不同的方面指出了城市滨水区各类环境要素可能对健康和福祉有显著的影响,但是我们掌握的知识仍然较为零散,缺少从健康城市这一视角下系统审视和评价这些环境要素影响的研究。针对此问题,从健康城市滨水空间的理论机制、科学证据和关键要素特征3个方面展开分析,提出一系列规划、设计和管理建议,希望为建设健康城市和健康滨水空间提供科学支持和实施建议。