SPACE,SCALE AND LOCALITY*

The importance of spatial variations for social behaviour has recently been re-established in social theory. But, paradoxically, space does not exist in the sense of being an object that can have properties and effects. How, then, are these two axioms to be reconciled? Recent attempts to solve this question have been centred around the concept of ‘locality’. In this paper we subject this concept to critical evaluation. First, we consider in abstract terms the way in which spatial variation affects social phenomena. Subsequently, we discuss the implications of this, focusing around the use of ‘locale’ and ‘local labour market’ as operationalisations of ‘locality’. Next, we review and comment on the debate on locality in the light of this discussion. The upshot is that locality is shown to provide an inadequate conceptual scheme for dealing with spatial patterning.     

REPLY TO SUBSIDIES, ADDITIONALITY AND FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS

ABSTRACT. In Wren (1994) I find that industrial subsidies have significantly greater employment effects in small firms, and interpret this as arising from the poorer access that these firms have to private funds. Holden and Swales (1996) criticize this interpretation, arguing that financial constraints typically limit the effectiveness of subsidies. In this paper I show that their results arise from the particular properties of the homogeneous production function. More generally, I show that the effectiveness of assistance increases with the marginal cost of private funds and is greater in those firms facing financial constraints. As such, differential access to private funds can explain the greater effectiveness of assistance found in small firms.     

COAGULATING CATEGORIES: A REPLY TO RESPONSES

… ideologies of race define both white and black peoples, just as gender ideologies define both women and men. Thus, while ‘experience’ is an enabling focus in the classroom, unless it is explicitly understood as historical, contingent, and the result of interpretation, it can coagulate into frozen, binary, psychologistic positions (Mohanty, 1990: 195).     

MORE THAN ONE WAY TO STUDY A BUILDING: APPROACHES TO PREHISTORIC HOUSEHOLD AND SETTLEMENT SPACE

Summary.   This article reviews a number of research methodologies used to record household and settlement architecture and assesses their value in the investigation of the human use of prehistoric built space. It exemplifies, through case studies, five broad approaches to, and research techniques associated with, the investigation of such architecture. These approaches are: architectural form; the spatial distribution of activities; continuity and standardization; the relationship between built and non-built space; and human patterns of movement. Then, drawing mainly on Near Eastern, and particularly Anatolian, material, it shows how a sixth approach, the use of ethnographic observation and analogy, provides insights into functional and seasonal variations in spatial use, patterns of movement and social organization. It identifies seven categories of data collection and nine observations drawn from the ethnographic material which together provide an investigative and interpretative framework for the study of early farming communities in the Near East and elsewhere.