Cities without cavities: democracy, risk, and public health

This essay examines the history of fluoride debates in four Canadian cities. It argues that fluoride's opponents were primarily motivated by what they saw as the health and environmental risks of adding fluoride to the water supply. They also believed that fluoridating the public water supply was a fundamental violation of civil liberties. The fluoride debates have much to teach us about how people evaluate potential health risks and how they respond to state interventions in the field of public health.     

The Urban Order: An Introduction to Cities, Culture, and Power

Book reviewed in this article:
The Golden Age Illusion: Rethinking Postwar Capitalism by MICHAEL J. WEBBER and DAVID L. RIGBY, Guilford Press, New York and London
Climate Change 1995 - The Science of Climate Change: Contribution of Working Group I to the Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change edited by J.T. HOUGHTON, L.G. MEIRA FILHO, B.A. CALLANDER, N. HARRIS, A. KATTENBERG, and K. MASKELL, Cambridge University Press,
Climate Change 1995 - Impacts, Adaptations and Mitigation of Climate Change: Scientific-Technical Analyses: Contribution of Working Group II to the Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change edited by R.T. WATSON, M.C. ZINYOWERA, and R.H. MOSS
Climate Change 1995 - Economic and Social Dimensions of Climate Change: Contribution of Working Group III to the Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change edited by J.P. BRUCE, H. LEE, and E.F. HAITES
'As Their Natural Resources Fail': Native Peoples and the Economic History of Northern Manitoba, 1870–1930 by FRANK TOUGH, UBC Press, Vancouver
Atlas historique du Québec: le pays laurentien au XIX^e siècle - les morphologies de base par SERGE COURVILLE, JEAN-CLAUDE ROBERT et NORMAND SÉGUIN
Gender, Work, and Space by SUSAN HANSON and GERALDINE PRATT, Routledge, London and New York, 1995
The Countryside Ideal: Anglo-American Images of Landscape by Michael Bunce, Routledge, London and New York, 1994     

Theming Cities, Taming Places: Insights from Singapore

This paper explores the 'thematic development' of Singapore's Little Historic District and the socio-spatial effects of this thematic enhancement scheme. Specifically, I argue that when landscapes are 'themed', which is often the case in urban tourism planning, places will be 'tamed' as a result. This argument is substantiated by the case of Singapore's Little India which was designated a historic district in 1989. I contend that as Little India is redeveloped as an Indian theme district with a mix of modern and traditional activities, it is tamed in three ways. The taming process is exemplified by: (1) a decline in traditional Indian-owned retail outlets and activities; (2) Little India's conversion into a retail attraction rather a place of residence; and (3) a dimming of its rich Indian cultural identity. The taming of activities , community and identity , I shall show, has also generated vociferous reactions from the grass-roots which can be described as anything but tame. Indeed, as gross-roots agencies (comprising merchants and residents) resist the government's development approach, there has been a fundamental rethinking of what Little India means to its people and a re-evaluation of their communal ties to the place. As a result, a reassertion of Indian identity and community occurs even as Little India is being themed and tamed.     

Global Metropolitan-Regional Scale in Evolution: Metropolitan Intermediary Cities and Metropolitan Cities

The case of Madrid is used as empirical focus to propose a new classification of the metropolitan region urban medium-sized or secondary city system. Based on a methodology that integrates the morphological (size, location and socioeconomic history) and the functional dimensions (centrality index, advanced producer services (APS) concentration and commuting), the article compares new employment centres—cities with metropolitan origin—and historical cities—previously free standing cities, progressively integrated in metropolitan processes. The results show a distinction between (1) metropolitan cities, with a traditional intermediation role, and (2) metropolitan intermediary cities, that include an additional quality to their traditional intermediation role, that of concentrating APS. The article confirms that some medium-sized cities—metropolitan intermediary cities—linked to different origins and up to 100?km away from the metropolis are more visible in the global scene and are establishing an emerging global multicore-network at a metropolitan-regional scale.     

China's Cities: Tradition and change

Mark Elvin and G. William Skinner, eds. The Chinese City Between Two Worlds. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1974. xiii + 458 pp. Tables, maps, notes, character list, and index. $18.75.