Unpacking Social Exclusion in Western Sydney: Exploring the Role of Place and Tenure

Over the past decade social exclusion has increasingly been positioned at the forefront of political, academic and lay discourse as the cause of disadvantage. While the definition, measurement and solutions to social exclusion remain open to debate, housing has progressively been positioned as a central variable creating neighbourhoods of exclusion. Much of this debate has positioned areas of public housing as being the most disadvantaged and socially excluded neighbourhoods. However, the multidimensionality of social exclusion brings into question the simple identification of areas of public housing as being the most excluded. By exploring six dimensions of exclusion (neighbourhood, social and civic engagement, access, crime and security, community identity and economic disadvantage) we explore the differences between areas dominated by public housing and those characterised by private market housing in terms of their scores on each of these individual dimensions of exclusion. We find that it is the experience of households with multiple dimensions of exclusion, especially locational and economic disadvantage, that differentiate areas of public housing from private housing locations.     

The Fractal Theory of Central Place Geometry: A Diophantine Analysis of Fractal Generators for Arbitrary Löschian Numbers

We develop material to determine whether or not an arbitrary number is Löschian; the procedure embodied in the theorems achieves the desired result more swiftly than do previous solutions to this problem. The correspondence between a partition of the central place lattice and a quadratic form permits the rapid determination of the lattice coordinates of an arbitrary Löschian number and of the exact shape of a single fractal generator used to form an entire central place hierarchy associated with an arbitrary Löschian number. Central place hierarchies may be generated geometrically using a single shape applied initially to a hexagon and subsequently, scaled appropriately, to resultant polygons. Fractional dimensions of arbitrary central place hierarchies, measuring their “space-filling” characteristics, follow naturally from this general procedure.     

The Recent Evolution of Ontario Central Place Systems in the Light of Christaller's Concept of Centrality

Christaller's model is used to establish the central place importance of principal Ontario cities at ten-year intervals between 1930 and 1971. Newspaper circulation data are used to determine centrality and linkages within central place systems. The evolving central place pattern exhibits considerable overall structural stability, but new systems are constantly emerging. Patterns of territorial and hierarchical change are repetitive and result in ever more complex and more highly integrated central place systems. The continuing contribution of Christaller's approach is demonstrated.
Le modéle de Christaller est utilise afié de déterminer importance de la fonction régionale des villes principales de 1'Ontario, tous les dix ans entre 1930 et 1971. Une série d'informa-tions sur le tirage des journaux sert de base pour déterminer l'importance de cette fonction et les liens a l'intérieure des systemès de places centrales. La répartition des places centrales est caracterisée par une stabilité globale dans ses éléments principaux, mais des nouveaux systemes se développent constamment. La dynamique du changement territorial et hiérar-chique se répète, et mène à des systèmes de places centrales de plus en plus complexes et de plus en plus intégrés. Cette étude, done, démontre la contribution unique et permanente de l'approche de Christaller.     

Dynamic Central Place Theory: Results of a Simulation Approach

A dynamic central place theory is formulated as a simulation model in which retail activities, described by cost equations, and consumers, described by spatial interaction equations, interact to generate a central place system. The behavior of the model is then examined. Simulation results show that the basic character of the system—whether it is agglomerated or dispersed—depends primarily on a single parameter in the interaction equation, and only secondarily on the specification of the cost function. The results are highly robust in that they are largely independent of the initial sizes and locations of centers, and even independent of the type of interaction equation used. The patterns generated appear plausible.     

The Human Role in Earth Surface Systems: Some Theoretical Considerations

Studies of human influences on the environment may treat human agency as an imposed, exogenous source of change or disturbance, or as an intrinsic part of earth surface systems. Consideration of human influences as exogenous or endogenous to earth surface systems can affect, or even predetermine, the outcome of analyses. This is demonstrated via qualitative stability analyses of generalized mass-and-energy-flux systems. When human impacts are considered as external disturbances such systems are stable, and will regain equilibrium after changes or perturbations. Conversely, when human impacts are included as a system component, with goals of either maximizing or minimizing throughput of mass and energy, the system is inherently unstable.     

Polycentric Systems of Governance: A Theoretical Model for the Commons

Polycentricity is a fundamental concept in commons scholarship that connotes a complex form of governance with multiple centers of semiautonomous decision making. If the decision‐making centers take each other into account in competitive and cooperative relationships and have recourse to conflict resolution mechanisms, they may be regarded as a polycentric governance system. In the context of natural resource governance, commons scholars have ascribed a number of advantages to polycentric governance systems, most notably enhanced adaptive capacity, provision of good institutional fit for natural resource systems, and mitigation of risk on account of redundant governance actors and institutions. Despite the popularity of the concept, systematic development of polycentricity, including its posited advantages, is lacking in the commons literature. To build greater clarity and specificity around the concept, we develop a theoretical model of a polycentric governance system with a focus on the features necessary or conducive for achieving the functioning predicted by commons scholars. The model is comprised of attributes, which constitute the definitional elements, and enabling conditions, which specify additional institutional features for achieving functionality in the commons. The model we propose takes the concept a step further toward specificity without sacrificing the generality necessary for contextual application and further development.     

The Future of Collective Farms' Built Social Infrastructure: Choosing Between Central Place and Network Theories

The aim of this paper is to discuss local and regional planning and development practices in a post‐socialist country such as Estonia. Two approaches — central places and network theories — are used as a conceptual basis. According to the first hypothesis, planning and development of social infrastructure (e.g. schools, sports halls) has remained based on the central place theory — as an outdated planning approach — in Estonia. The second hypothesis argues that while, on the one hand, the application of the network paradigm and increased cooperation between local communities would considerably save public resources, on the other hand, because of the path dependency of Soviet centralized planning and development practices, the networking and lobbying takes place vertically rather than horizontally. This restricts both administrative cooperation and networking on the local and regional levels. The paper consists of three parts. The first part describes the turn in Western planning theory: the shift from normative top‐down planning to a bottom‐up approach and networking. The second part analyses critically the Soviet and post‐Soviet planning theory and practices: the planning and development culture created during the Soviet era. Finally we present a case study of a community planning procedure in the Suure‐Jaani locality — a good example of the influence of historical changes in the settlement system and planning culture of the past on current development.     

A Location-Allocation Model of Lösch's Central Place Theory: Testing on a Uniform Lattice Network

This paper develops a location-allocation model of Lösch's central place theory that maximizes the number of firms that can coexist in the market, subject to range, threshold, hierarchy, and other constraints. F.o.b. costs, economies of scale, and elastic demand are included. Consumer behavior postulates concerning the “nearest center hypothesis” and the “indifference principle” are formulated as nonlinear constraints but not used during solution. Methods are developed for simulating the continuous, infinite plain with a discrete, bounded network by use of an outer overflow network and a symmetrical market area constraint. The model is tested by applying it to a uniform lattice network and comparing the results to the expected pattern of nested hexagons. Solutions consistent with the k = 3, 4, and 7 patterns are generated by changing threshold values. However, remaining inconsistencies appear to be due to the inability to express the consumer behavior laws as linear constraints, to the bounded and discrete nature of the network, and to the objective function being the sum of integer variables. The long-run purpose of developing and validating a location-allocation model of a location theory is to use it to relax the theory's restrictive assumptions and to apply the theory to nonuniform regions.     

A Place for Women Only: Health,Healing and the Divine at an Islamic Shrine in Central Asia

This article analyses the relationships between traditional healing and biomedical practices found in contemporary Central Asia from the late Soviet period into the early twenty-first century. Gendered demarcation of space, the roles of women as caregivers and protectors of spiritual health in legends and emphasis on life cycle rituals position women at the centre of discussions of healing practices in Central Asia. Through historical and ethnographic work conducted in the Kyrgyz Republic, this article offers a view of women as practitioners and recipients of healing and as producers of knowledge about health and healing.     

Ernest Gellner as Critic of Social Thought: Nationalism,Closed Systems and the Central European Tradition

Book reviewed: Gellner, Ernest, Language and Solitude: Wittgenstein, Malinowski, and the Habsburg dilemma.     

"A Troubled Godless Place": Catholic Practice and Local Politics in the Communes of the Central Vaucluse, 1830–1905

In the final quarter of the nineteenth century, men and women in the French communes of the central Vaucluse began to defer or neglect vital Catholic rites of passage. Against a backdrop of turbulent regional politics and economic upheaval, formal adherence to church doctrine declined sharply, never again to regain its previous levels. This article assesses the religious gestures of individuals and communities through the analysis of their sacramental participation, the only recorded response of Catholics to the church's presence in their lives. The implementation of the lay republic in the community by means of both local and national secularizing policy from 1878 to 1905 was the primary precipitant of general, dramatic decreases in formal Catholic practice. It was only upon the official secularization of communal society and politics that significant numbers of central Vauclusiens began to relinquish their attachment to Catholic rites of passage surrounding birth, marriage, and death.     

一部评述十一届三中全会的信史——简评朱佳木新作《我所知道的十一届三中全会》

在纪念中共十一届三中全会召开30周年的日子里,读到朱佳木的专著《我所知道的十一届三中全会》,获益良多。笔者以为,这是一部叙述和评价中共十一届三中全会的信史,是林林总总同一题材著作中的上乘之作。这本书最显著的特点是回忆与研究的结合,这是作者独具而别人难以企及的优长之处。中     

梳理中央文件与农村改革的辩证关系及理论创新——《一号文件与中国农村改革》评介

我国的改革是从农村实行家庭承包经营制度大面积铺开的。30年来,党和政府十分重视农业、农村和农民问题,先后出台了一系列政策、措施。中共中央国务院《关于2009年促进农业稳定发展农民持续增收的若干意见》于2009年1月发出,这是改革开放以来关于"三农"工作的第11个"一号文件"。抚今追昔,回顾前面10个中央"一号文件",对于认识农村改革与发展的历程,加强农村制度建设、发展现代农业、发展农村公共事业,在新形势下推进农村改革发展具有重要的意义。