THE INDUSTRIAL RESTRUCTURING OF SOUTH WALES: THE CAREER OF A STATE MANAGED REGION

This paper examines the causes of the current economic crisis in the industrial region of South Wales. The authors maintain that past as well as current government policies have played a major role in bringing about the crisis by contributing to the vulnerability of communities in South Wales. The authors review the history of the policies which have contributed to the current steel and coal crises. They then provide a brief discussion of current legislative policies designed to combat the crises. Finally, they critique alternative strategies: continued monetarism; a return To Keynesian/‘corporatist’ policies; and the radical restructuring demanded by an ‘Alternative Economic Strategy’ (AES).     

SPATIAL COMPETITION AND THE JOINT CONSUMPTION OF SERVICES*

In Hotelling location models, an implicit assumption has been made that a customer uses the service provided by the firm, independent of other customers. However, for firms that supply meeting rooms, wedding halls, tennis courts, and golf links it is essential to incorporate the fact that the customer only uses the service in conjunction with other customers. The objective of this paper is to formulate the Hotelling location model n consideration of the interdependence among customers in one-dimensional space, and to characterize the state of equilibrium. In our model, each group of members within a given distance enjoys a fixed amount of service of the firms, under the assumption that the travel cost incurred by each group is defined as the travel cost of the farthest customer in the group.     

THE SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF HIERARCHICAL INTER-URBAN SYSTEMS: EQUILIBRIUM AND OPTIMUM*

In this paper, I model a simple hierarchical inter-urban system in which the location of business firms is considered together with the determination of residential land-use patterns. By supposing a spatial externality between the business firms and all the residents of the region, three spatial structures are obtained: monocentricity, multicentricity, and a separate pattern where cities are spatially split with an agricultural land existing between them. It is also shown that the spatial structures of monocentric and multicentric patterns formed by the market principle tend to be more concentrated than the optimum.     

FEMALE FARMERS IN CANADA AND THE GENDER RELATIONS OF A RESTRUCTURING AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM*

Most authors who have studied family farming would agree that the role of women in agricultural production has been largely invisible. As the process of agricultural restructuring continues, the contributions made by farm women to the farming enterprise have gained greater prominence, but there are still specific groups of farming women who have been relatively under-studied. The purpose of this paper is to enhance our understanding of the characteristics and occupational experiences of Canadian female farm operators, who represent a non-traditional role for women in agricultural production. As background, the paper provides a brief overview of female farm operators and their farms, using data from the 1971, 1981, and 1986 censuses of Agriculture and Population. However, the research goes beyond the census data to examine the socially constructed realities of daily life for female farmers, using interviews with a sample of Ontario female farm operators. In particular, the contexts prompting women's entrance to this occupation are examined, as are the reasons for entrance. Furthermore, mechanisms by which the traditional gender relations of farming are maintained and reproduced are identified. Central to this is the constraint of women's access to key agricultural resources through issues related to occupational inheritance, the perceived legitimacy of women in this non-traditional role, and the ongoing processes of agrarian myth making. La plupart des auteurs qui ont étudié les fermes familiales s'accorderaient à dire que le rôle de la femme dans la production agricole a été largement passé sous silence. Avec ?on; évolution de la restructuration agricole, la contribution des femmes aux entreprises agricoles a été mise en relief. Toutefois, certains groupes spécifiques de femmes dans la production agricole sont peu eatudieas. ?on; objet de la presénte étude est ?on; améliorer notre compréhension des caractéristiques et de ?on; experience de travail des agricultrices canadiennes. Ces agricultrices tiennent un rôle non traditionnel pour des femmes impliquées dans la production agricole. De plus, la recherche fait une revue des données recueillies lors des recensements dagriculture et popula- tion en 1971, 1987 et 1986 sur les agricultrices et leurs fermes. ?on; étude va au-delà des données statistiques. Des interviews, dont une partie porte sur des agricultrices ontariennes, sont utilisées afin ?on; examiner les réalités sociales de ?on; activité quotidienne des agricultrices. Plus particulièrement, les contextes et les raisons poussant les agricultrices à choisir cette occupation sont etudiés. Les mécanismes qui engendrent et maintiennent la sociosexuation traditionnelle sont identifyées. La difficulté?on; accés des agricultrices aux ressources agricoles clés est un aspect central déterminé par la tradition farniliale, la perception de la légitimité des femmes dans cette occupation non traditionnelle, et les processus de con- struction des mythes agraires.     

STATE INTERVENTION IN LANDSCAPE PRODUCTION: THE WHEATLAND RIOT AND THE CALIFORNIA COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING*

The role of the state in landscape production has been little theorized in geography. In this paper, I examine the role played by state institutions in determining landscape morphology by focusing on the activities of the California Commission of Immigration and Housing as it attempted to mitigate the conditions that led to the violent Wheatland “riot” of 1913. This rebellion by radicalized migratory workers was central to the creation of the abundant agricultural landscape of California in the years before the United States entered World War I. By telling the story of Wheatland and the state responses it induced, I hope to move discussions of landscape geography beyond both traditional concerns with landscape as a reflection of “culture” and contemporary concerns with metaphors of landscape as text.     

RESTRUCTURING SOVIET AGRICULTURE: TOWARDS A SPATIAL DIMENSION

Recent Soviet reform legislation on agriculture (e.g., Land Law, Law on Property) is described and its implications for restructuring this troubled sector of the Soviet economy are surveyed. Collective, family, and individual contracting (and in some areas family farming on isolated farmsteads, or khutors) are altering the way collective and state farms are organized. Since provisions of the new legislation grant local soviets considerable authority in decisions on land tenure issues, the paper investigates how regional preferences and traditions in agriculture may reshape the rural landscape into one of greater diversity and increased spatial differentiation.     

THE DEBT/TAX CHOICE IN THE FINANCING OF STATE AND LOCAL CAPITAL EXPENDITURES*

ABSTRACT. State and local governments commonly finance investment in public capital by issuing bonds and by using current revenues. This paper presents a model of state and local governments' reliance on borrowing in which the optimal share of debt in the financing of capital investment depends on the relative costs of tax and debt finance. Equations are derived and estimated for spending on public capital and the share of debt in the financing of that spending. The results reveal that the level of private incomes plays an important role in both the capital investment and financial decisions of the jurisdiction. Even after controlling for Sunbelt-Snowbelt differences in incomes, grants, outstanding debt and certain demographic factors, the results indicate that state and local governments located in the Snowbelt rely more heavily on bond issues to finance capital investment. Finally, the estimated invariance of the level of state and local capital investment to the share of debt in the financing of the investment suggests that investment decisions are not greatly affected by factors influencing the willingness to issue bonds.