Urban Villages in China: A 2008 Survey of Migrant Settlements in Beijing

A team of Beijing-based urban planning specialists is joined by a noted American geographer to present the results and analyze their 2008 survey of migrant settlements in China's capital city. The paper examines the living and work conditions as well as housing consumption behavior of migrants in Chinese cities, focusing on chengzhongcun or urban villages—rural settlements that have been transformed into poor living spaces for migrant workers. It finds that although migrant workers are willing to pay the same or higher rent per unit of space, they consume much smaller dwelling spaces than local residents. Estimations of the Mincerian wage equation and of a housing demand equation show that migrants' small space consumption is a function not only of low income but also of a reluctance to spend their earnings in the city. The findings reinforce the notion that migrant workers consider the city as a place to work rather than a home in which to live. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: J610, O150, R210, R230. 14 figures, 5 tables, 34 references, 1 appendix.     

Seeing Political Settlements through the City: A Framework for Comparative Analysis of Urban Transformation

This article presents a new analytical framework for studying cities in the developing world based on the ‘political settlements’ approach. This has a dual purpose: to enrich comparative urban research by bringing new theoretical ideas to bear on this field, but also to use capital cities as a lens to better understand national political settlements. The central argument is that urban built environments and their transformations in situations of late development reflect the workings of different varieties of clientelism, and by analysing the former we can better understand the latter. Specifically, issues such as the nature of urban land use and land allocation, the pace and form of construction, the effectiveness of environmental regulation and the provision of housing for different income groups are all revealing of political settlements and their broader development implications. The potential of this approach is explored through three narrative ‘sketches’ of contemporary urban development in Eastern Africa: the ‘city as marketplace’ (Kampala), the ‘city as expo’ (Kigali) and the ‘city as construction site’ (Addis Ababa). In presenting this framework, the article seeks to advance debate on epistemological and analytical approaches to the study of both power relations and differential patterns of urban development.     

Urban Indians: Patterns and Transformations

For centuries American Indians have been an object of Western fascination. All too often this fascination has been an invented view of Indian people. This is especially evident with the recent movement of Indians to urban areas within the United States and Canada. Not only has this movement been ignored by society in general but it has also received almost no comment in the geographical literature. In this analysis the complex character of urban Indian communities is sketched, a variety of interpretations of these communities is outlined and the implications for planning and public policy are examined. The recent emergence of Indian organizations provides an innovative alternative for planning and public policy—cultural planning for urban redevelopment.     

Occult Spheres,Planes, and Dimensions: Geometric Terminology and Analogy in Modern Esoteric Discourse

This is an article on the history of religion and mathematics, which explores the origins and uses of geometric terminology in late‐nineteenth‐ and early‐twentieth‐century esoteric discourses, and inquires as to whether or not such adaptions are instances of the discursive strategy identified by Olav Hammer as terminological scientism. For the situation regarding spheric terminology, I argue that the context is not scientistic, being rather an example of the decontextualised modern appropriation of antique terminologies. In the case of planar terminology, I conclude that while its origin with Emanuel Swedenborg as an adaption of anatomical vocabulary does indeed fit Hammer's definition of scientism, modern usage stripped the term of Swedenborg's scientistic rationale — making the scientistic designation something of a vestigial atavism. In dealing with dimensional terminology, my conclusion is that from Johann Zöllner's initial formulation to the broader Spiritualistic and Theosophical applications, it exemplifies terminological scientism through and through.     

Commuting Distances and Gender: A Spatial Urban Model

In any urban center the commuting distances are a function of the spatial structure of the center and of the characteristics of the commuters. In this paper theoretical relationships between commuting distances and distances of residences to city centers are derived for monocentric and polycentric cities. These relationships are then linked to the sociological determinants of commuting distances. An econometric model encompassing both spatial structure variables and social variables is constructed and estimated using data for sixteen urban centers. Gender differences are focused upon. The expansion method is used.     

浅析马家窑文化彩陶几何纹纹饰

马家窑文化不同类型时期彩陶几何纹纹饰呈现出不同的特点和演变、发展脉络,本文主要探讨了几何纹纹饰风格的发展趋向和规律,分析了其产生的社会、技术因素,以期对我国史前先民的审美标准与价值取向有所了解。     

A Partitioning Model of Urban Retail Structure

A model based on renewal theory generates the number of retail establishments in a place as the outcome of a competitive partitioning process. The available market, measured for example by population or by existing retail sales, is shared among businesses until no market potential market remains. Competing businesses obtain different shares of the market, and the number of establishments is predicted as a discrete random variable. Several alternative formulations are presented of varying generality. One version is successfully tested, using GLIM, on ten business types (SIC two-digit classes) in 232 cities of New York State for 1977 and 1987. The model correctly predicts the form and the variance structure of the relationship between number of establishments and place size. It is shown how the model may be combined with models of city-size distributions to predict aggregate frequency distributions of retail establishments across urban systems.     

A Climatic Model of Urban Energy Budgets

A deductive model of the energy budgets of urban landscapes, based on the exchanges of energy, mass, and momentum, is introduced. The absorption of shortwave and longwave radiation and their dissipation via the channels of reradiation, convection, conduction, and evaporation are generated by the model in order to simulate the interplay of the many energy cascades among the myriad of city surfaces. A city can be geographically analyzed by determining its energy budget and resultant surface temperatures on a block-by-block basis. In spite of some simplifying assumptions, the predictions of surface temperatures of this initial model compare favorably with observations.     

区域对比:环境与聚落的演进

Through the comparative analysis considering environment, archaeological culture sequence, alteration of settlement quantities, relation between the change of environment and the movement of settlements, cultural embedding superposition exponent of ancient sites, ect. among three regions, the author thinks that they respectively represent three different developing patterns of ancient settlements. The middle and lower reaches of Yellow river and the Valley of Xilamulun River respectively represented different development patterns of the two native cultures, namely, the agricultural civilization of Great River and the half-agricultural and half-stockbreeding civilization of northern districts. The Valley of Hulu river, located in the northwest, can be the representation of secondary cultures, which originated from civilizations of great river, but dissimilated during the course of spreading abroad towards west.     

The Role of Ethnogenesis and Organization in the Development of African-Native American Settlements: an African Seminole Model

Archaeological research on a nineteenth-century settlement called Pilaklikaha addresses gaps in the theory of African-Native American everyday life, community composition, and social relations. By integrating analyses of human organization and cultural transformation, it is possible to construct dynamic sociocultural scenarios for African Seminole settlements that existed in what became Florida. In this region, residents and visitors encountered diverse world views that originated in Africa and the Americas. African Seminole cultural beliefs and practices were the product of both newly created and ancestral traditions. The ways that these beliefs were practiced affected a broad range of exchanges in the spheres of kinship, spirituality, ceremonialism, politics, economics and anti-slavery resistance. Within these realms, people of African and Native American descent recognized the importance of autonomy, cooperation, and alliance.     

A Model for Measuring the Sustainability Level of Historic Urban Quarters

The main aim of this paper is to propose a model for measuring the sustainability level of historic urban quarters and to indicate an appropriate strategy for their revitalization. Based on this aim, this study first presents the theoretical review on the concept of “revitalization”, and its relationship with sustainability; next, it introduces the characteristics, role, selection process and scaling method of sustainability indicators, which are essential for measuring the level of sustainability. The paper then, as the main contribution of this paper, proposes the model for measuring the level of sustainability in historic urban quarters and determines some proposals to achieve revitalized and sustainable historic urban quarters. Depending on the proposed model, there is a direct relationship between type and the level of obsolescence (revitalization) and the level of sustainability in the physical, economic and social structures of a particular area. Therefore, when the level of sustainability is high in any one of these three structures, it means that the level of obsolescence is low in the same structures of an historic urban quarter. The result of this paper leads us to say that, the level of sustainability is a new (additional) input in the strategic planning process of revitalization and sustainable urban revitalization of historic urban quarters. Finally, the paper concludes with a brief summary on the general arguments of the paper.     

Rural and Urban Crime Rates Amongst Aboriginal Youth: Patterns of Different Locational Opportunity

In the 1960s the crime rates of Aboriginal juveniles in Adelaide were substantially lower than those of their rural counterparts. By the 1980s, this pattern has been reversed. Moreover, appearances by city-dwelling Aborigines are now more likely to take place by way of arrest rather than summons, are more likely to come before a Children's Court rather than an Aid Panel, and are more likely to involve youths with a previous record than is the case for country youths. This is despite the fact that Aboriginal youths in the city and country commit broadly similar offences. These factors may be contributing to the virtual cessation of Aboriginal migration into Adelaide in recent years.     

水与城:成都平原史前聚落形态研究综述

为了探索正在急剧消失的成都平原"林盘"聚落形态与史前聚落的关系,本文借由聚落考古与环境考古,比较集中地综览了平原上史前各聚落城址之间的历时性共性,对史前城址聚落群与成都平原的地貌、水系、文化习尚、宗教信仰等关系的研究,以及各聚落城址的内部特征予以研究述评,以求探究成都平原上这种"林盘"聚落形态与史前聚落城址及水的关系。     

The Yezidi Wednesday and the Music of the Spheres

The article is an attempt to answer the question why Wednesday has the status of a holy day in Yezidism. Wednesday can be seen as a commemoration of the fourth day of creation, when the life on earth began and the Peacock Angel became its ruler. The article points to the Yezidi worship of the Moon and the Sun and related angels (Melek Fakhradin and Melek Sheikh Shams) and connects it with the Pythagorean concept concerning the movement of the planets and the Music of the Spheres. Two sacred Yezidi instruments, def and shibab, appear as allegories of celestial bodies in the Yezidi sacred hymns in the cosmogonic context of the creation of the macrocosm and microcosm (Adam). The article also points out the meaning of Wednesday in Judaism as the day when God created the sun, moon and stars and briefly discusses relationships with planet worship in Harran, Zoroastrianism and Mandaeism, especially in the context of the Yezidi Çar?emiya Sor festival which takes place on the first Wednesday of the month of Nisan.     

略论史前聚落的萌芽与发生

聚落作为人类重要的文化现象,普遍发达于新石器时代,但其本身也存在着一个漫长的发展过程。从世界范围来看,聚落的萌芽似应发端于晚期直立人以来的地面穴居现象,并随着房屋建筑、墓葬以及窖穴等诸多要素的相继出现而日渐复杂。至迟在旧石器时代晚期可能就逐渐开始形成了一些较为显著的聚落布局规划现象,为史前聚落的进一步发展奠定了基础。     

大洪山南麓史前聚落调查-以石家河为中心

大洪山南麓发现的史前遗存不仅数量多、保存好,而且价值高、影响大,是国内外学界广泛关注的探讨中华文明进程的重要热点区域之一.2008年,通过大洪山南麓以石家河为中心的区域进行的系统调查显示,在约150平方公里的区域内集中分布73处史前遗址,我们选择文化堆积单纯的遗址作为基本参数分析聚落规模级差,进一步丰富了我们对于该区域聚落形成发展及变化的认识,并借此加深对大洪山南麓以石家河为中心的史前聚落的数量、规模、年代、文化内涵、分布及其关系等方面的认识,提供分析以石家河古城为核心的聚落形成与发展过程的基础性资料,进而推动该区域文明进程的研究.     

Settlements and countryside of Messenia during the late Middle Ages: the testimony of the fortifications

Abstract

The various groups of fortifications that were in use in Messenia during the period of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries are examined. Five categories are distinguished based on their position, size and defensive features. It is concluded that the fortifications were directly linked to the new social and political reality that prevailed in the area between the dismantlement of the Byzantine empire in 1204 and the Ottoman conquest in the second half of the fifteenth century.