Reacting to the Powers that Be: Investigations of a Calabrian,Post-Medieval Community

The town of Bova (Calabria, Italy) is a post-medieval montane community that remained inaccessible well into the twentieth century. Archival research, field survey, and spatial analyses provide a foundation for investigating the effects of social and political restructuring on the economic and social development of the community. Attitudes of laxness, disinterest, or ignorance have been attributed to inhabitants of this region. They can be interpreted as projected upon the citizens of Bova and others in southern Calabria by those in more urban centers to the north. Potentially, they reflect preferred survival strategies in the face of shifting imperial control.     

北京低收入大学毕业生聚居体研究——唐家岭现象及其延续

随着中国城市化进程进入快速增长时期,低收入大学毕业生社会群体在城市的生存状况成为政治家和科学家关注的焦点。本文主要根据现有文献资料,配合笔者实地调研,进行北京低收入大学毕业生聚居体研究,尤其就北京唐家岭现象及其延续效应进行分析,主要涉及北京低收入大学毕业生聚居体现况、社会特征、群体聚居村落和后续空间效应等。文章认为:北京低收入大学毕业生聚居体是2000年以来、继下岗职工、农民工之后,中国城市化进程中形成的第三大社会弱势群体。北京低收入大学毕业生聚居体产生的原因,首先是低工资就业市场,其次是高房租租赁市场。他们是弱势社会群体,需要全社会的关注和帮助,在目前中国发展阶段,彻底改造甚至消灭这样的聚居体是没有必要的。     

CAMPANIAN POTTERY FROM ANCIENT BRUTTIUM (SOUTHERN ITALY): SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS OF LOCAL AND IMPORTED PRODUCTS*

One hundred and fifty-seven sherds of Campanian pottery were analysed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and flame emission spectroscopy (FES). The sherds were found in the course of archaeological excavations carried out at the sites of Sibari, Cosenza, Crotone, Locri, Reggio and Oppido Mamertina in southern Italy (ancient Bruttium, today Calabria). Analyses were carried out on dissolved samples, determining 15 elements per sample (Al, Fe, Ca, Mg, Ti, Mn, Sr, Ba, Cr, Cu, Y, La and Sc by ICP-OES, and Na and K by FES). Analytical data were subject to multivariate statistical treatment by hierarchical cluster analysis and principal components analysis. Results indicated different compositional groups, allowing one to separate suspected imports from Campania, Etruria and Sicily from each other and from likely local products. The latter could be further classified into different groups, comprising imitations of foreign forms as well as original local products.     

The Impact of Childhood Migration on Educational Attainment: Evidence from rural–urban migrants in Indonesia

This paper estimates the effect of migrating permanently as a child from a rural area to an urban area; focusing on long-term educational attainment in Indonesia. We conduct a household survey specifically tailored to collect data on urban–rural migrants in four major migrant destination cities in Indonesia, and merge the data with a nationally representative survey to create a dataset that contains migrants in urban areas and non-migrants in rural areas who were born in the same rural districts. We find that individuals who migrated to the city as children attained three more years of education, compared to observably similar individuals who remained in rural areas. We find no gender differences in the benefit of childhood migration. Finally, age at migration and the size of network in the city do not significantly affect the educational attainment of childhood migrants.     

DYNAMICS OF POPULATION IN THE UKRAINIAN SSR (1959-1984)

Analysis of change in the spatial distribution of population in the Ukrainian SSR demonstrates a pronounced shift toward the east and south, and toward the major metropolitan area of Kiev and Kiev Oblast. An upsurge in city growth in the least urbanized, western Ukraine, coupled with steady, above-average urban growth in other locations, has contributed to gradual erosion of the Donets-Dnieper Region's dominance in urban population. Accelerated rates of rural population decline in western areas of highest rural population concentration has promoted a gradual equalization of the distribution of rural population (translated by H. L. Haslett, Birmingham, UK).     

The urban and the rural in Puno,highland Peru

This article describes and analyzes important aspects of the relationship between the urban and the rural in the south of the Peruvian department of Puno. The author argues that the assumed arbitrariness of the border between the countryside and the city, between the urban and the rural, is extremely widespread and that Andean peasant communities are undergoing more and more integrating processes at different levels which, rather than determining the disintegration of these communities, are resulting in their redefinition. Kinship networks create flows that include people within much broader contexts than in the past, and both cities and peasant communities can be seen to exist within forms of modernity that do not necessarily correspond to Euro-American patterns.     

The working and living conditions of college-educated rural migrants in China

In the past one and a half decades, Chinese cities have witnessed an influx of college-educated rural migrants. Until now, there has been little systematic research on the working and living conditions of this growing population. The objective of this paper is to empirically examine similarities and differences in living conditions between college-educated rural migrants, non-college-educated rural migrants, and local urban workers. The data are from the 2010 National Health and Family Planning Commission Survey of China’s migrant population. Our study has produced several findings. First, the monthly income of college-educated rural migrants is significantly higher than that of non-college-educated rural migrants and is similar to that of college-educated local urban workers. However, less-educated rural migrants earn more than local urban workers with similar levels of education. Second, while college-educated rural migrants work fewer hours than non-college-educated rural migrants, they work longer hours than their local urban counterparts. Third, local urban workers receive greater social benefits than college-educated rural migrants, whose benefits are better than those of non-college-educated rural migrants. Overall, while college-educated rural migrants enjoy more favourable working and living conditions than non-college-educated rural migrants, they remain disadvantaged when compared to urban workers with a similar level of education. These findings highlight the insurmountable institutionalised exclusion and discrimination that imposes significant barriers on rural-origin people to reap the benefits of higher education.     

我国城市化进程中的城市空间拓展策略

城市空间拓展规划受到多方面因素的影响。要适应我国城市化发展的现实需要和长远要求,实现城市空间拓展的科学性、合理性和前瞻性,确保城市空间拓展的经济性、高效性和实用性,必须高度重视城市空间拓展策略。从我国城市化发展的实际情况来看,这些策略应包括:主体社会化策略、城建立体化策略、城市信息化策略、城乡一体化策略、城际协作化策略。各城市可以根据自身的不同情况具体选用相应的策略。     

东部地区流动人口城市融入的比较研究

以东部地区城市特色比较明显的6个城市的问卷调查为基础,结合中国的实际情况构建了衡量流动人口城市融入的指标体系,通过主成分分析对6个城市流动人口的城市融入程度进行了比较。研究发现6个城市流动人口融入程度存在着明显的差异,环渤海的青岛和沈阳流动人口的城市融入程度最高,而珠江三角洲地区的东莞和长三角的温州流动人口的城市融入程度最低,介于两者之间的是长江三角洲地区的无锡和京津冀地区的北京。总体而言,北方城市流动人口的融入程度总体上要高于南方城市。流动人口城市融入程度的差异反映了城市特色或性质的不同。城市规模、城市所在区域的文化特色、城市经济特征、流动人口在总人口中的比例都是影响城市融入的重要因素。对于南北方流动人口城市融入的差异,方言具有很大的影响,推广普通话有利于流动人口的城市融入。     

Florence and its hinterlands in the late Middle Ages: contrasting fortunes in the Tuscan countryside, 1300–1500

A key strand of research for social and economic historians of the pre-industrial period is the relationship between city and countryside. Sometimes urban and rural environments enjoyed mutually beneficial relationships, though in other cases cities reduced their rural hinterlands to poverty and decay – the question is, why? By focusing on late-medieval Florence and Tuscany, this paper moves away from approaching this question through an ‘urban bias’, and suggests the answers can be found within the structural configuration of rural societies themselves. Essentially, some rural regions were well set up to repel urban predatory tendencies, while other societies were susceptible to exploitation.     

宁波市域城镇体系中重点镇发展的若干问题研究

宁波地处长江三角洲南翼,是长江三角洲城市带的重要组成部分,目前已形成了以宁波中心城市为核心,包括副中心城市、重点镇和一般镇的市域四级城镇体系。但该城镇体系存在空间分布不均,功能分化不明显,规模结构不合理等问题,制约城市化的进一步发展。文章从研究宁波市域城镇体系中重点镇发展的区域背景着手,分析了重点镇发展的动力因素和制约条件,在此基础上探讨了重点镇发展在宁波市域城市化进程中的作用与发展目标。最后,文章探讨了如何建立有利于重点镇发展的集聚动力和约束机制问题。     

Urban Land Restitution and the Struggle for Social Citizenship in South Africa

Reintegrating the city is a priority of social justice and development in many urban centres of the ‘South’ that bear the legacy of forced displacement. In South Africa, much of the land restitution programme has thus far focused on urban areas. In certain large cluster claims involving the transfer and development of significant tracts of well‐placed land, restitution has presented the prospect of altering landed property regimes in the heart of the city. The predominantly rural and economic emphasis in scholarship and policy debate on land reform in South Africa — which reflects historical trends in development studies — has led to a narrowed vision of what is at stake in urban land restitution. Complex interventions aimed at redressing urban spatial segregation can potentially alter the relationship between citizens, institutions and urban space in ways that expand the possibilities for social and political agency in sites that are strategically important for influencing the direction of change more broadly. A key, as yet unrealized, challenge is how to articulate such struggles for a ‘right to the city’ with efforts at redressing the spatialization of poverty on the urban periphery.     

The Pen and the Plough: Balanta Young Men in Guinea‐Bissau

Up until the late 1990s, the Balanta of Guinea‐Bissau constituted what could be described as a ‘deep rural society’, whose central identity was linked with rice production and cattle accumulation. At the same time, it could be argued that even in the early days after Independence in 1974, the social aspirations of Balanta young men matched those of other Guinean youths in their shared desire to get away from the strictures of gerontocracy and of rural life. Surprisingly, however, this study documents the agency of many rural Balanta young men in changing oppressive social rules, and in using agriculture as a means to fund their education, to feed their families and as a route to prosperity. The authors conclude that the persistent political instability in the country (most acutely felt in the capital city) and the national and global economic crises, together with the Balanta agricultural ethos and the softening of gerontocratic power, are at the root of this revaluing of rural livelihoods. This article challenges current dominant narratives about the crisis of young men in contemporary Africa and highlights the need to study the aspirations and achievements of youth in their rural–urban nexus from a historical and holistic perspective.     

RURAL–URBAN MIGRATION AND UNEMPLOYMENT: THEORY AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS*

ABSTRACT We develop a regional model where, in the city, unemployment prevails because of too high (efficiency) wages, while, in the rural area, workers are paid at their marginal productivity. We characterize the steady‐state equilibrium and show that it is unique. We then consider two policies: decreasing urban unemployment benefits and subsidizing urban employment. We find that decreasing the unemployment benefit in the city creates urban jobs and reduces rural–urban migration since new migrants have to spend some time unemployed before they can find a job in the city. On the other hand, raising employment subsidies increases urban employment but may also increase urban unemployment because it triggers more rural–urban migration. In this respect, the employment subsidy policy can backfire by raising rather than reducing urban unemployment.     

EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE SCENARIOS AND SEISMIC HAZARD OF MESSINA,NORTH-EASTERN SICILY (ITALY) AS INFERRED FROM HISTORICAL DATA

A study aimed at evaluating earthquake damage scenarios and seismic hazard of Messina using historical data, is presented. The analysis of coeval reports allowed us to reconstruct the seismic history of the city and to obtain a homogeneous earthquake site catalogue based on intensity assessed by the European Macroseismic Scale 1998. In the last 1200 years Messina was destroyed once (1908, intensity X-XI EMS) and suffered effects estimated between intensities VII and IX EMS many times (e.g. 853, 1169, 1494, 1509, 1599, 1693, 1783, 1894, 1909). Destruction or severe damage which affected the city are mainly related to earthquakes occurring in the Messina Straits and Southern Calabria, while slighter, moderate effects are usually due to shocks taking place in the seismogenic sources of SE Sicily, Gulf of Patti and Northern Calabria. The damage scenarios of the most relevant events, delineated using coeval urban plans of the city, showed that damage distribution is strongly conditioned by the different soil response. A probabilistic seismic hazard assessment was obtained by using site observed intensities: The expected intensity in a time span of 50 years (i.e. maximum intensity characterised by at least 10% exceedance probability in 50 years) is DC EMS; the expected intensity in a time span of 300 years (10% exceedance probability in 300 years) is X EMS.     

City and region in the credit market of late colonial Guadalajara,Mexico

Regional studies of colonial Mexico have focused on economic, sociological and political themes that largely neglect developing relationships between urban centers and their regions. Understanding these relationships is necessary for a clearer determination of the beginning of dependency and underdevelopment. Data for this study come from loan and mortgage documents contained in the Libros de Hipotecas for Guadalajara, Mexico from 1721 through 1820. The records show that most of the credit necessary for rural economies to function came from creditors in the capital city of Guadalajara. Credit flows through the countryside corresponded to the distributional patterns of population, economic activities, and social networks. Districts with larger populations consumed greater amounts of credit in part because of the presence of many potential borrowers. Those areas involved primarily in trade and agriculture also needed much urban credit, particularly at critical stages in their economic development. Districts in which the region's wealthiest families resided also received more credit through the system of personal and business contacts which channelled the distribution of credit. The net flow of credit from city to region, however, does not necessarily indicate unilateral dependence of rural districts on the capital city. An analysis of the relative benefits to creditor and debtor indicates that the relationship between city and region was characterized by mutual dependence rather than urban exploitation of rural districts.     

An Evaluation of Endogenous Sustainable Development Planning for the Rural–Urban Environment in Gran Canaria

Urban developments can transform adjacent rural areas by degrading their natural resource base and environmental values. In this paper we provide evidence on the implementation of an endogenous sustainable development plan for the rural–urban environment in the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The objective was the generation of endogenous development in the rural areas by implicating the local population in developing activities in line with natural values and the recuperation of traditional cultures. At the same time, urban societies were expected to benefit from the preservation and availability of these rural environments. The plan was implemented in a large rural valley located between adjacent urban areas. The valley represents an opportunity for urban dwellers to benefit from a large rural park in the urban environment for leisure and cultural activities. The overall accomplishment of the plan was evaluated and contrasted with the benefits to the urban population, which were also measured with a discrete choice experiment. The results highlight that the principal objectives failed because of the lack of political determination to promote the participatory channels that would lead to the preservation of natural resources in a dynamic process of social change.     

The ‘indomitable’ Pignatellis

The fall of Fascism generates contrasting feeling in Italy, now liberated by the Allied troops. In this new scenario, the search for new forms of democratic gathering coexists with its opposite: the aim to recreate an experience now historically ended (the Fascist regime). Indeed, many southern Italians still believe in Fascism and, despite Mussolini's execution in Piazzale Loreto, they kindle the hope of a new Fascist era. Arguably, they see the death of Mussolini as an opportunity to refashion the Fascist ideology, by returning to the myths of its origins. They envision a new form of Fascism, free from political contamination and compromise, and a new regime able to realize the programmes that the old regime has failed to realize. Maria and Valerio Pignatelli represent the dream of a Fascist revival, characterized by innovative and original characters. They find many supporters in the southern regions, especially in Calabria, reversing the stereotype of an ‘apolitical’ and passive south. Therefore, the aim of this article is to reconstruct the Fascist revival in post-war southern Italy through the history of its main exponents.     

LGBTTs of Turkey between the east and the west – the city and the world through their eyes in the case of Izmir

The profession of city planning in Turkey does not consider groups such as LGBTTs (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transvestite (Cross-dressing)). This study aimed to draw attention to the need for Turkish city planning to consider LGBTT people by presenting the results of a survey conducted in Izmir, one of the leading cities in Turkey. The study examines the reasons that LGBTTs, as ordinary individuals in society, become closeted in the urban sphere and how city planning can overcome this challenging problem of a Muslim country that is between the East and the West and is a European Union (EU) nominee. To examine this delicate issue that has not previously been considered in urban/rural planning studies in Turkey, the main discussion first elaborates the nationwide conception of and attitude towards LGBTTs and a wide range of social and economic variables to assess the quality of LGBTTs’ urban living. Then, based on results of the survey, this study attempts to formulate how an inclusive city can be planned for all groups, including LGBTTs. The scope of this study covers the legal and social status of LGBTTs in Turkey, the overall profile of LGBTT survey respondents, these respondents’ place in Izmir and the specific characteristics of an LGBTT-inclusive city. The unique contribution of this study is that it is the first to examine LGBTT individuals’ demands from the city on the basis of their different socioeconomic profiles.     

Power to the people: when culture works as a social catalyst in urban regeneration processes (and when it does not)

This article focuses upon the relationship between culture, urban regeneration schemes, and their impact on socio-cognitive assets – namely, social and human capital. It examines three major urban regeneration projects in the districts of Saint Michel (Montreal, Canada), Auburn (Sydney, Australia) and Bicocca (Milan, Italy), where culture has been invoked as a main transformational driver at the economic and socio-environmental levels, but with different approaches and results. Through comparative analysis, we develop a more general reflection on the social impact of culture-led urban transformation processes, questioning the actual role of cultural initiatives – particularly those related to the creation of new cultural facilities and the programming of big cultural flagship events – and participation as a means to improve the local social milieu. We find that a key role for social efficacy is played by projects’ capacity to elicit the commitment of residents through inclusive cultural participation, as opposed to instrumental top-down initiatives mainly addressing city and neighbourhood branding and real estate marketing purposes.