The Iron Triangle of Urban Entrepreneurialism: The Political Economy of Urban Corruption in Spain

Despite a cascade of corruption scandals over the last decade, the role of political corruption has yet to be accounted for in the scholarship on Spanish urban entrepreneurialism. This is an omission that extends to the broader literature on the topic as well. This paper looks at the theoretical causes of this neglect and explores ways of integrating corruption into the study of urban entrepreneurialism. To do so, it offers a systematic analysis of the role of clientelism in the political economy of Spanish inter-urban competition. Contrary to the existing literature, which at best explains away corruption as a logical outgrowth of intensified competition for real estate capital, this paper argues that corruption is rooted in a political structure that precedes the emergence of urban entrepreneurialism. This structure is identified as an “iron triangle”, a complex of colluding interests formed by the state, the real estate industry, and political parties.     

消失的搭车客:中西都市传说的一个类型

“消失的搭车客”被认为是旧传说在新时代、新情境中得以改编的经典案例,而这类故事在19世纪之交的美国和其他地方广为人知,以后又发展演变出许多亚类,产生了更多的故事。这类故事可以称为“路边搭车的幽灵”,其基本情节是一个幽灵如何故地重游搭乘别人的车子却在达到目的地之前忽然神不知鬼不觉地消失的。     

Livelihoods Limitations: The Political Economy of Urban Poverty in Dhaka,Bangladesh

Research in Bangladesh reveals the limitations of actor‐oriented frameworks for understanding urban poverty that assess household livelihoods on the basis of a household's portfolio of assets or capitals. The narrow focus of these frameworks on households and their depoliticized definition of social capital overlook the political roots of urban poverty. The informal systems of governance that dominate resource distribution within low‐income settlements ensure that the social resources necessary for long‐term household improvement are confined to a small elite. Only through extending our analysis beyond the household level, to explore their position within this local political economy of employment and enterprise, can we recognize the limitations placed on household efforts to improve their livelihoods.     

Demand in the Spatial Economy: II Homo Stochasticus

Probabilistic preferences and choices and their connections to trip making and to distance-related demand are discussed. They are seen to aid aggregation. Risk aversion in retail shopping behavior and entropy maximizing as rational random behavior are examined. Elasticity of substitution is presented in terms of the covariance matrix. A Markovian phrasing and potential theory allow an analogy with deterministic choice: various applications of potential operators are outlined. Changes in utilities can only be modeled stochastically and some mechanisms are detailed. Price changes are random walked in time and space as a diffusion process. A fairly coherent theory of spatial demand emerges     

Fluctuation in the Random Spatial Economy and The Control of Inflation

A self-contained spatial economy is set out as the steady-state of a harmonic oscillator under Gaussian excitation. A dollar bill performs a random walk on a line with elastic barriers at each end and represents payments for traded goods. Diffusive surges of money and the fluctuations in zonal incomes are examined. The center, being less dependent on extra-zonal trade, has fewer brakes on price levels and can more easily begin “inflation.” Imposing a uniform deflationary policy would cause the periphery to be squeezed without reason while the center would be affected too little and too late. The organization of a futures market in construction is analyzed as a spatially discriminating form of control.     

Vietnam: Two Decades of Urban Development

Doi moi, adopted as a policy of economic reform in Vietnam in 1986, has ushered in fundamental and sweeping economic and social changes spearheaded by its cities. The paper, by a senior Hong Kong-based geographer, reviews the country's progress over a twodecade period ending in 2006. Discussion of the first decade focuses on deterioration of urban infrastructure and its causes (as well as the onset of reconstruction) based largely on field interviews, reconnaissance, and review of official documents and reports. Coverage of the second decade's more rapid change highlights legal reforms, privatization, foreign direct investment, as well as regional development. The favorable prognosis for urban Vietnam is examined in the context of the country's accession to the WTO and its hosting of the APEC Summit in late 2006. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O10, O18, O30, P20. 4 figures, 1 table, 26 references.     

Spatial Inequality Between and Within Urban Areas: The Case of Israeli Cities

Central areas enjoy greater efficiency in the production of goods and services than do outlying areas. Because of the inherent advantages of central areas over outlying areas, disparities among regions do not vanish over time. On the contrary, centripetal forces increase inequalities across space. The phenomena of increased globalization, trade liberalization and treaties among countries not only enable the flow of labour, products (export) and foreign direct investment but also help reduce spatial inequality between countries. These phenomena also induce greater spatial economic concentration within a country. Thus, although disparities among countries decrease, a widening gap is observed between regions within countries and within large urban areas. In the empirical part, we analyse the general patterns of spatial inequality found among 55 localities in Israel with population size over 20,000. Looking at the spatial inequality relationship, both within and between cities in Israel, we show how all economic indicators measured, including inequality, decrease with distance from the core. Localities in the periphery that experience greater equality also experience lower average income, lower education, less self-employment and more unemployment.     

The Political Economy of Industrialization: A Comparison of Latin American and East Asian Newly Industrializing Countries

ABSTRACT The paper analyses the industrial performance of two East Asian (South Korea and Taiwan) and three Latin American (Argentina, Brazil and Mexico) newly industrializing countries. It argues that the better performance in East Asia is not due simply to differences in trade orientation or the degree of state intervention, but rather to the effectiveness of intervention. This is explained in terms of the relative autonomy of the state and the structuring of the state apparatus in the two regions. The historically determined class structure and the international context led to much greater state autonomy in East Asia than in Latin America. The last part of the paper shows a number of ways in which this greater relative autonomy has contributed to rapid industrial growth in East Asia in comparison with Latin America.     

Urban Food Systems and the Poor in Developing Countries

In many cities in developing countries, hunger and malnutrition are common amongst the poor, even when food is relatively abundant. Over the past two decades, a considerable literature has accumulated on the problems associated with rapid urbanization in developing countries – a literature that for the most part has neglected the important dimension of urban food systems and how these link production and consumption networks at local, regional and global levels. Similarly, whilst there is a newly burgeoning literature on global food systems, the contextual role of the urbanization process is rarely addressed. This paper attempts to fuse these two major areas of geographical investigation to highlight the issues that need to be addressed in future research programmes so that improved diets become accessible to all urban dwellers.     

The Political Economy of Housing Investment in the Short-Term Rental Market: Insights from Urban Portugal

Short-term rentals (STRs) emerged as holiday accommodations, disrupting the hospitality industry in the decade before COVID-19. Mainstream explanations for their growth revolved around digital tourism platforms like Airbnb as market disruptors and the sharing economy rationale. At the same time, critical scholars explored the capitalisation of greater rent gaps in urban central locations. However, these explanations are insufficient to explain the growth of STRs. We supplement them by building bridges between the urban political economy and the geographies of financialisation through the cases of Lisbon and Porto before the pandemic. The paper focuses on tourism-induced housing investment, taking a closer look at the profile of investors in association with STR property managers in the context of the late-entrepreneurial urban regime. We conclude that tourism development has allowed opportunities for housing financialisation through STR professionalisation, enhancing the allocation of interest-bearing capital in tourism-oriented real estate.     

基于ESDA的新疆旅游经济发展空间分异规律研究

在ArcGIS空间分析技术支持下,借助GeoDA空间自相关分析方法,以新疆85个县(市)旅游总收入及其空间差异为研究对象,分析新疆旅游经济发展空间分异格局,并用地学统计方法研究其空间分异规律,得出:(1)新疆旅游经济具有较强的空间依赖性,全局空间自相关特征明显,表现为集聚度高、异质性强、差异性大的空间极化分异态势;(2)局部上则表现为高高相聚和低低相随的两极分化格局,热点区以乌鲁木齐为中心,以昌吉州和吐鲁番、阿勒泰地区为延伸,沿交通网络向周边地区递减的空间分异格局,喀什、和田地区为冷点区;(3)交通可达性及旅游基础设施数量对新疆旅游经济发展起决定性作用,高速公路尤其是铁路对旅游经济影响最大;旅游资源优势度对旅游实现更加重要;交通区位对新疆旅游经济空间分异起着基础性作用.     

Understanding Spatial Differentiation in Urban Decline Levels

The economic and demographic changes currently manifest in many Western cities—referred to as urban decline or urban shrinkage—are receiving increased attention in public and academic debates. Although the general processes driving these changes have been identified, such processes cannot explain why regions and cities which have been exposed to similar processes still differ in their economic and demographic developments. This Western European and US-based literature review attempts to answer the question of how this interregional and intraregional variation in levels of economic and demographic decline can be understood. It is argued that the degree to which wider societal forces (such as deindustrialization, changes in international and domestic migration and changing fertility levels) impact on a particular area depends on how these forces are filtered, first, through the institutional and, second, the spatial context that the region or city is located in. To understand the differences between the cities within one region (being part of the same institutional and spatial contexts), we need to descend to the city level and take account of the local (dis)amenities, comprising its physical, social and economic assets, and the influence of (the place characteristics of) other cities in the vicinity and the socio-political framework.     

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.     

夔州城市形态与空间结构的演变

地处长江三峡中心区域的夔州,其治所由白帝—赤岬城转移到"瀼西",由利于军事防守的险峻之地迁至适于民居及进行商贾贸易之处,它们分别代表军政要塞式与经济、行政功能兼具式两种不同的治所城市模式,其转移适应了峡区政治、军事功能下降和经济功能增强的需要。与此同时,自宋至清末,建于"瀼西"的夔州城成为长距离贸易中转站及地区市场中心,城市形态的形成与变化亦受此影响,特别是为明清时期夔州府城的发展提供了更大的运作空间。城市功能区的"垂直分布"与城外街区的扩展,既与峡区的地理环境相适应,又符合商业发展和人口增殖的需要,是峡区城镇布局的典型形式。     

城市犯罪中的公共空间盲区及其综合治理

发生在城市公共空间的犯罪案件,数量大、类型多,造成的危害往往波及整个城市社会和公众,对公共空间盲区的综合治理委实是城市犯罪防控的一项十分重要的社会工程。本文分析了城市公共空间的各种空间特性,指出公共空间功能面向的广泛性、人员物资的流动性、空间结构的开放性和空间归属的无主性等是造成大量空间盲区的重要原因。根据外部形态和内部结构的不同,本文将公共空间分为封闭型、相对封闭型和非封闭型等3种类型,并分门别类地阐述了综合治理各种公共空间盲区的主要措施和工作重点。