SOCIAL AND SPATIAL PATTERNS UNDER FORDISM AND FLEXIBLE ACCUMULATION

Current debate surrounding Fordism and flexible accumulation centers on explaining their transition and the implications for capital and labor. This article disagrees with the argument that technology and capital competition are the basis for transition and focuses instead on the labor process. Using a case study of the French automobile industry since the Second World War, the analysis examines the transition in production and the link between spatial organization and the labor process. Contradictions in the current phase of capitalist production are apparent in the divergent trends towards international dispersal and regional integration of automobile production, and the deepening social divisions of labor.     

THE GRAVITY MODEL AND HIERARCHICAL SPATIAL SYSTEMS: THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL OBSERVATIONS

The gravity model in its basic forms postulates that the volume of interaction between two places will be positively related to the populations (masses) of the two places and inversely related to their distance apart. Although it is not strictly speaking a hierarchical model, it is often used to explain flows among places that constitute a hierarchical spatial system. This paper is specifically concerned with the effect of hierarchical spatial structure on the performance of the gravity model. Accordingly, I will examine first the effect of hierarchical structure on the volume of interaction between places and second the degree to which the gravity model incorporates these hierarchical effects. Third, suggestions will be made for the improvement of the gravity model's performance by an explicit incorporation of a hierarchical element. The performance of the gravity model will be examined for both one-way and two-way flows between places.     

我国城市社会空间结构特征及其演变趋势

城市社会空间结构是城市社会分化在地域空间上的表现.本文在介绍西方城市社会空间一般规律的基础上,分析研究了我国城市社会空间独有的结构特征及其形成机制,并结合我国城市社会经济状况的变化,对我国城市社会空间结构的演变趋势进行了探讨.     

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.     

SPATIAL PATTERNS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE SOVIET UNION

Analysis of spatial patterns of attained educational levels is helpful in understanding the cultural geography of an area, perhaps especially in the Soviet Union, with its many ethnic groups and stated aim of providing equality of education regardless of ethnicity or sex. The proportion of the population that had completed a higher education was mapped at oblast level from 1970 census data. High rates are found in certain urban areas, Estonia and Latvia, Georgia, and certain sparsely populated areas of the Far North, Siberia, and the Far East. There are regional patterns of disparity between male and female rates of completed higher education and between rural and urban rates, despite Soviet attempts to reduce these inequalities. The distribution of Soviet higher educational institutions conforms generally to the distribution of population, although access to higher education opportunities appears to be geographically limited in some regions. (Maps by Joann L. Krupa, George Mason University.)     

GEOGRAPHICAL SYSTEMS AND ECONOMIC-GEOGRAPHICAL SYSTEMS

A group of physical geographers of the Institute of Geography in Moscow, the principal academic research institution in geography, published an article in 1974 seeking to define and categorize terms and concepts now being used in Soviet geography. The article said the term geosystem (geographical system) applied equally to physical-geographical and socio-economic entities, and the term “geographical environment”, in actual research practice, referred not only to the physical setting of human activities, but also to engineering elements and social conditions. The present writer contends that such a definition of the geographical environment, incorporating both natural and social elements, smacks of a unified geography, and that geosystems, as originally defined, refer only to natural terrestrial systems, excluding man.     

SPATIAL VARIATIONS IN REGIONAL SURFACE ENERGY EXCHANGE PATTERNS FOR MONTREAL, QUEBEC

Satellite imagery from the Heat Capacity Mapping Mission (HCMM) was analysed for Montreal, Quebec. From this imagery, regional metropolitan maps of day/night surface temperatures are produced for an area of approximately 10⁴km². With the implementation of a surface energy budget model coupled with the satellite data, maps of non-radiative transfers (sensible and latent energy), along with surface properties (moisture availability and thermal inertia), are produced. Regional land surface cover maps are also constructed and then compared with energy exchange patterns. The visual spatial correlation indicates the dominant role that urbanization plays on modifying local climate. In addition, spatial patterns of thermal inertia and moisture availability can now be produced directly from satellite dated rather than being inferred from land-use maps or other planning data. With this development, a data base of urban surface properties can he compiled for climatic impact purposes/i>. Des images satellites provenant du Heat Capacity Mapping Mission (HCMM) furent analysées pour Montréal, Québec. Àl'aidedeces images, des cartes métropolitaines régionales de températures de surface nuit/jour furent produites pour une superficie approximative de 10⁴ km². A partir d'un modèle de bilan énergitique de surface couplé aux données satellites, des cartes d'échanges d'énergie (énergie latente et sensible) furent produites, tenant compte des propriétés recontrées en surface (hum-idité disponsible et inertie thermique). Des cartes régionales de la couverture terrestre en surface furent également construites puis comparées avec celles des échanges d'énergie. Une corrélation spatiale visuelle indique le rôle dominant que joue l'urbanisation dans la modification des climats locaux. De plus, la configuration spatiale de l'inertie thermique et de I'humidité dkponible peut maintenant être produite directement a partir de données satellites. ll n'est plus nécessaire d'estimer la configuration à partir des cartes d'utilisation du sol ou en employant d'autres procédés semblables. Avec cette méthode, on peut assembler une banque de données des propriétés rencontrées en surface urbaine pour des fins d'analyses d'impacts climatiques.     

ABORIGINAL SOCIAL INEQUALITY AND RECIPROCITY

This paper seeks to show that while the idea of reciprocity is fundamental in Australian Aboriginal societies, inequalities are also inherent in the kinship system itself. An attempt is then made to articulate these two aspects and to specify the form of social inequality which is characteristic of Australia. Cet article prétend montrer, d'une part, que l'idée de réciprocité est fondamentale dans les sociétés australiennes, d'autre part, que les inégalités le sont tout autant dans la mesure où elles sont insuites et fondeés dans la parenté elle-même. Il cherche aussi à montrer comment réciprocité et inégalité s'articulent entre elles. Enfin, it tente de spécifier la forme d'inégalité sociale caractéristique de l'Australie.     

MILL PRICING AND SPATIAL PRICE DISCRIMINATION MONOPOLY PERFORMANCE AND LOCATION WITH SPATIAL RETAIL MARKETS*

ABSTRACT. Most of the monopoly spatial price discrimination literature explicitly assumes uniform population density over space. It also implicitly assumes that firms (plants) are spatially isolated from each other with production and retail points that coincide in location. While departures from these assumptions have been explored separately in the literature, it remains to examine performance and location when these assumptions are relaxed simultaneously. What emerges in this paper is a model where density functions approximate a pair of cities isolated from other cities. Each city has its own retail market, while the location of a single production or wholesale point is determined by characteristics of the two markets. Comparisons of mill pricing and spatial price discrimination found in the spatial monopoly literature can be interpreted as special cases of the more general framework provided here.     

SPATIAL DEPENDENCE AND SPATIAL STRUCTURAL INSTABILITY IN APPLIED REGRESSION ANALYSIS*

The stability of regression coefficients over the observation set (“regional homogeneity”) is typically assessed by means of a Chow test or within a seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) framework. When spatial error autocorrelation is present in cross-sectional equations the traditional tests are no longer applicable. I evaluate this both in formal terms as well as empirically. I introduce a taxonomy of spatial effects in models for structural instability, and discuss its implication for testing. I compare the performance of traditional tests, robust approaches, maximum-likelihood procedures and pretest techniques by means of a series of simple Monte Carlo experiments.