Neural Network Modeling of Constrained Spatial Interaction Flows: Design, Estimation, and Performance Issues

In this paper a novel modular product unit neural network architecture is presented to model singly constrained spatial interaction flows. The efficacy of the model approach is demonstrated for the origin constrained case of spatial interaction using Austrian interregional telecommunication traffic data. The model requires a global search procedure for parameter estimation, such as the Alopex procedure. A benchmark comparison against the standard origin constrained gravity model and the two–stage neural network approach, suggested by Openshaw (1998), illustrates the superiority of the proposed model in terms of the generalization performance measured by ARV and SRMSE.     

The Dynamics and Volatility of Commercial and Residential Property Prices: Theory and Evidence*

Abstract. This article investigates the dynamics of property prices and their interaction with output growth in a general equilibrium model. Closed form solutions and testable hypotheses are derived from a mildly restricted version of the model. The testable hypotheses are broadly supported empirically. In particular, (1) the volatility of commercial property prices is higher than that of residential property prices, (2) each of the lagged, contemporary, and forward commercial property prices is positively correlated with residential property prices, (3) the contemporaneous covariance between the two property prices is larger than the lagged covariance, and (4) output growth is positively correlated with both property prices. These results are consistent with simulations results that are based on a more general specification of the model.     

Italian Neofascism: The strategy of tension and the politics of nonreconciliation,by Anna Cento Bull

Gino Bedani, Politics and Ideology in the Italian Workers’ Movement: Union Development and the Changing Role of the Catholic and Communist Subcultures in Postwar Italy, Berg, Oxford, 1995, xiv + 365 pp., ISBN 0–85496–827‐X, £44.95.

Anna Bull and Paul Corner, From Peasant to Entrepreneur. The Survival of the Family Economy in Italy, Berg, Oxford, 1993, ix + 174 pp., ISBN 0–85496–309‐X, £29.95.

Daniela Luigia Caglioti, Il guadagno difficile. Commercianti napoletani nella seconda metà dell'Ottocento, Ricerca, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1994, 272 pp., ISBN 88–15–04755–7, 36,000 Lire.

Salvatore Casillo and Vincenzo Moretti, False imprese e falsi imprenditori. Dall'industria fantasma allo sviluppo delle aree terremotate nel Mezzogiorno, Koinè, Rome, 1993, 258 pp., 28,000 Lire.

Christopher Duggan, A Concise History of Italy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994, xiv + 320 pp., ISBN 0–521–40285–9, £25 hbk, ISBN 0–521–40848–2, £8.95 pbk.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia. The Business of Private Protection, Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass., 1993, 335 pp., ISBN 0–674–80741–3, £24.95 hbk.

Stefano Zamagni (ed.), Mercati illegaliemafie. L'economia delcrimine organizzato, II Mulino, Bologna, 1993, 410 pp., ISBN 88–15–04159–1, 50,000 Lire.

Marco Giusti and Alberto Piccinini, Ambra, Nuova ERI, Turin, 1994, 121 pp., ISBN 88–397–0902–9, 18,000 Lire.

Antonio Gramsci, Pre‐Prison Writings, edited by Richard Bellamy, translated by Virginia Cox, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994, 350 pp., ISBN 0–521–41143–2 hbk, £40.00, 0–521–42307–4 pbk, £10.95.

Richard M. Locke, Remaking the Italian Economy, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1995, xiii + 232 pp., ISBN 0–8014–2221–3, £23.50.

Luisa Passerini, Mussolini immaginario, Laterza, Bari, 1991, 290 pp., ISBN 88–420–3738–9, 45,000 Lire.

Gian Franco Pompei, Un Ambasciatore in Vaticano. Diario, 1969–1977, a cura di Pietro Scoppola, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1994, 604 pp., ISBN 88–15–04317–9, 60,000 Lire.

Lucy Riall, The Italian Risorgimento. State, Society and National Unification, Routledge, London, 1994, 101 pp., ISBN 0–415–05775–2.

Salvatore Vassallo, Il governo di partito in Italia (1943–93), Il Mulino, Bologna, 1994, 324 pp., ISBN 88–15–04589–9, 42,000 Lire.     

Christian Capital: Singapore,Evangelical Flows and Religious Hubs

Recent scholarship has pointed out the ways in which religions are increasingly commodified, primarily through two mechanisms: the monetisation of religious objects and practices, and the materialisation and extension of religious-symbolic power through new technologies and practices. These two mechanisms of monetisation and materialisation provide very concrete ways of understanding religious commodification, but they do not provide a complete picture of how religious capital is created and sustained in the holistic context of society, city and nation considered in relation to international capital flows. “Christian Capital” includes not only the commodity, consumerist and media empires particularly associated with global-reach “megachurches”, but also the less-tangible situational, relational, human-social and influential wealth created between religious agencies and their urban-national contexts. Using the case of Christian agencies in Singapore and their strategic creation of transnational influences, this paper offers a conception of Christian capital that incorporates not only the materialisation of religious influence in terms of finances and commodities, but also its expression in less tangible but significant ways in terms of the creation of an international “brand” of Singapore Christianity.     

Trials,Blunders and Profits: The Changing Contexts of Currencies in Sierra Leone

The work presented here is in the form of a case study that connects currencies with merchants in Sierra Leone from the early fragmentary British presence in 1787 to wide-scale colonisation late in the century. Through accounts from archival research, it traces particularly early examples of monetary instabilities prior to formal colonial rule as well as the first attempts made by the British to regulate indigenous currency systems and standardise them into a homogeneous currency system. Through a monetary perspective, the article shows that colonial authorities did not succeed in having full control over the currencies nor did local ways of using them determine their circulation but merchants, who were responsible for shipping specie to the region, also had a degree of control over the circulation of currencies. As such, the article provides very interesting—and complex—cases that emerged from the interfaces in situ among indigenous populations, merchant companies, international traders, settler communities and British colonial officials.     

Translation Alignment: Actor‐Network Theory,Resistance, and the Power Dynamics of Alliance in New Caledonia

Abstract: This study of resistance to multinational mining in New Caledonia expands actor‐network theory's concept of translation by exploring ways that power dynamics affect alliances and the translations that both support and challenge them. Examining relationships among an indigenous protest group, environmentalist grassroots organizations, a human rights lawyer, the mining company, and the provincial government, I argue that power often requires alliances, mediated by compatible translations. However, if alliances are to succeed, at least temporarily, these translations must be made compatible through a process of translation alignment. Ironically, this alignment inevitably alters at least one of the translations, diminishing the power of the actor‐network that articulated it to achieve its original goals. This paper's findings also enhance radical geographical understandings of capitalism's infrastructure, as uneven development increasingly relies upon—yet finds it increasingly difficult to achieve—the alignment of local communities’ translations with those of the agents of industry.