Determinants of Net Migration to Rural Areas,and the Impacts of Migration on Rural Labour Markets and Self-Employment in Rural Sweden

Abstract

Across most of Europe, the countryside seems to show a polarized development in which large districts are depopulating, while certain areas, mainly around big- and mid-sized cities, are increasing in population. The latter development is often described in concepts of “rural gentrification” and “rurbanization”, symbolizing a transformation of rural communities to communities with urban values and lifestyles. Most studies of the effects of these processes have focused on social and cultural consequences, as e.g. the displacements of lower-income households with higher-income residents and of rural culture and values with urban ones. This paper examines the phenomenon from another perspective, namely the effects of the “rurbanization” processes on countryside's labour markets and economic life. This paper aims at analysing the determinants of net migration to rural areas in general and to different types of regions, and the impacts of in-migration on rural labour markets, self-employment and other socio-economic conditions in Sweden for the period of 2003–2005. We find that net migration into rural areas increases with the size of adjacent local and regional centres, whereas net migration decreases with the average commuting distance of workers in the rural areas. When comparing in-migrants to rural areas with rural area stayers, our results indicate that the former has lower incomes, a lower employment ratio and a lower degree of entrepreneurial activities. These differences could—at least partly—be explained by the fact that rural area stayers were on average 6 years older than rural area in-migrants, i.e. the two groups were in different stages of their life cycles.     

Infrastructuring Public Sector Innovation: Challenging Municipal Work Practices in Copenhagen

Abstract

In a complex and changing field, influenced by globalization, technological development, and increased differentiation and complexity in all parts of society, urban planners are increasingly required to rethink and innovate the way they manage and develop cities. As the contemporary focus on public sector innovation and “liveability” in cities gains momentum, the pressure on planners to re-invent their practices is becoming an interesting focal point for urban studies and raises the question of how research can engage with, and participate in, the development of new urban planning practices. This article reports from the action research project “Create your City”, which intervened in the innovation strategy of the Technical and Environmental Administration of Copenhagen during the period 2011–2013. The article shows how researchers can engage with the contemporary challenges for urban planning by staging interventions that allow planners to imagine the city in new ways, and develop new planning practices in the process. By analysing the infrastructuring of “Create your City”, the article shows how the project contributed to the development of new innovative practices in the administration, and points towards new potentials for scholarly engagement in the field of urban planning.     

In Situ Urbanization in Rural China: Case Studies from Fujian Province

In most parts of the developing world, the urbanization process has been dominated by rural–urban migration and the growth of existing cities. However, case‐studies in China’s Fujian Province suggest that this process can also be achieved mainly by in situ transformation in rural areas. Such in situ transformation of rural areas has been driven mainly by two forces, the development of township and village enterprises (TVEs) and the inflow of foreign investment; and facilitated by the relevant policies adopted by the Chinese government since 1978. The former has been very effective in the transformation of rural employment structure, while the latter has brought many physical changes to the previously rural landscape. Being mutually complementary, these two ways of rural transformation have not only benefited and urbanized the rural areas, but kept many farmers in their hometowns, replacing the dominant role of rural–urban migration and the growth of existing cities in the urbanization process.     

Mapping the soft city: using cognitive mapping to respond to London-based literature and explore the construction of teenage place-related identity

ABSTRACT

Raban (1974. Soft City: What Cities Do To Us, and How They Change the Way We Live, Think and Feel. London: Hamish Hamilton, 2) distinguishes between the ‘hard’ city of statistics and maps, versus the ‘soft’ city of the ‘creative play of urban living’, ‘an art’ which enables urbanites to mould cities in their desired image. This case study reviews approaches to conceptualising urban space, exploring practical tasks through which London students can engage with, and write about, their place-related identities in order to enhance their readings of the rich range of literature set in their city. Developing an unconventional approach to teaching two A-level (16–18 years old) English Literature coursework texts – John Gay’s (1716) Trivia and Geoff Nicholson’s (1997) Bleeding London – it was hoped that students might be helped to ask whether a comprehensive (‘hard’) knowledge of London can ever be achieved. This case study is primarily an account of the students’ own London maps, a creative task designed to help them engage thematically with the coursework texts.     

Yiwu: Historical transformation and contributing factors

ABSTRACT

Yiwu has transformed from one of the poorest rural counties in the 1970s to one of the richest modern cities in China during the 2010s. This paper examines this significant historical transformation and its key contributing factors along the five dimensions: marketization, industrialization, urbanization, internationalization and digitalization. It also identifies what historical and contemporary factors stimulated the rapid growth of Yiwu and how Yiwu is a special case in comparison to other Chinese localities. This paper argues that business entrepreneurship, local government and their interaction have played particular roles in promoting Yiwu’s transformation. This study builds on and contributes to literature across the fields of development, entrepreneurship and anthropology. It demonstrates how entrepreneurship can promote development even if a region is lacking in what are often assumed to be necessary resources for development. However, for this to be the case there is the need for a supportive and risk-taking government.     

The Age of Environmental Impasse? Globalization and Enviromental Transformation of Metropolitan Cities

Metropolitan cities are undergoing a major spatial and environmental transformation. The proliferation of business districts, corporate headquarters and international hotels is prompting a massive verticalization and densification of land use, which is affecting the urban environment and infrastructure in a number of ways. Nowhere are urban environmental pressures so accentuated as in Third World metropolitan cities. Here the rush to gain a competitive edge in the global economy, in order to attract multinational firms and become a ‘global city’, is leading to an inconsistent urban policy framework in which development policies frequently clash with environmental policies. This article explores the environmental complexity of Third World metropolitan cities, focusing on the cases of Beijing and São Paulo. After a conceptual review of the relationship between globalization, cities and urban environmental problems, it examines how globalization is prompting spatial and environmental transformations in both cities; looks at the dichotomy between development policies and environmental policies by analysing the instruments in place; and investigates the role of globalization vis‐à‐vis urban sustainability issues.     

Rousseau's Discarded Children: The Panoply of Excuses and the Question of Hypocrisy

Summary

Although Rousseau's treatment of his children has provoked much controversy, sustained and scholarly discussions are rare. This study is the first to present the evidence comprehensively and systematically. It engages each of Rousseau's contentions about his children in order to carefully discern the significance of this episode for his life and work. It offers an analytical table of each rationale—nineteen different ones, of five major types. It discusses documents of 1751 and 1778 which strongly defend the actions, the ambiguous arguments in the Second Part of the Confessions (1769–1770), the oscillations in the period surrounding the Confessions (1764–1770), and finally the development of unqualified remorse in the middle period of Emile (1757–1762). It concludes by advancing a middle position between those who ultimately see his behaviour and associated excuses as demonstrating his unchecked individualism and subjectivism, and those who ultimately absolve this episode in order to find him a moralist in good standing.     

Urban–Rural Interactions in Latvian Changing Policy and Practice Context

Abstract

This article aims at a better comprehension of urban–rural interactions as a spatial concept and its utilization for spatial and regional policies. Based on literature review and on interviews with planners and experts, the article explores how the concept of urban–rural interactions is defined, characterized and structured. The understanding of urban and rural, how they are connected provides a basis for capturing complexities and development of urban–rural interactions. The study, reviews urban–rural policies and practises in Latvia. Contemporary built-up areas and lifestyles are influenced by imprints of past urban–rural interactions. Aspects of contextuality, cross-sectorality and informality have to be taken into consideration when urban–rural interactions are applied to the policy field. The article introduces a typology to capture both the diversity and particularity of places in terms of urban–rural connectivity. An insight is given how the current Latvian local government territorial structure can contribute to building target-oriented urban–rural partnerships.     

‘That street is taking us to home’: young children’s photographs of public spaces

ABSTRACT

Children’s identities constitute and are constituted by the everyday spaces they inhabit. Though there are innumerable accounts of what adults think public spaces like subways and city streets mean to children, fewer recorded accounts exist from young children themselves (Faulkner and Zolkos 2016, “Introduction.” In Critical Childhood Studies and the Practice of Interdisciplinarity, ix–xvii. Lexington: Lanham.). In this work I explored 2- – 5-year-old children’s conceptions of public space through the photographs they took and the narratives they told in and around those images. I focused on how children imaged their spaces, how their narrative fragments added layers of story to the images’ contents, and how their photographic performances acted as ‘visual voice’ (Burke 2005, “‘Play in Focus’: Children Researching Their Own Spaces and Places for Play.” Children Youth and Environments 15 (1): 27–53.), highlighting for us how they see themselves and their positions within the larger urban environment. The young children’s photographs depicted their growing autonomy and mobility within an urban context, attunements to non-human forms of the city, and knowledge of what it means to live in their communities.     

Settlement Patterns and Development of Social Complexity in the Yiluo Region,North China

Abstract

This international, collaborative, and interdisciplinary archaeological program examines changes in settlement patterns from the early Neolithic to the full development of states (ca. 6500–200 B.C.) in the Yiluo region of central north China. Full-coverage regional surveys are integrated with geoarchaeological investigations, ethnobotanical studies, and lithic analyses. The data are used to assess changes in population, environment, land use, agricultural production, and craft production, and to test theoretical propositions regarding the emergence and development of social complexity. Research results suggest a significant sociopolitical transformation taking place in the Yiluo basin during the Erlitou period, including the development of the first four-tiered settlement hierarchy, marked population nucleation, and economic integration between urban center and rural areas. These changes indicate the emergence of the earliest state in China.     

Controlling the Waters of Granducal Florence: A New Look at Stefano Bonsignori's View of the City (1584)

ABSTRACT

A striking feature of Stefano Bonsignori's Nova pulcherrimae civitatis Florentiae topographia accuratissime delineata, printed in 1584, is the pre-eminence of the Arno River and the detailed depiction of a variety of often quite minor water-related structures. This large (nine-sheet) map was dedicated to Francesco I de' Medici, Granduke of Florence. Contemporary initiatives and legislation as well as works of art and literature reveal that water management had been an important aspect of the policies of Francesco's father, Cosimo I, whose achievements had transformed the city's landscape and whose efforts earned the Medici ruler the title of Granduke of Tuscany in 1569. Bonsignori's portrayal of urban structures was created as a celebration of Cosimo's architectural legacy, and the depiction of the Arno, with its embankments and riverside structures, along with some of the city's fountains and wells, acknowledged granducal ambition to control its waters.     

LANDSCAPES OUT OF ORDER: STUDYING THE INNER URBAN FRINGE BEYOND THE RURAL – URBAN DIVIDE

Contemporary accounts of the inner urban fringe tend to focus on the transition from rural to urban land use and rural–urban conflicts, rather than highlighting the landscape at the city edge in its own right. It is argued in this paper that such dichotomous accounts neglect the complexity, values and conflicts of fringe landscapes. The study illustrates that an investigation into the relationship between attempts within spatial planning to design orderly places for urban expansion and the evolvement of places out of order offers a way to analyse landscape transformations at the fringe beyond the rural–urban divide. This approach will offer a multifaceted analysis of the landscape, which in turn will facilitate a more open discussion on land use and values within planning. A theoretical discussion on the interplay between ordered and disordered places is followed by a case study of the interactions between a disordered place and the ambitions within spatial planning to create order. The study has been conducted at the fringe of Burlöv (in southernmost Sweden). By way of conclusion, the findings of the case study are summarized, along with arguments that underline the need for further case studies of fringe landscapes.     

D'Arcy Thompson's ‘On Growth and Form’ and the Rediscovery of Geometry within the Geographic Tradition

Abstract

D'Arcy Thompson (1960–1948) was one of the most celebrated biologists of his day, best known for his On Growth and Form (1917) which was the first successful biophysical explanation of the size and shape of organisms. In particular, his concept of allometric growth and theory of transformations have informed cutting edge research in biometrics and practice in the fields of fine art, urban design and civil engineering. He was a seminal figure in the development of the spatial analysis tradition within geography in the 1960s and 1970s underpinning major contributions by Haggett and Bunge and inspiring Tobler to develop cartograms which liberated map projections from sole reliance on Euclidean geometry. Re-assessing his contribution to geography fifty years later, it is still to be found in Batty's work on the size, shape and scale of cities and in Dorling's World Mapper project. This re-discovery of the importance of geometry within the geographic tradition over the last half century owes much to Thompson who spent the whole of his academic life in the University of St Andrews and (what was later to become) the University of Dundee.     

P.H. Pearse and Thomas MacDonagh: a literary friendship

ABSTRACT

Tracing the relationship between P.H. [Patrick Henry] Pearse (1879–1916) and Thomas MacDonagh (1878–1916), this essay explores the impact their friendship had on their careers as writers and critics. Their work together in St Enda’s, the school for boys founded by Pearse in 1908, provides a significant context for this exploration. There, while working with MacDonagh, Pearse made drama an important part of school life and started writing plays for public performance. Meanwhile, their collaboration in putting together the St. Enda’s school journal, An Macaomh (1909–1913), helped to hone MacDonagh’s skills as a literary critic and to prepare for his later editorial role at the Irish Review (1911–1914). Attention then turns to how MacDonagh’s views on Irish literature and his translations from Old Irish influenced his friend’s development as both a critic and poet. Paticular consideration is paid to “Mise Éire”, one of Pearse’s best-known poems. Finally, similarities are considered between MacDonagh and the hero of The Wandering Hawk (1915–1916), Pearse’s unfinished, English-language, school story for children. Taken together, these various investigations reveal that, despite differing temperaments and at times divergent approaches to Irish writing, Pearse and MacDonagh enjoyed a mutually stimulating friendship that impacted positively on their literary careers.     

Constitutionalist Pu Dianjun and his new cultural movement

ABSTRACT

This article challenges the standard historiography of the New Culture Movement by tracing the important role played by Pu Dianjun, a key member of the Constitution Research Group, in the broader cultural reform movement in early Republican China. It examines Pu’s years as the president and chief editor of Chenbao (1918–1922), which he transformed from a little-read partisan paper to a widely circulated and intellectually influential newspaper in Beijing. It demonstrates that Pu’s cultural endeavors, which consisted of efforts at societal change through individual awakening, were geared toward his political ideal – the transformation of Chinese commoners into capable voters in a constitutional system. Despite his absence from the standard historiography, Pu left important legacies affecting life in China today.     

The neo-developmental cultural industries policy of Korea: rationales and implications of an eclectic policy

ABSTRACT

This article undertakes an explanatory case study of the South Korean cultural industries policy shift instituted under the Kim Dae-Jung and Roh Moo-Hyun governments (1998–2008). This shift can be well positioned within the broader context of the creative turn in national cultural policy around the world, which was initiated by the British New Labour governments (1997–2010). Despite the similarities in the driving discourses and policy methods, the Korean policy shift was significantly distinguished from its British counterpart because of the differing pace and trajectories of industrialisation in the two countries. Adopting the concept of the East Asian developmental state as an entry point, this article explores how and why South Korea went through a cultural industries policy shift in the period following the 1997–98 Asian financial crisis and, additionally, examines what kinds of changes the policy shift brought about. Understanding the rationales and implications of this neo-developmental transformation can provide a unique opportunity to re-think the fashionable creative industries policies among various nations.     

Werra Ware in Britain,Ireland and North America

Abstract

Werra slipware is a high-quality tableware, made in the Werra valley of northern Germany during the period c. 1570–1630. The history of the study of this ware is described. Its occurrence on 175 sites in Britain and Ireland, and 13 in North America, is documented and discussed. The market for this ware was very largely coastal and urban. In some instances its use may be related to communities of Strangers. The dating, vessel forms and decoration of this ware are also considered.     

Circean transformation and the poetics of Milton’s Masque

ABSTRACT

Circe’s presence in A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle (Comus) invites readers to read both Milton’s Circe and Milton’s own poetic activity through long and intertwined traditions of theology and literary commentary. Stretching from Augustine and Aquinas to the commentaries and translations of Homer and Ovid by Sponde, Sandys, and Chapman, these traditions use Circe to explore and conflate the possibility, the permanence, and the experience of both human and literary transformation. Taken up by Townshend and Jones in their Caroline court masque Tempe Restored, they become essential intertexts for Milton’s Masque. Milton embeds this discourse in his masque – a genre that places metamorphosis at the heart of its poetics – to examine the nature of Renaissance intertextuality and the authorial self and interrogate his own use of Renaissance practices of imitatio and aemulatio. In Comus’ wood, Circean transformation becomes a touchstone for the virtuous soul and the virtuous poet alike.     

Book reviews

Frontiers

Poststructualist geographies: the diabolical art of spatial science. Marcus Doel. Pp. ix + 229. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999. Price: £45.00 (hbk), £14.95 (pbk). ISBN 0 226 48720 2 (hbk), ISBN 0 226 48721 0 (pbk).

Sleight‐of‐hand

New works in geography

Geography and enlightenment. Edited by David N. Livingstone & Charles W.J. Withers. Pp.viii + 455. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Price £17.50 (pbk), £36.50 (hbk). ISBN 0 226 48721 0 (pbk), ISBN 0 226 48721 2 (hbk).

Secure from rash assault. Sustaining the Victorian environment. James Winter. Pp. xi + 342. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. Price: £ 24.95 (hbk). ISBN 0 520 21609 1.

Perspectives on British rural planning policy, 1994–97. Andrew W. Gilg. Pp. viii + 154. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999. Price £35.00 (hbk). ISBN 1 85972 641 0 (hbk).

Exploring contemporary migration. Paul Boyle, Keith Halfacree & Vaughan Robinson. Pp. 272. London: Longman, 1998. Price £18.99 (pbk). ISBN 0 58225 161 3.

Focus on Scotland

Urban highlanders: Highland‐lowland migration and urban Gaelic culture, 1700–1900. Charles W.J. Withers. Pp. 271. East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 1998. Price £20.00 (pbk). ISBN 1 86232 040 5.

Girls in trouble: sexuality and social control in rural Scotland, 1660–1780. Rosalind Mitchison & Leah Leneman. Pp. viii + 144. Edinburgh: Scottish Cultural Press, 1998. £10.95 (pbk). ISBN 1 898218 89 7 (pbk).

Girls in trouble: sexuality and social control in urban Scotland, 1660–1780. Rosalind Mitchison & Leah Leneman. Pp. viii + 164. Edinburgh: Scottish Cultural Press, 1998. £12.95 (pbk). ISBN 1 898218 90 0 (pbk).     

Clowning and tragic clowning: Miguel de Unamuno as a funny writer

ABSTRACT

The present study considers the role and function that humor has in Unamuno's intellectual and literary universe. It traces Unamuno's attitude toward humor to his reading of the Spanish character in En torno al casticismo (1895) and to his dialogue with the figure of Don Quixote, as found in Vida de Don Quijote y Sancho (1905) and Del sentimiento trágico de la vida (1912). Finally, it looks at the theory of humor offered in the novel Niebla (1914) and also at the role that humor played in Unamuno's later political writings, especially those of exile (1924–1930).