Housing Choice in a Regulated Market: A Nested Multinomial Logit Analysis

The paper integrates several important elements of the institutionalized and regulated nature of the housing market and analyzes the relationship between household type and housing choice in Vienna within a nested multinomial logit framework. In particular, the concept of household specific choice sets is used to account for institutional, informational and income-based constraints of the choice process. Government subsidies (such as housing and rent allowances, non-interest-bearing state loans) are explicitly taken into account in the definition of variables. Housing choice is considered in three stages: the choice of a dwelling unit given dwelling type and residential zone, the choice of a dwelling type given residential zone, and the marginal choice of a residential zone. The coefficients are derived by means of a sequential ML-procedure. The empirical results clearly indicate that demographic variables have significant impacts on housing choice behavior. Income as a single explanatory variable as well as its interacting with size measures and the quality of the house are found to be important criteria for dwelling unit choice, as housing cost variables for dwelling type choice behavior. The dwelling unit and dwelling type choice submodels fit reasonably well, whereas the residential zone model is less successful.     

Spatial Distribution of Shopping Malls and Analysis of their Trade Areas in Istanbul

This paper investigates the spatial distribution of shopping malls with respect to population and analyses the factors which effect the shopping mall location. According to the results, while the shopping mall space ratio is higher than population ratio in the intermediate zone, the reverse is true in the periphery. The relationships between the shopping mall space and income, population and distance to the central business district (CBD) of the locations are investigated by the use of regression analysis. The results reveal that income is the only factor affecting the location of shopping malls among those considered. In addition, three shopping malls from the inner and peripheral zones of Istanbul were analysed with respect to frequency to shopping centres and characteristics of trade areas. According to the results, the size of the catchment area of the shopping mall from the inner zone is larger then the peripheral ones due to higher accessibility with alternative transportation systems and supporting functions in its surrounding areas. The results fall within the concept of central place theory. Further research is suggested by expending the study to the other areas of the city with different characteristics to calculate their retail potential and their spatial implications.     

Pillars and electoral behavior in Belgium: The neighborhood effect revisited

This paper explores the processes behind the neighborhood effect in electoral geography. Studies on neighborhood effect have largely ignored the local institutions and cultural milieu within which people are socialized. By taking into account the spatially differentiated social embedding of individuals, we are able to highlight the impact of local institutions on electoral behavior and restore the temporal dimension that has shaped the political specificities of places. In the case of Belgium, we show that social embedding (which took the very accomplished form of pillars) affects voting behavior through two different channels: a direct effect, coming from the family transmission of pillar values, and a contextual effect captured by a measure of the local embeddedness of the pillar.     

Colonial Streets and Statues: Postcolonial Belgium in the Public Space

Belgium has a very one-sided way of dealing with its colonial past in its public space. The country has hundreds of street names and memorials for white colonials, but not a single tribute to a Congolese. There are at least fifteen monuments for King Leopold II, some of which are occasionally vandalized, but only one presents a plaque with background information. Only one other monument, for a missionary in Antwerp, has been contextualized with an interpretive panel. The demand of Congolese migrants to name a square in the Brussels borough Ixelles/Elsene after Lumumba, has yet to be satisfied after more than ten years.

This situation contrasts that of other former colonial metropoles and can be explained by several factors. Belgium has far fewer postcolonial migrants, who in other countries often have the loudest and most critical voice in the postcolonial debate. Moreover, the postcolonial fight in Belgium is waged with sensitive symbols: a king (Leopold II) and an assassinated prime minister (Lumumba). This makes the debate much more emotionally charged. Last but not least, Belgium has gone through a great identity crisis over the past ten years. Left-wing pundits, who are traditionally more critical of the colonial past, and mainstream opinion-makers have avoided sparking the postcolonial debate so as to not fuel Flemish nationalism.     

Denied ethnicism: on the Walloon movement in Belgium

The Walloon movement is the lesser‐known counterpart to the Flemish movement in Belgium. In contemporary political debate it presents itself, and is usually perceived, as a civic and voluntaristic movement predicated on the values of democracy, freedom, openness and anti‐nationalism. As such it is contrasted against its Flemish counterpart, which accordingly is characterised as tending towards an ethnic exclusivist form of nationalism hinging on descent, culture and language. However, the historical record behind these representations shows that the Walloon movement is rooted in ethno‐cultural as much as social politics, and that it has always contained both civic and ethnic elements to varying degrees. This article highlights the Walloon movement in order to analyse the language and national stereotypes in which national movements are characterised both in political rhetoric and in scholarly analysis. The case is particularly relevant for the problematic usage of the ‘civic–ethnic’ opposition, slipping between the discourses of antagonism and analysis; one type of such slippage is here identified as ‘denied ethnicism’.     

天津市发展会展旅游的SWOT分析及战略选择

会展旅游是一种高利润,高产出的旅游项目。西通过SWOT分析法,分析了天津市发展会展旅游的优势,劣势,机会和威胁,提出了在新的市场环境下天津市的战略选择及实施措施。     

A Centre for Excellence in Education for Sustainable Development

The English higher education landscape has recently experienced a significant change with the addition of 74 Centres for Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CETLs), each one devoted to a particular educational issue or theme. This paper highlights a CETL which is of special interest to geographers in that it is focused on the promotion of education for sustainable development (ESD). The CETL is based at the University of Plymouth, UK, and is tasked with the responsibility of embedding a whole-university approach to sustainability. It will also seek to encourage best practice more widely, working with other institutions regionally, nationally and internationally.     

Smart Growth Policy Choice: A Resource Dependency and Local Governance Explanation

Smart growth is a planning and land use policy objective that generally focuses on where development should occur and how best to protect natural resources. What explains the adoption of smart growth policy by local government? This study focuses on a cooperative intergovernmental program that seeks to enhance local government abilities to work toward achieving state goals on sustainability. Extant research suggests that local interest group preferences shape policy decisions. However, much of the evidence on the influence of local interest groups on smart growth policy is presented within the coercive intergovernmental context. This article argues that resource dependency influences local decisions in pursuing a smart growth agenda when state incentives are provided. The findings suggest that fiscal capacity and the characteristics of local governing institutions are significant predictors in the decision to take part in an intergovernmental program. Business and neighborhood interest groups have a significant effect on policy adoption, as do local characteristics depending on the smart growth functional area.