PLACE AND SPACE IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPE: SOME LESSONS AND REFLECTIONS*

The “localities debate,” stimulated by the Economic and Social Research Council's “Changing Urban and Regional Systems” initiative, was conducted in the pages of Antipode and Society and Space at a length that showed scant regard for emerging environmental sensitivities. Much of it involved politically contentious claims and increasingly exhausted theory; it resolved very little and in that sense was little more than a storm in a pretty familiar pudding basin. A later flirtation with postmodernism simply pushed aside questions of explanation while raising the political stakes as celebration of the differences between places became the order of the day. Nonetheless, important issues emerge from or relate to that debate, and we draw on our experiences to comment on three of them: (i) agents, structures, the production of space and the material bases of place: some issues of theory; (ii) the production of places, people's attachment to place, and place-based political strategies: some issues of practice; (iii) localities, postmodernism and the difference that place makes: is the regressive turn to postmodernism as approach avoidable?     

ALUMINA AND CALCIUM OXIDE CONTENT OF GLASS FOUND IN WESTERN AND NORTHERN EUROPE, FIRST TO NINTH CENTURIES

Summary. The glass of Gallo-roman origin and that considered as coming from the several centuries after the disintegration of the Roman empire has much the same composition in examples found in northern and western Europe. The components calcium oxide and alumina (CaO and Al₂O₃) increase or decrease together. Compositional variation between different samples from this geographic area are not much greater than those at a single site of manufacture. Contamination during the manufacture process is unlikely to account for the CaO and Al₂O₃ contents in glass from this period according to analyses of glass adhering to crucibles or fusion pots. CaO and Al₂O₃ were apparently added intentionally to the glass composition. A slight tendency to an increase in these oxides is accompanied by a decrease in Na₂O content which might be due to a loss through volatilization during re-workings. Such a trend is apparent in the eighth to ninth century samples. The remarkably constant composition of glass found in a wide area for objects produced over a long period of time suggests that a limited number of production sites existed for either the raw materials or the confection of raw glass which was fashioned at various other sites.     

GRAVITY AND SPATIAL STRUCTURE: THE CASE OF INTERSTATE MIGRATION IN MEXICO*

ABSTRACT The estimation of gravity models of internal (aggregate) place‐to‐place migration is plagued with endogeneity (omitted‐variable) biases if the unobserved effects of spatial structure are not accounted for. To address this econometric problem, this paper presents a more general specification of the gravity model, which allows for (bilateral) parameter heterogeneity across individual migration paths—along with (unilateral) origin‐ and destination‐specific effects. The resultant “three‐way fixed‐effects” (3FE) model is applied for an analysis of interstate migration in Mexico based on cross‐sectional data. To overcome parameter‐dimensionality problems (due to limited or incomplete information), the 3FE model is estimated using the Generalized Maximum Entropy (GME) estimator. The empirical implications of this new modeling strategy are illustrated by contrasting the 3FE‐GME estimates with those for the traditional and two‐way fixed‐effects (2FE) models. The former are far more plausible and intuitively interpretable than their traditional and 2FE counterparts, with parameter estimates changing in expected directions. The (average) effect of the migrant stock is markedly smaller than usually estimated, providing a more realistic measure of network‐induced migration. Migration outflows from centrally located origins have significantly steeper distance decay. Path‐specific distance effects exhibit directional asymmetries and spatial similarities.     

西部典型区农村居民旅游消费特征及影响因素研究——以甘肃省农村居民为例

文章以甘肃省农村居民为个案,基于甘肃省526位农村居民的微观调查数据,对西部典型地区农村居民旅游消费特征及其影响因素进行了定量考察。研究表明:甘肃省农村居民旅游消费观念落后,消费意愿不够强烈,出游频数较低,年均旅游消费支出相当有限,偏好与亲友结伴出游,出游时间主要集中于农闲时间,出游目的主要以探亲访友和观光游览为主,出游选择的交通工具主要为汽车和火车,亲友介绍是其获取旅游信息的主要渠道。与东、中部较发达地区农村居民旅游消费有所不同,可自由支配收入及旅游产品价格依然是影响甘肃省农村居民旅游消费的主导因素。     

西部大城市居民通勤特征及其与城市空间结构的关系研究——以成都市为例

以成都市为实证研究对象,在大规模问卷调查的基础上,对西部大城市居民通勤基本特征进行了研究。分析发现,西部大城市居民通勤方式以公共交通为主,选择私家车作为通勤工具的比例较高;大部分居民的通勤时间在30分钟以内,通勤距离小于5km。和北京、广州等东部大城市相比,西部大城市职住分离现象还不是非常严重;不同属性居民的通勤时间存在差异,西方空间错位假说反映的城市社会空间不平等现象在中国西部大城市同样存在并逐步显化;通勤空间组织特征与城市结构以及城市功能分区存在密切的关系;西部大城市的快速发展对居民日常通勤影响较大。     

EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF OFFICE RENT AND AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES: A CASE STUDY OF TORONTO*

ABSTRACT. An equilibrium model of office location is applied and tested in the Toronto metropolitan area. The model focuses on the role of communication among firms which is the driving force behind the spatial agglomeration of office firms. The model calculates the equilibrium floor rent in each district, given the existing building stock. The performance of the model is tested in terms of the goodness of fit between observed and estimated office rent in each district. By using the model, we estimate the value of agglomeration economies which is defined as changes in productivities caused by increases in the number of office firms. It is shown that the agglomeration economies in the office sector are much larger than those in manufacturing, and the external effects of agglomeration are considerably large.     

CHARACTERIZATION OF PLASTERS AND MORTARS AS A TOOL IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDIES: THE CASE OF LARDIRAGO CASTLE IN PAVIA,NORTHERN ITALY*

Plasters and mortars from Lardirago Castle (Pavia, northern Italy) have been characterized by means of petrographical and chemical analyses in order to achieve technical and historical evidence of material production. The study focused on the oldest nucleus of the structure, where hidden plastered masonry has been discovered recently. Textural and compositional data of the binder and the aggregate fractions were collected by means of optical microscopy and electron microscopy coupled with microanalysis. These data permit the identification of building materials with similar technical and compositional characteristics, which can be related to different building phases.     

中国西部平原型大城市居民通勤特征研究——以西安市为例

为解决早晚高峰交通拥堵问题,有必要研究居民通勤特征,为城市规划、管理提供参考。本文以西安为实证研究对象,采用空间分层随机抽样法发放问卷进行调查研究,并将研究结果与东部类似城市北京进行对比。研究发现西安居民通勤以公共交通为主,但地面交通中私家车高于公交车;通勤时间反映职住分离程度低于东部;以内部通勤和内向通勤为主,同时,运用引力模型对通勤流与城市空间结构的关系进行计算,发现通勤流反映城市空间结构为单中心,在分析通勤特征背后原因的基础上,从城市规划的角度提出相应的治堵建议。     

PHYSICOCHEMICAL COMPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS OF CERAMICS: A CASE STUDY IN KENTING,TAIWAN*

The composition of ceramics does not just reflect the component of some specific, unprocessed, geological, raw material source, but also certain forms of human behaviour involved in its manufacture. The purpose of this research project is to apply the acid‐extraction chemical method, complemented by a thin‐section petrographic study, to the compositional analyses of certain local ceramic collections (mainly from several sites in the southern Taiwan area). The results present the raw materials that the ceramic manufacturers of the two cultural traditions (O‐laun‐pi Phase II and Phase III–IV), which overlapped temporally, used. These materials came from the same sources, but the ceramics were manufactured in different ways. Particularly, the people of O‐laun‐pi Phase III–IV also procured certain materials from either local sources or from somewhere in eastern Taiwan to make their pots. The results also indicate that there might have been a variation in terms of their manufacture among sites of the same cultural tradition.     

中外人文地理学论文写作之差别

对人文地理学者而言,论文的写作与发表至关重要。基于新世纪以来的个人学术阅读,认为国内人文地理学论文写作在不断进步,但与欧美人文地理期刊上的论文相比,还存在一些差距。这种差距主要表现在研究思路、理论框架、文献综述、引证、讨论等部分,笔者作了初步的探讨。在学术论文写作中,我们需要基于自己的方法论,认真交待研究问题和研究思路,阐明理论框架,完善文献综述,认真对待引证,并改进讨论部分的写作。