ECOSEMIOTICS: MAIN PRINCIPLES AND CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS

Ecosemiotics studies the role of environmental perception and conceptual categorization in the design, construction, and transformation of environmental structures. This article provides a brief review of the history of ecosemiotics, and formulates eight core principles of the ecosemiotic approach. The ecosemiotic view understands humans as capable of both prelinguistic (biosemiotic) and linguistic (cultural) modelling of their environment. Accordingly, the diversity of structures is, to a certain extent, resultant of the types of semioses partaking in their formation. Ecosemiotics could provide geography with conceptual tools to describe the role of signs and communication in the dynamics of physical environments.     

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE - PAST ACHIEVEMENTS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS

This paper is the text of the inaugural lecture given by the author in the Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre on 23 October 1990 following his appointment in October 1989 to the Edward Hall Chair of Archaeological Science, at the University of Oxford     

AN ASSESSMENT OF THE CURRENT APPLICATIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS OF OBSIDIAN SOURCING STUDIES IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH*

This paper thematically characterizes a large body of recent obsidian sourcing discourse as a means of highlighting the current place of obsidian provenance studies in larger archaeological discourse. It is shown that the field of obsidian sourcing is flourishing, with a clear upward trend in the number of published studies in the past decade. This paper further argues that sourcing is a means to an end, a way to determine where artefacts originate, and thus a means of addressing broader archaeological problems. Through this contextual framework, obsidian sourcing studies—and indeed all provenance studies—are seen as relevant because they transcend the increasingly specialized world of archaeological discourse.     

AGGLOMERATION AND REGIONAL COSTS OF LIVING*

ABSTRACT Standard models of the new economic geography predict that costs of living are lower in the core than in the periphery. But in reality they tend to be higher in agglomeration areas, mainly because of regional differences in housing costs. In this paper, we add a home goods sector to the seminal NEG model of Krugman (1991) . We show that a core–periphery structure can endogenously emerge in which the core is the more expensive area. This result has an important normative implication. Since higher costs of living imply falling real wages if there is no nominal wage premium, it is not desirable for everybody to live in the core region.     

旅游流空间模式基本理论:问题分析及其展望

旅游流是旅游地理学的基本问题,而旅游流空间模式的研究,自20世纪50年代以来则是旅游流研究的热点问题。通过文献分析法,本文将旅游流空间模式基本理论梳理为圈层结构理论、核心边缘理论、空间扩散理论。在此基础上,揭示其存在的若干问题,包括研究中存在的"区域视角"和"旅游者个体视角"混淆的认知问题、旅游客源地和旅游目的地在区域视角下如何界定的问题、空间模式研究中广泛存在的"二元陷阱"问题、区域间旅游职能分化及其分化程度尚无科学分析的问题等。文末对未来研究进行了展望,以期从理论意义上深化旅游流基本问题的建构。需指出的是,旅游流作为"非工作流"的一种,其"流现象"、"流空间"和"流效应"同样可适用于其它形式的"流研究"。     

竞争性区域主义与区域建构研究展望

随着全球化的不断深入,竞争性区域主义开始盛行于全球各地,并掀起区域建构的热潮。本研究对西方学术界的竞争性区域主义和区域建构理论进行了系统综述,内容涉及社会建构的区域、空间规划在区域建构中的作用、区域建构的阶段和区域建构中利益相关者的冲突与博弈等方面。在此基础上,对我国城市竞争和空间规划等相关研究进行了综述,对我国竞争性区域主义与区域建构研究进行了展望。     

SHIPPING COSTS,INFORMATION COSTS,AND THE SOURCES OF INDUSTRIAL COAGGLOMERATION*

ABSTRACT Direct trade between establishments, coupled with costs of trading goods and information across space, has long been considered a primary determinant of industrial colocation. However, researchers have had difficulty decomposing the effects of interindustry trade into these two cost components. Using new techniques for separately estimating shipping and information costs, this paper provides an empirical framework for identifying the various sources of industrial coagglomeration among U.S. manufacturing industries. My findings suggest that both interindustry shipping costs and information costs influence metropolitan‐level coagglomeration. Additional evidence points to the significant role of direct information costs in determining intraindustry agglomerations.     

THE SIZE OF NATURE RESERVES AND COSTS OF THEIR MAINTENANCE

A paper devoted to nature reserve size in the USSR, and more specifically to whether the areas of such reserves are adequate in particular natural zones and for particular species, determines that too many zapovedniki presently are too small to carry out their intended functions properly. In fact, until quite recently, in spite of a dramatic expansion of the total area and number of nature reserves, average reserve size has decreased. A trend toward decreasing reserve size and increasing per hectare maintenance expenditures can be noted as the level of economic development characteristic of particular natural zones increases (translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005).     

CONSTRUCTION COSTS AND THE SUPPLY OF HOUSING STRUCTURE*

ABSTRACT Construction costs account for the bulk of the price of new houses in most markets, but their study has been relatively neglected. We document that there are economically large differences in construction costs across U.S. housing markets. We also estimate a very elastic supply for physical structure; hence, differences in construction activity across markets do not explain the variation in costs. Supply shifters that collectively do account for differences in building costs include the extent of unionization within the construction sector, local wages, local topography in terms of the presence of high hills and mountains, and the local regulatory environment.     

城市居住与就业空间关系研究进展及展望

城市居住与就业空间关系是城市地理学与城市经济学研究的重要领域之一,有必要梳理国内外研究进展及发展趋向。本文从理论基础、方法论、区位选择及影响因素三个方面回顾了城市居住与就业空间关系的相关研究,并对其进行述评与展望。研究首先厘清了居住与就业空间关系研究的理论基础;其次从通勤行为、就业可达性测度等方面总结了职住关系测度的方法论,并对居住-就业区位选择的影响因素进行了梳理;最后对国内外职住关系研究内容进行比较与述评,并展望了有待进一步深入研究的领域。     

规划决策民主化:基于城市管治的透视

管治是探索政府、市场、公众等多元力量协调整合的理念与过程。在中国城市发展面临巨大转型的背景下引入、借鉴管治的思维,对促进城市规划健康发展与决策民主化都具有重要的意义。文章介绍了管治的背景、内涵,从管治的角度论述了中国特定发展环境中的城市规划民主决策问题,并辨证地评析了管治的作用。文章认为,中国正在转变的社会经济背景和城市管理的要求,使得管治进入中国有其必然性和必要性。随后文章分别从城市规划存在的整体性体制缺陷、政府的企业化导向、薄弱的公民社会等方面,分别阐述了在中国开展城市规划决策民主化所面临的严峻挑战。在发展转型期,中国城市规划决策的民主化只能是有限目标、有限进度的。文章的基本结论是:城市规划决策民主化是与整体社会经济发展阶段、体制相匹配的一个环节,它的建设与完善取决于整体的社会管治水平。     

AGING NATIONS AND THE FUTURE OF CITIES*

ABSTRACT We investigate whether an aging population may challenge the supremacy of large working cities. To this end, we develop an economic geography model with two types of individuals (workers and retirees) and two sectors (local services and manufacturing). Workers produce and consume; the elderly consume only. As a result, the mobility decision of workers is driven by both the wage gap and the cost‐of‐living gap, unlike the elderly who react to the differences in the cost of living only. We show that the return of pre‐industrial urban system dominated by rentier cities does not seem to be on the agenda. Quite the opposite, the future of large working cities is still bright, the reason being that today's urban costs act as a strong force that prevents a large share of local services and manufacturing firms from following the rentiers in the elderly cities, while the supply of differentiated b2c services impede their complete separation.