Geographically Weighted Regression: A Method for Exploring Spatial Nonstationarity

Spatial nonstationarity is a condition in which a simple “global” model cannot explain the relationships between some sets of variables. The nature of the model must alter over space to reflect the structure within the data. In this paper, a technique is developed, termed geographically weighted regression, which attempts to capture this variation by calibrating a multiple regression model which allows different relationships to exist at different points in space. This technique is loosely based on kernel regression. The method itself is introduced and related issues such as the choice of a spatial weighting function are discussed. Following this, a series of related statistical tests are considered which can be described generally as tests for spatial nonstationarity. Using Monte Carlo methods, techniques are proposed for investigating the null hypothesis that the data may be described by a global model rather than a non-stationary one and also for testing whether individual regression coefficients are stable over geographic space. These techniques are demonstrated on a data set from the 1991 U.K. census relating car ownership rates to social class and male unemployment. The paper concludes by discussing ways in which the technique can be extended.     

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David Dunstan, Governing the Metropolis, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1984, pp. 362. $24.50 (cloth)

Stuart Harris and Geoff Taylor (eds), Resource Development and the Future of Australian Society, Canberra, Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Australian National University, 1982, pp.305. $14.95 (paper)

W. Ross Johnston, The Call of the Land: A History of Queensland to the Present Day, Milton, Jacaran‐da Press, 1982, pp. 229. $19.75 (cloth)

D. J. Killen, Killen: Inside Australian Politics, Brisbane, Methuen Haynes, 1985, pp. 355 $25.00 (cloth)

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W. J. Byrt, The Framework of Consensus: Government, Business & Trade Unions, Sydney, Law Book Company, 1985, pp. 220. $17.50 (paper)

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Tim Rowse, Arguing the arts: the funding of arts in Australia, Ringwood, Penguin, 1985, pp. 143. $7.95 (paper)

Russell Mathews, Fiscal equalisation in education, Canberra, Centre for Research on Federal Financial Relations, Australian National University, 1983, pp. 180. $12.00 (paper)

Constance Larmour, Labor Judge: The Life and Times of Judge Alfred William Foster, Sydney, Hale & Iremonger, 1985, pp. 286. $14.95 (paper), $29.95 (cloth)

Don Rawson and Chris Fisher (eds), Changing Industrial Law, Sydney, Croom Helm, 1984, pp.xxii + 235. $24.95 (cloth)

Douglas W. Smith and Donald W. Rawson, Trade Union Law In Australia: The Legal Status of Australian Trade Unions, Second Edition, Sydney, Butterworths, 1985, pp.xvii + 204. $37.50 (cloth)

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Immanuel Wallerstein The Politics of The World Economy, London, Cambridge University Press, 1984, pp. 191. $26.50 (paper)

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John Keane, Public Life and Late Capitalism: toward a socialist theory of democracy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1984, pp. 340. $66.50 (cloth)

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Engagement in a Public Forum: Knowledge,Action, and Cosmopolitanism

Facing challenges to the civic purpose of higher education, some scholars and administrators turn to the rhetoric of engagement. Simultaneously, the political philosophy of cosmopolitanism has gained intellectual favor, advocating openness to the lived experiences of distant others. We articulate linkages between these two discourses in an extended case study, finding that a cosmopolitan ethos of engagement in a rural context can improve (1) understanding among people ordinarily separated by spatialized social‐ecological differences, (2) prospects for longer term environmental sustainability, and (3) the visionary potential of collaborative inquiry. Despite globalization of food systems and neoliberal shifts in fishery management, an annual fisheries forum facilitates coalitions that overcome dichotomies between technocratic and local knowledge, extending benefits to fishing communities, academia, and public policy. Iterative and loosely structured capacity building expands informally through affective processes of recognition and care, as decentralized leadership supports collective mobilization toward alternate futures.     

The Mega-Site of Valencina de la Concepción (Seville,Spain): Debating Settlement Form,Monumentality and Aggregation in Southern Iberian Copper Age Societies

Study of the Iberian Copper Age has experienced a remarkable upheaval in the last two decades. The discovery in central and southwestern Iberia of a significant number of ditched enclosures, a site type almost unknown in this region until the mid 1990s, has opened up new lines of research. Particularly interesting is the existence of some exceptionally large sites. Largest of all is Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain), covering an area of 450 ha and featuring several outstanding megalithic monuments, thousands of pits and material assemblages revealing middle and long distance contacts. In this paper we discuss the implications of the Valencina mega-site for the study of settlement variability, monumentality and population aggregation as key phenomena in the rise in social complexity in Copper Age Iberia.