IF ALONSO WAS RIGHT: MODELING ACCESSIBILITY AND EXPLAINING THE RESIDENTIAL LAND GRADIENT

ABSTRACT This study provides an empirical evaluation of employment accessibility as a determinant of urban land price. We find that the monocentric model, despite recent criticism, can perform satisfyingly if the hedonic value of land is identified in an account of structural and neighborhood characteristics. Gravity employment accessibility measures, however, can explain the residential land gradient entirely and disentangle positive accessibility effects from negative congestion effects related to transport infrastructure. They can therefore be recommended as an appropriate mean to account for labor market accessibility in an environment of dispersed employment, at least if the transport geography is accounted for.     

Archaeology and Climate Change: Evidence of a Flash-flood During the LIA in Asturias (NW Spain) and its Social Consequences

This paper presents the results of a multidisciplinary study of the impact of climate change during the Little Ice Age on a medieval village in Asturias, Spain. The research focused on tracing evidence for a catastrophic flood that buried the village beneath a thick layer of debris, including examining the remains of structures and agricultural land sealed beneath the debris, and considering the social and economic implications of the event in the subsequent history of the area. First, a series of test pits was excavated within the area of the modern village to map the full extent of the damage. Following this, analysis of the stratigraphy, architectural remains, datable artefacts and radiocarbon dating contributed further details, while historical evidence revealed the privatisation of the agricultural land following the catastrophe. The findings offer a snapshot of climate change and its social contexts in a specific, under-studied area with possible implications for the study of risk behaviour and disaster response in currently inhabited areas.     

Do Perceptions Match Reality? Comparing Latinos’ Perceived Views of State Immigration Policy Environments with Enacted Policies

This paper explores assumptions made and measurement approaches in the nuanced pathway between enacted state immigration policies and the outcomes they affect in Latino immigrant communities. Scholars across a variety of fields have found that contemporary state immigrant policymaking is associated with outcomes in immigrant communities including political engagement, mental and physical health, access to education, and labor opportunities. In this paper, we explore questions of how state immigration policies produce these and other outcomes. Much of this literature relies on the assumption that members of the immigrant communities are aware of the state policies being enacted, yet few quantitative studies of the effects of state immigration policy contain measures of both policy and of perception. We seek to determine the extent to which Latino immigrants are aware of state immigrant policymaking to help determine whether state immigration policies are a valid approach to measure perceptions of the immigration policy environment in Latino immigrant communities. Additionally, we explore alternative measures of immigration policy. Our findings are particularly relevant to policymakers and immigration scholars as the contemporary political environment has helped to fuel anti‐immigrant sentiments and rhetoric contributing to Latinos’ perceptions of the state immigrant policy environment.     

The Societal Construction of a Criminal as Cultural Hero: The Case of “The Brinks Truck Theft”

This study examines the identification with, and encouragement and admiration of, a celebrated thief among the Internet audience of a popular Israeli web site. A content analysis of audience responses highlights the carnival atmosphere that emerged in Israel as the story unfolded of the exploits, arrest and punishment of this new criminal folk hero, a “trickster” who toppled the social order. Astonishingly, the public mood, as manifest in the online message boards, is mostly supportive of the crime and its perpetrator, with very few condemnations.     

De‐mystifying the poor and the peasants: Women making reproductive choices

Ward, Martha C. Poor Women Powerful Men: America's Great Experiment in Family Planning. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1986. xvii +189 including index and references. $33.00 cloth, $14.95 paper.

Simonelli, Jeanne M. Two Boys, a Girl, and Enough! Reproductive and Economic Decision‐Making on the Mexican Periphery. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1986. xxii + 231 including index and references. $19.50 paper.     

Egyptian Blue cakes from the Ayanis fortress (Eastern Anatolia,Turkey): micro-chemical and -structural investigations for the identification of manufacturing process and provenance

The microstructure and chemical composition of blue cakes, found during the archaeological excavation of the Ayanis fortress (Eastern Anatolia, Turkey), have been investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM–EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), micro-Raman (μ-Raman) and optical microscopy (OM) techniques. The analysis of the Ayanis cakes has shown the presence of Egyptian blue (i.e. CuCaOSi₄O₁₀, cuprorivaite), as the major component, intermixed with minor amount of other phases such as partially reacted quartz grains, an adherent glass phase and copper oxides. Since the finding of Egyptian Blue in Turkey has been never reported so far, great attention has been paid to its characterisation. The micro-chemical and micro-structural investigations of the Ayanis cakes have allowed a further insight into the manufacturing process and into the sources of the starting materials. The results of the characterisation have revealed some significant differences with respect to Egyptian blue cakes found in Egypt and Mesopotamia, as for instance the absence of tin excluded the use of bronze scraps or filings in their preparation differently from those produced in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Furthermore, some peculiarities of Egyptian blue found in Ayanis, as the detection of zinc in the cakes, allow to put forward the hypothesis of a local production considering that a large part of the bronze artefacts found at the Ayanis fortress is characterised by the presence of zinc as minor alloying element.