Classical Central Places as Protected Thresholds

Previous research efforts demonstrate the use of location covering in the spatial structuring of central places within a single-good context. In a multilevel context, this paper similarly develops a mathematical programming approach to the siting of central places based on the “protection” of inner (or threshold) markets. The objective function maximizes both market coverage of demand and market overlap, subject to an upper bound on market overlap; this allows the formation of different market structures consistent with the various K-valued central place systems of Christaller and Lösch. Siting examples serve to illustrate the working of the protected threshold model in isotropic settings. Furthermore, ways in which the present model might be extended for other situations are examined.     

Tensions between municipal reform and outdated fiscal levers in rural British Columbia

Debates about the future of small municipalities in Canada are set against a backdrop of economic, political, and social restructuring processes that have displaced former state investment policies in favour of neoliberal public policy approaches. Small municipalities struggle with outdated financial and governance structures and a provincial public policy agenda that asks them to become more creative, innovative, and “entrepreneurial” in their approach and responsibilities. Drawing upon key informant interviews with eight case studies in British Columbia, Canada, this research examines the tensions between municipal reforms mandated by the provincial government over the past 30 years and commensurate fiscal levers and capacities in place to address these broadening responsibilities for small municipalities in volatile staples-dependent regions. Our findings demonstrate how successive provincial governments have mobilized New Public Management objectives through a host of legislative and regulatory changes that have increased the responsibilities and requirements on local governments without commensurate fiscal or jurisdictional capacity.     

“You don't go there”: Spatial Strategies of Stigma Negotiation in a Post-Industrial Town

This paper draws on a multimethod ethnographic study, conducted between 2016 and 2017 in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, England—a small and relatively isolated deindustrialising colliery town—examining how residents negotiate living in stigmatised territory. In doing so, microspatial strategies of distancing, avoidance, and deflection are illustrated, revealing how residents reassign and deepen stigma in particular locations within a stigmatised territory. This highlights the relationship between social and physical space, and while spatial strategies of negotiation do not mitigate stigma, they do (re)produce internal social hierarchies within a place that is homogenised from the outside through disparaging narratives. A key contribution reveals the significance of the racialised production of space in shaping how territorial stigma is negotiated within this distinct socio-spatial location. Residents use strategies to redirect the stigma toward those seen as out of place and draw attention away from sticky sites of racialised urban stigma towards symbols of unspoilt rural Englishness.     

The executive lawmaking agenda: Political parties,prime ministers,and policy change in Australia

In Westminster systems, governments enjoy a privileged position in the lawmaking process that they can use to deliver on their campaign promises and achieve their policy goals. What policy areas do governments seek to affect through lawmaking? How stable is the executive lawmaking agenda? How responsive is that agenda to changes triggered by elections or by transitions in prime minister? This study uses a dataset of 3982 Australian bills introduced between 2000 and 2017 to answer these questions. While it finds considerable stability in the policy content of executive lawmaking agendas, the analysis also indicates that Australia's executive lawmaking agenda is more responsive to changes in prime minister than to changes in the party in power. As the first application of the comparative policy agendas approaches to government bills in Australia, this article offers new insights into executive lawmaking priorities during an especially turbulent period in Australian politics.     

EUROCENTRISM AND AFRICAN URBANIZATION: THE CASE OF ZANZIBAR'S OTHER SIDE

A number of geographers have recently championed the struggle against Eurocentric theoretical categorizations in geographical research on African cities. At the same time, many whose work has concentrated on African urban geography have felt left out in the more abstract theoretical debates of their colleagues based in the West. I argue for the possibility of confronting Western bias and contributing to broader theoretical debates by creating theoretical constructs derived from the African experience. I develop my argument through an analysis of urban development in Ng'ambo, the African “Other Side” of Zanzibar city, and work toward the creation of meso-level conceptual guides for understanding Ng'ambo's development derived from the ideas of Ng'ambo residents themselves.     

REVIEW

The Empty Place: Poetry, Space and Being Among the Foi of Papua New Guinea. By James F. Weiner. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1991. Pp. 218. Price $US14.95.     

Case Studies in Dual Classification as Process: Childbirth,Headhunting and Circumcision in West Timor

The diverse societies of eastern Indonesia have, for some time, been recognised as important contexts for the study of dual classification. In this region the practice of dual classification is evident in a multitude of social forms. It is found in the range of conventional expressions for category distinctions as well as in the formal organisation of ceremonial contexts and structural patterns of society. This paper examines the expression of certain dual classificatory forms as they appear in three types of ritual processes in West Timorese society. My purpose is to show how this type of classification provides a vital conceptual means to both protect the well-being of participants in the conduct of the ritual processes, and at the same time, to effect symbolic and celebratory affirmations of life. I argue that in the manipulation and interaction of the dual categories it is possible to recognise a striking commonality of purpose.