Monocentricity and Directional Heterogeneity: A Conditional Parametric Approach

The basic monocentric city model implies a decreasing relationship between distance to the Central Business District and outcome variables such as population density, housing prices, land rent, and income. Implicitly, the monocentric model implies directional homogeneity, that is, the distance effect does not depend on the direction in which it is being measured. Only a few works have analyzed the problem of directional heterogeneity. A new conditional parametric approach is introduced to deal with the issue. We study how this approach performs under different spatial patterns comparing with several other methods. An application to the spatial distribution of wage income in the municipality of Madrid is carried out to illustrate the main characteristics of the method and to show the comparative advantages.     

Ethnicity, development and gender: Tsáchila indigenous women in Ecuador

In recent decades, indigenous populations have become the subjects and agents of development in national and international multicultural policy that acknowledges poverty among indigenous peoples and their historic marginalization from power over development. Although the impact of these legal and programmatic efforts is growing, one persistent axis of disadvantage, male–female difference, is rarely taken into account in ethno-development policy and practice. This article argues that assumptions that inform policy related to indigenous women fail to engage with indigenous women's development concerns. The institutional separation between gender and development policy (GAD) and multiculturalism means that provisions for gender in multicultural policies are inadequate, and ethnic rights in GAD policies are invisible. Drawing on post-colonial feminism, the paper examines ethnicity and gender as interlocking systems that structure indigenous women's development experiences. These arguments are illustrated in relation to the case of the Tsáchila ethno-cultural group in the South American country of Ecuador.     

The spatial distribution of population in Spain: An anomaly in European perspective

We exploit the GEOSTAT 2011 population grid with a very high 1 km² resolution to document that Spain presents the lowest density of settlements among European countries. Only a small fraction of the Spanish territory is inhabited, particularly in its southern half, which goes hand in hand with a high degree of population concentration. We uncover through standard regression analysis and spatial regression discontinuity that this anomaly cannot be accounted for by adverse geographic and climatic conditions. The second part of the paper takes a historical perspective on Spain's settlement patterns by showing that the spatial distribution of the population has been very persistent in the last two centuries, and that the abnormally low density of settlements with respect to European neighbors was already visible in the 19th century, which indicates that this phenomenon has not emerged recently as a consequence of the transformations associated with industrialization and tertiarization. Using data on ancient sites, we find that Spain did not feature scarcity of settlements in comparison to other countries in premedieval times, suggesting that its current anomalous settlement pattern has not always existed and is, therefore, not intrinsic to its geography.     

The Role of Wampum Production at the Albany Almshouse

This paper presents the archaeological and documentary evidence for wampum production at the Albany almshouse within its historical and cultural contexts and in light of Dutch notions of charity, while considering the continually shifting functions and meanings of wampum. It suggests that in the mid-eighteenth century, both the Dutch Reformed Church and private entrepreneurs were involved in producing wampum for trade on the northern and western frontiers.     

The Nation as a Problem: Historians and the "National Question"

How is it that the nation became an object of scholarly research? As this article intends to show, not until what we call the “genealogical view” (which assumes the “natural” and “objective” character of the nation) eroded away could the nation be subjected to critical scrutiny by historians. The starting point and the premise for studies in the field was the revelation of the blind spot in the genealogical view, that is, the discovery of the “modern” and “constructed” character of nations. Historians’ views would thus be intimately tied to the “antigenealogical” perspectives of them. However, this antigenealogical view would eventually reveal its own blind spots. This paper traces the different stages of reflection on the nation, and how the antigenealogical approach would finally be rendered problematic, exposing, in turn, its own internal fissures.     

An Evaluation of Endogenous Sustainable Development Planning for the Rural–Urban Environment in Gran Canaria

Urban developments can transform adjacent rural areas by degrading their natural resource base and environmental values. In this paper we provide evidence on the implementation of an endogenous sustainable development plan for the rural–urban environment in the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The objective was the generation of endogenous development in the rural areas by implicating the local population in developing activities in line with natural values and the recuperation of traditional cultures. At the same time, urban societies were expected to benefit from the preservation and availability of these rural environments. The plan was implemented in a large rural valley located between adjacent urban areas. The valley represents an opportunity for urban dwellers to benefit from a large rural park in the urban environment for leisure and cultural activities. The overall accomplishment of the plan was evaluated and contrasted with the benefits to the urban population, which were also measured with a discrete choice experiment. The results highlight that the principal objectives failed because of the lack of political determination to promote the participatory channels that would lead to the preservation of natural resources in a dynamic process of social change.     

The Neolithic Transition in the Iberian Peninsula: Data Analysis and Modeling

We apply GIS techniques to analyze a carefully selected database of 93 Early Neolithic sites in the Iberian Peninsula. This allows us to study the spatial dynamics of the Neolithic transition in Iberia. We study how the Neolithic was introduced into the peninsula in order to test the hypothesis that the Neolithic was introduced almost simultaneously from two sources: one at the northeast (via the Mediterranean coast) and another one at the south (possibly from Northern Africa). We also analyze how the expansion of the Neolithic transition took place within the Iberian Peninsula and measure local rates of spread in order to identify regions with fast and slow rates (such as the slowdown at the Cantabrian coast). In addition, we attempt to reproduce the main results obtained from the GIS analysis by applying reaction–dispersal models to the expansion of the Neolithic transition in the Iberian Peninsula. We conclude that a model with two sources is a reasonable assumption that agrees better with the archaeological data available at present than a model with a single source.     

Agent-Based Simulation of Holocene Monsoon Precipitation Patterns and Hunter-Gatherer Population Dynamics in Semi-arid Environments

Based on archaeological evidence from Kutch-Saurashtra (N Gujarat, NW India), we use agent-based modelling (ABM) to explore the persistence of hunter-gatherer (HG) groups in semi-arid environments in the mid and late Holocene. Agents interact within a realistic semi-arid environment dominated by the monsoon. Precipitation trends are modelled from instrumental records (1871–2008) calibrated with existing models for the Asian monsoon in the Holocene (c. 12 ka–present). Experiments aim at exploring dependencies between population dynamics and climate-driven environmental change (in terms of resource availability) for precipitation patterns at the local, regional and continental scales. Resources are distributed across a simplified ground model. Average yearly precipitation (AYP, i.e. mean) and variance in yearly precipitation (VYP, i.e. standard deviation) are the main parameters affecting resource availability in the simulations. We assess the effects of environmental change on HG populations at different timescales: (1) patterns of seasonal (inter-annual) resource availability, (2) effects of changes in mean precipitation trends over the long (Pleistocene–Holocene) and the mid (Holocene, millennial) periods, and (3) effects of intra-annual precipitation variability, i.e. changes in standard deviation from mean precipitation trends over the short period (annual to decadal). Simulations show that (1) strong seasonality is coherent with the persistence of HG populations in India, independently of the geographical scale of the precipitation models, (2) changes in AYP over the mid period (Holocene) are not sufficient to explain the disappearance of HG populations in Kutch-Saurashtra (K-S) 4 ka and (3) precipitation variability (VYP) over the short period (annual to decadal) is the main parameter affecting population performance and overall ecosystem dynamics. To date, sufficiently refined palaeoclimatic records do not exist for the study area, but higher VYP values 4 ka do not exclude the possibility that other factors may have driven the disappearance of HG populations in Kutch-Saurashtra.