THE IMPACT OF CRIME ON APARTMENT PRICES: EVIDENCE FROM STOCKHOLM,SWEDEN

This study uses data of about 9,000 apartment sales in Stockholm, Sweden, to assess the impact of crime on property prices. The study employs hedonic pricing modelling to estimate the impact of crime controlling for other factors (property and neighbourhood characteristics). Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to combine apartment sales by coordinates with offences, land use characteristics and demographic data of the population. The novelty of this research is threefold. First, it explores a set of land use attributes created by spatial techniques in GIS in combination with detailed geographical data in hedonic pricing modelling. Second, the effect of crime in neighbouring zones at one place can be measured by incorporating spatial lagged variables of offence rates into the model. Third, the study provides evidence of the impact of crime on housing prices in a capital city of a traditional welfare state, information otherwise lacking in the international literature. Our results indicate that apartment prices in a specific area are strongly affected by crime in its neighbouring zones, regardless of crime type. When offences were broken down by types, residential burglary, theft, vandalism, assault and robbery individually had a significant negative effect on property values. However, for residential burglary such an effect is not homogenous across space, and apartment prices in central areas are often less discounted by being exposed to crime than those in the city's outskirts.     

Villagizing the city: turning rural ethnic heritage into urban modernity in southwest China

This paper examines the rural ethnic heritage-inspired transformation of the built environment of a relatively small county town in China. The paper explores the ways village-based ethnic heritage is being repositioned by local leaders as a resource for tourism-oriented revenue generation and for ‘improving’ the ‘quality’ and behaviour of town residents. Viewing heritage as a ‘technology of government,’ the paper provides an analysis based on three interrelated themes: the discourses by which town leaders and planners have conceived the heritage development project as one of improvement, the spatial practices by which those discourses have been realised in the built environment, and the ways residents themselves have appropriated and ‘inhabited’ this new ‘villagized’ city as they go about their everyday urban lives. Based on ethnographic field work, a survey, and extended interviews over a period of four years, the paper finds the town leadership’s faith in the ability of the built environment to shape and improve the conduct of citizens to be overstated. While the town’s transformation has generated a new sense of urban modernity among residents, their ways of inhabiting and using urban space have little relevance to the ‘heritagized’ environment in which they now live.     

Health centre visits among the elderly with chronic ailments: Evidence from the Kanchanaburi Demographic Surveillance System, 2004, Thailand

This study deployed statistical and spatial (GIS) analyses to test the effects of geographic, demographic and occupational factors in predicting health centre visits among the elderly (≥60 years) with chronic ailments in Kanchanaburi Province, western Thailand. Datasets from the Kanchanaburi Demographic Surveillance System (2004 baseline survey and a 2006 project follow-up) comprised five land-use landscape and occupational strata: urban/semi-urban (industrial), rice field, plantation crop, upland and mixed economy. Travel distance to the nearest health centre was calculated following transportation routes and the GPS coordinates of individual home locations, and the number of healthcare visits under the national free universal coverage (UC) scheme reported for the previous year was used as a dependent variable in regressions. Broadly, the study found that distance was not a significant predictor of the rate of elderly health centres visits for those with co-residing spouses and/or adult children (77% of sample), and for the elderly still working (48% of the sample) who were the least likely to access healthcare. Owning motorised vehicles did not encourage visits, which also varied by land-use and occupational strata.     

Geographies of adult multigenerational family households in metropolitan Sydney

This paper investigates spatial trends of multigenerational adult families in metropolitan Sydney. Australia's immigrant gateway city, Sydney has high housing costs and infrastructure pressures, and planning policies support higher residential densities. In this context, the accommodation of persons living in multigenerational families is examined, by major region of origin, their geographies in Sydney, and by housing costs and constraints. Results highlight that cultural origins were influential in multigenerational household formations, and such formation is higher in areas of first and second ethnic community formation areas. Multigenerational living is also more common in middle ring and outer areas of cheaper housing. Implications are drawn for more nuanced housing policies in Sydney and comparable cities, given that detached and semi‐detached houses were favoured by these households, whereas two‐fifths of new housing constructed in Sydney in 2011 consists of two or less bedroom apartments.     

Young people's cartographies of school choice: the urban imaginary and moral panic

A critical geography of school choice illuminates how parental school choice reproduces unequal urban conditions. This paper contributes to this scholarship by arguing that the reproduction of urban spaces is reinforced by the ways the dominant urban imaginary shapes how youths imagine and organise their school options. I draw from the fields of critical geography, school choice, and sociology of moral panic to theorise how children's geographies are informed by the dominant urban imaginary and reconstituted reiteratively by moral anxiety. Through this lens, I analyse ethnographic data collected on school choice policy, along with interviews with 59 youth (ages 11–19) in Vancouver, Canada. My analysis demonstrates that the dominant forms of classed stigmatisation of marginalised urban schools are important to young people's rejection of those schools. My analysis also shows that moral panic and rising fears of violence underwrite the spatial patterns of youth participation in school choice.     

The Role of the Development Industry in Shaping Urban Social Space: a Conceptual Model

Socio‐spatial differentiation or the spatial arrangement of social groups in cities has long been the subject of scholarly attention in urban studies from a variety of perspectives. In many contemporary societies, the development industry plays an important and growing role in socio‐spatial differentiation. This paper presents a conceptual model for the empirical analysis of the role of this industry in shaping urban social space.     

论自然环境对人类社会发展作用方式

自然环境对人类社会发展的控制是一种可能性控制,这种控制的具体方式有四:一是经由自然稀缺性控制人类社会的持续发展;二是经由空间差异性控制人类社会的空间分化和区域发展;三是经由其时间上的变化控制人类社会发展的波动与周期;四是经由其使用价值的多样性控制资源与环境利用的社会选择范围与方向。作者对前两种方式做了重点论述。     

欧美旅游者在秦始皇帝陵博物院的情感体验时空变化

以时空思维为指导,从情感社会学、认知心理学、时间地理学等多学科角度,深入地展开了对旅游者情感体验的研究。采用访谈、问卷等方法,系统探索了欧美旅游者情感体验的影响因素。基于秦始皇帝陵博物院实际情况与欧美旅游者的表达习惯,参考双因素情感模型,确定基本情感词汇,建立情感轮分析模型进行数据收集,计算旅游者情感体验值。从时间、空间及路径3个角度,探索秦始皇帝陵博物院欧美旅游者情感体验的时间、空间变化规律和路径变化规律。研究发现秦始皇帝陵博物院欧美旅游者的积极情感体验整体呈倒“U”型波动,消极情感体验整体呈“U”型波动;欧美旅游者情感体验的空间分布表现出聚集节点与景区主要展馆高度契合的特点;旅游者的游览路径和游览顺序会影响其情感体验。     

出入西安的美加游客空间转移模式研究

通过对出入西安美加游客的实地调查,利用计算机软件建立数据库进行资料统计分析,探讨西安与其它旅游热点城市之间美加游客空间转移模式及其影响因素,提出美加旅游市场的几点营销策略。     

转型期中国城市网络空间结构演变——基于商业银行分支机构网络的视角

21世纪以来,城市网络研究成为全球和区域城市体系研究关注的焦点,但当前对国家层面城市网络空间结构演变的研究还较少涉及。基于2001—2016年间中国商业银行网点空间分布变化数据,运用社会网络分析方法,对中国城市网络空间结构的时空演变特征进行了研究。研究结果显示：中国城市网络结构由等级化向网络化转变,具体表现为在轴辐结构基础上向连通性更强的链锁网络演进;与此同时,城市网络同时呈现少数城市网络连接度的极化以及多中心扩散的特征。区域层面,东部沿海地区,特别是长三角、京津冀和珠三角三大区域的城市网络发展较为完善,与其它区域的差距持续拉大,但山东、东北和福建等省份与区域内外的联系增长也较快。大多数城市的出度和入度差异明显,但这一差异正在逐渐缩小。