God,Otherness, and Community: Some Reflections on Hegel and Levinas

Many critics have argued that the alterity of God is negated within Hegel's philosophy of religion. This paper will present the position that Hegel's approach to theology depends on a rigorous hermeneutic which does not negate the meaning and power of religious language and practice as they are found within various Christian traditions, though it does challenge the view that God is absolutely “other” than the human. Further, Hegel's approach to the interpretation of the divine-human relationship need not be limited to Christianity alone. Although Hegel regards Christianity as the highest, most spiritually developed form of religious life, certain fruitful correlations can be established between his work on the ethical dimensions of religious community and Levinas's ethical interpretation of Judaism. These correlations suggest that both Hegel and Levinas offer articulations of what can be seen as a “biblical” mode of thought in which the dialectical relation of God and human beings is central.     

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR URBAN ECONOMIC MODELS OF LAND USE CHANGE: INCORPORATING SPATIAL DYNAMICS AND HETEROGENEITY*

ABSTRACT We review the usefulness of urban spatial economic models of land use change for the study and policy analysis of spatial land use–environment interactions. We find that meaningful progress has been made in econometric and monocentric models extended to account for multiple sources of spatial heterogeneity and in the development of general equilibrium models with spatial dynamics. Despite these advances, more work is needed in developing models with greater realism. Most agent‐based computational models of urban land use change currently lack economic fundamentals, but provide a flexible means of linking microlevel behavior and interactions with macrolevel land use dynamics. In combination with empirical methods to identify parameters, this framework provides a promising approach to modeling spatial land use dynamics and policy effects.     

Book reviews

Mohammed Ayoob, The Middle East in World Politics. Croom Helm Ltd., London, 1981, pp. 217. $10.95

Charlotte S.M. Girard, Canada in World Affairs, Volume XIII, 1963–1965. Canadian Institute of International Affairs, Toronto, 1980, pp. 372. $Can27.00 (cloth), $Can10.00 (paper).

Morton A. Kaplan, Towards Professionalism in International Theory: Macrosystem Analysis. The Free Press, New York, 1979, pp ix + 182. $US17.95.

Holly Sklar (ed.), Trilateralism The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management. Black Rose Books, Montreal, 1980, pp. 604. No price given.

Michael Mandelbaum, The Nuclear Question: The United States and Nuclear Weapons 1946–1976. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979, pp. 276. £ 12.50.

Graham Kearns, Arms for the Poor. Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, Canberra, 1980, pp. 131. $7.00.

John G. Keliher, The Negotiations on Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions: The Search for Arms Control in.Central Europe. Pergamon Press, New York, 1980, pp. 204. No price given.

Michael Sexton, War for the Asking: Australia's Vietnam Secrets. Penguin Books Australia, Ringwood, 1981, pp.212. $5.95.

Ian McGibbon, Blue‐Water Rationale: The Naval Defence of New Zealand 1914–1942. Government Printing Office, Wellington, 1981, pp xxi + 446. $NZ45.00.

Erhard Fordran and Paul J. Friedrich (eds.), Rüstungskontrolle und Sicherheit in Europa. Europa Union Verlag GMBH, Bonn, 1979, pp. 374. No price given.

Alan Rix, Japan's Economic Aid. Croom Helm, London, 1980, pp. 286. £14.95.

K.H. Digby, Lawyer in the. Wilderness, Data Paper No. 114, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., 1980, pp. xi + 102. $US5.75.

R.B. Smith and W. Watson (eds.), Early South East Asia: Essays in Archaeology, History and Historical Geography. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1979, pp. xv + 561. $56.00.

Allan Bollard, Agricultural Project Design and Evaluation in an Island Community, Australian National University Development Studies Centre Monograph No. 15, 1979, pp. xiii + 228. $8.00.

Philip J. Eldridge, Indonesia and Australia: The Politics of Aid and Development since 1966. Australian National University, Development Studies Centre Monograph No. 18, 1979, pp. xviii + 233. $8.00.

Paul Harrison, The Third World Tomorrow: a report from the battlefront in the war against poverty. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1980, pp. 380. $7.95.

R. T. Shand and H. V. Richter (eds.), International Aid: Some Political, Administrative and Technical Realities. Development Studies Centre Monograph No. 16, The Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1979, pp. 278. $9.00.

Seweryn Bialer, Stalin's Successors. Leadership, Stability and Change in the Soviet Union. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1980, pp. 312. £12.50.     

Determinants of Residential Location Choice: How Important Are Local Public Goods in Attracting Homeowners to Central City Locations?*

Abstract. A hybrid conditional logit choice model is estimated using data on the characteristics and destination of homeowners who engaged in intrametropolitan moves among 17 school districts within the Columbus, Ohio area in 1995. The model is used to test the relative influence of local fiscal and public goods versus household‐level characteristics in determining household location choices across central city and suburban school districts. Results provide evidence of both a “natural evolution” of households to the suburbs, due to job location, residential filtering, and household income and lifecycle effects, and “flight from blight,” due to lower school quality, higher crime levels, and lower average income levels in the city. In comparing the magnitudes of these variables, we find that school quality exerts the strongest influence: a 1‐percent increase in the school quality of the city district increases the probability of choosing a city residence by 3.7 percent. In contrast, the effects of household income and other individual characteristics are relatively modest. The findings provide support for a “flight from blight” suburbanization process that is dominated by differences in neighborhood quality between the city and suburbs. An implication is that investments that promote central city development and reduce suburbanization are justified on efficiency grounds if negative externalities are generated by increased concentration of poverty, crime, and low school quality.