A CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF THE JOURNEY-TO-SHOP WITH PRICE UNCERTAINTY*

ABSTRACT In this paper we extend the contextual theory of demand to consider rational consumer behavior when the household must deal with some random fluctuation in the prices it faces. Prices at stores reflect “advertised specials,” which are potential cost reductions random across goods, and random in-store price changes, which can only be observed by visiting the store. Our theory of rational behavior includes: (1) calculation by the household of an ex ante plan for its planning period; (2) modification to take account of advertised specials; and (3) rational search behavior to take advantage of random fluctuations observable only on a given day. This theory utilizes an active cash balance as a buffer against random variations from planned daily expenditures, and reformulations of trip circuits to account for patterns of cost-minimizing search.     

STATE INTERVENTION IN LANDSCAPE PRODUCTION: THE WHEATLAND RIOT AND THE CALIFORNIA COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING*

The role of the state in landscape production has been little theorized in geography. In this paper, I examine the role played by state institutions in determining landscape morphology by focusing on the activities of the California Commission of Immigration and Housing as it attempted to mitigate the conditions that led to the violent Wheatland “riot” of 1913. This rebellion by radicalized migratory workers was central to the creation of the abundant agricultural landscape of California in the years before the United States entered World War I. By telling the story of Wheatland and the state responses it induced, I hope to move discussions of landscape geography beyond both traditional concerns with landscape as a reflection of “culture” and contemporary concerns with metaphors of landscape as text.