Book reviews

The Regions and the New Europe: Patterns in Core and Periphery Development. Martin Rhodes (Ed.). Manchester and New York Manchester University Press, 1995, xiv + 359 pp, £45.00 hb, ISBN 0 7190 4251 8

Kurswechsel in der Industrie: Lean Production in Baden‐Wurttemberg (Change of Course in Industry). Hans‐Joachim Braczyk and Gerd Schienstock (Eds). Stuttgart, Berlin, Koln: Verlag W. Kohlhammer, 1996, 356pp, DM98.00 (£43.00), ISBN 3 17 014004 3

Regions and Environment in Transition: in Search of New Solutions. Markku Sotarauta and Jarmo Vehmas (Eds). Tampere: University of Tampere, Department of Regional Studies, Research Reports, Series A 16, 1995, 232 pp, 90 FIM, £12.42, ECU15.52, ISBN 951 44 3804 3 (Obtainable from University of Tampere/Sales office, PO Box 617, FIN‐33101 Tampere, Finland, Tel. + 358 31 215 6055, Fax. +358 31 215 7150.)

Postmodern Semiotics: Material Culture and the Forms of Postmodern Life. M. Gottdiener. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1995, 262 pp, £13.99 pb, £45.00 hb, ISBN 0 631 19215 8 pb/O 631 19216 6 hb

Urban Policy in Britain: the City, the State and the Market. Rob Atkinson and Graham Moon. London: Macmillan Press, 1994, 306 pp, £13.50 phi£40.00 hb, ISBN 0 333 56747 1 pb/0333 567463 hb     

EUROPEAN BRIEFING: Polycentricity in European spatial planning: from an analytical tool to a normative agenda

The notion of polycentricity is gaining widespread currency in both academic and professional debates. It has opened its way in the spatial policy documents of the European Union and member states alike, and has become one of the key components of the integrated spatial development strategy promoted by the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP). Whilst polycentricity is increasingly shaping the spatial policy discourses both in the Commission and in member states, the precise meaning of the term has remained elusive. The first two sections of this article aim to unpack the concept of polycentricity, trace its origin and its development and clarify the confusion over its multiple interpretations at various spatial scales. The third section of the article explains how the concept of polycentricity which has traditionally been used as an analytical tool to explain an existing or emerging reality is now increasingly being used to determine that reality. This is based on the analyses of the use of polycentricity within the European spatial planning framework and in particular the ESDP. Here, the article raises a number of questions regarding the promotion of the polycentric urban regions as one of the ESDP's key policy options for a balanced territorial development across Europe.     

Divine Spark: The Prelude to the Tobacco Régie of 1890

This article looks at the negotiations leading up to the Persian Tobacco Régie of 1890 as well as a previous failed Tobacco Régie in 1886. There exist only a few allusions to these two phases of the tobacco concession in the existing literature. Due to the newly uncovered diaries of the main commercial intermediary in these negotiations, the present article will be able to retrace, with precision, the events leading up to this economic concession of historical significance.     

An Improved Displacement-Based Adaptive Pushover Procedure for the Analysis of Frame Buildings

The main purpose of this article is to develop an alternative adaptive pushover method in which multiple inelastic response spectra proportional to the instantaneous ductility ratio of the structure are employed to reflect the actual energy dissipation characteristic of the structure at a given deformation level. Based on the proposed methodology, two load patterns are independently applied to the structure and the envelope of the demand values is computed. The obtained results demonstrate that the proposed method provides improved predictions of the peak interstory and total drift profiles of the structure.