Economic downturns and compositional effects in regional population structures by age: a multi-temporal analysis in Greek regions, 1981–2017

Population movements (international and internal migration) and changing fertility and mortality patterns have significantly affected demographic structures. Investigation of the relationship between (evolving) population structures and economic downturns is a key issue in economic demography. Analysis of compositional changes in regional population structures over a sufficiently long time interval may provide an informed knowledge to better understanding of this relationship and the underlying socioeconomic context in European countries. Based on these premises, Greece was considered a paradigmatic case of sequential economic expansions and recessions, impacting the structure of resident population in the last four decades. In this work, changes over time in population structures by age in Greek regions were explored (1981–2017) using a multi-temporal principal component analysis. A diachronic analysis of compositional effects of economic downturns on regional population structures indicates spatially-heterogeneous demographic processes in Greece. The subsequent recession has represented a turning point in Greek demography, consolidating changes in traditional family structures, while stimulating out-migration at younger ages to Northern and Western European regions and containing immigration from developing countries. Metropolitan areas and coastal districts had more rapid population dynamics, while peripheral rural regions experienced more rapid changes towards aging. Population aging had a short-term impact on regional population structures in Greece, with possibly negative consequences for the ability of the country’s economy to recover from crisis.

     

Class diversification,economic growth and urban sprawl: evidences from a pre-crisis European city

Economic expansion indirectly promotes class diversification at the neighbourhood scale with a consequent reduction of social divides at the regional scale. To verify this working hypothesis, the present study investigates class diversification at both spatial scales in a Mediterranean city (Athens, Greece) using the European Socioeconomic Classification based on population census data referring to 1991–2001, a phase of economic expansion and intense urban sprawl preceding the 2004 Olympic games. Results of multivariate analysis and diversity indexes outline a local-scale social mix associated to suburban expansion, and regional-scale class segregation, reflecting an increasing polarization in affluent and economically deprived urban districts. The contrasting pattern at the two spatial scales results in a complex social geography with class diversification and moderate changes over time in the economic spatial divide between urban and neighbouring rural areas. These findings contribute to design scale-dependent policies reducing social inequalities and improving quality of life in urban areas. Future paths for socio-spatial processes were delineated for sprawling metropolitan regions under economic expansion and discussed in the light of future demographic trends in both developed and emerging countries.     

The Tunisian Revolution: Neoliberalism,Urban Contentious Politics and the Right to the City

This article engages in the debate on urban contentious politics by returning to the Tunisian revolution. In the article, I chart movements provoked by neoliberal restructurings, and show how these ultimately came together to form a mass movement demanding radical political change. I first describe the socio‐spatial roots of the Tunisian revolution to understand its dynamics. Based on the chronology of the unfolding events I sketch the classes, social groups and movements that coalesced against authoritarian rule in early 2011. Although the Tunisian revolution started in rural environments, I focus more specifically on the role of urban social movements in the uprising to link questions of urbanism to what were clearly national revolts. Secondly, I outline the scope of neoliberal reforms in Tunisia by looking at the impact of these reforms to chart the resulting emergence of contentious politics in response to the increasing violence that characterized all levels of economic life during this period. I also consider the resulting uneven development and the changing relations between the state and the different social classes. This enables me to reflect on the politicization of the city with the aim of opening up new opportunities for engaging with a more comparative and cosmopolitan theory about cities around the world.     

Impacts of Second Home Development on Housing Prices in the Southern Appalachian Highlands

This study estimates the value of socioeconomic, spatial and environmental attributes on housing prices of both urban and rural communities in the primary and second home areas of the Southern Appalachian Highlands, using the hedonic property price model. Distance and environmental attributes are valued more heavily in the rural communities of the second home area than in the urban communities of the primary home area. The effect of second homes on housing prices is mainly evident in the rural communities. Second home development impacts a home's value by US$2,378, or 4.2% of $56,245, the average value of a rural home.     

Spatial Spillovers Revisited: Innovation,Human Capital and Local Dynamics

This symposium focuses on understanding key territorial‐level innovation trends and processes by country, region and technology. It questions various widely accepted assumptions, offers fresh perspectives, both conceptually and methodologically, and challenges a paradigm shift in the field of innovation and spatial dynamics. It consists of three articles analysing at different scales (urban, regional and national) the territorial dynamics of innovation and their determinants. The innovation process, with local symbiosis and spatial spillovers at its core, is analysed within the conceptual framework of national and regional innovation systems and regional economic development. Based on a discussion of spatial spillovers and the way they shape the evolutionary and symbiotic relationships between local agents and actors, including university, industry and local development agencies, the symposium highlights the relevance of this framework for a better understanding of the transformation of local economic development processes. It investigates the differences in the geography of innovation regarding different institutional settings, different systems of innovation, and different national innovation strategies. While addressing mainly the EU, the US, and emerging countries such as China and India, the contributions also highlight the critical role of current innovation policies from a general perspective. In so doing, the symposium recognizes a contrarian perspective that argues that contemporary information and communication technologies (ICTs) provide a way to leapfrog the dominant role of proximity in innovation processes, creating a complimentary rather than a substitution effect for more remote and peripheral places. That said, this symposium focuses primarily on an urban network view of the innovation process and proximal effects in this context.     

The implementation of the Wroclaw taxonomic method for the identification and evaluation of problem areas in the Warmia and Mazury Region in Poland – A case study

Problem areas are targeted by regional policy. The type and scope of spatial conflicts are analyzed to determine the most appropriate spatial planning measures. In this study, a problem area was defined as an integral spatial unit which is characterized by growth barriers, accumulation of negative phenomena, untapped resources and potential, and where support measures are required to promote growth and eliminate the existing obstacles to development. This study identifies and analyzes problem areas in the Region of Warmia and Mazury in Poland based on counties as the main taxonomic unit. For the needs of the analysis, it was assumed that problem areas are characterized by a high prevalence of adverse demographic and/or socioeconomic phenomena which constitute growth barriers and prevent these areas from harnessing their potential and the local resources. Spatio-functional parameters were taken into consideration to comprehensively describe spatial conditions in the analyzed region. Spatial variations were analyzed with the use of the Wrocław taxonomic method, where demographic, socioeconomic and spatio-functional criteria were evaluated separately. The Wrocław taxonomic method has never been described in English-language academic papers. According to research, areas with the greatest accumulation of socioeconomic and demographic problems in the Region of Warmia and Mazury are situated along the Polish border. The results can be used in the process of setting directions for development and implementing remedy measures at the regional level.     

Changes in Clientelism and Urban Government: A Comparative Case Study of Naples and Marseilles

This article discusses changes to political clientelism and forms of urban government in Naples and in Marseilles in the period from the 1960s to the 2000s. From a socio-historical, comparative perspective I show that, even in two Southern European cities, the expansion of political clientelism does not depend principally on cultural factors, but rather on politico-institutional processes. The generalization of clientelistic relationships and the increase in policies for redistributing resources on the basis of clientelistic criteria go hand in hand with two historical trends that were evident in the 1960s and 1970s. Those decades were a period both of demographic development and of welfare state expansion at both central and local levels, the latter leading to the distribution of public resources to growing masses of individuals and social groups. In this phase, clientelistic redistribution policies promoted the integration and the upward social mobility of sections of the middle classes and some strata of the working classes in the local and national political system. From the late 1970s and early 1980s onwards, however, these policies were less and less able to promote this upward mobility and social integration. The article ends with a favourable account of some of the new urban management policies conducted by new political leaderships.     

The Spatial Pattern of Residential Mobility in Guangzhou,China

In urban China, residential mobility behaviors have changed fundamentally in recent decades. While research has been undertaken on the trends and causes of residential relocation for different population groups, less attention has been paid to micro‐level processes of residential change, yet the latter underscore urban dynamics. This study addresses this through a survey conducted in Guangzhou in late 2012, which analyzes the spatial flows of residential shifts within and between three distance zones—inner core, inner suburbs and outer suburbs—to reveal complex mobility trends. In particular, hukou or household registration status, socio‐economic status, the nature and rank of employment, and tenure were found to have varied effects on the probability of inward and outward shifts. More specifically, while outward shifts in recent years mainly involved local hukou holders, families with higher education levels, a higher socio‐economic status or those working for government departments and public institutions were found to be more likely to settle in high‐rise commodity housing in the inner core. The majority of non‐hukou migrants, by contrast, moved within the same street or between adjacent streets within the same suburban area, while age, socio‐economic status and homeownership were found to increase an individual's chance of an inward shift.     

Controlling the Urban Fabric: The Complex Game of Distance and Proximity in European Upper‐Middle‐Class Residential Strategies

This article presents an open discussion of the processes of urban secession and gentrification in contemporary European cities, arguing that intergroup social dynamics in urban spaces are generally more complex than either extreme mutual avoidance or the colonization of neighbourhoods by the wealthiest groups. We analyse the residential strategies of urban upper‐middle class managers in various European metropolitan areas through in‐depth semi‐structured interviews to argue that these groups develop complex strategies of proximity and distance in relation to other social groups. The development of these ‘partial exit’ strategies takes place through specific combinations of practices that allow groups to select the dimensions they are willing to share with other social groups, and those in which they prefer a more segregated social environment for themselves and their families. The responses of our interviewees were consistently more nuanced and complex than suggested by a simplistic theory about their drive to withdraw from society, forcing us to develop more sophisticated conceptual frameworks to account for the growing prevalence of multi‐layered identities and spheres of reference and solidarity, specific combinations of elective segregation and local involvement, and more active patterns of mobility combined with local embeddedness.     

The dynamics of structural change: a model of economic development and urbanization

A system model is constructed for stimulating the development dynamics of a class of developing countries. The interrelations among socio-economic variables, feedback relations and the recursive relationship of intertemporal solutions are emphasized. For some plausible values of parameters and initial conditions, the model generates results generally consistent with the experience of many developing economies. Emerging from the dynamics are rapid urbanization accompanied by little industrial growth, increasingly unbalanced spatial distribution of population, ever-worsening distribution of income, unemployment and under-employment in both rural and urban areas, and other familiar features of the developing world unexplained by comparative-static equilibrium models.     

The effect of population growth,the pattern of demand and of technology on the process of urbanization

A nonlinear, three-sector, two-region wage and price endogenous dynamic general equilibrium model is used to study the effects of population growth, the pattern of demand, and technological change on urbanization in the context of a low-income developing country starting at a low level of urbanization. The model represents a closed economy and is therefore more suited to a large country. It is validated on Indian data and traces its development path well from 1950 to the present. The sectors modeled are agriculture, industry, and services with the latter two being located exclusively in urban areas. The three sectors are linked with an input-output matrix which subsumes transportation costs incurred between urban and rural areas. The model is designed to investigate long-term changes, e.g., over a 30-year period, and factor mobility is therefore assumed to be “almost perfect.” The model demonstrates that rapid agricultural productivity growth, high rates of investment, and Engel demand effects combine to produce a continuing increase of urbanization as development occurs in an economy. The rate of urbanization is not necessarily dependent on high overall population growth: indeed, under certain conditions, a lowering of overall population growth might speed up the rate of urbanization. The pattern of demand and changes in the pattern can affect the rate of urbanization significantly: in particular, Engel-type demand changes serve to make the process of urbanization logistic. Technological bias effects are not very strong but effective appropriate technology policies might speed up urbanization.     

长三角地区1980年代以来城市体系空间结构的状况和变化

本文从长三角地区城市人口规模结构的变动出发,定量考察从1980年代以来,特别是1990年代以来长三角城市格局及其演化,分析城市体系空间结构变动所表现出的特点,并对城市群未来演化和加强城市群治理提出若干建议。     

Child malnutrition in developing economies: a case study of Bangladesh

The study investigate the impact of socioeconomic factors on malnutrition in children (under 5 years) using Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. The urban and rural areas are separately probed for stunting, wasting and under-weight children. The analysis revealed that birth-interval, mother’s education and wealth index reduce the malnutrition in children for urban and rural household, while duration of breastfeeding and lower BMI of the mother increase the malnutrition in both urban and rural areas. Wealth index is more effective in rural areas as compared to urban ones. The male children are more likely to be malnourished in urban areas but female children are more likely to be malnourished in rural areas. The primary level of education of the women has no significant impact on nutritional status of children in urban as well as in rural areas. It has important policy implications that at least secondary level of education should be part of the education policy of Bangladesh. The incidence of diarrhea enhances the probability of stunting and wasting in both urban and rural areas of Bangladesh. From the policy perspective mother’s education and birth-interval are required for achieving the nutrition status of children. For the long-run the socioeconomic status of the household expressed by wealth index is needed. The duration of breastfeeding needs to be reduced by initiation of the supplement food.     

Beneath the Appearance of Gentrification: Probing Local Complexities

In ‘Gentrification in Hong Kong? Epistemology vs. Ontology’ , Ley and Teo examine what they find to be the absence of identification and naming of gentrification in Hong Kong. They argue for the need to look at urban redevelopment in non‐Anglo‐American cities, those in Asia Pacific at the very least, in a different light. They query the extent to which the concept of gentrification has been overly stretched to explain urban processes falling outside Anglo‐American cities. This essay is a response to their argument. It presses for further and closer examination of local complexities and greater critical‐theoretical reflection on the transferability of analytical concepts to different socio‐economic contexts. Ley and Teo have raised some important questions for serious theoretical reflection and discussion. Yet they seem to have fallen into the problematic positions that they critique. Without sufficient attention to the part played by historical and local context in shaping the urban landscape, they have wrongly associated the absence of any identification of gentrification with the hegemony of a property‐related ideology of social mobility. The unpacking of the different social and political processes and mechanisms in urban redevelopment in different stages of urban growth in Hong Kong alerts us to the complexities of the local.     

Urban shrinkage in Germany and the USA: a comparison of transformation patterns and local strategies

Many American and European cities have to deal with demographic and economic trajectories leading to urban shrinkage. According to official data, 13% of urban regions in the US and 54% of those in the EU have lost population in recent years. However, the extent and spatial distribution of declining populations differ significantly between Europe and the US. In Germany, the situation is driven by falling birth rates and the effects of German reunification. In the US, shrinkage is basically related to long-term industrial transformation. But the challenges of shrinking cities seldom appeared on the agendas of politicians and urban planners until recently. This article provides a critical overview of the development paths and local strategies of four shrinking cities: Schwedt and Dresden in eastern Germany; Youngstown and Pittsburgh in the US. A typology of urban growth and shrinkage, from economic and demographic perspectives, enables four types of city to be differentiated and the differences between the US and eastern Germany to be discussed. The article suggests that a new transatlantic debate on policy and planning strategies for restructuring shrinking cities is needed to overcome the dominant growth orientation that in most cases intensifies the negative consequences of shrinkage.     

From London to Los Angeles: a comparison of local labour market processes in the US and UK film industries

Addressing the issue of the embeddedness of labour markets, this paper compares the processes of finding employment in the film industry within two local labour markets. Drawing on studies of freelance film crews in London (UK) and Los Angeles (US), the paper concludes that the importance of social networks in job mobility in both contexts is a consequence of common production structures. However, common labour market practice varies in each geographical space as industry processes and structures are mediated by local institutional contexts.     

Quantifying entrepreneurship and its impact on local economic performance: A spatial assessment in rural Switzerland

Regional and rural development policies in Europe increasingly emphasize entrepreneurship to mobilize the endogenous economic potential of rural territories. This study develops a concept to quantify entrepreneurship as place-dependent local potential to examine its impact on the local economic performance of rural territories in Switzerland. The short-to-medium-term impact of entrepreneurship on the economic performance of 1706 rural municipalities in Switzerland is assessed by applying three spatial random effects models. Results suggest a generally positive relationship between entrepreneurship and local development: rural municipalities with higher entrepreneurial potential generally show higher business tax revenues per capita and a lower share of social welfare cases among the population, although the impact on local employment is less clear. The explanatory power of entrepreneurship in all three models, however, was only moderate. This finding suggests that political expectations of fostering entrepreneurship to boost endogenous rural development in the short-to-medium term should be damped.     

基于建设世界现代田园城市的成都空间发展思路与对策

本文对成都60年城市空间形态的演变进行了总结和评述,针对成都城市空间发展面临的问题,基于建设世界现代田园城市和构建新型城乡形态的理念,结合成都统筹城乡改革的实践经验,提出了成都未来空间发展的基本思路和对策。     

FUNCTIONAL ECONOMIES OR ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS IN GREECE: WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE FOR POLICY?

This paper considers the 2001 income mosaic of Greece at the local level. It constructs a model based on occupational, territorial, and demographic factors to isolate their impact on declared income and study clusters of income at the disaggregated territorial level. The new cluster-based spatial specification provides a better econometric fit compared to the specification based on the existing official regional framework. This suggests that the economy does not operate according to the country's administrative divisions, but rather according to local-specific factors and transportation linkages, as is the case in a fragmented land united by its transportation network. Accordingly, if income disparities are larger within rather than between administrative regions, regional economic development policy might best be conducted within a functional-area framework rather than the current administrative-region framework. These findings entail important policy implications for EU regional development and resource allocation, and are also useful in additional tentative policy proposals.     

Spaces of Extraction,Metropolitan Explosions: Planetary Urbanization and the Commodity Boom in Latin America

Through an exploration of the political economy of the current commodity boom in Latin America, and on the basis of recent appropriations of Henri Lefebvre's notion of planetary urbanization, this article proposes viewing spaces of resource extraction resulting from an escalating international demand for raw materials as particular morphological expressions of market‐driven processes of urbanization. Furthermore, the article draws on Lefebvre to argue that such burgeoning spaces of urbanization are the result of a contradictory tension between spatial homogenization—in the form of multiscalar governance frameworks and infrastructural programs—and territorial fragmentation—in the form of fixed capital allocations and state‐led spatial segregation. When considered jointly, these contradictory movements allow us to grasp fully the extent of the problematic explosion of spaces that, according to Lefebvre, characterizes capitalist urbanization. The article concludes by reflecting on the emancipatory promise that underlies the planetary extension of the urban form because, with the projection of material infrastructures required for resource extraction—especially information technologies—across the rural realm, local communities have been able to shed their isolated state and emerge as fully fledged political actors.