THE ROLE OF THE SERVICE SECTOR IN THE ECONOMY OF METROPOLITAN GENEVA, 1975–1985

Modern production systems are characterized by the growth of service industries and the increasing interdependence between services and the production of goods. Further, current research is becoming increasingly concerned with the strategic role of certain service functions in the process of economic growth. In this paper we examine these phenomena in the specific context of the economic structure and evolution of metropolitan Geneva. We begin by presenting an alternative typology of economic activity, and then employ this typology to examine three aspects of Geneva's economic structure: its configuration in 1985; its evolution over the period 1975–1985; and intrametropolitan shifts of economic activity. Finally, we compare Geneva to other metropolitan areas and cities in Switzerland, France, and Canada, in order to demonstrate the universality of the processes taking place.     

THE FORMING OF SPATIAL PATTERNS OF CONSUMPTION IN TAIPEI: Some Observations in a Third-World Metropolis

This paper argues that traditional central place theory is problematic because it (1) treats a central place system as a self-contained system isolated from the rest of the world and immune from outside disturbance; (2) regards spatial structure as a product of laws of economics, consumer behavior and demography, but never of socio-cultural forces; and (3) tries to depict the hierarchical structure of tertiary activities as a static situation. The paper then proceeds to view the formation of metropolitan spatial structures from the perspectives of (1) dependency development, and (2) as a top-down development process open to the outside influence of international cultural flows, which sustain commodity diversification and symbolic consumption, both essential to the capitalist global economy. To illustrate how this cultural process takes place and helps change the spatial structure of a third-world metropolis, a case study of the permeation of McDonald's hamburger stores in the Taipei metropolis is reported in the third part of the paper. It concludes that the spatial structure is a result of both economic and socio-cultural forces and processes, and that the provider of a culturally effective commodity is also a shaping force in the mass consumption society. When a corporation promotes a new product image or diffuses its services, it is culturally preparing the society for the next step in the endless course of symbolic consumption and, therefore, of spatial restructuring.     

THE CONCEPT OF DECISION: A DECONSTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS*

Decision-making as a central concept in management and organization theory has had a colourful and controversial career spanning some 50 years. During this time its image and meaning has shifted substantially to the point where its explanatory value as an established conceptual category in management and organizational analysis has been questioned. In this article, I attempt a critical study of the concept of decision and try to show that the various attempts to replace it by other terms such as ‘action’, and ‘change’, overlook the ontological status of the decision-making process. I argue here that decision is better understood as a series of interlocking pre-definitive acts of punctuating the flow of human experiences in order to facilitate sense-making and to alleviate our Cartesian anxiety. Decisions are not so much about ‘choice’or ‘intentions’as about the primordial ‘will to order’whereby interlocking configurations of micro-incisions punctuating our phenomenal experiences contrive to construct and reinforce a stable but precarious version of reality. When viewed thus, decision-making takes on a very different meaning - one that accentuates the concrete everydayness of micro-decisional acts which re-enact the ongoing contestation between order and disorder, routinization and breakdown, organization and disorganization, chaos and cosmos. Such micro-decisional ontological acts are what produces and sustains a version of reality to which we then subsequently respond. It is this ‘becoming’theory of decision-making which is offered as an alternative to the ‘event’driven model of decisional theorizing.     

施工用临时支架结构中支撑作用分析

施工支架是施工中常见的临时结构形式,目前我国常用的施工支架形式有扣件式,门式和碗扣式。随着建筑形式的变化,施工中高、大支架结构的使用日益广泛。由于支架是临时结构,长期以来,它的研究并没有引起人们的高度重视,其设计理论也还有很多不成熟的地方,加上工地现场管理的问题,致使在我国发生的建筑施工事故中有四分之一与支架的失效有关,造成了巨大的人身财产损失。本文利用有限元分析软件ANSYS建立了门式钢管支架的计算模型,通过对比不同支撑搭设方式下支架的极限承载力,对门式支架结构体系中支撑的作用进行了研究。研究表明支架的极限承载力与其失稳模态有关,而失稳模态是由竖向斜撑的设置方式决定的。通过改变竖向斜撑的设置,可以提高支架结构的稳定极限承载力。     

REGIONAL DISPARITIES IN THE PROCESS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF NIGERIA: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

This paper examines the policy actions of earlier administrators in Nigeria. The account reveals that regional inequalities in the country evolved during the 100 years of British Colonial Administration. Moreover, activities of various ethno-linguistic groups in the country after political independence undoubtedly exacerbated the situation. The paper concludes that the major structural changes in agriculture, transportation and education initiated by the British during the colonial period: (a) had profound effects on the evolution of regional disparities; and (b) established an important basis for further development of the country. Nonetheless, activities of post-independence administrators have perpetuated and even aggravated the regional and individual socio-economic disparities in the country.     

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURING: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIPS AND DIMENSIONS OF STRUCTURES IN CERTAIN FINNISH COMPANIES

The relationships of structure and structural factors at a general level are examined on the basis of data from a Finnish sample of mostly small and medium-sized industrial organizations. the sample, which consists of shoe and clothing firms, is homogeneous in terms of basic technology and industrial environment. the structural relationships are analysed from the point of view of size so that the interaction or concurrence of size and specialization is seen as a primary determinant of the systems of structural relationships. Some additional contextual variables are included in the analysis. Further, the factors or dimensions of structure reported are built on the basic variables of coordination and control. the factors are managerial supervision, the administrative component in general, including the clerical component, which is of particular importance, and impersonal mechanisms.     

THE IMPACT OF OWNERSHIP AND CAPITAL STRUCTURE ON MANAGERIAL MOTIVATION AND STRATEGY IN MANAGEMENT BUY-OUTS: A CULTURAL ANALYSIS

This study examines, from a cultural perspective, owner-managers’and other stakeholders’interpretations of the partial fusion of ownership and control through high leverage in eight UK management buy-outs (MBOs). Owner-control and debt-control are interpreted as having positive effects on managerial motivation, organizational decision-making processes and implementation of cost reduction strategies and negative ones on fundamental changes in strategy and acquisition. These interpretations accord broadly with agency theory propositions but show that owner-managers place less emphasis on wealth incentive effects and more emphasis on the enabling and facilitating roles of collective ownership and the freedom it gives from inappropriate corporate control.     

A PATCHWORK SAFETY NET: A SURVEY OF CLIOMETRIC STUDIES OF INCOME MAINTENANCE PROGRAMS IN THE UNITED STATES IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Abstract Social welfare programs in the USA are designed to serve as safety nets for people in hard times, in contrast with the universal approach found in many other developed western nations. In a survey of cliometric studies of social welfare programs in the USA, we examine the variation in the safety net in the USA across states in the 20th century, the determinants of the variation and its impact on socioeconomic outcomes. The USA has always displayed substantial variation in the extent of the safety net because the features of most public social welfare programs have been and currently are determined by local and state governments, even after the federal government became involved in the 1930s. Differences across states persist strongly for typically a decade, although the persistence weakens with time, and there are some periods when federal intervention led to a re‐ordering. The rankings of state benefits differ from program to program, and economic and political factors have different weights in determining benefit levels in panel data estimation of their effects. Variation in benefits across programs during the early 1900s had significant impact on labour markets, economic activity, family formation, death rates and crime.