Water scarcity, social power and the production of an elite suburb: The political ecology of water in Matadepera, Catalonia

This article investigates the history of land and water transformations in Matadepera, a wealthy suburb of metropolitan Barcelona. Analysis is informed by theories of political ecology and methods of environmental history; although very relevant, these have received relatively little attention within ecological economics. Empirical material includes communications from the City Archives of Matadepera (1919-1979), 17 interviews with locals born between 1913 and 1958, and an exhaustive review of grey historical literature. Existing water histories of Barcelona and its outskirts portray a battle against natural water scarcity, hard won by heroic engineers and politicians acting for the good of the community. Our research in Matadepera tells a very different story. We reveal the production of a highly uneven landscape and waterscape through fierce political and power struggles. The evolution of Matadepera from a small rural village to an elite suburb was anything but spontaneous or peaceful. It was a socio-environmental project well intended by landowning elites and heavily fought by others. The struggle for the control of water went hand in hand with the land and political struggles that culminated - and were violently resolved - in the Spanish Civil War. The displacement of the economic and environmental costs of water use from few to many continues to this day and is constitutive of Matadepera's uneven and unsustainable landscape. By unravelling the relations of power that are inscribed in the urbanization of nature (Swyngedouw, 2004), we question the perceived wisdoms of contemporary water policy debates, particularly the notion of a natural scarcity that merits a technical or economic response. We argue that the water question is fundamentally a political question of environmental justice; it is about negotiating alternative visions of the future and deciding whose visions will be produced.     

基于“新都市主义”的混合社区:城市郊区化的一个新思路

在中国诸多大中城市郊区化进程中,一个非常显著的现象是:高档和低档住宅的二元分立,从而破坏了人们居住空间的复合性及和谐性.造成这一现象的根本原因并非人们的"阶层"意识,而是城市郊区化的潜在思路:仅仅关照人们的居住,却没有关照人们的生活,人们的完整生活在郊区化过程中被割裂了.解决这一问题的出路是构建混合式社区,而其理论基础是新都市主义.     

关于城市郊区化本质的讨论

城市郊区化的过程是一个典型的系统演化过程 ,文章分析了城市郊区化的机制。在此基础上 ,对一些有关城市郊区化的问题进行了讨论 ,得出的结论为 :“空心化”不是城市郊区化的本质特征 ;以中心城人口的绝对减少作为城市郊区化的判据有不合理之处 ;城市郊区化是动态的 ,复杂的过程 ,而不是一成不变的绝对的过程     

上海的城市发展阶段与郊区新城建设研究

城市发展阶段与其新城建设具有直接关系.从国际大都市发展经验来看,如果没有中心城区坚实的经济基础与成熟的社会发展作为支持条件,郊区新城要建设成功是较为困难的.目前上海郊区新城存在人口规模不足、产业关联效应不强与社会发育不成熟等问题,新城未能起到疏散中心城区过于集中的人口与产业的作用.上海郊区新城发展状况与上海经济社会发展阶段相关.上海的郊区化方式与特征直接影响到新城的人口导入、产业发展与社会发展.上海必须加快优化产业结构,提高城市居民可支配收入,加强制度环境建设,推进交通基础设施建设,加强发展郊区生活性服务业,从而促进上海城市空间结构向多心多核开敞式方向发展.     

Suburbanization and highways in Spain when the Romans and the Bourbons still shape its cities

We estimate the effects of highways on the suburbanization of Spanish cities. Based on Spain’s historical roads – the almost 2000 years old Roman roads and the 1760 Bourbon roads –, we rely on an instrumental variables (IV) strategy because of the endogeneity of highway provision. Our results show that, first, each highway emanating from central cities caused an 8–9% decline in central city population between 1960 and 2011. Second, each highway ray fostered a 20% population growth in the suburbs, in particular in suburban municipalities where ramps were located. Finally, we confirm the increasing role of highways on shaping urban form: each additional kilometer closer to the nearest highway ramp increased municipal density growth by an 8%.     

Suburbanization and transportation in the monocentric model

This paper presents a version of the monocentric city model that incorporates heterogeneous commuting speeds by introducing radial commuting highways. This model implies that metropolitan area population spreads out along new highways, which are positively valued by residents. Simulations of conservative specifications of the model imply that each additional highway ray causes about a 10 percent decline in central city population. Given observed central population declines and urban highway construction between 1950 and 1990, this model implies that highways can account for an important part of urban population decentralization.     

郊区化和城镇化背景下北京郊区小城镇住宅建设的博弈——北京郊区重点镇住宅建设调研与分析

论文以北京郊区重点小城镇住宅建设的调研为基础,分析了北京不断加快的郊区城镇化进程和由于城市扩展引发的居住郊区化对小城镇住宅建设的影响,探讨了郊区小城镇住宅在建设过程中出现的在购买群体、功能定位、用地布局、公共设施配套等方面由于郊区化和城镇化的双重背景而表现出的两难选择,并针对此现象提出了相应的对策和建议.     

A silver lining to white flight? White suburbanization and African–American homeownership, 1940–1980

Between 1940 and 1980, the homeownership rate among metropolitan African–American households increased by 27 percentage points. Nearly three-quarters of this increase occurred in central cities. We show that rising black homeownership in central cities was facilitated by the movement of white households to the suburban ring, which reduced the price of urban housing units conducive to owner-occupancy. Our OLS and IV estimates imply that 26 percent of the national increase in black homeownership over the period is explained by white suburbanization.     

The geography of car ownership in Mexico City: a joint model of households’ residential location and car ownership decisions

Suburbanization and car-ownership have increased rapidly in developing-world cities over the past half-century. This study examines the relationship between income, car ownership, and suburbanization across geographies and households in metropolitan Mexico City. Neither car-ownership trends by geography nor a mixed logit model of 43,000 households’ joint car-ownership and residential-location decisions suggest that car ownership and suburbanization are moving hand-in-hand. Instead, wealthier households tend to live in central locations and own and drive cars, while poorer households tend to live further from the urban center and rely more heavily on transit. If a random household’s income doubles, that household is around 44% more likely to get an additional car and 29% more likely to live in the urban center. Given the sticky nature of housing supply and the current model of peripheral housing production, aggregate responses to higher income are more difficult to predict, as they will almost certainly be offset by higher prices. Nevertheless, the findings suggest that higher income and car ownership do not tend to encourage a move to larger houses on larger suburban lots in Mexico City.     

大都市郊区化下的社会空间分异、社区碎化与治理

本文运用城市空间公正的"社会论"观点,从"城市生活空间质量观"的角度,分析中外国家城市郊区化的社会内涵、机制与社会空间分异现象.在对中国快速郊区化过程中大城市郊区社区碎化的现状和原因分析的基础上,提出对应空间治理措施.