Spatial (Im)mobility and Accessibility in Ireland: Implications for Transport Policy

Recent social research that links people's position in society to their ability to access employment has shown the centrality of spatial mobility in the (re)production of patterns of inequality. This is particularly evident in regions where economic activity is unevenly distributed and concentrated in an urban centre and where daily travel patterns reflect a spatial segregation between places of work and residential areas. This paper presents a spatial analysis of accessibility to employment for Galway City and its environs, a predominantly rural region in the West of Ireland dominated by its urban centre. Travel‐to‐work data from the 2006 Census of Population of Ireland were used to present a comparison of district‐specific accessibility levels across three socio‐economic groups. Network analysis and Geographic Information System visualisation tools are used to map existing socio‐spatial topographies of (in)accessibility. This is done to test two contrasting sets of theoretical proposals in the social science literature regarding the relationship between spatial mobility and social status. Advocates of the first position conceptualise spatial mobility as a form of capital that helps to maintain many existing social hierarchies. This contrasts with the views of those who anticipate the dissolution of established social boundaries (“fluidification”) as a result of increased spatial mobility of people, goods, and ideas. It is argued that these contrasting positions are highly relevant to current transport policy debates, including discussions around the impacts of recession‐related cuts in transport infrastructure investment on patterns of accessibility. In addition, they encourage reflection on the impacts of sustainable transport initiatives on different social groups that are more or less mobility disadvantaged, a fact that has hitherto received little attention in policy research and practice.     

The formation of agricultural e‐commerce clusters: A case from China

Agricultural e‐commerce clusters are new phenomena that have emerged in rural China. In examining the case of Shuyang County in Jiangsu Province, this paper puts forward an integrated model revealing the formation mechanism of agricultural e‐commerce clusters. The paper shows that the formation of agricultural e‐commerce clusters involves four processes of technology introduction, technology diffusion, quality crisis, and industrial agglomeration based on elements such as industry bases, e‐commerce platforms, network facilities, logistics services, entrepreneurial talent, local government, and market demand. Rural social networks and imitation behaviors promote technology diffusion by reducing the cost of technology introduction, and industrial agglomeration is found in the economies showing a deepening of labor divisions and geographic agglomeration. Throughout the formation process, a quality crisis may occur due to a race to the bottom and the opportunistic behaviors of local farmers. This work suggests that regional e‐commerce development is a systematic project. Governments of developing countries should not only realize the positive impacts of e‐commerce for the development of the agricultural industry but also recognize the premise and logic of how e‐commerce can play a prominent role.     

From R&D to Innovation and Economic Growth in the EU

ABSTRACT Over the last two decades many European governments have pursued ambitious research and development (R&D) policies with the aim of fostering innovation and economic growth in peripheral regions of Europe. The question is whether these policies are paying off. Arguments such as the need to reach a minimum threshold of research, the existence of important distance decay effects in the diffusion of technological spillovers, the presence of increasing returns to scale in R&D investments, or the unavailability of the necessary socio‐economic conditions in these regions to generate innovation seem to cast doubts about the possible returns of these sort of policies. This paper addresses this question. A two‐step analysis is used in order to first identify the impact of R&D investment of the private, public, and higher education sectors on innovation (measured as the number of patent applications per million population). The influence of innovation and innovation growth on economic growth is then addressed. The results indicate that R&D investment, as a whole, and higher education R&D investment in peripheral regions of the EU, in particular, are positively associated with innovation. The existence and strength of this association are, however, contingent upon region‐specific socio‐economic characteristics, which affect the capacity of each region to transform R&D investment into innovation and, eventually, innovation into economic growth.     

Participatory natural resource management in rural China: Making and unmaking environmental narratives

Environmental and development discourses in China can be categorised into three narrative motifs framing human–nature relationships: peasant, indigenous, and community. Indigenous and community narratives have been widely adopted by environmental NGOs (eNGOs) in China in promoting community‐based natural resource management projects, but there has been very limited critical research on such phenomena. Analysis of socio‐economic change in two ethnic minority communities in Yunnan shows that neither narrative theme is fully internalised by the relevant communities. Instead narratives may be strategically modified or even rejected by local communities. This is due to different agendas being held by local communities and eNGOs, and two factors pertinent to rural China: the incompatibility of concepts of ‘community’ in Chinese and international contexts results in confusion, and a lack of recent territorial and cultural claims by rural communities since the collectivist era makes it difficult to construct the identity of a community. It remains challenging for eNGOs in China to advocate either community or indigenous narratives in contexts of rapid socio‐economic change.     

Spatiality,belonging and citizenship in the age of migration in contemporary China

While internal migration in contemporary China ascribes a great change to urban China's demographic composition, social structures and economic development trajectories, it is yet to restructure the formal definitions of urban identity and belonging, which are still dominated by the household registration system (hukou). The paper suggests that as a result of changes in the political, economic, demographic and social contexts within which China's internal migration develops, there emerge a crucial need to re‐examine the crude forms of determining identity and belonging, questioning the addressing of spatiality within the existing mechanisms (such as hukou system or the shiminhua discourse). To do so, the paper argues that the existing de‐territorialisation of the migration experience has to be replaced with a more nuanced understanding of how spatial practices and conceptualisations shape migrants’ experiences, as it is becoming imperative to develop a new framework that is more sensitive to migrants’ lived process of identification and belonging, especially as these traverse multiple geographies and spatial scales. This close engagement with migrants’ spatiality can then be used as a base from which to engage with a more complex view of migrants’ spatial and social relatedness, as well as the development of their urban belonging and identity.     

Urban–Rural Differences in Internet Usage,e‐Commerce,and e‐Banking: Evidence from Italy

ABSTRACT By reducing the cost of performing isolated economic activities in remote areas, information technology might serve as a substitute for urban agglomeration. The paper assesses this hypothesis using data on Italian households' usage of the Internet, e‐commerce, and e‐banking. The results do not support the argument that the Internet reduces the role of distance. Internet usage is much more frequent among urban consumers than among their non‐urban counterparts. The use of e‐commerce is basically unaffected by the size of the city where the household lives. Geographically remote consumers are discouraged from purchasing goods by the fact that they cannot inspect them beforehand. Leisure activities and cultural items (i.e., books, CDs, and tickets for museums and theaters) are the only goods and services for which e‐commerce is used more in isolated areas. Finally, e‐banking bears no relationship to city size. In choosing a bank, non‐urban customers give more importance to personal acquaintance than do urban clients, partly because bank account holders in remote areas are more likely to have taken out a loan from their bank.     

Redefining “Offshore” in Latin America

Offshoring and outsourcing are two terms—often used interchangeably—that comprise an essential element of the modern post‐industrial global economy. Analysis of this phenomenon in the United States is often framed in the light of job loss and economic decline relating to the manufacturing or low‐end services sectors, but this paper will revisit the traditional offshore industry—that of offshore finance and offshore financial centers (OFCs) and compare OFC offshoring with traditional offshoring in Latin America. This paper argues that some similarities are evident when comparing OFC offshoring with traditional offshoring but many differences exist. Using the framework or “lens” of politics certain OFC offshoring issues and tensions with the onshore world relating to unfair tax competition, money laundering, sovereignty, secrecy, regulation, trust, and reputation are analyzed and are shown to be more onerous, tense and different from those occurring in the mainstream offshoring/outsourcing world. In addition, using the “lens” of cyberspace and e‐commerce, and a case study of the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas, this paper argues that the creation of an electronic infrastructure in the OFC offshoring world is as necessary as in the onshore world, but the actors and institutions creating and promoting such infrastructures are different. Future work could pursue more reputable and comparative data gathering to further more rigorous statistical modeling of the relationships both between OFCs as they compete for offshore capital, and between offshore and onshore as the onshore world seeks to further lift the veil of offshore financial opacity, particularly related to issues of money laundering.     

Pacific Islanders

This paper examines some of the socio‐demographic changes which have occurred in the Pacific‐descent population in New Zealand in the last decade. It examines significant shifts which have occurred in the social and economic characteristics of overseas and locally‐born sub‐populations and identifies some of the factors which have produced these. The chapter points to the growing internal socio‐demographic diversity within the Pacific population and argues that we may need to think about this population in different ways in the near future.     

Shaping the Rural–Urban Symbiosis: Density,Dispersal, Remoteness,and Town Size in South‐East Australia

Within the context of economic and social change in rural Australia, this paper identifies four structural dimensions of non‐metropolitan communities that are shown to influence a range of areal and socio‐demographic characteristics. The analysis shows that such influence is essentially maintained whether the social catchments forming the database are subdivided by State or by an equivalent number of landscape types. Also, although the dimensions influence both the urban and dispersed elements of the communities, the strength of the relationships is substantially greater if those elements are considered as a symbiotic whole. Throughout, net rural local density (as opposed to gross density) is shown to be a consistently important dimension of rural communities in relatively sparsely settled lands such as those of south‐eastern Australia, supported by the important subsidiary influence of relative settlement dispersal and town size. The paper concludes with a discussion of the processes involved in the impact of those structural dimensions upon rural society.     

Borderland livelihood strategies: The socio‐economic significance of ethnicity in cross‐border labour migration,West Kalimantan,Indonesia

This paper explores cross‐border ethnic relations as an important socio‐economic strategy for the borderland Iban population in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Iban seeking more lucrative wage work have long used their ethnic identity to facilitate circular labour migration across the international border into Sarawak, Malaysia, a strategy which has also compromised their claims to Indonesian citizenship. Drawing on long‐term field research among the West Kalimantan Iban, we examine the close interconnections among cross‐border labour migration, ethnicity, identity, and citizenship, and how this plays into contemporary issues related to Indonesian political and economic change.     

Hurricanes and socio‐economic development on Niue Island

This case study investigates the complex ways that recurrent ecological damage affected the course of socio‐economic development on Niue Island, a Pacific micro‐state. In tracing the historical record of droughts and hurricanes from 1900 to 1990, it is clear that severely inclement weather repeatedly destroyed agricultural development endeavours on the island leading to stagnation in this economic sector. In the aftermath of such disasters there were additional widespread social, political, and economic responses resulting in insidious but inexorable change. These responses – metaphoric ‘winds of change’– constituted, bolstered and sustained the transition to a MIRAB economy.     

Globalisation,governance and post‐structural political economy: Perspectives from Australasia

Abstract: The paper argues that post‐structural political economy (PSPE) offers geography and geographers interesting potential for the development of a style of geographic inquiry that has qualities that may be constitutive of progressive spaces. This new style of inquiry is seen as adding to the repertoire of political strategies and potential geographies of responsibility and extending notions of ethical behaviours. Issues relating to the assemblage of PSPE as a distinctive approach to knowledge production are considered and situated in the Australasian context. Discussion focuses especially on insight about the use of PSPE derived from three illustrative research case studies (a project on learning challenges in sheep meat and dairy supply chain realignment, tensions around fisheries management in New Zealand and an international workshop series on the topic of governmentality). The case studies provide a lens on the socio‐spatial relationships between globalisation and governance and interrogate the value of PSPE for understanding the connections between individual choices, governing practices and the construction of the globalising economy. The PSPE approach if actively incorporated into research processes may have important implications for future relationships between social responsibility, national economic development and globalisation.     

FIJI Water,water everywhere: Global brands and democratic and social injustice

Over recent decades, the demand for bottled water has grown exponentially at the global scale. In the marketing of such products, discourses of purity and paradise have often been invoked. Marketed as a ‘Taste of Paradise’, FIJI Water has gained enormous international success as an ostensibly clean and green product. Celebrity endorsements – reaching as high as US President Barack Obama – have abounded, driven in part by the belief that the corporation is both environmentally and socially responsible. This paper describes and analyses the rise of FIJI water and critically assesses the sources and impacts of its economic success. It goes on to explore its local social and environmental impacts in the context of a country that has been subject to waves of democratic crises where the fate of the polity has been influenced by FIJI Water's actions. FIJI Water has come to assume the role of development trustee in the villages most affected by the growth in exports. The democratic crises in Fiji has given FIJI Water profound developmental influence, and this has brought both costs and benefits at the local socio‐environmental scale.     

Reclaiming community spaces in the Mekong River transboundary commons: Shifting territorialities in Chiang Khong,Thailand

In Northern Thailand's Chiang Khong district, which lies along the banks of the Mekong River and the Thai‐Lao border, an community‐based environmental movement under the leadership of the Rak Chiang Khong conservation group emerged in response to processes that have appropriated territories traditionally used by locals for state‐led economic exploitation. The Rak Chiang Khong has put up fierce opposition to large‐scale development projects such as the China‐led navigation project, which planned to blast ecologically and culturally significant rapids, and hydropower dam development along the Mekong River. As a result, local‐level governance arrangements of the transboundary commons in Chiang Khong have shifted to counter threats both within and beyond the borders of Thailand. Through adapting fishing arrangements, engaging in community‐led research and establishing village conservation zones, overlapping forms of territorialisation have emerged in response to socio‐ecological changes to the river. These new forms of territorialisation are produced by complex configurations of political, cultural, and ecological histories, politicaleconomic changes, and transboundary dynamics. These territorial strategies have been key towards reclaiming the transboundary commons of the Mekong River for riparian communities, and providing a deeper understanding of the values that drive community involvement in the transboundary environmental governance of the Mekong River.     

Did incentives help municipalities recover from the Great Recession? Evidence from Midwestern cities

This study assesses the impacts of local business incentives in the largest urban areas of Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, three Midwestern states that share similar histories and settings. We assembled a unique dataset combining information on two types of incentives, tax increment financing districts and tax abatements, together with socio‐economic, geographic, fiscal, and spatial competitive characteristics for all of the municipalities in six metropolitan areas. The outcome measures include employment growth, establishment formation, and business relocation. The analysis extends knowledge of the effects of economic development incentives in two ways. First, we improve upon previous research by incorporating key factors in municipal decisions to offer incentives. Second, we add to limited empirical evidence concerning local incentives following the Great Recession. Variation in the use of incentives reflects not only local decision‐making but also differing fiscal capacities and situations of adaptation to adverse economic conditions, with some governments pulling back on incentives and others initiating new approaches to retain or lure businesses.     

Social Network Analysis of Actors in Rural Development: A Case Study of Yanhe Village,Hubei Province,China

Agricultural production, rural areas, and farmers are three key aspects of agriculture related to sustainable economic and social development in China. Rural development is a process of multi‐participation, which involves actors from governments, village committees, villagers, rural economic cooperatives, enterprises, financing institutions, and non‐government organizations (NGOs). Based on social network analysis (SNA), this article analyzes the social network structures and characteristics of various actors in different stages of rural development in Yanhe village, Hubei Province, China. The results show that both the village committee and villagers have great influence on rural development; NGOs are the leaders of rural environmental improvement; village cooperatives are the promoters of rural economic development; enterprises are the accelerators of rural construction and development. The study outlines the rural development model in Yanhe village where the village committee is the leader and multiple forms of participation and cooperation are present; there are excellent partnerships and communication mechanisms among the participants. The endogenous and sustainable development model identified from Yanhe village is valuable for other villages in China to adopt.     

Contentious space and scale politics: Planning for intercity railway in China's mega‐city regions

Over the past three decades, we have seen a flourishing of scholarship which explores the emerging political spaces and variegated scales of governance in China. This research draws on political economic tradition to argue that the way in which cities and regions are governed is indeed infused with socio‐political struggles which are proliferating at a range of spatial scales. Such theoretical interpretation is illuminating, but it has been subject to increasing criticism from the poststructuralist approach that views scale as an epistemological construct. This paper uses the Pearl River Delta Intercity Railway System (PRD‐ICRS) as a case study to challenge the onesidedness of both the political economy tradition and the poststructuralist approach in reading scale. It employs the “scale politics” thesis to argue that scale is more than a material existence (or institutionalised structure) that represents a particular arrangement of political power, being subject to perpetual transformation through regulatory projects and strategies. It is also a “representation trope” deployed in political discourses to acquire persuasive power to frame and legitimise these projects and strategies. Scale is thus both material and discursive. Understanding the two moments of scale enables a fuller dissection of political transformation.     

The imported underclass: poverty and social exclusion of black African refugees in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract: Changes in immigration and refugee policy since 1991 have led to an increasing number of minority ethnic groups settling in Aotearoa New Zealand. The number of Black African migrants and refugees granted permanent residence in New Zealand has increased substantially from about six in 1982 to over 770 in 1998 (New Zealand Immigration Services, 2001). The socio‐economic, professional and cultural characteristics of this emerging Black African minority ethnic community are complex but fascinating. In mid 2000 the majority of the Black African community in New Zealand were refugees ( Chile 1999A ). This paper is part of a broader study to analyse the nature and structure of Black African migration and settlement in New Zealand. It is an attempt to undertake applied migration research from a participatory methodology framework that addresses the expressed needs of the grass‐roots level client community. The paper examines the socio‐economic status of Black African refugees in New Zealand and analyses the factors and processes that create an impoverished community that is increasingly excluded from mainstream society. Strategies to reverse the process of marginalisation and create a healthy, vibrant community with the capacity to participate effectively in New Zealand society are examined.     

Determinants of Local Highway Spending in North Carolina

Public spending, because it is influenced by elected officials, can be swayed by political considerations as well as socio‐economic factors. Previous studies have confirmed the importance of political measures in the allocation of general public spending as well as in spending for infrastructure and highway projects at the state level. This study examines the determinants of the allocation of state highway funds within one state—in North Carolina to counties during the period 1990–2005—and assesses the relative importance of socio‐economic and political factors in these decisions. Determinants were derived from three conceptual approaches to public spending: the median voter model, the special interest model, and the political model. Persistence was found in both highway construction spending and highway maintenance spending. In addition, employment market conditions were a strong determinant of highway construction spending, as was one political factor—the county's relative vote in the most recent election for the state's dominant political party. Highway maintenance spending was found to be dominated by median voter factors with no finding of political influence.     

Behind the Pan‐European Convergence Path: The Role of Innovation,Specialisation and Socio‐economic Factors

The paper analyses the determinants of regional disparities in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and their evolution over time in the enlarged European Union (EU). With reference to the literature it groups EU regions on the basis of three different factors—specialisation, socio‐economic features, and innovation. It then analyses regional disparities in per capita GDP (EU‐relative and country‐relative) across groups over 2004–2011 using both non‐parametric tools and traditional regression analysis with spatial effects. The paper finds that EU‐wide convergence actually conceals growing divergence across old member regions and within new members. Coming to the factors that lie at the heart of regional disparities, country factors lose importance for newcomers but become more important for older members, notwithstanding longstanding integration. Socio‐economic factors and innovation instead become increasingly important for all areas, socio‐economic factors lying at the heart of within‐country differences and innovation more of those between regions. Finally, specialisation appears to have a lower explanatory power.