Alternative framings of alternative food: A typology of practice

‘Alternative’ food initiatives (AFIs) are often interpreted as political movements, constructed as defiant alternatives to industrial agri‐food relations, and represented by a performance of singular alterity. This understanding of alternative collapses into a mere politics of identity, criticised in the literature for its oversimplification. In this paper, we utilise an established methodological framework that retains AFI diversity, to create a novel typology of AFIs by diverse and embodied practice rather than animating political project. In doing so, we point to the political potential for AFIs to ‘do’ food otherwise and make different worlds.     

Simulating artificial cities in a GIS environment: urban growth under alternative regulation regimes

This paper reports on an attempt to combine neo-classical urban economic theory with complex systems methods. The innovative feature of our model from the point of view of conventional economic theory lies in its explicit treatment of spatial relationships and time sequence. From the perspective of raster or cellular GIS models of urban processes, the work is innovative in that it replaces the more usual heuristic cell-transition rules with micro-economic theory. The mix of modelling paradigms is not unproblematic, however, and we discuss the challenges encountered at this research frontier. These notwithstanding, our hybrid model has the potential to be used as a GIS-based laboratory for exploring micro-economic propositions, particularly those relating to urban processes that are path dependent. The version of the model reported simulates spatially equilibriated path dependent futures of a city governed by local development decisions that are at partial equilibria in the neo-classical sense. Two simulations are described which permit visual and economic exploration of (a) an explicitly spatial version of the economic theory of externalities and (b) a new theory of densification. The dual paradigm (Cellular Automata-neo-classical economics) leads to an interesting class of simulations in terms of stability. Economically our simulated cities become increasingly efficient, in terms of private and social product. The long-run economic equilibrium is achieved by many individually efficient negotiations based only on local information. There is no parallel long-run spatial equilibrium however. The spatial configuration of land uses is constantly shifting as a result of randomness in the land use bidding process. The spatial instability is, however, limited by the self-organised drive for greater overall economic efficiency. In economic terms, the model's spatial instability represents random re-allocation of land-use within a set of Pareto-efficient spatial configurations - an intriguing result that we intend to follow up in future work.     

Contemporary urbanization and an optimal size for Soviet cities

This article is an English translation of the work cited in 46: 3092. The authors review the conclusions of Pivovarov (see 44: Title 3118) concerning the nature of the urbanization process and optimal city size in the USSR. The relationship between urbanization and the characteristics of a given socioeconomic system is examined, and the possibility of determining optimal size for cities of different functional types is evaluated     

How block density and typology affect urban vitality: an exploratory analysis in Shenzhen,China

Recent urban transformations in China have led to critical reflections on the low-quality urban expansion in the previous decades and called for the making of vital and lively urban places. To date, limited research has been devoted to empirically testing the relationship between urban design, urban morphology, and urban vitality in Chinese cities. This paper employs new urban data and analytical methods and explores the relationship between urban morphology and urban vitality using regression models. Shenzhen, one of the largest and fastest growing cities in China, is selected as the case study. The regression analysis focuses on two morphological factors, density and typology, while controlling for the accessibility, functional mix, and size of individual blocks. The presence of small catering businesses is used as a proxy for urban vitality. The analysis suggests that both typology and density matter for urban vitality, with typology playing a more important role. More specifically, “block” and “strip” types tend to show significant positive effects on urban vitality. The implications for urban planning and design practices are discussed.     

Social networks and healthy cities: spreading good practices based on a spanish case study

The city of Vitoria‐Gasteiz in Spain is considered a “healthy city” and has implemented sustainable actions to increase the mobility of its healthcare professionals. The objectives of this study are firstly to account for the use of bicycles at work as a strategy for a healthy city and secondly to propose a conceptual framework for analyzing this network and its capacity to spread their practices The paradigm proposed is that of social networks, within which sharing between contacts is explained by means of two models: the “threshold model” and “opinion leaders”.     

A sociodemographic typology of middle-level regions in the USSR

"Oblast-level regions of the USSR are grouped and mapped in nine types and a number of subtypes to reflect a combination of demographic factors: level of urbanization, urban and rural population growth, and population density. The typology can be used to devise sets of spatially differentiated measures to carry out a demographic policy and to regulate the sociodemographic evolution of regions."     

A typology of migration in Canada based on migrants' characteristics

"Data from the 1981 Census of Canada are used to develop a typology of migrants on the basis of their personal characteristics. Migrants are defined as those individuals who have changed their residence since the 1976 Census, crossing at least a municipal boundary. Socio-economic and demographic characteristics are perceived to differentiate stayers from movers, and to distinguish each migrant type [that is to say] intraprovincial, interprovincial and international. Discriminant analysis is applied to classify people into migrant types based on their personal characteristics and the typology developed."     

Identification and classification of resource-based cities in China

Journal of Geographical Sciences - Resource-dependent cities are cities whose economic development depends on the exploitation and processing of natural resources. Their transformation and...     

中国资源型城市识别与综合类型划分

资源型城市是一类具有特殊性质的城市,资源型城市转型与可持续发展是区域产业开发、区域经济和城市发展研究的重要内容,自2001年国家从阜新市开始资源型城市转型试点工作以来,对全国资源型城市的准确识别与类型划分一直是地理学界探讨的重点问题之一。本文在借鉴前人研究的基础上,运用城市职能分类的理论与方法,对资源型城市识别与分类的指标与阈值进行了系统分析,识别出全国262座资源型城市。同时,本文从资源型城市发展程度和资源型城市自身的问题出发,根据资源型城市发展的总体导向,结合资源型城市实际特点,尝试建立提出了以资源保障能力和可持续发展能力两个指标评价为基础的资源型城市综合分类框架,构建了资源型城市评价分类模型,将识别出的262座资源型城市分为成长型城市、成熟型城市、衰退型城市、再生型城市4类,并分析了不同类别城市的概念内涵与差异性特征。该研究成果很好的支撑了由国务院发布的《全国资源型城市可持续发展规划》对资源型城市的范围与类别的划定,并成为规划分类引导政策制定的基础。     

市场分割与中国城市出口差异

出口贸易是中国经济增长的引擎,也是影响城市经济发展的重要因素。中国城市出口活动强度呈现由东向西逐渐递减的趋势,东部沿海地区的城市群表现最为优异。经济转型背景下地方政府采取的市场分割政策对中国城市出口差异有显著影响。基于新经济地理理论,在企业微观层面使用Heckman选择模型分析的结果表明：① 短期内,国内市场分割程度加剧导致企业因国内市场受限而替代性地进入国际市场以追求规模经济效益,从而通过增加出口企业数量提升城市出口表现;长期来看,市场分割限制了企业的规模经济效益和专业化分工能力,降低了出口企业的生产率和国际竞争力,从而损害城市出口贸易的可持续发展;这一机制还受到企业所有制及地理区位的影响。② 市场分割对企业出口行为的扭曲程度依外资企业、国有企业、私营企业的顺序递增。③ 在中国中部地区,改善省际交通条件有助于缓解国内市场分割对企业出口行为的扭曲作用,在东部和西部地区则不明显。     

Experience of geographical typology of secularization processes in the modern world

In the modern world, seven geographical types of development of secularization processes have been identified; the level of secularization is determined not only by the maturity of social space but also by the structure of geospace. The Latin type includes some countries of Southern and Western Europe, most of the population of which confess Catholicism. The countries of the Anglo-Scandinavian type are characterized by Protestant pluralism. The polarized type combines countries and territories in which Protestants and Catholics form stable, influential and competing blocs. The countries in which the secularization processes were unable to seriously shake the influence of religion in society, because it is the institute of church that was resisting the political and cultural infringement by neighboring states over centuries, refer to the type of religious infringement. The resettlement type is characteristic for the countries whose population was being formed as a result of migration of various confessional (primarily Protestant) groups. The post-socialist type includes the countries in which an active policy of not infrequently forced “political” secularization was pursued. The Confucianistic type combines the states, most of the population of which was pursuing various religious-cultural traditions, with Confucianism predominating in general, and with a widespread occurrence of polyconfessionalism. This geographical typology of secularization embraces the countries, the communities of which have gone through the stages of secular development. The spatial boundedness of the secularization processes in the world is determined by the fact that secularization itself is the product primarily of the entire Christian European civilization.     

Spatio-temporal changes in heat waves and cold spells: an analysis of 55 U.S. cities

With observed increases in global temperatures indicating changes to anomalous temperature events (ATE), few studies have considered the changes associated with both heat and cold together. This study evaluates the changes in heat waves and cold spells for 55 U.S. metropolitan areas (1948–2012). Using surface observations, thresholds of mean apparent temperature were used to define heat, extreme heat, cold, and extreme cold events. Days that exceeded the 95th temperature percentile were considered heat days. Similar values were used to define extreme heat (97.5th), cold (5th), and extreme cold (2.5th). Thresholds were calculated independently for each of the locations, incorporating spatial variability into the ATE definition. Changes in duration, seasonal timing, and frequency, all of which have been shown to be important characteristics in regard to heat and cold events, were evaluated. Significant changes in some characteristics were found. Across many locations, heat events have become more frequent, longer lasting, and earlier occurring, while cold spells have experienced an opposite trend. Since heat and cold events impact a range of ecological and bioclimatological processes, understanding the variability and changes associated with ATE remains an important aspect to consider as society prepares for future events.     

跨江城市群城镇化空间格局演变及机制研究要以皖江城市带为例

以皖江城市带为例,采用空间自相关模型对其城镇化空间相关格局进行分析,进而分析跨江城市群城镇化发展的机制.结果表明:(1)2010年以来,皖江城市带城镇化水平呈上升趋势但不稳定,区内差异性减弱且质量有所提高,城镇化水平与经济发展水平不一致;(2)从全局空间关联角度来看,皖江城市带城镇化水平在空间上存在明显的正相关性即存在空间集聚现象;(3)从局部自相关角度来看,H-H集聚区即热点区存在沿长江东移的趋势,H-L集聚区主要位于宣城,L-H集聚区向铜陵演变,L-L集聚区位于皖江城市带西部六安、安庆、池州,且发展稳定;(4)江河功能的嬗变、政府政策的鼎革、城市之间竞速发展与地理扩散是跨江城市群城镇化发展的特有机制.     

城市的网络优势--中国互联网骨干网络结构与节点可达性分析

过去十余年,中国的互联网得到飞速发展,新的基础设施空间架构也已经基本形成。本文在回顾有关通信网络与城市体系的文献基础上,尝试建立一种评价中国互联网城市可达性的方法,并对五大骨干网络的空间结构和节点可达性进行了分析。结果表明:中国互联网基础设施的空间格局整体上趋于均衡,节点可达性基本遵循原有的城市等级体系;北京、广州和上海三大国家交换中心和几大区域核心节点城市的可达性位列顶层;节点可达性的高低与城市地理区位存在紧密联系。     

中国城市社区管理与服务的智慧化路径

智慧城市和人本城市建设的浪潮已经触及到了城市的细胞——社区,智慧社区建设已成为未来10多年中国智慧城市发展的关键所在。在社区网格化管理逐步成熟以及城市社区管理逐步信息化的新背景下,本文从中国城市社区管理与服务发展现状及存在问题出发,提出中国城市社区管理与服务智慧化路径:智慧社区建设应以社区动态规划为引导、以社区网格化管理为依托,通过多网格融合和技术标准建立与互融,实现社区服务精细化。特别强调社区规划应突破社区物理空间,并对社区空间进行重新划分,实现行为空间和社会空间意义上的再社区化;进而实现社区网格的科学划分和动态管理,并基于居民时空间行为的模式挖掘和需求分析,提供社区居民行为引导策略。     

Re-placing soil and its mattering in more-than-human cities

ABSTRACT

What role does soil play in sustainable design interventions and can it help to reconfigure human place experiences and human-nature relations in cities? Cities are home to a host of nonhuman actors that are overlooked or under-acknowledged in design and planning practices and in everyday dwelling. Soil is one such under-acknowledged urban inhabitant. In a period where cities and their inhabitants must adapt to the challenges of a changing climate, the paper draws together theory in design, planning and geography and empirical research with designers and residents in Australian cities to re-place soil as mattering in place(making) practices, everyday urban dwelling and urban sustainability transitions. The research contributes to recent work in (post)human geography to discuss ‘soil-planty mattering’, or the active role of soils and their intra-actions with other urban matter in shaping place. Soil-planty mattering is shown to disrupt human place(making), extending cities in material, temporal and spatial ways. In these extensions, the research suggests that soils have particular potential to re-orient human relationships with nonhumans in urban realms.     

Settlement in large cities of the USSR: an analysis of effectiveness (a review article)

"The issue of the effectiveness of large cities as forms of settlement remains a lively topic of debate in the USSR. Categorizing the issue into three aspects--economic, ecological and social--this paper reviews the arguments pro and con. Although the author makes a conscientious effort to reflect all points of view, a tone favoring the development of big cities appears evident in the discussion."     

中国资源型城市经济发展效率评析

从城市经济运行的角度,运用数据包络分析方法(DEA模型),对2007年我国75个地级资源型城市的经济发展规模效益进行了定量评价,揭示出我国资源型城市经济发展效率在空间分布、资源类别上的差异,分析了影响资源型城市经济发展效率的原因,并就如何提高资源型城市经济发展效益,促进其持续发展提出了相应建议.