Contested terrains: Cities and hinterlands in post-apartheid boundary delimitations

In South Africa attempts are being made to address the socio-spatial distortions of the apartheid era through a more equitable distribution of resources, and the re-drawing of municipal geographical boundaries. However, boundaries are not neutral geographic lines. Boundary changes are often associated with a redistribution of political power and resources. The aim of this paper is to analyse the effects of the contemporary territorial and administrative restructuring on urban dynamics in South Africa. More specifically, the focus is on how the process of territorial restructuring impacted on metropolitan areas as well as on secondary cities and their hinterlands. Examining and elucidating the manner in which various social, economic and political forces have manifested themselves in the process of boundary delimitation in a major metropolitan centre as well as adjacent rural areas is a central theme of this paper. There were considerable contestations over the delimitation of new local government boundaries. Affluent metro authorities like that in Durban were opposed to the spatial extension of their boundaries because of the costs of the providing services and infrastructure in the deprived margins. Similarly, there was concern that incorporation of rural areas will result in increased municipal service charges being imposed on these communities. Tensions were heightened between urban and rural regions because traditional leaders believed that their territorial jurisdiction and authority were being undermined. In other parts of the country, the merger of traditionally white and black fragments of secondary cities often resulted in many black locations continuing to be marginalized. There appears to be neither the political will nor the economic capacity to upgrade these zones of marginalized urban communities. While the Municipal Demarcation Board was largely successful in eliminating the political geography of apartheid at a macro- scale, this paper suggests that the greater challenge for government and policy makers is to reduce the socio-spatial and economic inequalities which appears to be still very high and perhaps increasing. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Socio-spatial segregation and urban form: Belém at the end of the 1990s

In the second half of the 1990s, socio-spatial segregation increased in Brazilian cities, accentuating inequity among social groups. Using a combination of space syntax techniques and statistical analysis, this paper explores locational differences in central and peripheral portions of Belém. The analysis shows how socio-spatial segregation was made more pronounced by relationships between urban form, infrastructure provision and locational values. Social groups' opportunities in the city are suggested to be limited by features of its urban form, associated with infrastructure provision, especially for groups unable to take advantage of intra-urban accessibility. The paper also discusses the findings of the study in relation to the Brazilian urban context at the end of the 1990s.     

An archaeology of fear and environmental change in Philadelphia

This paper examines how mechanisms of social control function to mediate human-environment relations and processes of environmental change in the city. Using the Fairmount Park System of Philadelphia as a case study, I argue that a history of social control mechanisms, both formal and informal, maintained viable socio-environmental urban relationships. Their decline over the last several decades has produced a legacy of fear towards the city’s natural environment that has had, and continues to have, profound socio-spatial and ecological implications. I argue that these changes have their origin in a set of racially motivated decisions made during the volatile years of the late 1960s and early 1970s and that African American women, in particular, have been impacted disproportionately by their consequences. Fear of crime in the natural environment and suspicion of environmental change have resulted in the exclusion of local women and children from what was, historically, a politically and socially viable public space. In this context, urban ecological change is locally understood as more an issue of social control than one of environmental concern.     

Tertiarisation and socio-spatial differentiation in Wales

Processes of economic restructuring and social recomposition have been proceeding at an accelerated pace in Wales of late. This paper seeks to show that these changes, which began with a redistribution of manufacturing employment initially, but which have more recently been dominated by the restructuring of the tertiary sector, can best be understood as a regional effect of the growing spatial division of labour in the UK and internationally. Of special interest is the manner in which the dual spatial divisions in secondary and tertiary economic activity produce new combinations of spatial and social differentiation at the sub-regional level.     

Transformation processes in Moscow and intra-urban stratification of population

Major trends of social restructuring of Moscow population and processes of intra-urban segregation are discussed. The article comprises two main parts. The first part deals with differences between the population of Moscow and that of Russia based on the main socio-economic indicators. In the second part, emphasis is placed on the urban processes of social stratification of the population on the basis of analysis of the demographic and employment patterns of the population and peculiarities of the functioning housing market. The merging of top government officials and new business elites is stressed. A conclusion is drawn about the variation of the character of urban population differentiation and its transition to a stage of property-based spatial segregation.     

Socio-spatial differentiation and residential segregation in Delhi: a question of scale?

This paper focuses on the pattern of social-spatial differentiation and segmentation of the metropolitan area of Delhi. The main objective is to analyse the mechanisms of residential segregation and the factors that explain it both at the micro- and macro-level. In the context of the Indian society and its caste system traditionally associated with strong social and spatial segregation, we try to appraise the extent to which the metropolitanization process in Delhi engenders original forms of spatial segmentation or perpetuates and strengthens the traditional forms of socio-spatial divisions. At the level of the global spatial organization of the urban agglomeration, our objective is twofold: to analyse the factors that shaped the urban landscape and introduced spatial discontinuity, from physical barriers to the different historic periods and the impact of town planning; to analyse the residential pattern of different segments of the urban population, in order to detect whether certain economic and socio-cultural attributes generate a pattern of segregation. We then pursue a more detailed investigation at the level of a zone, based on the case study of Mayur Vihar-Trilokpuri in east Delhi. We analyse the residential practices developed by different socio-economic groups, their strategies as regards the occupation of the geographical and economic space, their tendency to residential clustering that leads to a pattern of social segregation at the level of the neighbourhood. In this perspective, the links between the urban policies at the macro-level and the individuals’ residential practices at the micro-level are also examined.     

Urban development in East Germany — specific features of urban transformation processes

The aim of this paper is to analyse the main characteristics of post-socialist urban development in East Germany, especially the differences compared to urban development in other East and Central European countries. In spite of the many similar problems and processes in urban development, specific features of East Germany are characterised by the rapid growth of suburbia, especially in the first phase of transition, by the proceeding activities of urban renewal and revitalisation, and by a lower level of social polarisation and socio-spatial segregation as compared to other post-socialist countries. Important conditions for urban development in East Germany exist in special support programmes, high subsidies and other financial transfers as well as in engaged planning conceptions of the local authorities. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Metropolitan deconcentration, socio-political fragmentation and extended suburbanisation: Brazilian urbanisation in the 1980s and 1990s

The aim of this paper is to discuss the phenomena of socio-political fragmentation of urban space, extended suburbanisation and metropolitan deconcentration, which have been important features of Brazilian urbanisation since the 1980s (metropolitan deconcentration partly since the 1970s). At the beginning it profiles the recent evolution of the country's economy, in order to make sense of the worsening situation in terms of exclusion and violence in big Brazilian cities since the 1980s. Against this background, recent trends both in terms of socio-spatial segregation and social conflict within cities (formation of enclaves dominated by drug trafficking organisations and self-segregation of the élites as a response to this) and in terms of the growing attractiveness of areas outside the biggest metropolises (extended suburbanisation and metropolitan deconcentration) are analysed. The main focus is the socio-political dimension of Brazilian urbanisation in the 1980s and 1990s, which has been undervalued by analysts.     

Political transformation,urban policy and the state in London's Docklands

The contemporary restructuring of urban space in the United Kingdom can be understood in terms of much broader social, political, and economic changes. This paper provides an analysis of this experience in London's Docklands, as a way of highlighting the connections between these social relations. We can best understand these changes by drawing upon regulation theory, which posits a firm, but dynamic, link between economic and political processes. Through an analysis of urban policy changes, political struggles, and economic shifts in London's Docklands, I argue for a more central role for the state and social movements in the understanding of social regulation and urban change. Finally, the paper considers the establishment of an Urban Development Corporation in the area in 1981, which represents an attempt by the central government to establish a new regime of economic and political life in the area. This has produced important conflicts at a local level, which typify the conflictual nature of attempts to restructure the economic and political relations of urban locales.     

"Welcome in my backyard"…but on my terms: making sense of homeless exclusion from renewed urban spaces in Copenhagen

Based on a Danish case study of urban renewal in Copenhagen’s Sundholm District, this paper examines, (a) how present urban regeneration efforts in a historically welfare-driven, but increasingly neoliberalized state context, is contributing to more or less spatial exclusion of the homeless, and (b) to what extent this may be associated with a revanchist/punitive stance of the Danish state. Using an urban political ecological lens, this paper highlights a relational understanding of the apparently dualistic/competing public and civic discourses shaping the Danish urban regeneration program. Revealing the complex ways that public socio-environmental policies and middle-class civic environmentalism/activism intersect with state-entrepreneurialism within such regeneration efforts, this paper presents an instance of a historically and geographically distinct process of neoliberal disciplining of the poor in Sundholm District. The paper shows that while such disciplining of the homeless is not driven by a purely punitive state, it results in soft, green-coded, nonetheless exclusionary implications for the homeless and their socio-spatial practices within the renewed urban spaces.     

Residential segregation and housing in Berlin: changes since unification

This paper examines the spatial patterns and extent of residential segregation in Berlin at the time of unification, and also considers changes since that date. Residential segregation is differentiated into three components - demographic, socio-economic and ethnic. For all these dimensions, segregation depends on housing provision and the rules of admission to various segments of the housing market. The former differences in housing regulations in East and West Berlin are therefore of importance, as well as changes since unification. The paper shows that before unification demographic segregation was more prominent in East Berlin, whilst socio-economic segregation was more pronounced in West Berlin. Ethnic minority communities in West Berlin had developed from the immigration of guestworkers and their families, with moderate levels of segregation: however in East Berlin there were very few foreign contract workers present throughout the 1980s. In spite of the short time-period since unification, there are clear signs of convergence between the segregation patterns in the two parts of the city. Nevertheless, it is argued that population movements between East and West are still remarkably low, so that differences in the population patterns will continue to exist for some time to come. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The local geographies of poverty: a rural case-study

Recent years have witnessed a renewed interest in the spaces of poverty in Britain. An increasing number of geographers have placed poverty back `on the map' by pointing to its complex spatial manifestations. In addition, the increased importance attached to the concept of social exclusion within UK social welfare discourse has led to social policy researchers thinking more critically about the broader social and spatial contexts of poverty and, consequently, new connections between poverty and space have been identified. However, within these new spatialised accounts of poverty in Britain, scant attention has been given to the local geographies of poverty. In fact, relatively little is known about the complex connections between poverty and place, and, more specifically, the ways that poverty is associated with different material forms, representations and experiences in particular local contexts. This paper develops these kinds of connection between poverty and place through an exploration of the local geographies of rural poverty in South-west England. Based on an analysis of local poverty data, in-depth interviews with a broad range of key agencies and a case-study of poverty in a particular village, the research highlights the complex socio-spatial nature of poverty, the different spatial scales and visibilities of poverty, and important connections between poverty and the shifting social composition of local space.     

Quo vadis neoliberalism? The remaking of global capitalist governance after the Washington Consensus

The Washington Consensus, through which neoliberal global capitalist governance gained hegemony over the third world, entered a crisis in the late 1990s. Triggered by the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and by contestations of neoliberal governance from global civil society, two remakings of global capitalist governance can be identified: A ‘post-Washington consensus’ whose relation to neoliberalism is complex; and a ‘new development economics’ that advocates Keynesian principles. Irrespective of the trajectory of this emergent phase of re-regulation, particularly after the 2008 global finance crisis, these remakings can be conceptualized as supplements reinforcing an imaginary of capitalism as the solution to, rather than progenitor of, uneven development. Through discourses of capitalist development as a sequential trajectory to be followed by all countries, as flattening the world to enable catch-up by backward countries, and as incorporating socio-spatial difference via its commodification, this socio-spatial imaginary functions to legitimate expertise located in the first world, and global capitalist governance, irrespective of serial policy failures.     

Identity building and social transformation: the cases of Namibia and Botswana compared

Namibia and Botswana differ from other sub-Saharan nations in their record of stable political performance. However, both countries have to face increasing social problems. In the case of Namibia these are still mainly related to the process of post-apartheid national reconciliation and identity building, in the case of Botswana they refer to issues of growing tribal tensions and of a gradual interior restructuring of society. This paper analyzes the various patterns of social transformation in the two countries and examines in what ways state-society relations are different from other African nations. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Emerging patterns of restructured farm businesses in Eastern Germany

This paper provides an overview of the process of restructuring farm businesses in the Former German Democratic Republic. It considers political, economic and social factors in the restructuring process, including the resolution of historical injustices and mediation between competing interest groups. It concludes that a large scale non-family business structure is emerging despite rather than because of government policy, and that restructuring has been not been achieved without social costs that must also be addressed.     

Applied social area analysis: Defining and evaluating areas for urban neighbourhood councils

Urban neighbourhood councils, neither statutorily established nor widely initiated in England, are seen to possess a number of advantages over existing forms of representative participation in relation to the equitable distribution of resources. In Portsmouth a community area perception survey and principal components analysis of census data were undertaken to produce synthesised ‘best fit’ social sub-areas upon which to base neighbourhood councils. These areas were then analysed in terms of their relevance and appropriateness, terms specifically defined, along four scale dimensions. An original contention that for maximum effectiveness neighbourhood councils should be established to cover all urban residential areas was confounded by the manifest irrelevance of the neighbourhood council concept in certain socio-spatial contexts.     

生态系统与人类健康

简要介绍了千年生态系统评估（MA）项目针对生态系统与人类健康编写的《生态系统与人类福祉：健康综合报告》的核心内容。报告表明：① 生态系统及其服务是人类生存和维持健康的根基,但生态系统与人类健康之间的关系多是间接性的,可能出现时空移位,而且还会受到许多动态因素的影响,因而对其认知难度较大;② 在过去的50年中,主要由人类活动造成的生态系统变化,一方面显著改善了人类的健康状况,另一方面人类也为此付出了日益昂贵的代价,并对未来的人类健康构成了新的威胁;③ 对于未来50年(2000—2050年)的生态系统变化与人类健康状况,虽然MA的4种情景的模拟结果不尽相同,但是,它们一致认为人类对食物和水资源等生态系统服务的需求将大幅增长,人类活动对生态系统的快速转化将会持续,而且难以实现食物安全及消除儿童营养不良等目标;④ 长远来看,生态系统的可持续管理与人类健康状况的改善具有相互促进作用。但是,为了实现改善人类健康和保育生态系统的双赢目标,必需对现行的管理、制度、法规和政策等进行一系列的全面改革。     

The structure and development of greater Lagos

In the period between 1965 and 1976, when German geographers carried out their fieldwork for the Afrika-Kartenwerk under the sponsorship of the German Research Society, remarkable progress in urban development especially in Lagos could be observed. The cooperation with the Federal Survey Department of Nigeria gave the opportunity for collecting several series of aerial photographs which bring into focus some stages of the overwhelming urban expansion.The materials presented here have been selected to demonstrate some regional structures of the Nigerian capital. — In the geography of today the scientific evaluation of aerial photographs together with findings from local observation and historical as well as statistical data is still undervalued. Through this technique, the more classical and conservative method of geographical analysis, relying on subjective judgement, may regain some of its importance, which it once had in the age of exploration of new territories.Where data is scarce and written records of urban expansion are not available or difficult to extract, aerial photographs can give an impression of certain stages of urban growth. A functional analysis under geographical aspects has to be regarded by changes within spatial units in order to the factors of influence. Those factors are numerous, their influence will cause changes in a series of pushes arising from economic developments of the vast hinterland as well as from social conditions of certain groups of the population. In a metropolitan center, as Lagos, the highest ranking central place of Africa's most populous nation, heterogenous events and a confusing number of planning decisions must be taken into consideration. One consequence of nationwide regional interactions with the metropolis is migratory population dynamics. In pursuing lines of interaction, which originate from economic power, population density, and natural resources, one can hardly isolate a single element of influence because all factors are closely interrelated. For Lagos, there is only limited data available on the social and economic standard of the population, valid basic demographic figures of some value are not available.One still has to accept very rough estimates on population figures, number of industrial workers, the standards of housing and the social and economic hierarchy of the population. The present retrospective analysis of aerial photographs gives an interpretation of the regional structure of the town and indicate possible future development.     

Restructuring on a vertiginous plateau: The evolutionary trajectories of British Columbia’s forest industries 1980–2010

The volatility of British Columbia’s (BC’s) forest industries over the last three decades has not only reflected the immediate impacts of demand fluctuations arising from the broader vicissitudes of capitalist economies but the evolutionary implications of industrial and resource dynamics. The 1980s recession in particular marked a turning point in the evolutionary trajectory of BC’s forest industries, associated with global paradigmatic changes driven by flexibility imperatives, the maturation of the forestry resource cycle to the plateau or fall-down stage, and conflicts caused by environmental, social and trade protectionist opposition to vested industry interests. This paper focuses on the broad contours of the restructuring of BC’s forest industries since 1980. Conceptually, the paper elaborates a resource industry life-cycle model (RILCM) that integrates industry and resource cycle dynamics and the implications of economic crisis. Empirically, the analysis uses longitudinal output and employment data, summaries of the policy re-regulation of the BC forest economy since 1980, and comparative static plant-level data, 1980–2008. The analysis reveals the 1980s recession as a turning point in the transformation of BC’s forest industries, characterized by high levels of volatility and long-term decline in the main commodities. Industrial restructuring has also witnessed a fragmentation of production, the emergence of small firm dominated value-added activities, and broad changes to the coreperiphery structure of the forest industries within BC. It is argued that evolutionary approaches to economic geography need to incorporate resource peripheries and crisis and acknowledge the role of crisis and non-economic factors in shaping regional transformation.     

Transformation of residential planning in Umtata during the post-apartheid transition era

The political changes in South Africa after 1994 necessitated that the Bantustans, the main servers of apartheid planning, be re-incorporated into the mainstream of South Africa, implying the transformation of apartheid residential planning. Since then there has been much speculation about the type of transformation that would be implemented in the Bantustans to effect change in a non-racial South Africa. The aim of this paper is to analyze the effects of post-apartheid territorial restructuring in the former South African Bantustans. Examining and elucidating the manner in which the diverse social, economic and political factors have manifested themselves in the process of transformation of spatial residential planning in Umtata (the former capital city of the Transkei Bantustan) since 1994 is the central theme of this paper. Using property registers together with changes in legislative policies and land ownership, the transformation pattern was analysed in the former Bantustan capital city (Umtata). The findings indicate that the new South African policies and development strategies have been partially successful in eliminating the incongruencies of the past with regard to access to housing in Umtata. More critical is that this paper suggests that there still remains a greater challenge lingering from the influence of the Bantustan government in the city.