Towards models of strategic spatial choice behaviour: theory and application issues

Models of spatial choice behaviour have been around in geography urban planning for decades to assess the feasibility of planning actions or to predict external (competition) effects on existing destinations. Although these models differ in terms of complexity and key concepts, they all have in common that spatial choice behaviour is predicted as a function of the attributes of the choice alternatives and distance or travel time separation only. None of these models do take into account that the attributes of choice alternatives and travel time may be highly non-stationary and that often the utility that people derive from visiting a particular location also depends on the choice behaviour of other individuals. Under these circumstances, individuals may exhibit strategic choice behaviour. That is, they will choose particular choice options taking into account their expected behaviour of others such as to maximize their own utility. The purpose of the proposed paper is to discuss possible models of strategic choice behaviour for these urban planning problems. Theory will be outlined and some critical issues in the application of such models to problems of spatial choice will be discussed.     

The Swedish model for groundwater policy: legal foundations, decision-making and practical application

Public policy concerning groundwater is often complex, with diverse competing interests. With many countries facing similar challenges, it is instructive to examine the policy approaches that have and have not worked abroad. This article contributes to an international exchange of ideas on how best to approach these common problems by explaining how Sweden regulates its groundwater resources. From constitutional foundations to the practical details associated with applying existing policy, a synopsis is provided of groundwater jurisprudence in Sweden. Multiple governmental agencies are involved with groundwater policy in Sweden; this decentralized approach is probably a function of the natural abundance of clean aquifers throughout the country. Historically, the easy accessibility of high-quality groundwater made it a low priority in the context of environmental policy. It has simply never been an economic necessity to control groundwater resources through a single, unified governmental agency. Sweden is lagging behind many industrialized countries when it comes to implementing policies that protect and manage groundwater. Despite this, there are elements of Sweden’s approach that are highly innovative and possibly unique globally and which therefore merit discussion.     

Environmental policy reform on north-eastern Brazil’s agricultural frontier

The expansion of modern agriculture in developing countries presents numerous challenges for environmental policy makers. Environmental policies for agriculture in north-eastern Brazil’s soybean belt are analyzed, with emphasis on the role of a non-state actor in leading policy reforms. An organization representing large farmers is leading policy reforms to reduce the environmental impacts of modern agriculture. By contrast, state agencies are relatively weak and ineffective. The analysis situates this question conceptually in literatures stressing the political and structural causes of corporate environmentalism and literatures explaining the increasingly strong role of non-state actors in environmental governance. The case study focuses on the content of reforms, reasons why the non-state actor is so prominent, and the implications of policy reforms. State agencies face major challenges in environment-agriculture policy debates in places where environmental subsidies are unlikely, environmental information is poor, and organized private interests are influential.     

Agglomeration and location choice of foreign financial institutions in China

In the midst of global economic and financial integration, there are increasing cross-border capital flows between China and the rest of the world. Foreign financial businesses also start to play more important roles in the nation’s market after waves of financial reforms. Within such a background, this study aims to investigate the agglomeration and location choice of overseas financial institutions in Chinese cities. Data from the 2004 China Economic Census show that foreign financial establishments, including banks, insurance companies, and other financial service businesses, were mainly agglomerated in coastal cities. In particular, three major urban areas, Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, concentrated a majority of overseas financial institutions. Results from regression models show that foreign businesses’ location choice is greatly influenced by a city’s urban economy, involvement in the global market, and telecommunication infrastructure. However, we do not find a significant link between foreign financial institutions’ market entry and the size of domestic financial centers in China.     

The impact of the parking situation in shopping centres on store choice behaviour

The article discusses the effects of changing the parking situation in the surrounding of shopping centres on consumers store choice behaviour. To get insight into these effects a hierarchical logit model of parking lot and store choice behaviour is estimated and validated. The research is based on before-and-after data of supermarket visitors collected in a major regional shopping centre in a suburban area in The Netherlands. The model is estimated using the before data. At the level of the supermarkets the estimated hierarchical logit model performs very well. The model is less accurate at the level of parking lots but still performs satisfactory. Significant attributes are a constant representing the characteristics of the supermarket, the distance between supermarket and parking lot, the number of parking spaces per parking lot, the location of the parking lot vis-à-vis the origin of the consumer, and the availability of supermarket trolley facilities at the parking lot. Validating the model by reproducing the after data yields less satisfactory results. Especially the model does not perform very well on predicting parking lot choice. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

What drives low-carbon consumption behavior of Chinese college students? The regulation of situational factors

Carbon dioxide contributes about 90% of global warming, which is mainly generated by residents’ daily consumption activities. This article explores the factors of low-carbon consumer behavior among college students and situational factors which contribute to explain intention–behavior gap. Combined with the existing research literature and the Model of Responsible Environmental Behavior, a model of the factors of Chinese college students’ low-carbon consumption behavior was constructed through a sample survey of college students in Jiangsu Province. Analysis results show that (1) College students’ low-carbon behavior intention has a significant positive effect on low-carbon consumption behaviors; (2) Attitudes, emotions, and habits indirectly affect low-carbon consumer behaviors through low-carbon behavior intention; (3) Low-carbon behavior ability and habits can also affect low-carbon consumption behaviors in a direct way; (4) The study of situational factors found that policies and regulations, economic costs, goals and feedback, and social norms have a significant regulating effect in the process of low-carbon behavior intention which has an impact on low-carbon consumption behaviors; (5) In terms of demographic factors, gender and education have a significant effect on low-carbon consumption behavior. Finally, this article discusses the policy measures to guide college students’ low-carbon consumption behavior from the government and the school level, respectively, and place a high hope on college students who can positively influence the entire social group to carry out low-carbon consumption and achieve the realization of China’s low-carbon goals.

     

Policy discourse and biography: scripting adulthood into housing policies in comparative perspective

This article compares current Russian and Swedish policy discourses on state commitment to facilitating young adults’ access to housing by analyzing national, regional and municipal strategic documents. Both countries previously embraced the idea of housing as a commodified yet universal entitlement and exercised strong public regulation of housing redistribution, but are now establishing selective policies that support young people who comply with prescribed life-course norms. Thus, a life-course trajectory becomes integrated into the policy discourse, and a stable residential autonomy is considered a ‘crowning biographical event’, following a successful employment record and the establishment of a family unit. Notwithstanding important differences in policy formulation and realization, housing policies in Russia and Sweden are aimed to integrate emerging adults into market relations by increasing housing ownership through credit loans and stimulating individual responsibility for welfare provision.     

Praying for success? Faith schools and school choice in East London

The article discusses research undertaken in East London into perceptions of educational choice amongst a group of middle-class parents drawn from all the main ethnic groups. It focuses on the way in which faith schools are slowly being drawn into the mainstream discourse of choice and how many groups are now beginning to regard such schools as their fall back of choice when it becomes apparent that they are unlikely to get their child into a preferred non-selective secondary school (and increasingly a preferred primary school). This mainstreaming of faith schooling is driven by the attractions to such parents of these schools’ ethos, their perception of them as having a favourable social mix of ‘people like us’ and their generally high record of attainment. It is argued that this increase in demand for faith schools is leading to changes in the recruitment patterns away from primarily faith-based criteria to ones based around a more diffuse (and middle-class) ethos and educational potential. In addition, where such schools once served a wider East London geographical area, there is some evidence that they are now becoming more focused around a local ‘catchment area’ in ways similar to the same popular non-selective schools to which the same group of parents aspired.     

基于BP神经网络的底水油藏控水压裂选段新方法

随着水平井压裂技术的普遍应用,压裂段的选择成为影响增产效果的主要因素之一,但针对底水油气藏,在压裂时同时考虑控水同样重要。影响底水油气藏压裂效果的因素很多,因素之间具有高度不确定的非线性关系,给控水压裂选段分析带来了诸多不便。利用传统的单因素回归等方法,显然不能满足底水油藏多种影响因素下水平压裂段的选择。针对此问题,通过油藏工程理论和现场经验,确定了避水高度、地层各向异性、天然裂缝发育程度、地应力差值、水平井曲直偏差、储层与水层之间隔层发育程度六个参数作为影响控水压裂段选择的主要因素,建立定性分析方法。通过底水脊进模型确定了参数界限,结合BP神经网络系统的原理,建立定量分析。利用计算机语言编制底水油气藏水平井压裂段控水选择软件,通过实际应用,表明其对现场施工具有一定的指导作用。     

Arctic worlds and the geography of imagination

The intent of this paper is to contribute to a larger discussion of the history of geographical thought and its consequences by gently drawing attention to the Arctic as a place where alternative visions of nature, home and horizon persist; by contrasting many of our unchallenged geographical assumptions with what might be the logical consequence had we started in a different place, under different conditions and with a different perspective. It is never easy to comprehend the perspective of another and it is unwise to presume that one has indeed done so. For this reason, while this paper explores the dichotomy between the geographic perspectives of the Arctic, particularly those of the Inuit who know it best, and those of the Western Europeans who have literally laid claim to the Arctic geography, it does not purport to be anthropological or ethnographical. Rather it is an attempt to sketch the intellectual landscapes implicit in the contrast between Inuit and European approaches to the Arctic.     

以色列依靠科技创新走出缺水困境的经验

以色列地处中东,降雨稀少且分布不均,天然淡水资源短缺。为解决这一困境,以色列自1948年建国后就一直致力于发展水资源高效利用技术,在水资源生产、运输、回收等领域研发出诸多领先全球的新技术。经过多年努力,该国从一个缺水的国家成为高效用水的农业大国,甚至被誉为“欧洲国家的菜篮子”。文章首先介绍了以色列的地理气候情况和水资源类型,然后介绍了水资源利用结构,最后列举了以色列在解决水资源危机时发展的6项创新技术。文章可为我国水资源高效利用与管理提供借鉴,同时也可为今后我国与以色列开展水资源方面的相关合作及学术研究提供基础资料。     

Recent waves of water governance: Constitutional reform and resistance to neoliberalization in Latin America (1990–2012)

This article critically investigates recent water governance shifts, particularly constitutional changes implemented in several Latin American countries that highlight a ‘right to water’ as well as recent efforts that invoke such a right in conjunction with bans on private water provision (e.g. Uruguay, Ecuador, and Bolivia). Drawing on legal research, document review, and interviews, the article investigates the historical, political and discursive scaffolding of these constitutional changes in several case study contexts, including attention to implementation issues and ongoing challenges following the reforms. Placing these shifts within the broader context of neoliberalization of water governance of the past several decades, the analysis attends to both the specific historical–contextual formations that are important to understand the constitutional reforms, as well as the ways these changes might be usefully understood as connected to broader political and discursive shifts and movements. Highlighting similarities and differences across the cases allows us to make conceptual contributions to debates on variegation of neoliberalized natures, as well as to discussions of alternatives to neoliberalism and postneoliberalism. We argue that although many of these reforms are partial, and not wholly resistant to neoliberalism, they are nonetheless significant for politics and debates related to ‘alternatives.’ Apart from resisting particular aspects of earlier neoliberal reforms, they are also important to stake new discursive and policy terrain on alternative priorities and uses of water. Further, the reforms also offer points of resistance to the influence of international financial institutions, or of transnational corporations.     

Water reform governmentality in Ecuador: Neoliberalism,centralization, and the restraining of polycentric authority and community rule-making

In most Latin American countries, issues concerning water governance and control also reflect broader conflicts over authority and legitimacy between the state and civil society. What lies behind the diverse water policy reforms is not simply a question of governing water affairs but also a drive to control or co-opt water user groups. This paper examines the efforts by the present Ecuadorian government to ‘control water users’ through new forms of ‘governmentality’ (Foucault, 1991). We use the ‘cathedral and bazaar’ metaphor (Lankford and Hepworth, 2010) to illustrate government rationale and practices in water governance shifts in the last decades. We analyze how Rafael Correa’s government sets out to reshape the relations between state, market and society. In its ‘Twenty-first Century Socialism’ project, based on a proclaimed ‘Citizen Revolution’, actual policy reform does not reverse but rather transforms the process of neoliberalizing water governance – creating a hybrid bazaar-cathedral model. We argue that the current water govermentality project implements reforms that do not challenge established market-based water governance foundations. Rather it aims to contain and undermine communities’ autonomy and ‘unruly’ polycentric rule-making, which are the result of both historical and present-day processes of change. Interestingly, water user federations that emerged during the neoliberal wave of the last two decades now claim water control space and search for new forms of democratizing water governance. They act as agents who fiercely – yet selectively and strategically – oppose both elements of the State-centered (cathedral) and market-based (bazaar) water governance models.     

Social segregation and academic achievement in state-run elementary schools in the municipality of Campinas, Brazil

Space not only reflects social inequality, it also reinforces the advantages or disadvantages associated with social class. However, the study of how neighbourhoods affect their residents has only recently entered the debate on urban poverty in Latin America. We use 2000 data from the Brazilian population census, school census, and the state of São Paulo’s educational evaluation system to analyze the relationship between school infrastructure, school academic achievement, and the neighbourhoods in which these schools are located. Our analyses indicate that state-run elementary schools located in areas of concentrated poverty have lower academic achievement in mathematics tests and Portuguese than mixed and affluent areas of the city, even though these schools are all administered by the same government body. We end with a discussion of the relationship between Brazilian education policy and its influence on spatial differences in São Paulo State.     

How important are local inventive milieus: The role of birthplace,high school and university education

Using data on the entire population in combination with data on almost all individuals in Sweden listed as inventors, we study how the probability of being listed on a patent as inventor is influenced by the density of other future inventors residing in the same region. In this process, we control for demographic and sector effects along with the educational characteristics of parents. This approach allows us to trace how location history influences individuals’ inventive capacity. We focus on three types of influences: (a) future inventors in the municipality around the time of birth, (b) future inventors around the time of graduation from high school and (c) future inventors at graduation from higher education. We find suggestive evidence that co-locating with future inventors may impact the probability of becoming an inventor. The most consistent effect is found for place of higher education; some positive effects are also evident from birthplace, whereas no consistent positive effect can be derived from individuals’ high school location. Therefore, the formative influences mainly deriving from family upbringing, birth region and from local milieu effects arising from a conscious choice to attend a higher education affect the choice of becoming an inventor.     

Doing community geography

Community Geography offers researchers, community groups, and students opportunities to engage in action oriented applied geographical research. Creating and sustaining these research programs can be challenging, programs can involve many partners from both academic and the community, have different goals and purposes, and utilize a variety of methods to perform research. In this paper we offer a framework of three primary overarching principles for implementing CG projects; (1) Who, (2) Why, and (3) How. (1) “Who” describes who is involved in CG, including researchers, community partners, academic institutions, (2) “Why” describes the justifications and benefits of taking this approach. (3) “How” explains how CG borrows methodologies from many disciplines within geography and beyond. Our examples are not exhaustive; rather, they serve as starting points to inspire researchers interested in CG.

     

Office dispersal in metropolitan areas 1: a review and framework for analysis

Policies advocating restraint on the growth of office activity in central areas, and the dispersal of that activity to suburban centres have become increasingly popular in large metropolitan areas in Britain and Australia in recent years. This is the first of two papers which explore the implications of such a policy in detail. For these policies have been based on rather subjective judgements and on conventional wisdom; it has simply been assumed that they would solve growing problems of central congestion, environmental disamenity and job access. Little attention has been paid to the full range and distribution of costs and benefits that might arise. Experience to date has suggested that while an office dispersal policy has the potential to reduce problems in the central area, it can also give rise to serious problems of congestion, increased energy consumption and inequities of access in suburban areas. These problems which stem from the likely switch from public transport to cars for work journeys have generally been ignored by those advocating dispersal policies, and have received little attention in the few academic studies of this area. The paper concludes by outlining the assumptions and methodology adopted for a comprehensive case study of the cost and benefits of an office dispersal policy within the metropolitan area of Sydney, Australia.     

Engaging a temporal–spatial stretch: An inquiry into the role of the state in cultivating and claiming the Chinese knowledge diaspora

This paper examines the role of the state in cultivating and claiming the Chinese knowledge diaspora for development, focusing on the Chinese–German academic space. It calls for a temporal–spatial stretch in conceptualising the state in this policy arena. The spatial stretch broadens the usual analysis of the state to go beyond the sending nation-state framework. It illustrates that the state, rather than functioning as a unitary body, comprises different agencies and exists in a multiplicity of forms. Examples demonstrate that the Chinese state at various geographical levels and localities as well as states in other countries engage with one another in making and tapping the Chinese knowledge diaspora. The temporal stretch necessitates an extension of our analytical optic from the conventional focus on how the state claims the diaspora ‘out there’ towards recognising its important role in the strategic and selective production of the diaspora. Furthermore, this paper calls for a higher sensitivity to other temporal characteristics in state policies and practices. Moving away from an expectation of a permanent return of its talents overseas, the Chinese state has turned to the ‘diaspora option’, which refers to regulating and tapping the potential of the Chinese knowledge network that contributes from afar and/or circulates transnationally. Other mechanisms to control the temporality of knowledge diaspora engagement will also be illustrated. Finally, the paper provides an analysis of the complex, sometimes collaborative while other times competitive relationship, between the Chinese and German states in producing and regulating the Chinese knowledge diaspora.     

The fisherly imagination: The promise of geographical approaches to marine management

The management of the sea has increased exponentially in the last half-century, and different academic disciplines have been vital in shaping this management. Human geography, despite its explicit focus on the human–environment nexus, has so far had little impact on human relations with the sea. Based on empirical research conducted in England and Scotland, we argue that human geography is uniquely placed to offer effective solutions to marine resource management problems, and that geographers have the potential to offer key insights into how human populations can best interact with the living seas. Three of the most important current scholarly ‘imaginations’ of the sea, and the policies they inform (economics and market-based management, conservation biology and area based protection, and anthropology and community management), are outlined. A potential ‘geographical imagination’ of the sea, drawing on key themes in contemporary scholarship is then presented, and grounded in empirical research. It is argued that human–ocean relations should be a key feature of geographical research agendas.     

地球化学填图与地球化学勘查

在中国与西方国家，地球化学填图的目的与做法并不相同，西方的地球化学填图是由研究机构开展的，使用等离子焰光量计、X射线荧光光谱仪等大型仪器进行多元素分析，目的是取得多种元素在地球表层分布的基础性资料。地球化学勘查则由矿业公司主要分析少量成矿元素，目的是为了找矿。而中国的地球化学填图计划却做出了巨大努力，使地球化学填图取得的资料既有学术价值又对矿产勘查具有重大的实用意义。本文详细讨论了西方国家与中国地球化学填图与地球化学勘查的思路、方法与技术的演变，并瞻望了地球化学填图在21世纪的巨大发展前景。