"The Same But Not the Same": The Discursive Constitution of Large Housing Estates in Germany,France, and Poland

Since the 1960s, large housing estates have shaped the geography of suburbia in many Western and Eastern European cities. This paper examines the constitution of the social and spatial meanings of large housing estates within three different national contexts: in Germany, Poland, and France. Employing discourse theory and an empirical analysis of the coverage of major national newspapers, we identify cross-national and specific national patterns of discourses that (re)produce particular social spaces and distinct social orders. Quantitative discourse analysis reveals differences, similarities, and ruptures in various constructions of the meaning of large housing estates. We find that large housing estates in France and Germany are constituted in print media as threatening places and as places of foreignness located "outside" the "proper society." In contrast, Polish large housing estates are framed discursively as threatened places located in the social "inside."     

Homelessness in Canada and New Zealand: A Comparative Perspective on Numbers and Policy Responses

This article provides a comparative perspective on homelessness in Canada and New Zealand, with a focus on three urban regions. It seeks to document homeless numbers in the chosen cities, to evaluate the utility of counting the homeless, and to identify common and divergent approaches in homelessness policy. Research involved document analysis, key informant interviews, and participant observation. Literal homelessness is found to be several orders of magnitude higher in the Canadian cities. In one of the Canadian centers, suburban homelessness is emerging as a significant phenomenon. Efforts to count the homeless allow such trends to be tentatively quantified, and inform policymaking. Policy differences between the countries are stark: Canadian cities are seeking to respond to an emergency, which may call for a radical change of approach in the form of "housing first." In New Zealand, a national program of social housing, combined with cultural factors, reduces pressure to act.     

Modelling spatial heterogeneity and anisotropy: child anaemia,sanitation and basic infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa

Public interventions in support of public health and housing in developing countries could benefit from better understanding of spatial heterogeneity and anisotropy. Estimation of directional variation within geographically weighted regression (GWR) faces problems of local parameter instability, border effects and, if extended to non- spatial attributes, potential endogeneity. This study formulates a GWR model where anisotropy is filtered out based on information from directional variograms. Along with classical regressions, the approach is applied to investigate child anaemia and its associations with household characteristics, sanitation and basic infrastructure in 173 regions of sub-Saharan Africa. Based on ordinary least squares (OLS) results, anaemia prevalence rates are up to three times more responsive to child morbidity (related to malaria and other diseases) than to other covariates. GWR estimates provide similar indications, but also point to poor sanitation facilities as a cofactor of severe anaemia particularly in east and southern Africa. The anisotropy-adjusted GWR is spatially stationary in residuals, and its estimated local parameters are less collinear than GWR with no adjustment. However, similar explanatory power and lack of significant bias in parameters estimated by the latter suggest that directional variation is largely captured by modelled co-movements among the variables.     

Interdisciplinary,Cross-Cultural Research: Double Trouble∗

U.S. housing policy strengthens the local specificity of capital through support for homeownership and the mortgage lending industry. As access to capital and homeownership rates have grown, predatory lending has emerged as a significant danger to homeowners and their surrounding communities. The geographic distribution is not well understood, likely due to the unavailability of mortgage data to identify instances of predatory lending. This article examines the spatial distribution of predatory lending in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, using public mortgage and property data. Predatory lending is spatially clustered within the city, suggesting a spatial component of abusive lending patterns not previously addressed. U.S. housing policy and intervention strategies designed to prevent and reduce the incidence of predatory lending should address the spatial aspects of predatory lending to target efforts and prevent weakening local connections between capital and communities.     

An Analysis of the Relationship Between Housing Foreclosures,Lending Practices,and Neighborhood Ecology: Evidence from a Distressed County

Residential foreclosures increased sharply during the 1990s and in the first years of the twenty-first century. These foreclosures have profound impacts on the households and neighborhoods involved. Although foreclosures occur everywhere, the geography of foreclosures displays a pattern tied to a metropolitan area's social, fiscal, and economic geography. We examine these correspondences as they exist within Summit County (Akron), Ohio, between 2001 and 2003. Foreclosures themselves often result from unfortunate financial events that can affect any household, but we found that the geography of foreclosures corresponds primarily to Summit County's racial distribution, above and beyond any correspondence with income levels and housing fiscal stress. There also exists a clear coincidence of foreclosures with subprime lending, itself associated with Summit County's racial patterns. Concentrations of foreclosures in particular neighborhoods can be tremendously harmful to the social and economic health of the neighborhood. These comparisons help us to better understand the neighborhood ecology of foreclosure rates and subprime lending.     

Some Spatial Implications Of A Massive Industrial Accident: The Case Of Nuclear Power Plants 1

The application of geographic concepts and techniques to solving human problems is gaining new strength as a dimension of American geography. The nature of this trend is being shaped by a concern for relevance and educational change. Adoption of this approach has many implications for the individual geographer, as well as for the discipline. Some possible negative and positive aspects of the trend are suggested.     

Selling a natural community: Exploring the role of representations in promoting a new urban development

We explore the rhetoric and symbolism deployed in the course of selling residential properties at Hobsonville Point, a new development in Auckland. Specifically, we ask what understanding of community is promoted in this development, and how this understanding is represented in promotional material. Our study is informed by analysis of newspaper articles, promotional material and planning/legal documents as well as field observation (2011–2012). We conclude that appealing to a contemporary yearning for nature and social cohesion at an urban coastal location has generated a situation in which community is being ‘sold’ at Hobsonville Point, yet paradoxically is yet to be found.     

HOUSING MARKETS IN THE TWILIGHT OF MATERIALISM

Local housing markets mediate national growth of the housing stock and of household numbers. Unearned capital gains on housing for some homeowners produce corrosive effects resembling those generated by excessive material rewards in certain service industries. Excesses of a political economy driven by fair and unfair materialistic drives camouflage the arrival of a global information society whose terms of power and participation take non-material forms. Housing as shelter and neighborhood starts to replace housing as speculative investment and status symbol.     

Book reviews

Books reviewed:
Hall, Peter. Cities in civilization. Culture, innovation, and urban order
Gottdiener, M., Collins, Claudia C. and Dickens, David R. Las Vegas: the social production of an all-American city
Duncan, James and Gregory Derek (eds) Writes of passage: reading travel writing