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Books > Earth & environment > Geography > Human geography > Economic geography
Jan Lambooy retired in October 2002. When Jan was asked how he wanted to celebrate this occasion, he was adamant that no great festivities should take place. Characteristically, Jan wanted just a scientific conference so he "could learn something from it" and, as he insisted, no great festivities. So that is what we did and a conference was organised in Amsterdam on 25 October 2002, hosted by the Faculty of Economics and Econometrics of the University of Amsterdam. Friends of Jan's from academia in the Netherlands and abroad participated and thus paid homage to Jan, both as a scientist and as a person. We are now very proud to present this festschrift, firstly as the palpable result of this conference and secondly as a token of sincere respect and great affection for Jan. Edited volumes run the danger of being a hotchpotch of contributions on a wide variety of topics. Here, we have explicitly focused on a central theme in contemporary economic geography and regional science, namely the relationship between learning, innovation and clustering. Internationally renowned scientists made both theoretical and empirical contributions to this volume. We think this book constitutes a broad palette of contemporary thinking and research on the relationship between spatial concentration and innovation and hope it will play a significant role in future debates on this issue.
Northern Ireland's problems are rooted in physical and historical geography: small resource base, peripheral location, violent conquest, repression and ruthless emargination of the native population by the Protestant settlers. At the time of partition, many areas already had a Catholic majority, and the Catholic population is increasing faster, thereby undermining the Protestant position. Britain gains no advantage by keeping Northern Ireland. Nevertheless, this solution is not going to be cheap, not merely because of opposition by Protestant loyalists, but also because of the economic weakness of both Irelands. Unlike other books on the subject, this one goes to the heart of the matter: Britain would be serving her own interest by easing reunification of Ireland, albeit gradually and cautiously. In this perspective, the conclusion is that history is inexorably moving beyond Northern Ireland. Audience: European Community administrators and planners, diplomats, politicians, students in Political Science, Economics, History and Geography.
This is a book about the simultaneous location, production and distri bution decisions of a firm entering a competitive market whose spatial nature is describable by a network in which the market either achieves an equilibrium or is equilibrium tending. As such, the problem is of clear theoretical and practical importance, for it is a rather general version of the problem faced by real firms every day in deciding where to locate. Further, the timeliness of this subject manifests itself in the growing excitement and interest found both in the research/academic communities and in the practitioner/private industry communities for more comprehensive approaches to competitive facility location analy sis and equilibrium modeling of networks. The desire both for new conceptual approaches yielding enhanced insights and for practical methodologies to capture these insights drives this interest. While nor mative, deterministic facility location modeling techniques currently provide valuable input into the location decision-making process, re searchers and practitioners alike have realized the vast and relatively untapped potential of more advanced location decision making tech niques. In this book, we develop what we believe represents a major new line of research in the field of competitive facility location analysis; namely, equilibrium facility location modeling. In particular, this book offers a number of innovations in the mathe matical analysis and computation of solutions to location models which we have pioneered and which are collected under a single cover for the first time."
Georges Benko "Societies are much messier than our theories of them" Michael Mann The Sources of Social Power 1 Towards a unified social theory Why are there communication problems between the different disciplines of the social sciences? And why should there be so much misunderstanding? Most probably because the encounter of several disciplines is in fact the encounter of several different histories, and therefore of several different cultures, each interpreting the other according to the code dictated by its own culture. Inevitably geographers view other disciplines through their own cultural filter, and even a benevolent view remains 'ethnocentric'. It was in order to avoid such ethnocentricity that Femand Braudel called for more unity among the social sciences in 1958 : "l wish the social sciences . . . would stop discussing their respective differences so much . . . and instead look for common ground . . . on which to reach their first agreement. Personally I would call these ways : quantification, spatial awareness and 'longue duree'". In its place at the center of the social sciences, geography reduces all social reality to its spatial dimensions. Unfortunately, as a discipline, it considers itself all too often to be in a world of its own. There is a need in France for a figure like Vidal de la Blanche who could refocus attention away from issues of time and space, towards space and social reality. Geographic research will only take a step forward once it learns to address the problems facing all the sciences.
Randstad Holland is the urbanized western part of the Netherlands. It contains the four largest cities of the country: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. The name Randstad (rim city) refers to the distinctive shape of the conurbation, a horseshoe of cities around an open agricultural and recreational area, known as the Green Heart. This book analyzes the restructuring of the region. The volume summarizes the research of the Urban Networks research program. The discussion is focused on four themes: housing, labor market and employment, infrastructure and transportation, and the provision of public services. The Randstad is internationally known as the playground of urban and regional planners. Their debates on present policy issues are extensively reviewed in the book. Teachers and students of urban change and planning, and policy makers and planners in The Netherlands and abroad will find much valuable information in this book.
This book reviews the main energy sources, production problems and energy perspectives in Germany and Mexico. It surveys the status of traditional and alternative energy sources, including fossil fuels, nuclear, hydraulic, eolic, solar, and hydrogen cells. The book emphasizes the search for answers to such questions as What are the main problems of industries based on fossil fuels, and What is the present status of hydraulic and nuclear energy?
This book is the culmination of several years of work by geographers, planners, and economists. The chapters included in this volume represent the collective efforts of the International Geographical Union s Commission on the Dynamics of Economic Spaces, at their 2005 annual meeting in Toledo, Ohio (USA). The papers were selected based on their contribution to the community of economic geographers and policymakers and to demonstrate the inherent interconnectedness of these themes.
The Unique Nature of Frontier Cities and their Development Challenge Harvey Lithwick and Yehuda Grad us The advent of government downsizing, and globalization has led to enormous com petitive pressures as well as the opening of new opportunities. How cities in remote frontier areas might cope with what for them might appear to be a devastating challenge is the subject of this book. Our concern is with frontier cities in particular. In our earlier study, Frontiers in Regional Development (Rowman and Littlefield, 1996), we examined the distinction between frontiers and peripheries. The terms are often used interchangeably, but we believe that in fact, both in scholarly works and in popular usage, very different connotations are conveyed by these concepts. Frontiers evoke a strong positive image, of sparsely settled territories, offering challenges, adventure, unspoiled natural land scapes, and a different, and for many an attractive life style. Frontiers are lands of opportunity. Peripheries conjure up negative images, of inaccessibility, inadequate services and political and economic marginality. They are places to escape from, rather than frontiers, which is were people escape to. Peripheries are places of and for losers."
After leading the world during most of the 20th century in economic, political, technological, military, and even social terms, America s role is now being challenged. Its values questioned, and its methods often disparaged, America had become the clear example to be followed or even copied, yet its more recent strategic and political decisions gained little international support and a lot of outright opposition. The quality of its national planning and decision making has been severely compromised, and risk management appears to be largely absent. India and China are now emerging as new economic powers, with advancing technological prowess. Their focus is on socioeconomic development, but their capabilities and potentials are much broader and may challenge America's leadership before long, unless it recognizes the changing demands of the new wide open globalized world. "
"Places of Power: Political Economies of Landscape Change" asks how politics and economics transform the landscapes we inhabit. This volume explores the connections between political economy and landscape change through a series of conceptual essays and case studies. In so doing, it speaks to a broad readership of landscape architects, geographers, and related fields of social and environmental research. The book consists of an introductory essay with nine chapters commissioned from leading geographers, landscape architects, political scientists, and economists, and a concluding essay on implications for future landscape inquiry and design. The book is organized in three major sections. Part one, titled Landscapes of Struggle, Possibility, and Prosperity, includes a chapter on new axioms for reading the landscape followed by two chapters that read processes of economic development and distress in mountain landscapes of the U.S. and South America. Part Two on Political and Economic Driving Forces of Landscape Change includes two chapters each on political driving forces (political constructs and institutions) and economic driving forces (environmental economics and global financial markets). Part Three, titled Integrative Landscape Change compares innovative rural landscape policies in Europe and the U.S., and draws implications for future landscape inquiry, planning, and design.
In recent years, the contemporary social sciences have again turned their attention to space and places. The hypothesis is that these are not accidental episodes but a full-blown revolution in the way of viewing economic processes and their links with social and cultural structures. In other words, this new sensitivity to places offers the possibility of rethinking issues typical of economics in a different perspective that might be defined as local development, one of the terms most (ab)used in the contemporary scientific and political debate. In this book the authors will thus try to support more strongly, although in a necessarily simplified manner, the possibility of constructing a theory of local development. The key idea is that there is no single development model operating at a given time and valid for all places, but that it is more correct to talk of multiple development paths that co-exist in the same place at the same time (multiplicity of development paths). The central point is not to identify the succession of distinct hegemonic models (Fordism versus post-Fordism, mass production versus lean production and so on), but to show how the complexity of the contemporary economy demands new concepts to explain its apparent contradictions. In the authors' view, the conception of a theory of local development implies radical rethinking in institutionalist terms of the way of viewing the economy and production, recognising that behind economic development lies a wealth of institutional assets that make the encounter between local and global more open and varied than ever before (institutional biodiversity).
Belgium is a small country, but its planning traditions are rooted in a heritage which has been greatly enriched by its central location in the West European community of nations. Medieval, Renaissance and industrial age planning and urban design gave Belgium many examples of architectural masterpieces especially in the city centers. During the post World War II period, Belgian planners and politicians legislated national planning laws that divided the country into 48 planning regions (also called sub-regions and sectors) and empowered the municipalities (communes) with potent legal instruments to direct land development in accordance with their plans. Preparation, amendment and execution of these plans in a democratic society with a strong laissezJaire tradition have been painstaking, but nonethe less, significant tangible results have been achieved. The purpose of this book is to explore and assess the successes and failure of Belgian planning and make this record available in English so that they may remain facets of Belgian planning. The general socio-economic and historical background is provided with a view to understanding the theoretical, legal, physical and selected topical aspects of Belgian planning. In doing so a multi-disciplinary approach has been taken and the authors have been selected from a variety of disciplines. Professor Louis Albrechts of the University of Leuven is a planning theorist. Ms. Brigitte Beernaert and Mr. Karel Vroom are practicing planners. Beernaert is also a planning historian. Legal and administrative backgrounds are represented by the planning experts, Dr."
This book offers a geographic dimension to the study of innovation and product commercialization. Building on the literature in economics and geography, this book demonstrates that product innovation clusters spatially in regions which provide concentrations of the knowledge needed for the commercialization process. The book develops a conceptual model which links the location of new product innovations to the sources of these knowledge inputs. The geographic concentration of this knowledge fonns a technological infrastructure which promotes infonnation transfers, and lowers the risks and the costs of engaging in innovative activity. Empirical estimation confinns that the location of product innovation is related to the underlying technological infrastructure, and that the location of the knowledge inputs are mutually reinforcing in defining a region's competitive advantage. The book concludes by considering the policy implications of these fmdings for both private finns and state governments. This work is intended for academics, policy practitioners and students in the fields of innovation and technological change, geography and regional science, and economic development. This work is part of a larger research effort to understand why the location of innovative activity varies spatially, specifically the externalities and increasing returns which accrue to location. xi Acknowledgements This work has benefitted greatly from discussions with friends and colleagues. I wish to specifically note the contribution of Mark Kamlet, Wes Cohen, Richard Florida, Zoltan Acs and David Audretsch. I would like to thank Gail Cohen Shaivitz for her dedication in editing the final manuscript."
The phenomenon of international seaport administration is the subject of this book. As a Ph.D.-student at the Delft University of Technology (period 1993 - 1997) I had the opportunity to develop and exercise my hobby on a full time base. The result was a Ph.D.-dissertation which was defended in December 1997. Unfortunately, these research results were published in Dutch while the majority of the interviewees and employees in the world of international seaport administration are English speaking people. Both for the reason of high international relevance of the results I felt the necessity to get this Ph.D.-research translated and published in English. With the excellent help of my promotor Prof.dr. W.G.M. Salet I found Prof.dr. H. van der Wusten prepared to cover this study on international seaport administration in the Kluwer GeoJournal Library series. I thank Mr. Van der Wusten for giving me this opportunity. But also due to the outstanding help of my current employer 'Zeeland Seaports Authority' the funding for the translation became very quickly possible. I thank the Managing Director of Zeeland Seaports Authority, Mr. J.M.H.G. Philippen, and the Commercial Director, Capt. J. Verkiel, for their interest and wonderful help in getting this study translated. And of course my sincere thanks go to Katy Owen who actually made this dream come true.
1 2 Daniel Felsenstein and Boris A. Portnov 1 Department of Geography, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel 2 Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Haifa, Israel During the Candiot War of 1645-1669, the Ottoman Sultan Ibrahim I ordered his chief admiral to attack Malta. Fearing imminent defeat by the superior Venetian forces stationed on the island, the admiral decided to trick the sultan out of the idea. As the story goes, he placed a candle on his naval map, allowing the wax to drip on the tiny island until it was completely covered. Then he exclaimed in false surprise, "Malta Yok " (There is no Malta ), and convinced the sultan to sail his fleet to the Island of Crete instead. Although Malta is not featured in this volume, most of the countries it covers are of "wax drip" size. Intuitively, it may be expected that everything in small countries is diminutive: distances, population, economies, and even regional inequalities. Thus, at a symposium on "The Challenge of Development" convened in Israel in 1957 to mark the inauguration of a new building for the Department of Economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the eminent US economist Simon Kuznets stated that "developed small states seem to have succeeded in spreading the fruits of economic growth more widely among their populations than the larger states at comparable levels of income per capita."
A Billion Trips a Day: Tradition and Transition in European Travel Patterns consists of twenty-four original chapters developed by a network of transport professionals in a coordinated manner. The three parts of the book are: European Mobility Patterns; Dimensions of European Mobility, and National Perspectives. Mobility in fourteen countries is described and ten chapters of analysis compare the major dimensions of travel across Europe, which is seen as a laboratory for transport policies. A Billion Trips a Day: Tradition and Transition in European Travel Patterns questions the uniqueness of European travel and transport policies and demonstrates that, in many ways, Europe is different from other developed economies. However, there are side dissimilarities within Europe. The authors take a deep look at the underlying factors which affect travel behavior, with the objective of providing the necessary information for policy making. The comparative chapters of Part II provide an analysis based on national perspectives of the role of the time dimension travel; automobile ownership and use; commuting; public transport; and international travel. They also review the transport policies applied in Europe, explaining why some policies work in some places, while failing in others.
I am both pleased and honored to introduce this book to readers, and I want to take a few moments to explain why. Michael Romanos and Christopher Auffrey have produced a volume which will be of immense value to several different types of people. Planners and other specialists concerned with the development of the Southeast Asian region and the issues and opportunities associated with urban growth and sustainable development will find much to interest them in this book. But the book, I believe, has much wider appeal, and that is what I want to touch on briefly here. The University of Cincinnati, where Michael, Chris, and I work, is attempting to globalize itself - to develop its institutional capacity for international activities, to infuse its curriculum with international themes, and to promote and increase global competence among its graduates. Many American universities are doing this, of course. In the process, we are seeing some very interesting experiments in pedagogy, as faculty look for "learning moments" in new and sometimes exotic places. Michael, Chris, and their colleagues have, it seems to me, developed an outstanding model for learning across national and cultural boundaries. In the chapters which follow, you will read the results of their work. What will be less apparent, however, is the process by which that work was produced.
This book offers practical and theoretical insights in regional externalities. Regional externalities are a specific subset of externalities that can be defined as externalities where space plays a dominant role. The book offers examples of this class of externalities that can be divided into three categories: (1) externalities related to mobility and transport; (2) external economies of scale and cluster effects, and (3) spatial environmental externalities.
This unique volume presents policy recommendations designed to promote entrepreneurship. It considers timely issues like impact of securities regulation, educational policy and intellectual property protection on entrepreneurship. In the process, the book addresses policies operating at the individual, national, regional, and international levels, and offers a unique perspective on several institutional structures that enhance entrepreneurship and economic growth.
The aim of this book is to tackle the question of what the European territory will look like over the next fifteen years by providing quali-quantitative territorial scenarios for the enlarged Europe, under different assumptions on future globalisation strategies of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and East and West European countries. The approach is as neutral as possible vis-a-vis the results, leaving to a new forecasting model, the MASST model, built by the authors, to produce the tendencies and behavioural paths of regional GDP and population growth in each individual European region under alternative assumptions on the competitiveness strategies of different blocks of countries. The results are accompanied by strong policy messages intended to encourage long-term strategic thinking among a wide range of actors, scientists and policy makers in response to the risks and opportunities that the European territory will face."
This book provides an integrated assessment of issues related to climate variability and change, predictability and risks. It details both the technical aspects of variability and abrupt climate change and the agricultural and economical impacts and consequences.
This book presents various approaches to the resolution of the severe water resource issues of the Middle East, with particular emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian water conflicts. The authors include leading Palestinian and Israeli water experts who have worked together on joint research projects aimed at building up mutual understanding and respect. The studies consider the various approaches that could be used to improve cooperation and solve the problems arising from conflicting interests.
This volume covers the topic of innovation in three sections, first demonstrating that processes of innovation and technological change are spatially differentiated, second examining the increasing importance of knowledge creation and diffusion, and third raising key issues related to the systems of innovation approach as a conceptual framwork for regional innovation analysis. Includes enlightening conceptual and empirical work on the issue of how knowledge spills over locally.
This book studies the economic impact of container traffic at one of the most important ports in the Mediterranean: the Port of Algeciras Bay (PAB). The authors analyse the global framework of the containerisation business and the characteristics that currently condition this process. Following is an explanation of the physical characteristics of the PAB, and a description of the situation as regards the physical and logistics infrastructure in principal Mediterranean ports.
Modern Advances in Tourism Research provides a thorough assessment of state-of-the-art academic research in this field of economic science. The authors start by scoping the scene of tourism research. They progress to a comprehensive analysis of themes of particular interest for researchers and academics interested in the workings of the tourism markets, such as new analysis frameworks in tourism economics and new operational tools in tourism research. |
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