Political polarization at the national and the intra-urban levels: the role of Moscow in Russian politics and socio-political cleavages within the city

The results of the 1993–1996 national elections in Moscow by administrative districts municipal areas and wards are considered. The author identifies and explains the origins of the principal electoral patterns in the largest and relatively the most prosperous Russian city and interprets them in terms of the relationship between the processes of social and political polarization at the national and the inter-urban levels. He determines the peculiarities of the political views of specific social groups and of residents of various types of housing. Stability and dynamics of the electoral geography is also examined.     

The inner city: In search of the problem

This paper explores the theoretical content of the inner-city debate in Britain and seeks to examine the extent to which the ‘problem’ is either new or primarily economic. It is argued that the inner-city issue, while subject to specific political and ideological forces, is associated with the general processes of uneven capitalist development. In this sense, metropolitan decline is a further manifestation of the relationship between the built environment, the transience of economic activity and social change. More specifically the decline of the inner city relates to the incipient role of Britain in the development of capitalism and its current position in the world economy. The emergence of this as a ‘problem’ for the British state is combined with a convenient spatial determinism, which isolates the inner city as an anomaly even as the search for palliatives is erected to the status of a major social task.     

Centralized power and divided space: `Fractured regions' in the Israeli `ethnocracy'

This paper uses a critical political-geographical perspective to account for the high centrality of power found in Israel. It suggests that the concentration of power have not been solely caused by national solidarity and integration or by metropolitan development, as commonly explained, but also by the territorial `fracturing' of the main social and ethnic groups in Israel/Palestine. This has prevented the emergence of effective pressure for regional devolution. Israel's character as a settler and settling state, and its central project of Judaizing contested territories, enabled the Israeli `ethnocracy' and its (mainly Ashkenazi and secular) elites to create a political geography of `fractured ethnic and social regions'. Dispersing minorities and legitimizing segregation and inequality, all in the name of the `national interest', achieved this. The Israeli political landscape is therefore organized as `fractured regions', each representing a distinct and interconnected, yet geographically dispersed, set of localities, and resembling a `chain of beads'. The logic of dispersal and segregation, in turn, has also influenced patterns of development and residential separation within Israel's main urban areas. Thus, ethnic and social fragmentation and conflict, and not a putative process of national or metropolitan integration, can explain much of Israel's highly centralized power structure.     

Social-geographical problems of a metropolitan region within a Soviet Republic (a case study of the Tbilisi metropolitan region, Georgia, U.S.S.R.)

While the capital city and its surrounding territory often forms the most important nodal region in any country, this very nodality may give rise to social problems. In the case of the Tbilisi metropolitan region, Georgia, U.S.S.R., social development has been conditioned by such factors as the Soviet centralized economic management system, administrative control of population in-migration, state ownership of land, and the tendency towards hyperurbanization. For most Georgians Tbilisi is the republic's most attractive city, and it is in actual fact the leading city in terms of material welfare. Nevertheless, the metropolitan region suffers from a number of concrete social problems whose significance is analysed by means of an opinion poll of metropolitan region inhabitants and a comparative poll conducted in a rural area. While some problems such as retail trade deficiency and the low quality of consumer goods appear to cause universal concern, others such as housing provision and design, ecological problems and social pathology (crime, alcoholism, drug abuse, prostitution) cause greater anxiety among metropolitan residents. It is hoped that recent policies of decentralization and economic reform will help solve some of these difficulties.     

Evaluating housing and neighbourhood initiatives to improve the quality of life in deprived urban areas

Changes in the urban social geography; the development of urban neighbourhoods of multiple deprivation, in which different processes of social exclusion reinforce one another, is a grave challenge to the European society. Housing initiatives and local neighbourhood practices seem to be key factors in finding solutions in combating social exclusion and improving the quality of life in deprived urban neighbourhoods. The OECD-report `Integrating distressed urban areas' (Paris, 1998) states that a combination of policies focusing on specific urban areas and more general socio-economic measures are necessary to integrate such areas into the fabric of the cities. This evaluation of bottom-up neighbourhood solutions, within their national contexts, is the central focus of a European research project (NEHOM) involving housing researchers and providers in 8 European countries. Pilot case studies have been undertaken in United Kingdom, Norway and Hungary to test a common case study methodology. Using a range of indicators of improvements in the quality of life in case study areas, the research will seek to identify innovative housing initiatives and neighbourhood practices, as well as a toolkit for neighbourhood assessment and improvement. A special challenge for the research project is to assess and identify opportunities for and barriers to transferability of best practices and housing policies between European countries.     

Social classes and political behaviours: Directions for a geographical analysis

The pertinence of social classes to the understanding of political behaviour has been questioned. The purpose of this article is to propose some directions for a geographical approach of political behaviour centred on social classes. More precisely, we intend here to show how geography can participate in this major debate about the present relevance of social classes. To achieve this objective, a geographical analysis must integrate two major socio-political evolutions since the 1970s: the re-composition processes of social classes and the role of parties in the decline of class voting. Drawing on examples in Belgium, the paper proposes original multi-scalar analyses that take these evolutions into account. At local scale, we highlight fractures inside intermediate classes, which are associated to the fact that left wing segments of these classes are more inclined to live in core cities. At national level, we show the deepness of class and regional gaps in political attitudes despite relative dealignment in electoral behaviour, resulting in the difficulties for big national parties to keep together such a heterogeneous electoral support. Finally, we show how big left wing national parties are able to overcome these difficulties when they are associated to strong and dense local social networks.     

Economic restructuring, housing policy and Maori housing in Northland, New Zealand

Since 1984 the New Zealand economy has experienced a significant phase of economic restructuring which has had a differential impact on various sectors, regions and social groups within the economy. This paper examines the extent to which economic change has affected the marginalized status of Maori households in the predominantly rural region of Northland. The social implications of economic restructuring are assessed by focusing on the housing circumstances of this indigenous people. Using a newly developed Maori housing database, we argue that relatively progressive housing policies, developed in the 1980s, have failed to address the housing problems of Maori and that the recent reliance on ‘market’ mechanisms to meet housing needs is likely to exacerbate problems of housing access and cost.     

The city-text in post-communist Budapest: street names,memorials, and the politics of commemoration

As in most parts of Central and Eastern Europe, there is a tradition in Hungary of changing street names and memorials in the wake of major political transitions. This article focuses on the change of street names and memorials, i.e. the city-text, in Hungary’s political capital, Budapest, between 1985 and 2001. The city-text in Budapest became a locus of dispute between different political authorities, including the nation state, the metropolitan municipality, and the district, each bearing different political ideals during and after the fall of communism. Discursive changes in the post-communist city-text emerged expressing specific conceptions of national sovereignty, but the direction of the changes were debated. Different levels of administration in Budapest and Hungary had divergent visions of what the new discourse on national sovereignty should be. The changes, therefore, did not express a simple transition to an agreed-upon post-communist value system, but were the result of a symbolic struggle between different levels of administration over what should be commemorated in the city-text.     

Social Mix and the `Balanced Community' in British housing policy – a tale of two epochs

In Britain, concepts of `social mix' and the `balanced community' provide an example of how policy discourses have adapted to changing conceptions of the role of the state in public provision, forms of social division and inequality, and housing market transformations. The recent development of a policy agenda by the Labour government in Britain devised to promote more socially balanced neighbourhoods is not new, and its lineage may be traced back to the origins of housing and urban policy. However, the manner in which this objective has been framed and the intervention it has provoked have varied considerably over time. One is struck more by the episodic and discontinuous nature of the application of mix and balance in British policy than any sense of a coherent set of strategies pursued through changing times. This paper contrasts the place of social mix and balance in the discourses of the immediate post-war period in Britain with the renewed emphasis on such ideas in the policies of the New Labour government elected in 1997. In the first period, the claims of social mix were infused with the language of national reconstruction and the post-war settlement and the development of universal state provision. More recently, interest in social balance has arisen partly as a response to increased management difficulties and the process of `residualisation' in social housing and partly in response to new concepts of the underclass, social exclusion and social capital. The promotion of social mix and balance in contemporary policy has been shaped by notions of the underclass, social exclusion and the development of social capital in poorer communities. Policy intervention is overtly premised on the assumption that more mixed communities will promote more positive social interaction for residents, despite the lack of evidence for this claim. In practice, much of the discourse has now taken on a stronger sense of discipline and control in order to manage social housing estates. The meaning of social balance remains confused, however, and the achievement of this objective through policy intervention is likely to remain fraught with problems.     

Housing inequalities in Bucharest: shallow changes in hesitant transition

Much has been said, yet little remains known, about the impacts of the changes associated with post-socialist transition on housing inequalities in metropolitan Central and Eastern Europe. To some extent, this depends on the scarcity of ‘hard evidence’ about the socialist epoch against which the subsequent developments may be gauged. Based on a case study of Bucharest, the Romanian capital and one of the region’s major cities, this study investigates various lines of housing inequality using data from a 20 % sample of the national censuses of 1992 and 2002. With only minor changes having taken place since the revolutionary events of late 1989, the year 1992 provides an accurate picture of the housing inequalities inherited from the socialist epoch, whereas the new societal order had largely been established by 2002. We use linear regression and binary logistic regression modeling to identify the factors that predict living space and level of facilities. The results suggest that the first decade of transition did not exert any major influences on the housing inequalities inherited from socialism, with the exception of notable improvements at the very top of the social pyramid. This finding is at odds with the literature that highlights the (suggested) effects of socio-economic polarization on the residential structure of cities after socialism. However, the results from 1992 indicate that housing was segmented along socio-economic lines already under socialism, and perhaps more so than one would have expected in the light of the literature on housing inequalities during this period.     

State rescaling and new metropolitan space in the age of austerity. Evidence from Italy

This article presents the changes that are emerging in the Italian national policies mainly through the discussion of the contents both of the recent metropolitan reform initiative, and the national programming documents for metropolitan cities related to European Programming period 2014–2020. In Italy, which faced severe political difficulty and economic stagnation after 2008 global crisis, the production of the new metropolitan scale became one of the tools for the implementation of austerity measures. The paper examines whether the understanding of the new metropolitan scale in the Italian geography of austerity can be strengthened through a careful engagement with the body of literature on state rescaling and on austerity policies. The paper illustrates how that the apparently neutral emphasis on metropolitan city scale, first can be understood as a crucial tool of an austerity measures; second, it implies a rescaling of public power and, third, it neglects the multifaceted notion of the urban and the trans-scalar territorial governance relationships.     

NIMBY or how do the rural neighbours respond to genetically modified (GM) crops? An exploration of the structure of reactions by inhabitants in rural communities in The Netherlands to the commercial cultivation of GM crops in their community

The debate on genetic modification (GM) is persistent, polarized and mainly involves organized groups at the national level. With the European Union’s new policy of coexistence, commercial cultivation of GM crops is expected by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality within the next few years, especially maize (BT) and potato (Phytophthera resistance and starch production). This makes the debate relevant for those directly confronted with this cultivation: the inhabitants of local rural communities. In The Netherlands, stakeholders formulated coexistence rules to prevent problems between conventional, organic and GM farmers that grow their crops in the same limited land area. Little is known, however, regarding the perceptions of the non-farming inhabitants of rural communities (“the neighbours”) in the debate. This paper presents the results of a focus group-based argumentative analysis of whether (and how) the GM issues play a decisive role among non-farming inhabitants of four rural communities in the Netherlands. We analysed the arguments in relation to a conceptual model that describes the potential rise and dynamics from a pre-Nimby ambivalence towards an outspoken Nimby position. We observed that the GM debate was given very little priority relative to other national issues on the political agenda and that more social cohesion correlates with fewer arguments in the national debate. It is argued that this mechanism keeps the Nimby ambivalence in an undetermined mode, which in turn diminishes the chances of radical rural-based protest against local GM cultivation of crops.     

A political-cultural map of Europe. Family structures and the origins of differences between national political cultures in the European Union

Differences between the national political cultures of the European states are puzzling. They are too often taken for granted or treated as an elusive explanation for residual differences that can not be accounted for in comparative politics. Here they are put at the core of a comparative analysis. This article explores the origins of differences between national political cultures. It deals with national political cultures from the perspective of Cultural Theory or grid-group analysis. A national political culture is conceived as a ‘conversation’ between subcultures associated to national political institutions and practices (and not as an aggregated pattern of individual orientations toward political objects). National political cultures can be characterised on the basis of ideal typical patterns of relations between the basic cultures or rationalities distinguished by Cultural Theory. After an assessment of the differences between the national political cultures of the Member States of the European Union, the paper considers traditional family structures as possible sources of differentiation, elaborating upon the work of the French political historian Emmanuel Todd who has documented the correspondence between the geography of traditional family structures and the geography of ideologies in Europe. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The social housing sector in Prague and Warsaw: trends and future prospects

The paper provides an overview of trends and processes of change affecting new social housing provision in Prague and Warsaw. The local responses are reviewed within the context of changes to the national housing system defining the performance of municipal and non-profit housing sectors. The research analyses the mix of policy instruments implemented in three major policy domains—regulatory, fiscal and financial—to promote the production of new social housing in the two cities. The system of new social housing provision is examined as a dynamic process of interaction between public and private institutions defining housing policy outcomes. The outcomes are evaluated through a series of indicators related to housing output, stability of investment, differentiation of rents, affordability and choice. The overview demonstrates how significant shifts in regulatory and fiscal policy, coupled with decentralization of responsibilities for social housing, limit the opportunities for more efficient performance in the sector and its growth. This is particularly evident in Warsaw, where the sector operates as a social safety net. New social housing in both cities has better quality and remains affordable, but access is constrained and waiting times have increased. The research highlights the problem of declining output, dwindling financial resources, and lack of cost recovery due to universal rent control. This is eroding the sustainability of social housing, potentially leading to lower investment and subsequent privatisation. In Warsaw, housing allowances are a municipal responsibility making the liberalization of rents difficult, while Prague has moved in the direction of rent deregulation with a more robust system of means-tested housing support provided by the central government. Such policy choices map a different trajectory for the future of social housing.     

Deterritorialisation,reterritorialisation, nations and states: Irish nationalist discourses on nation and territory before and after the Good Friday Agreement

The Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement (GFA) signed in 1998 has been presented by many, including those in Irish nationalist circles, as a sign of a post-national de-territorialisation of Irish national identity, made possible or even necessary by globalisation. Studying the discourses of the main Irish constitutional nationalist parties in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, prior to and after the GFA, this article argues that this process is best understood instead as a dialectical unfolding of deterritorialising and reterritorialising trends. The first section analyses the concepts and theories of the de/reterritorialisation debate and proposes a theoretical framework through which the de/reterritorialisation of national identities might be understood. The second section sets the groundwork for the terms in which such a framework might be applied to the territorial claims advanced by the main Irish nationalist constitutional parties. Finally, the third section examines the complex history of competing claims over the importance of territory in both cultural and political Irish nationalist movements, Specific attention is given to debates over the GFA. It is concluded that Irish nationalism has long been divided on the status of its territorial ambitions. As such recent literature on de/reterritorialism can both inform and be informed by work on Irish nation and state building.     

Transnational ties and intra-immigrant group settlement experiences: A case study of Indian Bengalis and Bangladeshis in Toronto

Transnational theories have established that, after migrating to a new country, migrants often maintain their pre-existing social, economic, and political ties to their home country. The extent to which however, transnational institutional and social connections may affect the residential location and housing experiences of immigrant and refugee groups, and why and how these experiences differ within broadly defined immigrant groups such as the ‘South Asians’ remains unexplored. Building on transnational theory and previous research on the housing trajectories of new Canadians, this paper examines the housing experiences of two recently arrived ‘South Asian’ subgroups in Toronto–Indian Bengalis and Bangladeshis. By highlighting important intra-immigrant group differences, the study reveals how diverse transnational ties affect their neighbourhood choice and the type, tenure, and quality of housing when they first arrived in Toronto.     

以持续可居性为核心的经济适用房设计

在对低收入家庭的居住现状与居住空间需求的调查研究基础上,结合2008年全国保障性住房设计方案竞赛的回顾与思考,提出社会保障型住宅设计的策略与原则。     

Local state restructuring and urban transformation in post-apartheid Cape Town

This paper analyzes processes of state restructuring at the scale of the local state and the city, exploring the social and political relationships generated through processes of reconstruction specifically in Elsies River, a formerly segregated `coloured' neighborhood in Cape Town. While the relationship between Elsies River residents and the local state has been characterized by an obsessive focus on housing debt, I examine the ways in which antagonism over housing problems overlie a broader relational disjuncture between neighborhood and state political and social networks. The specificity of this case provides a lens onto the ways in which processes of state restructuring both contest and reinforce racial, economic, and place-based inequalities in South African cities. The paper concludes by using the complexities of local state-neighborhood relationships in the South African case to reflect on geographical theories of state-society relations on a conceptual level. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Permeable homes: A historical political ecology of insects and pesticides in US public housing

This paper traces changes in the political ecology of insects and chemicals in US public housing since Congress founded public housing in 1937. Drawing upon the literature of critical geographies of home, urban political ecology, and medical history, it argues that the constitution of “public” and “private” space within public housing was deeply entangled with pest control practices there. Prior to 1945, reformers treated the housing as a commons, in part compelled by the mobility of bedbugs and the pesticide used to combat them, both of which were seen as serious health threats. Managers were also motivated by social welfare ideologies, while residents eagerly assisted with communal control policies in order to achieve freedom from the health insults of bedbugs. Following 1945, however, new synthetic pesticides like DDT seemed to stay safely within one apartment unit, encouraging housing managers to abandon community-oriented pest control practices. Meanwhile, curtailed budgets, particularly after the Housing Act of 1949, left the infrastructure of public housing to decay, rendering units more physically permeable even as managers neglected the communities there. The new pesticides nearly eradicated bedbugs, but tenacious populations of German cockroaches blossomed thanks to the permeable buildings and synthetic pesticides. Residents grew increasingly resistant to pesticide use as they observed that cockroach populations went unabated. The paper serves as a case for applying political ecology frameworks to domestic spaces, and also argues that housing quality and domestic pesticide use are not merely private responsibilities but should be regarded as environmental justice issues.     

Strategic planning and the Paris agglomeration in the 1960s and 1970s: The quest for balance and structure

Strategic planning in the Paris agglomeration in the 1960s and 1970s sought to correct centre—periphery and west—east imbalances in the provision of employment and services, and to promote a nodal structure within the essentially amorphous suburbs. The suburbanization of manufacturing employment and certain higher-order services, the workings of the housing market and the centrifugal dispersal of manual workers, the construction of suburban ‘poles’ and new towns, and the programme of road and rail investment are each reviewed in the context of these objectives. Success was only partial: failure to control adequately office development in central Paris and Hauts-de-Seine, to provide the suburbs with orbital as well as tangential transport connections, and to resist the embourgeoisement of the Paris housing stock left much of the imbalance in force.