The Spatial Context of Social Integration

Social integration is the harmonious and coherent processing of the structures of a social system and refers to the degree to which people are integrated to the systems of a social structure. Although social integration issue is often considered on a regional scale and especially in association with the migration literature, it is also associated with urban dynamics. Especially in metropolitan cities, it is a process that shapes the opportunities and resources of urban life, such as socio-cultural life, the built environment and urban services. This paper aims to analyze the spatial differentiation of the interactive dimension of social integration in the case of Istanbul. It describes different forms and levels of social relations of the residents of Istanbul while also depicting the interaction between social integration and location, particularly in terms of residential area characteristics. With this aim, different types of social relations are analyzed using statistical and spatial analysis methods. The results of the study indicate that different social groups which are integrated into the macro structures of the society with different degrees produce different forms of social relations and they also live in residential areas which differ with their environmental quality.     

The Use of Common Area <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-Sample Test in Evaluating Targeting Methodologies: An Application to the Case of Egypt

The quality of life (QOL) is a measure of social wellbeing and life satisfaction of individuals in an area. Measuring its spatial dynamics is of great significance as it can assist the policy makers and practitioners in improving the balance between urbanization and living environment. This study proposes an approach to spatially map and examine the relationships between QOL, land use/land cover (LULC) and population density in an urban environment. The city of Lahore, Pakistan was selected as the case study area. The QOL was evaluated through the data related to physical health, psychological, social relationships, environment (natural and built), economic condition and development, and access to facilities and services. The weights/relative importance of each QOL domain was determined through the analytic hierarchy process by processing the data collected from local field experts. Overall QOL was computed by applying the domain weights to the data; spatial mapping of QOL domains and overall QOL was conducted afterwards. The spatial dynamics of QOL were examined, and its interrelationships with LULC and population density were analyzed. The relationship between these three variables turned out to be spatially dynamic. The proposed approach assists the spatial mapping and analyses of QOL, LULC and population, and by examining the spatial dynamics of these variables, contributes to devising appropriate land management and QOL improvement strategies and policies in the metropolitan regions.     

中国城市的地域范围和地域区分探析

城市地域范围和地域区分是城市研究的起点。但我国学术界在较长时间的讨论中,一直没有形成较为一致的意见。本文拟从"实质城市"地域的角度,并考虑到实际数据的可获得性,探讨了城市地域,包括它与外部——乡村的区分和它的内部构造——中心区、边缘区和郊区的区分方法。本文提出,可用建制市内全部"区"作为城市地域,而在城市地域内,根据各部分地域的人口密度、在业人口中从事二、三产业的比例,昼夜人口比和三产区位系数等指标来区分城市的中心区、边缘区和郊区。     

Safety in urban neighborhoods: A comparison of physical characteristics and informal territorial control in high and low crime neighborhoods

This study addressed the issue of how some urban neighborhoods maintain a relatively low level of crime despite their physical proximity and social similarity to high crime areas. The study explored differences in physical characteristics and various dimensions of the concept of territoriality in three pairs of neighborhoods in Atlanta, Georgia. Neighborhoods within pairs were adjacent and were matched on racial composition and economic status but had distinctly different crime levels. The results indicated that differences in physical characteristics distinguished between matched high and low crime neighborhoods to a far greater extent than did differences in the measures of territoriality. The flow of outsiders into and out of low crime neighborhoods was inhibited because land use was more homogeneously residential, there were fewer major arteries, and boundary streets were less traveled than was the case in high crime neighborhoods. There were relatively few differences in informal territorial control between high and low crime neighborhoods. Where differences existed, informal territorial control was more characteristic of high crime than of low crime neighborhoods.This paper is based on a larger study funded by the Community Crime Prevention Division, National Institute of Justice (Grant No. 79-NI-AX-0080). This study was completed when the senior author was at the Research Triangle Institute. Requests for reprints should be addressed to Dr. Stephanie Greenberg, Social Systems Research and Evaluation Division, Denver Research Institute, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208.     

The spatial separation of the poor in Canadian cities

We used the 1991 Canadian census to examine the extent of spatial separation of the poor in Canadian cities. Although there were no extensive areas of blight, decay, or housing abandonment, we found high spatial separation of poor visible minorities in the selected cities. The index of dissimilarity indicates high segregation of poor blacks and moderate separation of poor Asians from the nonpoor population. We tested the effects of three major structural factors--racial and ethnic segregation, income segregation, and urban redevelopment--and found that racial and ethnic residential patterns are related strongly to the spatial separation of poor persons. The relationship between income segregation and spatial separation of the poor is not significant, however. We also found that the relationship between urban redevelopment and spatial separation of the poor pertains only to blacks. These findings suggest that blacks are vulnerable in the process of urban redevelopment.     

Youth Migration Decisions in Sub-Saharan Africa: Satellite-Based Empirical Evidence from Nigeria

This article examines the implications of urban growth on youth migration decisions in Nigeria. We use night light intensity data combined with Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture data, as an indicator of urban growth and associated economic opportunities. Employing alternative econometric approaches that exploit the spatial and temporal differences in urban growth as proxied by night light intensity, we find that urban growth in potential migrant destinations encourages youth migration. We also find heterogeneous responses to urban growth among various groups of youth as well as varying responses to different types of migration. Broadly, women and those youth with more education are more likely to migrate, while those in households with livestock are less likely to migrate. Often, however, the effects are complex and varied. For example, land and physical asset ownership encourage temporary migration; but greater land ownership discourages permanent migration, while physical assets have insignificant effects. Our results from Nigeria show that policy makers concerned about rural–urban youth exodus should adopt a differentiated, in terms of targets, and multidimensional policy approach to reap the benefits of urbanization while avoiding its negative consequences.     

Updating Rurality Index for Small Areas in Spain

Nowadays, there is a wide debate about what rural means. An operational definition of rural concept is essential in order to measure health problems, optimize resource allocation and facilitate decision making aimed at closing the gap on inequity between areas. In 2005, the rurality index for Small Areas in Spain (IRAP) was developed using the 1991 Census of Population data. Nevertheless, the concept and definition of rurality may evolve through time. In order to capture these changes, the variables used to make up the rurality index should be reviewed and updated periodically. Along these lines, and within the context of the rural–urban continuum, the aim of this paper is to replicate and update the IRAP using the data provided by the 2001 Census of Population, as well as to describe the changes in rurality observed in each municipality between 1991 and 2001. The index was updated on a Principal Components Factor Analysis, giving rise to a single factor that is correlated to the aging of the population, economic dependency, farming, livestock or fishing-related employment, self-employment, second dwelling ratio, population density, immigration and perception of noises and atmospheric pollution in the surroundings of the residential area. Most variables that made up the 1991 IRAP remain as important components of the 2001 index, indicating the robust nature of the measure. Only 10% of the Spanish municipalities have changed their rurality status between the two Censuses. The 2001 rurality index can be considered a good updated approach to the concept of rurality in Spain as well as an important criterion to social policies.     

Satisfied Residents in Different Types of Local Areas: Measuring What’s Most Important

In efforts to enhance subjective urban quality of life (QOL), most empirical research focuses on measuring satisfaction. However, other research suggests most residents are satisfied with where they live because they choose local areas which satisfy them on attributes important to them, within the constraints they face. Thus residents choosing very different local areas tend to have similar satisfaction levels. Rather than focusing on residential satisfaction in local areas, it may be useful to focus on residential preferences to both characterize and improve subjective urban QOL in local areas. This study compares satisfaction and preference measures in four broad types of urban environment in South East Queensland, Australia. As expected, the results showed similar levels of satisfaction across these urban environments (spanning inner city, suburban, outer suburban, and coastal areas) with regard to three broad attributes (access to services and facilities, the natural environment, and the social environment). In contrast, the importance of these attributes for residents varied between these urban environments. Thus residential preferences may characterize subjective urban QOL in different urban environments better than residential satisfaction. Moreover, residential preferences provide additional guidance for maintaining and enhancing subjective urban quality of life in local areas. This paper argues for a renewed focus on importance measures in addition to the existing focus on satisfaction measures in subjective urban QOL research.     

Application of the Rural Development Index to Analysis of Rural Regions in Poland and Slovakia

The main purpose of this research was to construct a multi-dimensional (composite) index measuring the overall level of rural development and quality of life in individual rural regions of a given EU country. In the Rural Development Index (RDI) the rural development domains are represented by hundreds of partial socio-economic, environmental, infrastructural and administrative indicators/variables at NUTS-4 level (e.g. 991 variables/indicators describing various aspects of rural development in Poland; 340 variables/indicators in Slovakia). The weights of economic, social and environmental domains entering the RDI index are derived empirically from the econometrically estimated intra- and inter-regional migration function after selecting the “best” model from various alternative model specifications (e.g. panel estimate logistic regression nested error structure model, spatial effect models, etc.). The RDI is empirically applied to analysis of the main determinants of rural/regional development in individual rural areas in years 2002–2005 in Poland and Slovakia at NUTS-4 level. Due to its comprehensiveness the RDI Index is suitable both to analysis of the overall level of development of rural areas and to an evaluation of the impacts (impact indicator) of RD and structural programmes at regional levels (NUTS 2–5).     

Daytime Locations in Spatial Mismatch: Job Accessibility and Employment at Reentry From Prison

Individuals recently released from prison confront many barriers to employment. One potential obstacle is spatial mismatch—the concentration of low-skilled, nonwhite job-seekers within central cities and the prevalence of relevant job opportunities in outlying areas. Prior research has found mixed results about the importance of residential place for reentry outcomes. In this article, we propose that residential location matters for finding work, but this largely static measure does not capture the range of geographic contexts that individuals inhabit throughout the day. We combine novel, real-time GPS information on daytime locations and self-reported employment collected from smartphones with sophisticated measures of job accessibility to test the relative importance of spatial mismatch based on residence and daytime locations. Our findings suggest that the ability of low-skilled, poor, and urban individuals to compensate for their residential deficits by traveling to job-rich areas is an overlooked and salient consideration in spatial mismatch perspectives.     

The impact of urbanization and geographical dispersion on the linguistic russification of soviet nationalities

This paper tests a set of hypotheses about the impact of urbanization and geographical mobility on the linguistic Russification of 46 Soviet nationalities. The hypotheses are based on theoretical literature regarding the differing career aspirations of urban and rural residents, Soviet policies of providing native-language cultural facilities to non-Russian groups, and the probable levels of contact between non-Russians and Russians in specific residential settings. The data are aggregate data on place of residence, nationality, and native language derived from the 1959 Soviet Census. It is shown that (a) both urbanization and geographical dispersion have substantial Russificatory effects, (b) geographical dispersion (residence outside the official national area of the group) alone has a stronger impact on Russification than does urban residence, and (c) residence inside the official national territory partially suppresses what might otherwise be an even stronger Russificatory effect of urbanization, so that (d) urban residence and residence outside the official national area interact to produce a higher level of Russification than one might predict on the basis of the simple additive effects of urban and outside residence. It is also shown that males are more highly Russified than females in all of the residential settings examined but that these differences are quite small, especially for urbanites and residents outside the official national area.     

空间城市化机制和人口城市化目标——对中国当代城市化发展的一项研究

无论从城市人口变化还是城市空间变化角度观察,以上个世纪90年代中期为界,中国的城市化都经历了两个不同的阶段。90年代中期以来的城市化是以地方政府经营土地使用权为内在动力的空间城市化过程,这一机制是由一系列土地法规催生形成的。这一城市化机制的主要问题在于:它无意于解决人口城市化中跨省市流动人口的异地城市化问题;它造成空间意义上低效率的假性城市化;更为重要的是,它造成了具有宏观影响的土地金融风险。本文基此认为,应该制定相关政策调整和规范地方政府策动的空间城市化机制,规避其产生的问题,通过激励设计促进城市化在机制与目标方面的协调。     

Explaining Accessibility and Satisfaction Related to Healthcare: A Mixed-Methods Approach

Accessibility and satisfaction related to healthcare services are conceived as multidimensional concepts. These concepts can be studied using objective and subjective measures. In this study, we created two indices: a composite healthcare accessibility index (CHCA) and a composite healthcare satisfaction index (CHCS). To calculate the CHCA index we used three indicators based on three components of multidimensional healthcare accessibility: availability, acceptability and accessibility. In the indicator based on the component of accessibility, we included an innovative perceived time-decay parameter. The three indicators of the CHCA index were weighted through the application of a principal components analysis. To calculate the CHCS index, we used three indicators: the waiting time after the patient arrives at the healthcare service, the quality of the healthcare, and the healthcare service supply. These three indicators making up the CHCA index were weighted by applying an analytical hierarchy process. Three kinds of regressions were subsequently applied in order to explain the CHCA and CHCS indices: namely the Linear Least Squares, Ordinal Logistic, and Random Forests regressions. In these regressions, we used different independent social and health-related variables. These variables represented the predisposing, enabling, and need factors of people´s behaviors related to healthcare. All the calculations were applied to a study area: the city of Quito, Ecuador. Results showed that there are health-related inequalities in regard to healthcare accessibility and healthcare satisfaction in our study area. We also identified specific social factors that explained the indices developed. The present work is a mixed-methods approach to evaluate multidimensional healthcare accessibility and healthcare satisfaction, incorporating a pluralistic perspective, as well as a multidisciplinary framework. The results obtained can also be considered as tools for healthcare and urban planners, for more integrative social analyses that can improve the quality of life in urban residents.     

我国城市居民的收入水平对其婚姻状况的影响——以广西的抽样调查为例

在调查资料的基础上，本文通过SPSS统计软件对“月平均收入”和“婚姻状况”两个变量进行列联分析，验证了三个研究假设：第一。城市居民的不同收入水平与其婚姻状况是显著相关的，但两者的相关度不高（λ=0．147）。第二。高收入者比低收入者更倾向于未婚，但是高收入者的离婚率比低收入者的离婚率更低。第三，城市居民的收入水平对其婚姻状况的影响会因为性别的不同而有所不同。时于男性而言，收入水平时其婚姻状况的影响更大；而对于女性而言．收入水平时其婚姻状况的影响更小．     

Population and pavement: population growth and land development in Israel

This research examines land use change in Israel––an intriguing but understudied setting with regard to population–environment dynamics. While Israel is fairly unique with regard to its combined high levels of economic prosperity and high population growth, this case study has relevance for developed countries and regions (like the south and southwest regions of the USA) which must balance population growth and urban development with open space conservation for ecosystem services and biological diversity. The population–land development relationship is investigated during the period from 1961 to 1995 at three spatial scales: national, regional (six districts), and local (40 localities). There is a positive correlation between population growth and land development rates at the national scale, and while remaining positive, the strength of the relationship varies greatly at regional and local scales. The variation in population–land use dynamics across scales is used to garner insight as to the importance of geography, policy and historical settlement patterns.     

Modeling Local BES Indicators by Copula-Based Bayesian Networks

In Italy, the measure of the Equitable and Sustainable Well-being is provided by the Italian Institute of Statistics by means of a dashboard of basic and composite indicators. To investigate the dependence structure between the different domains of well-being, we propose the use of Non-Parametric Bayesian Networks based on the normal copula distribution, that allow to explore the conditional independence relationships between the composite indicators. The main advantage of the non-parametric models is that, as opposed to the parametric approach, they do not require any assumption on the marginal distributions of the variables. The proposed model is applied to the Equitable and Sustainable Well-being indicators measured at the provincial level and enriches the analysis of well-being by inspecting similarities and differences between Italian urban areas and territories.

     

Using VPI to Measure Poverty-Stricken Villages in China

Revealing the comprehensive poverty levels and spatial diversities of poverty-stricken villages is a prerequisite for “Entire-village Advancement” anti-poverty policy of China. In response, we build a multidimensional poverty assessment model from the perspective of spatial poverty, adopting VPI (village-level poverty index) to examine multiscale and multidimensional situations and characteristics of poverty-stricken villages in rural China, then adopting spatial geostatistics to explore their multidimensional and multiscale spatial point pattern distribution. Further, we also introduce LSE model to examine their poverty types. Our tests show that, Firstly, the validity and reliability of the VPI model can be justified in terms of village-level targeting ratio and policy-coverage ratio. Then, the poverty level of poverty-stricken villages follows a normal-right distribution, presenting an “olive” structure with a shape of “large middle, and small at two ends”, poverty levels and poverty sizes of different counties obviously increasing from east to west, and different classifications of counties also representing different poverty levels. On the other hand, there exists three kinds of multi-scale poverty clusters among different contiguous destitute areas, namely, clustering-randomness-dispersion, randomness-clustering and dispersion/randomness distribution. Villages with poverty type of three-factor dominance account for over 50 % of the total villages, their poverty are mainly caused by harsh geographical environment, disadvantaged production and living conditions, and poor labor forces. This research helps know well about the relationships among different villages from the multiscale and multidimensional views, so as to provide decision basis for optimal development and reorganization of the poverty-stricken villages in rural China, which is of vital practical significance to make overall arrangement of rural development-oriented poverty elimination and to boost new round of precise poverty elimination and new countryside construction.     

南京市人口发展对耕地保护的压力分析

逐步回归分析指出,在总人口、城市化水平、人均可支配收入、居住消费比重、交通消费比重、非农产业产值和非农产业的万元产值占地系数等变量中,总人口是南京市耕地总量变化的根本因素。总人口通过居住和就业影响耕地变化。未来一段时间,南京市总人口还将持续增加,人均可支配收入也有提高的基础,居民消费结构还要升级,这些都对耕地保护构成了压力。调节南京市人地矛盾可以考虑推行适度城市化政策,提高非农产业的万元产值占地系数,还可在耕地保护的制度上寻求创新。     

Rural-urban residence and modernism: A study of Ankara Province,Turkey

Data from the Ankara Family Study, in which 1138 married women living in Ankara city and four selected villages in Ankara Province were interviewed in 1965–66, are used to study the impact of the amount and timing of urban residential experience on six dimensions of modernism in attitudes and behavior. Scores on the modernism indexes consistently are higher for the women with urban residential experience. The proportions of variance in the study population accounted for by the urbanism factor are: nearly three-fifths on the mass media index; nearly two-fifths on the nuclear family role structure index; three-tenths on the home production or consumption index; two-tenths on the religiosity and extra-local orientation indexes; and a seventh on the extended family ties index. The place of residence prior to marriage, the period when decisions about schooling are made and socialization into adult roles occurs, appears to be of special importance. Women who migrated from villages to the city at any stage of the life-cycle, however, report attitudes and behavior more modern than those of women with no urban residential experience (though less modern than those of women who have always lived in a city). Such micro-social analyses may help to illuminate the relation between urbanization and modernization in developing nations and to account for the coexistence of modern and traditional patterns in transitional societies.     

Cities evolution tree and applications to predicting urban growth

China’s unprecedented urbanization and economic modernization have brought about significant growth and land use changes in cities and their surroundings. Traditional analyses of the relationship between urbanization and land use change have not fully incorporated important factors like city function or developmental stage. We define and apply a new visualization and analysis tool—an evolution tree—showing how an understanding of evolutionary pathways taken by growing cities contributes to visualization and forecasting of urban development and spatial expansion. We clustered 253 Chinese cities by type and developmental stage, arranging them in a “tree” structure, with types grouped as branches and leaf position along branches reflecting developmental stage. Urban growth rates are higher for business-oriented, manufacturing-oriented, and functionally comprehensive cities than for those oriented toward tourism. Extent of spatial growth is dominated by city type and developmental stage. Cities evolve along typical pathways, punctuated by occasional leap developments across functional types.