Contemporary development forces in the nonmetropolitan west: new insights from rapidly growing communities

Nonmetropolitan areas in the western United States have experienced rapid growth rates measured in both economic and demographic terms. Macrolevel studies have found that a variety of forces are at work driving these regional patterns of growth including quality of life migrants, expansion of service industries, and nonearnings sources of income. While these macrolevel studies provide important insights into the processes of regional change, very little is known of the significance of these contemporary development forces at the micro, or community, level. This paper reports the results of four community case studies in rapidly growing rural communities within the western United States to provide a better understanding of economic and social change at the community level. Interviews with key players in each case study community provide the empirical evidence for this paper, and the data demonstrate community development processes to be complex. Resource-dependent industrial activities remain an important component for community economies. Furthermore, extractive activity is being supplemented (not supplanted) by various combinations of the factors reported in macrolevel studies including niche manufacturing, Lone Eagles, quality of life migrants, and retirees. The case studies also highlight a high degree of volatility in growing areas and potential problems with assimilation, fractioning, and planning associated with rapid growth in these small places.     

Farming Patterns,Rural Restructuring,and Poverty: A Comparative Regional Analysis1

Abstract This study examines the contentions of two recent perspectives on rural economic organization and their implications for poverty. Building from (1) agrarian political economy and (2) the rural restructuring literatures, we present a comparative regional analysis of how farming patterns and other aspects of economic organization differentially affect poverty in rural areas. Data are based on 2,349 nonmetropolitan U.S. counties for the 1970–1980 period. Nonhired labor-dependent, family-operated farming (smaller and larger family farming) has relatively similar cross-regional effects on rural poverty. The effects of industrialized farming are more spatially variant, suggesting that this type of farming is integrated into regional political economies in different ways than are simple commodity units. However, farming patterns have only a small effect on rural poverty relative to other factors, such as the local employment structure, characteristics of the population, and geographic location. The results of this study highlight the need to move beyond the farm sector to understand both the dynamics of this sector and the socioeconomic consequences of rural restructuring. More broadly, the study underscores the importance of testing general sociological relationships under different spatial (e.g., regional) contexts.     

Spiritual Shopping: The Effects of State-Level Demographics and Religious Economies on the Locations of Psychics,Astrologers, and Christian Bookstores

In this article we utilize state-level data to investigate the factors affecting the location of Christian bookstores, astrologers, and psychics. We distinguish between factors related to general consumption of goods and factors related to religious economies to see if religious products are merely another consumption good whose popularity has no relation to the religious environment or if the consumption of these products is related to competition in the religious marketplace. Our results indicate that, whereas the location of astrologers and psychics is strongly related to general consumption related demographic factors, the location of Christian bookstores does not seem to be affected by these factors. Christian bookstores instead reflect the religious composition of state markets. Further, the presence of conservative Protestants appears to have a dampening effect on the location of psychics and astrology studios.     

Guilds in the transition to modernity: The cases of Germany,United Kingdom,and the Netherlands

One important aspect of the transition to modernity is the survival of elements of the Old Regime beyond the French Revolution. It has been claimed that this can explain why in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries some Western countries adopted national corporatist structures while others transformed into liberal market economies. One of those elements is the persistence or absence of guild traditions. This is usually analyzed in a national context. This article aims to contribute to the debate by investigating the development of separate trades in Germany, the United Kingdom, and The Netherlands throughout the nineteenth century. We distinguish six scenarios of what might have happened to crafts and investigate how the prevalence of each of these scenarios in the three countries had an impact on the emerging national political economies. By focusing on trades, rather than on the national political economy, our analysis demonstrates that in each country the formation of national political economies and citizenship rights was not the result of a national pattern of guild survival. Rather, the pattern that emerged by the end of the nineteenth century was determined by the balance between old and new industries, and that between national and regional or local government.     

Extractive Regimes: Toward a Better Understanding of Indonesian Development

This article proposes the concept of an extractive regime to understand Indonesia's developmental trajectory from 1966 to 1998. The concept contributes to world‐systems, globalization, and commodity‐based approaches to understanding peripheral development. An extractive regime is defined by its reliance on extraction of multiple natural resources in the formation of an economic and political order that is also supported by global and regional forces. After elaborating the concept of an extractive regime, the article illustrates it through examination of Indonesia's developmental trajectory from its formation in the post–World War II era to its firm establishment during Suharto's New Order. Although a comprehensive study would necessitate attention to the full panoply of commodities, the study illustrates some of the workings of the extractive regime in the timber and fisheries sectors, which share spatial extensivity and other characteristics. The article concludes by considering the future of the extractive regime in Indonesia amid democratization and continued class domination and by offering suggestions for further application, specification, and extension of the extractive regime concept.     

The South African State and urbanisation policy: Crisis and response

Towards the end of the 1970s political and economic tensions in South Africa precipitated a crisis of the State. In response to this, the last few years have seen an unprecedented attempt on the part of the government to restructure racial capitalism in South Africa. While reforms have left virtually no aspect of government policy untouched, this paper explores one particular and vital aspect of policy reform: that of urbanisation policy and regional development. It is frequently the case that internationally accepted regional development and settlement strategies, first, are adopted by governments for political rather than for developmental reasons and, secondly, are unable anyway to stimulate processes of regional development. The reasons for this relate not only to the biases which occur in the application of these strategies, but also to a failure to understand or to confront the real and complex developmental problems of the areas in which they are implemented. The case of South Africa clearly demonstrates these issues.     

Spatial inequality of rural industrial development in China, 1989–1994

Rural industry, having benefited from market oriented reforms, has surpassed state owned industry and become the largest industrial sector in China since 1993. Using multiple indicators, this study reveals a highly unbalanced spatial distribution and an increase in inequality of rural industrial development. It also classifies the level of development at the provincial level from 1989 to 1994. The relationship between rural industrial development and internal and regional characteristics is analyzed by multiple regression analysis. A very high correlation between rural industrial development and regional market indicators resulted in the conclusion that rural industry is a market economic sector and its development is driven by market forces in China's dual economy. The spatial patterns of rural industrial development reflect the viable, even optimum, location patterns created by the experience of the market economy. Although government policies attempted to reduce the inequality of rural industrial development among regions, the widened gap between rich and poor in the period 1989–1994 demonstrated the strong impacts of the concentrating effects of market forces.     

Unionism,peasant protest and the reform of French agriculture

Enormous tensions have been created in French rural society by the extent and rapidity of the economic and social changes which have taken place in agriculture since the Second World War; CAP reforms and the GATT agreement have further deepened the sense of crisis within the sector. The French Government has sought to implement change and control these tensions through the “corporatisation” of the dominant farm union and other agricultural interest groups. Rejection of this process by some groups of farmers and widening disparities within agriculture have resulted in shifting patterns of union allegiance and the growth of a variety of forms of protest which, combined with general public support for the preservation of rural areas and antipathy towards American economic and cultural dominance have ensured continued government concessions to the agricultural sector.     

Migration among East and Southeast Asian Economies

Conventional studies focus on why migration occurs between a particular pair of places. Our study asks a different question: what characteristics of the origin and destination places can explain migration flows between any two places in a region. Our study explores how economic, political, and geographic factors influence bilateral migration flows within a region in which various countries are increasingly being integrated into the regional as well as into the global economy. Drawing from diverse data sources, we explore migration flows among various economies in East and Southeast Asia between 2000 and 2005 and 2005 and 2010. Our analyses yielded two major findings. First, the relationship between economic factors and the volume of migration flows depends on the overall economy in the region. Second, the findings reveal a consistently robust and significant relationship between geographic proximity and migration flow. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

A Hypothetical Model of a New Business System Responsive to the Global Environment: A Connected Model

Within developing economies, in particular, but also in underdeveloped economies, current business priorities and practices have appeared to be incongruent with the general discourse of environmental sustainability. It is clear that the different players within the economic framework: government, education system, producers, and consumers—appear to hold differing interests, none of which places any meaningful emphasis on environmental sustainability. Following this observation, this paper seeks to argue for a change of tactics within which current players are treated as stakeholders and co-opted into a new business model that is fundamentally sensitive to the promotion and development of environmental sustainability. This approach is intended to interconnect the key market players’ interests and systematically weave them into a modern environmentally sustainable compliant business ethos.      

香港与新加坡及相关区域经济整合研究

改革开放30年来,随着广东经济层次的提高和对外经贸合作的升级,粤港、粤新之间传统的经贸合作模式难以继续维系。基于全球化和区域经济整合理论,本文在剖析粤、港、新经济发展和格局演变的基础上,提出了新时期粤港、粤新差异化经济整合模式、整合机制及主体内容,并进一步阐述广东在粤港新经贸合作中的优势及发展策略。     

Logic,language, and values of co-operation versus competition in the context of recreating sustainable community systems

The article highlights the paradox in the language, logic, and values of the larger social system vis-à-vis the market economy system. It observes that the language, logic, and values of co-operation have gradually undergone transformation over time and have been mainstreamed today to that of industrial production and organizations in a competitive market economic system. The article argues that the confusions and tensions today in the theory, practice, and policy for recreating sustainable systems essentially arise out of a lack of conceptual clarity and an inability to distinguish the values, logic, and language of competition from that of co-operation. Based on an action research project during 2008–2013 on developing transitional strategies for rebuilding a sustainable community system from within the existing competitive market economy system, the paper provides a way forward for restructuring the organizational design and institutional architecture on the principles of deep relationships, trust, and co-operation for long-term sustainability.     

FDI Contribution to Transition Development: Slovakia versus Slovenia

In general, scholars consider Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as an important factor of development in transition economies, which are changing from former socialist economic forms to more recent capitalist ones. A typical, and very much quoted example, to that regard, is nowadays China. The opinion goes that FDI brings two badly needed elements to the input economic environment: capital and know-how. From the opposite point of view, also capital and knowledge are looking for such environments, because they find there cheap production factors to be mobilized, in order to get higher investment yields. But is such a simple equation entirely true? Examples can be found of countries, which were able to develop with less FDI, and predominantly by domestic efforts, for instance, Japan. The paper tries to find answers to this question not only theoretically, but also by taking into consideration examples from the field. Two transition economies Slovakia and Slovenia, also with similar names, have been taken into consideration and studied, which permitted to draw some interesting answers to the question formulated initially.     

共同绘制长三角区域发展蓝图——从“一核六带”到“三区三城”的战略构想

国务院于2008年出台的《关于进一步推进长江三角洲地区改革开放和经济社会发展的指导意见》,以及国家发改委目前正在抓紧修订之中的《长江三角洲地区区域规划》,标志着长三角大城市群新一轮发展的历史时期已经到来。中央关于长三角区域布局与协调发展的思路愈见清晰,突出表现在按照优化开发区域的总体要求,统筹区域发展需要所提出的＂一核六带＂空间布局已经非常明确到位。而苏州在承接区域战略布局及上海核心的辐射中,适时提出加快经济转型升级和建设＂三区三城＂的新目标。然而,指导意见的贯彻实施和区域规划的深化细化,还需要一个实践发展和认识深化的过程,需要长三角各城市的密切配合和共同努力,方能渐入佳境,百尺竿头。     

对上海经济增长阶段转换及发展的认识与思考

从周期规律看,自1978年以来上海经济运行表现为4个发展阶段,从第2个周期开始平均经济增速出现下移,目前下移趋势更为明显.从经济发展阶段看,上海已处于发达经济体行列.从经济结构看,上海产业演化进入以服务经济为主的发展阶段.上海发展中的主要矛盾,体现在传统实体经济优势趋向弱化,物量规模的扩张面临极限,全社会劳动生产效率增长放缓,创新驱动发展仍在徘徊中.对外贸易、金融创新、收入分配格局、财税体制、城乡一体化以及宏观经济统计改革等领域,是上海深化改革的重要方面.     

Local enterprise companies and rural development

This paper discusses the rural dimensions of the objectives and activities of Local Enterprise Companies (LECs). These form a network of local economic development agencies that operate as part of regional policy under the umbrella of the ‘regional’ development agency, Scottish Enterprise. It is argued that to more fully understand the operation of such regional and local development agencies, it is necessary to consider the broad external environment within which LECs operate, together with their characteristics, objectives, policies and activities and how they implement them. Key issues in the external environment are the inter-related and changing natures of rural economies, regional development policies and the wider socio-economic, technical and political factors. The issues of the decentralisation of power from central government to the ‘private-sector-led’ LECs and of accountability are also discussed. LECs focus upon improving the operation of markets by combining ‘market failures’, usually acting as enabling organisations rather than directly providing services, and give importance to the role of acting in partnership with others. The paper provides lessons both for rural economic development partnerships and for the possible setting up of other regional development economic development agencies.     

Brexit,Global Cities,and the Future of World Order

The emergence and role of global cities provide a rubric by which we can understand Brexit and illuminate the present tensions between those who favor open economic policies and those who favor closed economic policies. Economic inequality, political disenfranchisement, and social exclusion at the regional level are now driving a fresh interrogation of the relatively open world order that requires global cities—sites densely populated with institutions necessary for orchestrating global economic activity. While questions about the legitimacy of economic openness may undermine the economic output, political power, and cultural influence of global cities, those same cities may, if they harness economic output for broader regional benefits, demonstrate the potential of an alternative and newly legitimate open world order.     

Entrepreneurial In‐migration and Neoendogenous Rural Development

The social, cultural, and economic transitions in rural areas across the globe lead us to critique the traditional “top‐down” or “bottom‐up” distinction as being outdated for contemporary rural policy. In Europe and the United States in particular, high rates of counterurbanization heighten the need for new ways of thinking about rural development. To address this, we describe the emergence of neoendogenous development theories in the United Kingdom and elucidate further on the economic implications of this approach for rural development. In particular, we examine the role of local and extralocal networks and population flows as facilitators of neoendogenous development based on our independent studies in northeast England and northern Scotland. This approach highlights the importance of diverse forms of capital in rural economies and examines the role of social networks in the utilization of these resources. In‐migrant business owners are a valuable research focus as they provide a link between the “local” and the “extralocal,” allowing greater insight into the creation and evolution of network ties in relation to economic activity in rural areas.     

Impact of government and industrial agglomeration on industrial land prices: A Taiwanese case study

Government intervention in industrial development is important in promoting national economic development in numerous Asian countries. This study aims to examine the influence of government and industrial agglomeration on industrial land prices by constructing hedonic pricing functions. Based on model testing, this study indicates that variables related to general attributes, locational attributes, industrial agglomeration and government determine land prices. Moreover, industrial agglomeration is positively related to land prices; that is, industrial parks with a stronger agglomeration economy have higher land value. However, the role of government is negatively related to land prices, indicating that government intervention has no influence in increasing land prices and probably results from the inappropriate location of industrial parks and dissatisfaction of those parks' management services. To increase the development efficiency and industry competitiveness, this study proposes that government should identify and improve the weaknesses of industrial parks and promote the establishment of industrial clustering and information transfer among firms.     

Urban Residents' Views of Rurality and Contacts with Rural Places1

Little is known about how rural people and places are viewed by the urban majority or the extent to which these images are related to first-hand contact with rurality. Data from a recent mail survey of a sample of people living in Pennsylvania cities suggest that urban people view rural places in positive terms and feel that rural areas and rural lifestyles should be preserved. When asked to consider the desirability of various development strategies, most urban residents indicated that priority should be given to promoting traditional extractive economic activities (farming, forestry, mining); there was little support for other types of business or industrial development Urban residents who visited rural locales for recreation and/or environmental contact were most likely to want to preserve those areas; visiting for social reasons was related to support for development activities. Policy implications of these findings are suggested.