NOTES ON SPATIAL-STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA -THE 1990s

Informal businesses used to be something that was only tolerated in the former black townships during the years of apartheid. Since then the informal business sector has become an integral part of the central business setup of cities in South Africa. It not only serves to widen the security net of the urban poor in cities, it also represents the outcome of the democratization process in the country over the past fifteen years. Yet, there has been a tendency amongst local authorities to take steps to reduce the footprint of this sector in the urban environment in recent years. This trend ties in with the new approach of government to transform South African cities to become ’world class’ centres - a step that is aimed at making the cities more visually acceptable to visitors from abroad. In this paper an attempt is made to demonstrate the importance of the informal sector within the urban business makeup and to show what role it played in the spatial-structural evolution of the urban economies during the 1990s. The paper analyzes the structure of the urban business sector as a whole and structurally links the formal and informal sectors, demonstrating the importance of both sectors in the economic makeup of the cities. It analyses the structure of the informal sector and shows how different layers of the sector potentially relates to the formal urban sector.

THE REGIONAL STRUCTURE OF SERBIA

This paper approaches some of the characteristics of the regional development of Serbia, from the perspective of two models of territorial organization: one is governmental (administrative and statistical), and the other is functional. The imbalances in the levels of development of various territorial units of Serbia (regional disproportions) are the consequence of many structural disharmonies, material limitations, and problems with population structure, during many years, all worsened by political and economic events at the end of the twentieth century. Also, in this paper we point out the main characteristics of undeveloped regions, the criteria with which we can define them, and a typology of the municipalities inside each such region.

SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES IN REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

The paper examines the role of SME sector in Moldova’s economy and its likely implications in the RD processes. Several key features of the relationship between knowledge economy, RD and SMEs are emphasized, and also their effect on regional and local communities. Then, a summary of RD particular features in Moldova is presented. The role of SME sector, examined in terms of its performance by ownership and activity types, as a whole and by main firms’ categories (micro-, small, and medium-sized) is analyzed. Small enterprises have been considered as the most adequate solution for promoting RD in general case. National-level analysis is completed by regional insight into the sector as a whole. Finally, some critical aspects of SMEs’ role in RD in Moldova are discussed.

ROMANIAN SMALL TOWNS SEARCHING FOR THEIR IDENTITY

Romanian small towns - urban settlements of less than 20000 inhabitants, having a polarizing function with respect to the socio-economic activities in the deeply rural areas - are considered an interface between rural and urban communities. Determining the identity of small towns is rather difficult, because complex and varied political, social and economic changes occurred in the previous century. Thus, three distinct phases have been established: before 1950 the towns had a rather strong rural character; in 1950-1989 their identity was completely changed under the communist regime; after that, they somehow re gained their initial identity (the one before 1950), or promoted it at higher levels. There is a discrepancy between the present stage and that before 1989: the previous identity was conventional and constrained whereas today it develops in a natural process conditioned only by the town itself and by the choice of its inhabitants.

SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF CRIME OCCURRENCE IN VARIOUS REGIONS OF IRAN WITH AN EMPHASIS ON SAFETY

Safety is a basic issue in every social system and communities consider safety as one of their main priorities. One of the most important factors that put the safety of various communities at risk is the threats caused by crime occurrence. This paper is aimed to spatially analyze crime occurrence in various regions of Iran with an emphasis on safety. The research method is descriptive-analytical and a documentary and library data collection method is used. In this paper, the Similarity, COPRAS, mean rank method, and cluster analysis method are applied. The final results of the cluster analysis based on the mean rank method indicate a wide gap between the provinces of the country in terms of survey indicators, so that the final coefficient obtained for the provinces in the sixth cluster (the most unsafe group) is about 45 times of the final coefficient of the provinces in the first cluster (the safest group).

THE ROLE OF COOPERATION IN THE INNOVATION ACTIVITY OF ENTERPRISES: THE CASE OF POLISH REGIONS

Innovations are seen as an important factor of regional growth, but what influences the innovation activity of enterprises? In the regional innovation system, the set of actors interacting with each other is surrounded with a specific socio-economic environment. In the present research, the following economic and social features in a region – human capital, social capital, the level of economic development, and the existence of FDI – are analysed as possible factors of the innovation activity undertaken by enterprises. Two types of innovation activity are analysed: in-house R&D and the acquisition of machinery, software and equipment. The analysis was conducted for the years: 2004-2006, 2006-2008, 2008-2010, 2010-2012, 2012-2014, and the 16 Polish NUTS-2 regions. Based on the results of econometric panel models, innovation cooperation was found to be significant and positively related with both types of innovation activity. Moreover, public financial support and the level of foreign capital involvement were found positively related with the in-house R&D activity.

APPLICATION OF A FUZZY SYSTEM TO THE ANALYSIS OF ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION IN COLOMBIA

The incidence of diverse factors on the intention to create enterprises (EI) motivates the calculation of a multidimensional indicator that groups the initial endowments of the individual and the characteristics of the environment. Thus, the research introduces a new way of measuring business intent based on the mathematical support of the theory of fuzzy sets; thus, employing a sample of MBA students in Colombia, a Multidimensional Index of Enterprise Intent (MIEI) was calculated for 14 cities, segmented by gender, age, and area of studies. The results of the document expose heterogeneity in Colombian cities in terms of EI, with greater development in spatial units with facilities to do business. Particularly, the results denote the presence of an EI cycle in the age range between 30 and 40 years and they confirm Bogotá, D.C., as the city with the highest EI in Colombia. Meanwhile, the findings confirm minor entrepreneurial development in students with vocation for agricultural science.

EVALUATION OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT WITH BANKING AND FINANCE DATA

This research aims to measure the change of provincial development levels of Turkey’s 81 provinces through banking sector data. The applied methodology is the Malmquist Total Factor Productivity Index (MTFPI). We perform the analysis based on two models. The main difference between models relies on handling the factor associated with ‘loans’. The first approach sees the loans as an output factor, which is based on the idea that loans indicate investment and therefore development. In the second model, we take the loans as an input factor, which represents the idea that loans indicate debt and therefore they should be minimized. We evaluate the findings with respect to geographical classification and the province development index.

UNRAVELING THE (INTRINSIC) LINKAGE BETWEEN SOCIAL SPENDING AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS FOR EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES

Theoretical approaches and place-specific solutions are required to face with the intrinsic linkage between social welfare and macroeconomic stability in advanced economies, especially in Europe. In this regard, the 2007 recession has influenced extensively the wide spectrum of social policies applicable in the European Community. New socioeconomic divides emerged and fiscal austerity urged Member States to resettle policy discourses, advancing social needs in a more effective way. In line with this evidence, our commentary discusses recent literature and it outlines policy implications of different political, institutional and socioeconomic settings. By analyzing cross-country variations in the shape and extent of welfare policies at the European level, our study evaluates apparent (and latent) performances of welfare systems in a comparative perspective, with a specific focus on Southern European countries. The existence of a latent relationship between social policy expenditures (SPE) and per-capita GDP was demonstrated. However, social expenditures may differ for a given level of income: for instance, Latvia had a lower level of social expenditures given its income level. Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal were clustered together displaying a lower share of social spending in the total GDP in respect with the remaining European countries. This comparison suggests how Mediterranean countries are institutionally fragile and with a moderately higher level of corruption in respect with North-western countries. The results of this work contribute to bridge the semantic dichotomy between theoretical approaches and empirical findings in socioeconomic policy impact analysis.

DISCOURSES ON SPAIN’S HOUSING CRISIS: A TYPOLOGICAL PROPOSAL

The recent economic crisis has had serious consequences on the housing system, making it necessary to rethink housing in our society from a multidisciplinary and multi-methodological point of view. Purely quantitative studies are insufficient to analyse the structural and social aspects of housing: it is necessary to define concepts, extent approaches and to understand that residential studies should also resort to qualitative analyses to achieve a further understanding of the situation. This paper is based on the analysis of 35 focused interviews about Spain’s housing crisis. The results show that there are only two discursive types: a critical discourse and a conservative discourse. In the dialectical confrontation of both views, some key factors for understanding the housing market are left out, which may lead to a new crisis scenario.