Transport cost in location practice and economic geography: traditional theories, some new dimensions and policy implications

This paper outlines the main theoretical approaches to the role of transport in spatial organization and investigates possible new extensions at a theoretical and practical level, focusing on the analysis of transport cost. Beginning from the traditional theories of spatial distribution and the location of economic activities under transport cost, the analysis focuses on the related approaches of the new economic geography, which are based on the assumptions of the known “iceberg cost”. After that, through the presentation of indicative empirical studies, the paper attempts to clarify new issues that should be taken into account in the relevant theoretical considerations as well as in the political practice. Thus, factors such as the change of production structure in the modern economies with the production of more quality products, lower mass, and higher relative value and intangible goods, in combination with the improved transport technology, have contributed to a continuous reduction of the transport cost of raw materials and productive goods over the years. These developments along with the growing importance of cost of moving people should be taken into account in the new theoretical interrogations and the political practice of regional and urban development

Sustainable infrastructure provision through awareness in selected medium-sized towns in Kwara State

Infrastructure is a basic structure required for sustainable socio-economic and physical development of any human settlement. The issue of sustainable development has recently been linked to infrastructure sustainability. Required to achieve this is the acquisition of appropriate education. Different skills, understanding the complexities that threaten the survival of our system, critical and systematic thinking, building capacity and partnership in decision-making, which are essential tools for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), are required to provide adequate, appropriate and functional infrastructure. This study therefore examines the awareness/knowledge with reference to various skills employed in the provision of infrastructure through communal efforts in ten selected medium-sized towns in Kwara State. These towns are with a population of between 5,000 and 20,000. A total of 400 household heads were sampled systematically through the administration of a questionnaire in the ten selected medium-sized towns. Tabulations, cross tabulations, percentages and chi-square analysis were employed to analyse the gathered data. The findings revealed a significant relationship between awareness/knowledge and the provision of infrastructure with a calculated value of 219.23 greater than the tabulated value 34.41 at alpha level 0.05. Indigenous knowledge coupled with the ideas brought home by indigenes that have travelled far from their immediate communities and some professional skills acquired through community participation in infrastructure provision were employed to provide basic infrastructure required for socio-economic and physical development. Among the infrastructure provided are water, roads, health centres and electricity. The study recommends the improvement of basic education, a review and re-orientation of our educational system to address sustainability for proper collaboration of community efforts with the Community Development division of various local governments. This could be through training of the local communities and promotion of partnership zeal with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in infrastructure provision.

New player on the scene: Turkish engagement in Africa

Turkey’s engagement in Africa is connected to the ideological shift of Turkish government during the era of Justice and Development Party and its redirection from the Western-centred to the more diversified foreign policy. Turkish policy in Africa has two dimensions: first one is promoted by the official representation of the State, and the second is performed mainly by civil sector of Turkish society, the business organisation as well as various NGOs. This paper examines Turkish involvement in Africa from various perspectives. It focuses on the economic, political as well as ideological role of Turkey in Africa.

Quality of life in rural areas: A topic for the Rural Development policy?

Contemporary transformations of rural areas involve changes in land uses, economic perspectives, connectivity, livelihoods, but also in lifestyles, whereupon a traditional view of ‘the rural’ and, consequently, of ‘rural development’ no longer holds. Accordingly, EU’s 2007-2013 Rural Development policy (RDP) is one framework to incorporate aspects labelled as quality of life (QOL) alongside traditional rural tenets. With a new rendition of the RDP underway, this paper scopes the content and extent of the expired RDP regarding its incorporation of QOL, in order to better identify considerations for future policy making. Using novel methodology called topic modelling, a series of latent semantic structures within the RDP could be unravelled and re-interpreted via a dual categorization system based on RDP’s own view on QOL, and on definitions provided by independent research. Corroborated by other audits, the findings indicate a thematic overemphasis on agriculture, with the focus on QOL being largely insignificant. Such results point to a rationale different than the assumed one, at the same time reinforcing an outdated view of rurality in the face of the ostensibly fundamental turn towards viewing rural areas in a wider, more humanistic, perspective. This unexpected issue of underrepresentation is next addressed through three possible drivers: conceptual (lingering productionist view of the rural), ideological (capitalist prerogative preventing non-pecuniary values from entering policy) and material (institutional lock-ins incapable of accommodating significant deviations from an agricultural focus). The paper ends with a critical discussion and some reflections on the broader concept of rurality.

The spatial production of a border-crossing civil society in Görlitz and Zgorzelec. A German point of view

After decades of uncertainty and continuous change to the border regime since the split-up of Görlitz into a German part west of the river Neisse, and a Polish part called Zgorzelec after the Second World War, both towns established the self-designated European City Görlitz-Zgorzelec in 1998. Although journalists and politicians maintain that Görlitz and Zgorzelec are a case model for European integration, there are obvious differences between the visions connected to the project ‘European City’ and the everyday life. Following the key research question, whether the ‘European City Görlitz-Zgorzelec’, in its attempts to develop a border-crossing civil society, is also constructed from below by citizens on both sides of the border, my contribution to the field of border studies uses a qualitative micro-level approach to these processes in the fields of culture, leisure and education. For that aim, an ethnographically inspired socio-geographical research design has been linked to Henri Lefebvre’s theoretical framework of the double triad of spatial production developed in The Production of Space (1991). From the perspective of actors in civil society in both towns, who are active in constructing, shifting and deconstructing borders, the article aims to illuminate both territorial and social bordering processes. Borderwork is embedded in and connected to transformation and peripheralisation processes, as well as to the discourses on and the funding instruments of European Integration in the context of the complex history of the Polish-German border.

Spatial analysis of ethnopolitical mobilisation in the Caucasus in the 1980s and 1990s

The paper aims to create a set of indicators which could best explain the varying intensity of ethnopolitical mobilisation in the Caucasian region. Selected data on social indicators of individual Caucasian territorial units are examined with help of correlation and regression analysis. The analysis results also show relations among individual social indicators which can help understand social and ethnic processes within the units.

The concept of geo-demographic situation and geo-demographic typology of the subjects of the Russian Federation

The article presents the results of research on typologisation of Russian regions according the geo-demographic situation. The typologisation of regions is performed on the basis of statistics for 2011-2012. The regions are described through demographic, economic, social, settlement, ecological, and ethno-demographic categories, the most common of which according to the authors point of view are the typological features of the geo-demographic situation. The subjects of the Russian Federation provided the research material to apply 15 typological traits and identify three types of geo-demographic situation, 9 subtypes of the first level, sub-types of the second level and a model subtype of the third level. The study shows that various types and subtypes of regions require different approaches in demographic, economic, social, equity, ethnic, environmental, and population distribution regional policies towards relevant entities of the Russian Federation.

The prospective impact of new shopping centres on the retail structure of Braga

Following the application for two new shopping centres in the city of Braga, a medium-size city located in the North region of Portugal, the purpose of this paper is to look for evidence of the possible impacts of those commercial structures on the retail sector of Braga. An overview of the literature allows us to conclude the strong relation between retail and cities and their town centres. Recently, the process of suburbanization and the transformation in the retail sector put into question the role of those areas by transferring the consumption from town centres and traditional retail formats to new structures located on the periphery. 400 questionnaires were given to consumers to analyse the consumption habits and the way they might change with the possible arrival of two new shopping centres. We have come to the conclusion that these commercial structures are very much present in the consumption habits and in the commercial environment of consumers. They associate characteristics like quality, animation, security, cleanness, time saving, product diversity, comfort, conviviality and parking facilities with that retail format. With the implantation of new shopping centres it is expected that the existent retail sector will undergo a decrease in its importance as a shopping destination. The data from the questionnaires allow us to conclude that it is not only the already existent shopping centres that will suffer but also the other retail formats. Nevertheless, a significant number of respondents do not think of transferring the shopping they already do to the new retail structures.

A historical overview and critical analysis of town centre delimitation methodologies

The article aims at exploring the literature on town centre delimitation methods over the last sixty years. Specifically, the first section explores the content of the term town centre, while the second one proposes an organisation of town centre delimitation research in three main periods. The third section comprises the main corpus of the article, as several town centre delimitation methodologies of the last sixty years are presented and discussed. For their presentation, a three tiered analysis is introduced. In the first stage the decisions of researchers regarding centrality estimators are discussed, in the second stage the study focuses on the choices of the spatial units, in which the chosen variables will be studied, and in the third stage the study discusses the methods that are used to characterise each of the studied spatial units as central versus non-central. Based on the analysis, the article concludes that town centre delimitation is an issue which transcends various scientific disciplines and that each of these disciplines comprehends the centre of a town in a unique way. Thus, future methods of town centre delimitation should take into account the choices made in each of the three stages presented above, and should also link the above choices to the objectives and the theoretical context of the study.

Resilience of Pomorskie region to economic crisis

Economic resilience is defined as the ability of the economy to overcome the negative external shocks. It depends on macroeconomic factors and internal conditions of the country or region. Macroeconomic factors include fiscal policy, economic and monetary policy. Among the internal factors economic structure, the level of restructuring and modernization of enterprises, competitiveness and innovation should be mentioned. Among the important soft internal factors level of human capital, including entrepreneurship can be distinguished. The aim of the paper is to present the issue of economic resilience and explain what are the main factors constituting resilience of Pomorskie region (voivodship) in Poland. To achieve this aim, authors first give a theoretical introduction regarding the economic resilience concept as well as describe the methods of economic resilience measurement. Secondly the macroeconomic, external factors affecting the analysed region are discussed. Next the authors measure resilience of Pomorskie region basing on statistical data and compare the resilience of Pomorskie region with other regions in Poland. At the and the authors, basing on extensive interviews with experts, representatives of regional business and administration, attempt to explain why Pomorskie region is more resilient to economic crises than other Polish regions. In this part Pomorskie economy structure is presented too.