Market factors affecting spatial heterogeneity among urban neighborhoods

Abstract

Institutional factors perpetuating segregation in urban neighborhoods— redlining by lenders and insurers, steering by brokers, and discrimination by owners—have attracted much attention recently. But natural market forces (demand, supply, and equilibrium price adjustment) can also create neighborhood heterogeneity in income, race, and housing characteristics.

This article establishes a framework to examine the market forces that create spatial clustering of households. On the demand side, differences in resident preferences and incomes lead to clustering; on the supply side, differences in cost functions, created by market specialization or location‐specific features, are important. Equilibrium price adjustment reinforces tendencies toward heterogeneity and leads to differential affordability patterns. Bid‐rent and other models of residential location, discrimination in urban housing markets, and the Tiebout model are discussed. A research agenda is proposed to measure neighborhood heterogeneity, isolate its influence on educational and employment opportunities, and evaluate policies for ameliorating its adverse effects.     

Gender and Social Control in Early 20th-Century Pennsylvania: The Role of the State Industrial Home for Women at Muncy in Reforming Fallen Women

The State Industrial Home for Women at Muncy in Pennsylvania opened in 1920 just as the reformatory movement began to wane and quickly became the sole correctional institution for women in the state, besides county jails. Despite the broader population that Muncy housed, traditional reformatory ideals were still supported and enforced. Yet the practices and programming of the institution also exemplified the changing economic and social role of women in society. Using recently uncovered primary sources from the institution, this article places Muncy within the broader context of the reformatory movement and argues that its dual emphasis played a significant role in its respect and longevity as an institution.     

The Stories Nations Tell,in Three Voices

Abstract

An examination of the role of history in the South China Sea is dangerous ground. Contemporary discussions about sovereignty and jurisdictions in the Sea have become so politicized as to obscure historical insights. This essay considers the role of history in the South China Sea through the lens of three recent works on maritime Asia. While the Robert Kaplan’s 2014 book offers an abstract account of rising states and ancient rivalries, the two other works by Bill Hayton and Bernard Cole offer more compelling explanations of the role of human agency in shaping the region’s claims. The comparison of these works yields a commentary on the South China Sea disputes, and on the methodologies employed by those who study this consequential sub-region and its maritime past.     

Should They Stay,or Should They Go?

正A Greek exit from the euro zone would have major economic and political consequences What was unthinkable a year ago is now being thought about much more seriously.The exit of Greece from the euro zone is now being discussed increasingly by commentators,economists,and even political figures in Europe.British Prime Minister David Cameron has raised the ire of euro-zone members (the UK is not     

China Australia Tie

Australia’s newly elected prime minister must guide crucial China policy A new government was elected in Australia on September 7,bringing an end to six years of Labor Party rule.This was an election fought,and won,almost wholly on domestic issues.But it is also widely known now that some of the most pressing demands     

Humanitarianism and Responsibility

This article serves as an introduction to the articles in this special issue of the Journal of Human Rights on humanitarianism and responsibility. We thread the work of our contributors, along with other key scholars, together into a broader discussion about the possibilities and limitations of humanitarian responsibility. We first elaborate several constitutive dimensions of responsibility as it has been understood in humanitarian discourse, with particular attention to the way in which it has been deployed to both limit and extend the humanitarian mandate. We then consider how the discourse of humanitarian responsibility constitutes a departure from, and a possible alternative to, the discourse of human rights as the reigning lingua franca in which ethical arguments are advanced at the global level. Ultimately, we contend that while renewed emphasis on responsibility is no panacea for the difficult political and ethical questions that bedevil international humanitarianism and should not displace the focus on human rights, the process of critically engaging with this term may present a valuable opportunity to rethink the pursuit of global justice as a situated and contingent engagement between the self and those distant and proximate others who are exposed to catastrophes, natural and man-made.