Untangling Housing Cost and Transportation Interactions: The Location Affordability Index Model—Version 2 (LAIM2)

Abstract

It is now accepted that to have an understanding of housing affordability one must consider not only housing costs, but also the transportation costs associated with that household location. To make this information readily accessible to the public, the United States government created an Internet resource, the Location Affordability Portal – Version 2 (www.locationaffordability.info), to provide housing and transportation costs for every neighborhood in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Although the statistical model at the heart of this resource was designed for predictive accuracy, its design and parameter estimates can provide additional insights into the interaction of housing cost and transportation choices (and thus its cost). This study describes the development and explores the policy implications (and limitations) of this structural equations model, the Location Affordability Index Model – Version 2 (LAIM2).     

Enhancing Precision and Clarity in the Study of Policy Narratives: An Analysis of Climate and Air Issues in Delhi,India

The study of policy narratives is challenged by inconsistencies and a need for more precise definitions and measurements. The goals of this article are to build precision and clarity in the study of policy narratives by developing a network‐based approach—the ego‐alter dyad—for coding characters and their interactions around a policy issue and then to illustrate this approach in the analysis of air and climate issues in Delhi, India. The empirical results show that (1) the same actors are often heroes and villains, (2) heroes and villains are associated with different actions but with similar victims or beneficiaries, (3) narrators differ in their propensity to tell hero‐heavy or villain‐heavy policy narratives, and (4) the proportion of hero‐heavy or villain‐heavy policy narratives changes over time and differs across subtopics. The article concludes with a research agenda for further theoretical and methodological advancement in studying policy narratives.     

Trade and Industrial Policy as Levers for Sustainable Energy Technology Adoption? Experiences from Urban Latin America

Debates abound regarding the link between trade and industrial policy and the adoption of sustainable energy technologies in developing countries. Some purport that open trade regimes support technology diffusion, while others indicate that more interventionist regimes are more conducive. This paper uses empirical evidence from Mexico City and São Paulo to argue that sustainable energy technology uptake can be more prevalent in settings with partially open trade policy regimes. These regimes have afforded countries more opportunities to develop local capabilities, which, in turn, has had knock‐on effects on sustainable energy technology uptake. Specifically, having more local technology sources (equipment, expertise) brought quicker access to these technologies, created more perceptions of technology “ownership,” fostered more effective mobilization, and helped create well‐established standards, which in turn contributed positively to sustainable energy technology uptake, while taxes and tariffs were less influential.     

Environmental Harm or Natural Hazard? Problem Identification and Adaptation in U.S. Municipal Climate Action Plans

A number of cities in the United States have devised climate action plans (CAPs) to mitigate the effects of climate change. However, few of these plans address strategies to adapt to the long term effects of climate change that will occur in the near and distant future. The research presented in this article examines why cities choose to embed adaptation provisions in their CAPs. Our study codes the content of CAPs for all cities (N = 98) in the United States with populations greater than 50,000. We find cities that frame problems associated with climate change in the language of hazards are more likely to include adaptation strategies in their CAPs than cities that focus on other types of environmental harm. Our findings suggest that more robust efforts to plan for climate change will require the activation of communities of interest beyond those that have been instrumental in setting the current climate agenda.     

Metropolitan Change and Uneven Distribution of Urban Sub‐Centres in Mexico City, 1989–2009

The spatial expression of urban centrality in big cities is generally associated with several urban nodes. The major purpose of this article is to identify the spatial pattern of urban sub‐centres in Mexico City during the period 1989–2009 and how changes in urban centrality have given way to a more polycentric urban structure. A double‐threshold method was used for comparing the polycentric structure of a single city over time examining the variables of number of jobs and tertiary employment density; this approach for identifying employment centres is proven in a megacity of a developing country.     

Prayer house or cultural centre? Restoring a mosque in post-socialist Armenia

ABSTRACT

Post-socialist urban dynamics in the Caucasus have been characterized by uneven processes of rebuilding and reclaiming of sacred spaces. Exploring re-emerging Shia Muslim lifestyles in post-conflict Armenia around Yerevan's Blue Mosque, I examine how a religious place is perceived and used in everyday life. Built at the end of the eighteenth century in a multi-religious environment, today the Blue Mosque is associated with the political body symbolizing the recent Iranian–Armenian friendship and with Iran's soft-power policy in the Caucasus. The ethnographic research reveals that the mosque complex is not an isolated sacred site emphasizing differences between Iranian migrants and Armenian locals, worshippers, and non-worshippers, but a spatial expression of the coming together of groups from different backgrounds and of the vernacular hybridity that existed in Yerevan in the past. In spite of the invisibility and the silence of the Blue Mosque's past from the point of view of government officials, the physical restoration of the mosque is triggering unembodied memories of people in conscious and unconscious reconstructions of the multi-religious past. The question, is to what extent does the Blue Mosque contribute to a visible rediversification of religious and ethnic life in Armenia?     

统筹城乡发展 构建和谐社会

对于农业人口占大多数而农村经济又相对滞后的地区来说,发展的重点在农村,难点也在农村,广西平果县在发展县域经济中,统筹城乡发展,为构建和谐社会积累了宝贵经验。     

Urban citizenship of rural migrants in reform-era China

One paradoxical reality of today's China is that urban citizenship does not necessarily go to those who have already moved to the city. Rural migrants are now allowed to work in cities but are deprived of a wide range of entitlements. Taking Shanghai, the most populous city in the world's most populous country, as a case study, this article establishes significant empirical content to elucidate how the notion of urban citizenship is interpreted in China, what criteria are applied for granting the urban citizenship, to what extent the entitlements of migrants in cities are comparable to those of the bona fide urban residents, and whether the lack of urban citizenship influences migrants' integration into host cities. Empirical investigation shows that granting of the urban hukou (household registration) is based largely on migrants' contribution to, rather than simply on their presence in, the host city. In the context of reform-era China, urban citizenship is used by city government not only to exclude some members of society from accessing urban welfare but also to make the urban economy more competitive by grabbing capital and human resources possessed by migrants.     

The Evolution of the Theoretical Foundations of Punctuated Equilibrium Theory in Public Policy

Punctuated equilibrium theory in public policy replicated from biological punctuated equilibrium theory has concluded that public policies alternate between stasis and punctuation. However, recent research on Pacific Northwest forest policy, U.S. state tobacco policy, and U.S federal auto efficiency policy have found no punctuations despite an attempt to do so. What is the efficacy of using biological punctuated equilibrium theory to also explain punctuated equilibrium in public policy? Significant differences exist between biological and public policy punctuated equilibrium theory including time frames for change, what constitutes outside disturbances of equilibrium, venues of punctuated equilibrium, levels of analysis for change, and patterns of change. Most policy research on punctuation has focused on the “tone” of media coverage related to change. Some recent studies concluding no punctuation occurred have focused on government action or inaction. Proving strong inference in scientific research requires a clear and viable syllogism linked to appropriate methodology. Both of these crucial elements are now in question in punctuated equilibrium research in public policy.     

我国“城管”问题分析与对策探究

随着改革开放的不断推进、社会结构的转变以及社会利益关系的调整,城市管理中出现很多问题和冲突,造成一些不良的社会影响。这些不良的社会影响严重妨碍我国社会主义现代化建设的持续、健康发展,因此构建统一指挥、功能齐全、反应灵敏、运行高效的城市管理体制尤为重要。