County Capital Research Articles

Migration for school choice: urbanisation and rural social stratification in China

ABSTRACT The peidu trend has become prevalent in rural China in the last decade, with many rural children seen studying in urban schools accompanied by their adult family members in county capitals. Essentially, peidu is a practice of migration for school choice. However, unlike in the international context, this school choice phenomenon in rural China is not driven by marketisation reform, but by a strategy of the local government to achieve urbanisation. Based on questionnaires and interviews, this study reveals that peidu is stratified by family socioeconomic status. As the rural middle and top strata migrate out of the countryside by choosing urban schools for their children, rural schools further deteriorate and children of the most disadvantaged families are left behind in deeper struggles. Similar to school choice effects in other countries, peidu reinforces the rural-urban educational disparities and calls into question the urbanisation strategy in China.

Reconversion of Agri-Food Production Systems and Deagrarianization in Spain: The Case of Cantabria

The term deagrarianization refers to the dwindling importance of agrarian activity as the economic and social basis of a rural area. Deagrarianization is reflected in the declining number of people engaged in agricultural production and a reduction in the relative importance of agricultural incomes. In addition to the economic consequences, deagrarianization also erodes the importance of the rural population in territorial organization and management and social functioning in rural areas. However, it is also true that the simultaneous shift towards the service economy in present-day rural economies and societies has not led to the disappearance of the rural space but, instead, given rise to new and multiple forms of rurality. The priority objective of the research on which this paper is based is to gain insight into the rural deagrarianization processes in Spain through the specific case of Cantabria. In order to analyze these dynamics, a series of basic indicators have been used. In order of importance, the main indicators employed were those related to the recent dynamics of agriculture, livestock, and forestry activity and the occupational structure of the population as regards its sectoral distribution, with particular attention being paid to the relative importance of livestock and forestry activities in relation to the direct exploitation of territorial resources. In the past, primary sector activities were very important in Cantabria, but their importance has steadily declined in both absolute and relative terms until reaching the current situation. In 2023, only 4579 people have been employed in agriculture out of a total of 214,574 active people (2.13%). It is very significant that between 2012 and 2021, the total number of employed people increased by 9.08% in Cantabria while the proportion of people employed in agricultural activities decreased by −12.90%. Farming is no longer the rural occupation par excellence; however, it continues to be important in most Cantabrian rural municipalities. The territorial distribution is even more revealing. Southern mountain municipalities can be considered the last stronghold of agricultural activity since, in most cases, more than a quarter of their active population is employed in this sector. These are also the rural areas with the highest levels of depopulation. In contrast, other activity sectors have also gained importance in rural areas, although not in the same way. In general, there is less service economy employment in inland rural municipalities, except in those that are county capitals offering services. Some rural, peri-urban, and coastal areas where tourism is more strongly developed also reach high values.

‘A place for training, not for competition’: negotiations of competition and agency among long‐distance runners in Kenya

AbstractKenyan long‐distance runners have for decades famously dominated international athletic competitions. Most of the aspiring runners live and train in the highlands of northwest Kenya, in Elgeyo Marakwet County, where they have access to competitive peer groups of budding athletes and an elaborate infrastructure of camps, coaches, and managers. The most promising and successful ones travel abroad to take part in international races, only to quickly return and continue training in the ‘county of champions’. Meanwhile, Kenya is undergoing a rapid transformation, envisioned by the government's development plan, which promises to transform it into a ‘globally competitive and prosperous country’. On the surface, competition is a self‐explanatory notion that drives the transnational sports industry and the state's development plan. However, ethnography of the county's capital, Iten, and its community of athletes reveals tensions: Kenyans take up, negotiate, appropriate, and challenge meanings of competition offered by the state and the sports industry on ecological, gendered, and moral grounds. Ethnography of ideologies of competition in Iten, conceptualized as moral, aesthetic, and gendered projects, complicates accounts of competition as a tool for global neoliberal governance. It also provides an alternative to analyses of African subjects’ agency in global circulation of capital, people, and ideas, namely analyses subsumed under signs of marginality, dependence, and subjection.

Measuring the Social, Economic and Environmental Resilience – A Case Study of the Hungarian Cities

Abstract Subject and purpose of the work: The COVID-19 and 2021-2022 energy crises shed new light on urban resilience. Cities face many more challenges and external shocks. This study aims to measure urban resilience. Materials and methods: For this purpose, a composite indicator was developed, composed of three (social, economic and environmental) resilience components called the Complex Resilience Index. It is applied to study Hungarian settlements in selected years (2000, 2006, 2012, 2018). Based on the results further analysis was conducted. The spatial structure of urban resilience is studied in two ways. First, the spatial differences between cities in the four selected years was examined using the relative range index, which is the difference between the highest and lowest city values relative to the average. Second, spatial patterns were mapped using one of the most commonly used indicators of spatial autocorrelation, the so-called Local Moran I indicator. The next step is to create five clusters to highlight the differences between groups in terms of population and per capita income in the selected years and to analyse the role of resilience in changing these indicators. Results: The identification of these groups provides important information for spatial planning and policy. Hungarian settlements were also ranked based on the Complex Resilience Index. The results show that urban resilience can be measured with a composite indicator (Complex Resilience Index) and that the social, economic and environmental resilience components provide further insights. In the Hungarian urban network, the most resilient elements are Budapest, some regional centres, some county capitals, the metropolitan area of Budapest, and the most developed small and medium-sized cities in the Transdanubian region. Conclusions: The difference in the Complex Resilience Index between cities increases over time, and as a result, the Local Moran I clusters become narrower. The rate of change in the specific income and its relative spread has the opposite sign to resilience. As resilience increases, the average change in income and its relative spread decreases, and as a result of that, stability increases.

Housing dynamics around Romania’s developing cities: the high demand for specific planning instruments in functional urban areas

ABSTRACT Metropolitan planning has been a dominant trend in spatial development for decades. In this context, Functional Urban Areas (FUAs) have emerged as a concept to illustrate the economic interdependencies between an urban core and its hinterland, being typically determined by commuting patterns or accessibility criteria. In Romania, FUAs were defined for the county capitals (40 cities) as areas where urban development projects could be financed from regional development funds. This paper analyzes the territorial dynamics in one of Romania's fastest-growing functional urban areas, Cluj-Napoca, using a comparative analysis of satellite images and selected indicators. The results demonstrate the spatial impact of economic development in the past 20 years, revealing expanding boundaries of artificial surface and housing units in FUAs. Unfortunately, the current fragmented territorial configuration is unable to manage the new functional relationships generated by real estate dynamics. Therefore, we support the need to introduce a normative territorial plan at the intercommunity level to correlate the spatial development vision between the main city and its fast-growing suburban areas. Such an instrument will not only support an efficient land-use management and enhanced living conditions, but it will also provide a framework to systematically integrate territorial investments around major cities.

Clustering of Small Territories Based on Axes of Inequality.

Background: In the present paper, we conduct a study before creating an e-cohort for the design of the sample. This e-cohort had to enable the effective representation of the province of Girona to facilitate its study according to the axes of inequality. Methods: The territory under study is divided by municipalities, considering these different axes. The study consists of a comparison of 14 clustering algorithms, together with 3 data sets of municipal information to detect the grouping that was the most consistent. Prior to carrying out the clustering, a variable selection process was performed to discard those that were not useful. The comparison was carried out following two axes: results and graphical representation. Results: The intra-cluster results were also analyzed to observe the coherence of the grouping. Finally, we study the probability of belonging to a cluster, such as the one containing the county capital. Conclusions: This clustering can be the basis for working with a sample that is significant and representative of the territory.

From Fish Port City to the County Capital: Idi City, 1974-2020

Idi city an administrative city thas has the main function as the adminisrative center of East Aceh Regency, this city is known as an area that has various historical heritages that are still preserved today. The purpose of thish research was to explain the development and process of ecological change in Idi City from a fish port city the district capital in 1974-2020. This research methods using a qualitative appproach. The data collection techniques used are documentation, literature review, and interviews. The results of the research showed that, City of Idi has always been known as the center of government during the dutch Colonial period, at which time Idi City had become the center of the discretion of East Aceh Regency. After the colonial period ended, Idi City began to change from the center of government into a fishing port city. Ecologically Idi revedeveloped after being designated as the capital of East Aceh Regency. After Idi Rayeuk was established as the district capital, Idi City became one of the most developed cities in East Aceh Regency. The development of the city of Idi can be seen from the housing and settlement center, office center, and trade center.

Koncentracija polena invazivnog pajasena (Ailanthus altissima) na području Velike severne ravnice Mađarske

In areas where the tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) appears and multiplies, the original vegetation degrades and transforms. The invasive tree of heaven is also of great importance in urban environments, where it causes building damage, static problems and endangers utilities. Ailanthus pollen concentration was measured during the 3-year period (2016-2018) at three county capitals (Szolnok, Debrecen, Nyíregyháza) of the Northern Great Plain, Hungary (JászNagykun-Szolnok county, Hajdú-Bihar county and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county), with a 7-day Hirst-type (Burkard) pollen trap. The highest total pollen count of A. altissima was measured in all three years in Nyíregyháza (1114 pollen m-3 in 2016; 788 pollen m-3 in 2017; 635 pollen m-3 in 2018), while the lowest values were measured in Szolnok in all three years (99 pollen m-3 in 2016; 78 pollen m-3 in 2017; 93 pollen m-3 in 2018). In Debrecen, the annual total pollen concentration varied between 109-127 pollen grains m-3 in the studied period. The extent of the prevalence of A. altissima can be deduced from its pollen concentrations. For this purpose, multi-year pollen data is displayed on a map in which areas characterized by different pollen concentrations are represented by colour codes. Pollen monitoring provides information on the size of A. altissima stands and provides a basis for proposals and plans for measures to control this invasive tree species and mitigate the damage caused by it.

640. Renta salarial, desigualdad y segregación residencial en las ciudades medianas de Cataluña

Este trabajo presenta los resultados de un proyecto de investigación sobre las condiciones socioeconómicas en las ciudades medianas de Cataluña. Estas ciudades, que caracterizan el sistema policéntrico catalán y también el europeo, han recibido menos atención que las ciudades grandes y globales. A partir de una estimación de la renta salarial media para cada una de las 41 ciudades seleccionadas, se analiza la relación con la desigualdad y la segregación residencial por ingresos y de la población inmigrante. Durante el periodo analizado (2001-2011), se observa una reducción de la renta salarial acompañada de una reducción de la desigualdad y de la segregación de las rentas altas y de un aumento de la segregación de las rentas bajas y de la población inmigrante. Esta tendencia general presenta variaciones importantes entre las nueve ciudades más grandes, capitales provinciales y capitales comarcales localizadas en la Región Metropolitana de Barcelona y las 22 que no son capitales comarcales, algunas localizadas en la RMB y otras fuera de ese ámbito.

Büntetőjogi joggyakorlat a Miskolci Királyi Törvényszéken 1944-ben

This essay focuses on criminal suits in the Court of Justice in Miskolc (county capital of Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen in Hungary) during World War II. It analyses the content and the number of different cases. The number of cases was about ‘slandering the Hungarian state and nation', dissemination of false news, and incitement to Hungarian armed forces. The study reveals that very few numbers of cases related to the Anti-Jewish laws in county Borsod, which was rather characteristic in the countryside out of Budapest. For example, in 1943 and 1944, only four trials based on race defilement.

Does Administrative Status Matter for Urban Growth? Evidence from Present and Former County Capitals in East Germany

AbstractPublic sector activities are often neglected in the economic approaches used to analyze the driving forces behind urban growth. The institutional status of a regional capital is a crucial aspect of public sector activities. This paper reports on a quasi‐natural experiment on county towns in East Germany. Since 1990, East German cities have demonstrated remarkable differences in population development. During this same period, many towns have lost their status as a county seat due to several administrative reforms. Using a difference‐in‐differences approach, we compare the annual population development of former county capitals to population change in towns that have successfully held on to their capital status throughout the observed period. The estimations show that losing county capital status has a statistically significant negative effect on annual changes in population. This effect continues to increase over time after the respective reforms have been implemented.

Online Services and Social Media Use in Romanian Cities: Can We See a Pattern?

E-government services are increasingly seen, even in Romania, as part of the public institution’s raison d’etre. More than half of Romanians use the internet on a regular basis, and most of the new connections to the internet are made from mobile devices (smartphones and tablets). Being able to interact with public administration from anywhere, and with ease, is something that people (especially young people) expect. This is particularly evident in big cities, where over 70% of people use the internet. This trend of demanding more and better services is intertwined with changes in media consumption patterns. More and more people use social media as one of the most important (if not the most important) source of information. Aside from that, social media sites offer something that the traditional media could not provide: easy two-way interaction and constant updating. The old media paradigm of one-to-many is blown away by hundreds of millions of users, connected through a bewilderingly complex network, many of them plugged-in round the clock. In this paper, we tried to gauge the importance that the Romanian County Capital Cities plus those of the 6 Bucharest Sectors give to e-government; for this we evaluated the online services offered to citizens as well as to companies and created an index of e-government development in Romanian cities. We also analyzed the Facebook accounts of these cities to assess the way in which social media is used on their official accounts. We compared these two datasets as well, to see if there is any correlation between the stage of e-government implementation and the proficiency of social media use.

Twenty-one days of isolation: A prospective observational cohort study of an Ebola-exposed hot zone community in Liberia

As West Africa continues to suffer from a deadly Ebola epidemic, the national health sectors struggle to minimize the damages and stop the spread of disease. A cohort of inhabitants of a small village and an Ebola hot zone in Sinoe County of Liberia was followed on a day-by-day basis to search for new cases and to minimize the spread of Ebola to the other community members or to other regions. Technical, clinical, and humanistic aspects of the response are discussed in this report. Of the 22 confirmed Ebola cases in Sinoe County since the beginning of outbreak (June 16, 2014), 7 cases were inhabitants of Polay Town, a small village 5.5 miles east of Greenville, the Sinoe County capital. After the last wave of outbreak at the beginning of December, enhanced response activity provided essential coordination and mobilized the resources to stop the epidemic. Despite unprotected contacts in crowded houses, no new cases were detected among the contact families, or in the surrounding houses or communities. Strong national mobilization in a decentralized but harmonized system at the community level has been of great value in controlling the epidemic in Liberia. The major interventions include epidemiological surveillance, public information dissemination, effective communication, case management, and infection control.

A retrospective study of patients with mandibular fractures treated at a Swedish University Hospital 1999-2008

Background:Fracture of the mandible is one of the most common fractures of the maxillofacial skeleton. However, the etiology, gender, and age distribution vary between different regions and countries, and the purpose of this study was to evaluate the current trend of patients with mandibular fractures at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, in Uppsala, Sweden.Aim:The aim of this retrospective study was to analyze patients with mandibular fractures treated in the University Hospital of Uppsala (the county capital of Uppland) Sweden during a 10-year period (1999-2008).Materials and Methods:This study was designed as a retrospective study of patients admitted to the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Uppsala University Hospital, Sweden. The location of fractures was evaluated clinically by the surgeon and on the X-rays. We classified the data according to gender, age, etiology, day of the week, month of the year, fracture site, and method of treatment of the fractures.Results:Records were collected from patient charts from 266 patients. One hundred eighty-seven patients (70%) with mandibular fractures were of male gender, and 132 patients (50%) were aged 16-30 years. Interpersonal violence constituted the most common etiological factor for mandibular fractures (24%), followed by falls (23%). Forty-nine percentages of the patients were treated surgically, and 51% were treated conservatively. There was an increase of the annual incidence of fractures toward the end of the period, even though not statistically significant.Conclusions:Mandibular fractures occurred primarily among younger men between 16- and 30-year-old. Condyle fractures were the most common fracture site and 50% of the patients required surgery. Summer months and weekends were the most common time of mandibular fractures.

The State of Ambiguity of the Communist Civic Center in Three Romanian Secondary Cities

The article proposes a revaluation of a type of public space constituted in communist Romania. New county capitals’ central squares, constituted between 1965 and 1989, are rightfully considered as a fertile source for architectural icons of the period, as well as embodiments of totalitarian power. Yet, the present research, based on case studies, brings evidence that they not only constituted quite diverse answers to a homogenizing ambition, but also that political tension around these civic centers ended up providing often disarticulated results. Such results testify today more convincingly about the weaknesses of the communist system than about its aims to provide unity samples of leadership for people.

Cohort Profile: The Northern Swedish Cohort

The Northern Swedish Cohort was started by Anne Hammarstrom [principal investigator (PI)] in collaboration with Urban Janlert and other researchers within the field of social medicine (Ragnar Berfenstam, Finn Diderichsen, Tores Theorell, Lars H Gustafsson, Claes Sundelin, Gustav Jonsson). At that time, the PI was a newly qualified registered medical doctor and was searching for a PhD project. An older colleague advised us to start a longitudinal study, which could be the database for our future research. The background to the study was the relatively high unemployment rate among young people in Sweden at the beginning of the 1980s. Whereas some studies were available about the health consequences of unemployment in the adult population, there was a lack of research about possible health consequences of youth unemployment. Thus, we decided to perform a longitudinal study of a cohort of school-leavers. The chosen setting was Northern Sweden, as the highest levels of both youth and adult unemployment were found in that part of Sweden. In fact, unemployment had been endemic in this part of Sweden for a long time. The county capital of Norrbotten, Lulea, was chosen as this is a typical middle-sized, industrial town, which is comparable to Sweden as a whole with regard to important socio-demographic background data such as labour market structure, percentage of foreign born, housing, divorce rate and socio-economic status. Initially, we planned to follow up the cohort after 2 and 5 years. However, after the first 5 years, the study had attracted the interest of the scientific community and of policymakers, and thus there was a request for new follow-ups.

Strategic Water Resources Master Planning Guides the Implementation of Clayton County's Capital Improvement Program

Strategic Water Resources Master Planning Guides the Implementation of Clayton County's Capital Improvement ProgramSince 1960, the Clayton County Water Authority (CCWA) has strived to be a “best-in-class” utility and has regularly developed ten-year master plans to identify and manage infrastructure needs and regulatory challenges. These master planning efforts have helped CCWA meet the community's needs while maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction at a reasonable cost to its customers....Author(s)Terry MoyRick BrownlowSourceProceedings of the Water Environment FederationSubjectSession 92: A Capital Idea: CIP Planning and ImplementationDocument typeConference PaperPublisherWater Environment FederationPrint publication date Jan, 2011ISSN1938-6478SICI1938-6478(20110101)2011:9L.6112;1-DOI10.2175/193864711802766416Volume / Issue2011 / 9Content sourceWEFTECFirst / last page(s)6112 - 6126Copyright2011Word count340

Urbanisation from Below: The Growth of Towns in Jiangsu, China

Urbanisation in China during the Maoist period was largely a consequence of centralised planning and Soviet-type industrialisation dominated by the growth of cities. The towns lost their commercial function and stagnated. Since the reforms of 1978, the growth of towns has emerged as a new force of Chinese urbanisation. This case study of the growth of towns in Jiangsu province shows that enterprises in the towns have attracted a large number of daily commuters and some migrants, resulting in a more diversified pattern of population composition in the towns. The population of the towns is growing at a faster rate than the city population. Manufacturing dominates the employment structure of the designated towns, including county capitals, as well as the rural market towns. The central government of China has not played any active role in the growth of towns. If the towns and town enterprises are allowed to grow for an extended period of time, they may lead to the emergence of a more powerful track of 'urbanisation from below' to accompany the established track of 'urbanisation from above'.

The Role of Towns in Chinese Regional Development: The Case of Guangdong Province

Small towns in China have recently emerged as the most dynamic element of national development and urbanization in the post-reform era. Two types of towns in China's southern province of Guangdong are quantitatively analyzed to reveal their functional features. The county capitals and market towns are found to be different in the forms of enterprise ownership, employment structure, educational and health facilities, urban infrastructure, and in the absorption of surplus rural labor. Manufacturing dominates the employment of both types of towns, transforming them from traditional marketing centers to contemporary industrial centers. Policies should be designed to facilitate the growth of the collectively owned town industries to avoid competition with the state-owned industries.

Development of Towns in China: A Case Study of Guangdong Province

This article examines the growth functions and population changes of Chinas towns in recent years using Guangdong Province as a case study. We examine the relationship between towns and the nations rural economic growth with emphasis on the roles of towns in rural population migration. To gain a better understanding of how the town economy functions we compare the employment structure in two distinct types of towns: county capitals and market towns. The major data source is a comprehensive survey of towns conducted in 1985 by the authorities of Guangdong for their internal use. (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA) (EXCERPT)