Urban Spheres Research Articles

The Improved Cellular Automata and Its Application in Delineation of Urban Spheres of Influence

The issue of spatial diffusion and pattern division of traditional cellular automata (CA) has drawn widespread attention and generated extensive work by scholars. However, there are many deficiencies in traditional configurations of CA neighborhoods, which reduce simulation accuracy. The effect of improved methods of traditional configurations of CA neighborhoods is not obvious, and its interoperability is not strong. Therefore, this paper firstly puts forward the concept of the circular neighborhood of CA constrained by the space metric method based on map algebra, and compares the spatial division pattern and anisotropy of different types of neighborhoods in detail. Then, the CA’s weighted diffusion model is discussed to delineate urban spheres of influence in Henan Province. Finally, Weibo data is used to justify a reasonable delineation of urban spheres of influence and can correctly reflect the state of regional development, further proving that improved cellular automata in algorithms and applications have great significance.

Carl Nielsen and the Idea of Modernism (review)

MODERNISM(S) Carl Nielsen and the Idea of Modernism. By Daniel M. Grimley. Wood - bridge, U.K.: Boydell Press, 2010. [xix, 314 p. ISBN 9781843835813. $90.] Music examples, illustrations, appendix, bibliography, index. A recurrent theme in the burgeoning new Carl Nielsen scholarship is the positioning of research on and reassessment of this composer to coincide with larger reassessments of twentieth-century historiography. The pattern itself is hardly unique, as recent work on Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and other earlyand mid-twentieth-century composers demonstrates. At stake is establishing more complete picture of how in the Western classical tradition developed during those pivotal years-one that moves beyond, as David Fanning writes in his Nielsen entry in Grove Music Online, a view of history culminating in the Second Viennese School and the postwar avant garde (accessed 3 August 2011). It would be inaccurate, however, to label Daniel M. Grimley's new volume on Nielsen (or Fanning's words for that matter) as petty revisionism that seeks to exalt one composer the posthumous expense of others. Rather, Grimley's Carl Nielsen and the Idea of Modernism argues that Nielsen, too long considered peripheral artist both personally and geographically, belongs instead at the forefront of historical and analytical accounts of twentieth-century music (p. ix). What follows is an impressive study that convincingly presents Nielsen as the practitioner of distinctly personal brand of musical modernism-one that intertwines deep connection to his musical and national heritage with full awareness of the social issues of his time and place (both Denmark and Europe large). Grimley's cultural and musical analyses of Nielsen's go long way toward strengthening the notion of him as bold and dynamic participant within the broader twentiethcentury scene. Taking into account available scholarship and primary sources, they further situate Nielsen as composer with fresh and unique contributions to the development of harmony, counterpoint, and large-scale form. For these reasons, Carl Nielsen and the Idea of Modernism promises to be an important new text not only for studies on Nielsen, but also as landmark in our ongoing study of how developed during the twentieth century. Grimley begins by taking up the delicate task of establishing parameters for the modernism, both as it is widely understood with regard to twentieth-century and as he intends to apply it to Nielsen. From the start, and even in his title, Grimley is understandably careful to avoid dubbing Nielsen without qualification. He admits that Nielsen likely would have resisted the term to describe himself and his (p. xii). Grimley is correct here, and he could have invoked the occasion when Bartok asked Nielsen if he thought that one of the former's compositions (the Second String Quartet) was sufficiently modern; Nielsen responded that he did not think modernity sufficient measure of quality. However, Grimley's definition of modernism (or modernist) for Nielsen does not depend upon the term's widely-recognized associations. These often amount to, in the author's words, a deceptive veneer of innovation, progressiveness and aesthetic autonomy (p. 6). Rather, Grimley proposes brand of modernism for Nielsen that, borrowing from the models of Fredric Jameson and the Danish biographer Jorgen Jensen, casts the composer as double man whose character and musical outlook incorporates multiple dichotomies. Among these are tradition versus innovation, rural versus urban spheres of life, and musical simplicity versus musical complexity. Pro - ceeding from these tensions, Grimley identifies Nielsen as singular kind of modernist. He claims that the music's modernist quality . . . often lies more in its tone of voice or mode of utterance as much as in the perceived progressiveness (or not) of its musical materials (p. …

Jazz Age Barcelona (review)

Reviewed by: Jazz Age Barcelona M. Pilar Asensio-Manrique Davidson, Robert A. Jazz Age Barcelona. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2009. Pp. 214. ISBN 978-1-4426-1043-9. Jazz Age Barcelona introduces vital aspects of the Catalan capital during a period marked by the after effects of the First World War until the beginning of the Spanish Second Republic. Written with a captivating style, the reader becomes the inquisitive visitor of spaces that, though no longer in existence, significantly impacted the social fabric of the city. Davidson demonstrates the importance and aesthetic influence of jazz as an international phenomenon in Barcelona—the most cosmopolitan city of the Iberian Peninsula. In this vivacious cultural hub, diverse aggregates of displaced Europeans affected by the war intermingled with the locals and sought freedom, flamboyance, and solace; speculators also made easy money. Drawing on detailed analyses of newspaper articles, critical essays, novels, and photographs, the author claims that jazz played an important role in defining urban spaces: jazz music was revered by a variety of social classes—especially the bourgeoisie—and jazz cultural critique served as a way to provide intellectual and political commentary specific to the Catalan milieu. Davidson divides his analysis into six compelling chapters, which transport us through the "spatial practice" of the Jazz Age. Central to his work are scenes from nightclubs, cocktail hours in hotels, the revue of the music halls, cabarets, brothels, and drug use, which help to illustrate the interplay between writing and images of a forgotten era. Surprisingly, such revelry occurred during Primo de Rivera's dictatorship under which the modernization of the country, the oppression of regional cultures, and state censorship were implemented. The first chapter, "Barcelona Boom Town," describes the city in its international context, comparable to Paris or Berlin. While the major European centers fought the war, Barcelona took advantage of its neutrality and experienced a rapid growth and expansion in the "Roaring Twenties" period that culminated with the International Exhibition in 1929. The second chapter focuses on a bold, eclectic paper, El Escándalo, which pierces "where others cannot or dare not tread," and also on a novel, Sangre en Atarazanas, by Francesc Madrid, one of El Escándalo's editors. Sangre is a collection of chronicles that depict the unrestrained nightlife in the red-light district. Both publications scandalously report on the most sordid streets and immoral places at a time of great censorship and repression—a time when everyone was at risk for what they did or said. "The Spatial Aesthetics of Jazz Rhythm," the third chapter, connects the frenzied, syncopated beat of the American-born music to the rapid transformation of urban locales and activities as seen by the Catalan art critic and cultural commentator, Sebastià Gasch. New urban spheres of musical and visual artistic expression synchronously enmeshed to become part of the cosmopolitan metropolis. Novel innovation included the following: the advent of the cinema industry; symmetrical choreography from the revues; ad-lib jazz music; the physical transformation of the city—magnificent skyscrapers, telephones, subway, and street advertising; and the pervasiveness [End Page 758] of cubism and surrealism. The fourth chapter, "Vantage Point: Barcelona's Mirador," is devoted to the study of a literary and artistic weekly paper informed both by Barcelona's international projection after the Exhibition of 1929 and its nationalistic impulse with the end of the dictatorship. Interestingly, Mirador is not defined only as a "European" cultural journal, but also as a paper with a political agenda of a Catalan nationhood that would not receive the expected support during the Spanish Second Republic. "An Age in Pictures: Imatges (1930)" constitutes the fifth chapter, and includes many original photographs. Imatges was a graphic journal that delved into a culturally innovative age, when the visual perception of the city had been enhanced by the international exposition, technological advances, and the intensity of daily life. The final chapter, "The Colour of a Cocktail: J. M. de Sagarra's Aperitiu and Vida Privada," studies the culmination of the Age. This chapter analyzes a series of articles around the aperitif hour as the embodiment of modernity, and a recognized Catalan novel by the same author. The city is recreated in...

The urban geography of advanced producer service transaction links in Belgium

This paper aims to contribute to the literature on the geography of external relations of cities. Our overall purpose thereby is to tease out some of the basic principles of alternative approaches to the study of the spatiality of urban systems in the context of economic globalization. To this end, we present an empirical analysis of the urban geography of producer service procurement by 118 of the 300 largest companies in Belgium. The main features of this urban geography of service procurement include (i) the dominance of Brussels as a service city ; (ii) the existence of overlapping urban spheres of influence ; and (iii) the presence of transaction links with foreign cities. The results of our analysis also suggest that, in addition to space- and quality-related decision factors, the intra-firm distribution of decision-making power in multinational firms equally influences the spatiality of transaction links. The relevance of these results is discussed in the context of theorizations of urban systems.

Research on urban spheres of influence based on improved field model in central China

Due to unique advantages in clearly understanding the interrelationship between city and its hinterland, as well as city and city, the study of urban spheres of influence is becoming highlight in regional research. This paper improves traditional field model from two aspects: the composite indicator and regional accessibility, in order to delineate urban spheres of influence more reasonably. Taking three years of central China as a case study, this paper investigates dynamic evolution of urban spheres of influence. Focusing on the evolution of spatial pattern, we abstract five types and its corresponding three stages theoretically. Finally, recommendation of development has been made for each stage. This study undertakes certain exploration in the study of urban spheres of influence from the perspective of theory and practice, hoping to provide some references for the study in this field and other regional research.

Field modeling method for identifying urban sphere of influence: A case study on Central China

With rapid development of urbanization and regional interaction and interdependence, regional urban agglomeration planning becomes more and more important in China, in order to promote integrated development of various cities with close interrelationship. However, it is still arguable academically on how to define the boundary or which cities to be included for the urban agglomeration of a region. This paper aims to shed lights on how to identify urban spheres of influence scientifically by introducing field modeling method and by practicing a case study on 168 cities in Central China. In our field modeling method, the influence intensities of cities were measured by a comprehensive index and urban spheres of influence were represented spatially by field intensity. Then, their classification and spatial distribution characteristics of study area in 2007 were identified and explored by using GIS and statistical methods. The result showed that: 1) Wuhan is the absolute dominant city in Central China; 2) the provincial capital cities dominate their own provinces and there are no other lower grade agglomeration centers; and 3) the basic types of organization form of urban sphere of influence are single-polar type, agglomeration type, close-related group type and loose-related group type.

Casting Out Demons: The Native Anthropologist and Healing in the Homeland

This article addresses academic and social costs experienced by anthropologists studying their own ethnic group. It explores how one “native” anthropologist navigates her roles as ethnographer and insider while researching curanderismo, a religiously inflected form of ethnomedicine within increasingly secular and commercialized Mexican American urban spheres. Is academic credibility weakened because the anthropologist shares the cultural history of her/his informants? When your community entrusts you with their spiritual, emotional and social woes, do they see you as ethnographer, insider, or both? To be privy to the ritual knowledge and practices of healers and the individual struggles of clients to find respite from pain is a great responsibility as curanderismo has often been pathologized by anthropology as a “primitive” tradition used only by the ignorant and backward. Given this history, the native anthropologist must find a way to manage allegiance to her cultural as well as academic community. I suggest that doing “native” research is its own form of “exorcism,” casting out demons in a field that often silences native voices and holds native anthropology in lower esteem.

Intelligent skin: Real virtual

What will it feel like to live in a city, where houses court each other in springtime? The 'intelligent-skin' project investigates the potential of media-façades in terms of corporate communication: what does it mean to build houses out of bricks of mediality? What does it imply to say that communication literally takes place? The virtualization of housing through large sized media skins will introduce medial milieus into our urban spheres to come – they might seize to function as add-ons and instead become infrastructure of our very surrounds just like street lightening, many-storey buildings or large sized rear windows have come to be. And like any of these, media façades will introduce new social habits; they will stimulate us to integrate new ways of engaging with our surrounds into every day live.

His Enemy Be Made His Footstool.Visionary Up- rising on an Urban Scene – a Case from Mid-Nineteenth Century Norway

The article focuses on a series of events in the little town Fredrikstad in south-eastern Norway in the year 1852. A small group of proto-methodists, who later on were influenced by Mormonism and emigrated to Utah, made serious efforts to dominate the public urban spheres: the church, the court room, the harbour and the streets. Their actions were, partly, inspired and legitimized by religious visions and hallucinations but their message included both religious and social reformation. They were charged with accusations of blasphemy, crimen laesae majestatis, disturbing public order and insulting His Majesty's servants, and they eventually ended up with legal sentences. One of the rebels, the shipmaster Tobias Jacobsen, was also accused of being insane and made the object of a thorough psychiatric investigation.The author presents four main points of interpretation of these events: 1) The events can be analyzed in terms of "systems in conflict", that is as a confrontation between radically different cultural values and symbols, 2) The conflict had rhetorical implications for both groups of participants: the group in revolt and the established public authority, 3) The rhetorical implications include different conceptions of time and history, and 4) As a contribution to the study of cultural history, a close examination of the visionar-ies' rebellious narratives may show the close interaction between speech and action, event and narrative.

Linking separate worlds: urban migrants and rural lives in Peru

Karsten Paerregaard, Oxford: Berg, 1997.Reviewer: Susan VincentMount Allison UniversityPaerregaard begins his book by invoking the long-standing image of Peru as two separate worlds, one modern, official, urban, Spanish-speaking and capitalist, while the other is traditional, informal, rural, Quechua-speaking and peasant. While early treatments largely left the connections between the two worlds unanalyzed, over the past two decades these connections have been made the subject of anthropological research. Paerregaard contributes to this focus on connections by writing about migrants as the manifestation of the links between the worlds.This is a wide-ranging book, replete with fascinating detail about the lives of the villagers of Tapay in the southern Peruvian highlands and of Tapeno migrants to Arequipa and Lima. The strength of the book lies in the way disparate aspects from sports to religion are shown to be linked together. Paerregaard refuses to portray an easy homogeneous picture of Tapeno society and culture. Instead he weaves polyvalent themes of history, ethnicity and folklore, religion, kinship, livelihood and politics around the movements of migrants to present the complexity of Tapeno identity. This is an ethnographic rather than a theoretical book: Paerregaard's framework is to present a multitude of perspectives on Tapeno identity, rejecting the functionalist representation of homogeneity of much past anthropological writing.The major focus of the book relates to ethnicity and identity which Paerregaard demonstrates to be complex and dynamic. For example, a discussion of the impact of the immigration of a family of Spanish-speaking mestizos in the 19th century, a priest and his brother and sister-in-law, reflects a combination of history, migration, kinship, politics and economics. While the priest's children (!) were identified as local poeple (runa) since he could not acknowledge paternity, his brother's children continued to be considered mestizo and formed the local elite. This domination ended when return runa migrants, with a command of Spanish as well as of political and economic process, were able to displace the mestizo family. Paerregaard then goes on to demonstrate that the current state of ethnic identity is differently formulated from the inherited class/cultural/linguistic division of the past. Thus, in Chapter 8, Paerregaard presents a discussion of ritual in both rural and urban spheres, demonstrating the dynamic and contextual hybrid that comprises folk identity.Paerregaard's focus on migration allows for a rich analysis of the interplay between ideas deriving from rural and urban worlds. For example, in Chapter 7, a discussion of Catholicism and of conversion and reconversion to different Protestant sects in Tapay is set against a background of politics and migration. The necessary abstinence from drinking, music and dancing that Protestantism entails in Tapay leads to social isolation for converts, making it difficult to participate in rural social life. Thus, Paerregaard argues that Protestantism is linked to migrants, whose image of being Tapeno is less invested in close reciprocal social ties than non-migrants. Still, many lapse back into Catholicism as they attempt to adjust to a workable identity in the context of peasant life.Much of the literature on rural-urban migration in Peru takes the economy as a central focus. While Paerregaard's concentration on identity overshadows economic processes, livelihood activities are a part of identity. …

Change and Continuity in the Irish Urban System, 1966-81

The Irish urban system has evolved over time. Urban centres have moved up and down the urban hierarchy, and the delineation of urban spheres of influence for the top levels of the urban hierarchy in 1966, 1971 and 1981 indicates that hinterlands have also changed. New centres in the upper tiers of the hierarchy developed in areas where the hinterlands of the older centres in that tier had previously converged. The analysis of such spheres of influences and urban attraction over time can be used as an important aid for a variety of types of government planning.

A Study on the Effectively of Huff's Model for the Estimation of Urban Spheres of Influence

A Study on the Effectively of Huff's Model for the Estimation of Urban Spheres of Influence

A New Look at Working-Class Formation: Reflections on the Historical Perspective

Historians long have debated the relationship of history to the arts as well as to science. For some, language itself?the well-crafted narrative of a unique event?becomes the discipline's tie to the fine arts. Others emphasize patterns and recurring trends and draw explicitly on social scientific models to explicate the historical experience. History is not a pure science to be sure; events of the past cannot be duplicated in a laboratory and then defined and categorized according to agreed upon and replicable procedures. But it is also true that his torians implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) utilize theoretical postulates and relationships to develop their narrative. In some instances, the assumptions be hind the postulates become widely shared and directly influence both the choice and the interpretation of the raw data. In these cases, a dominant per spective?an orthodoxy?on a particular topic is formed. This occurred with the theme of European industrial development. Perhaps Marx shaped the interpretation when he noted that the lesser de veloped nations behold their own future in the fate of the more advanced countries. Subsequent generations of empirical historians, as well as those of more theoretical bent, began their work by assuming that there was one of industrial development (based on the English experience) and, incidentally, one process of working-class formation (proletarianization). But recently this model has been punctured and partly overturned, as historians now empha size regional patterns in the exceedingly complex and varied process of indus trial advance.1 Thus, it seems appropriate at this stage of reformulation to take stock of several of the older notions that seem to be still intact and offer an al ternative perspective on them as well. The theme of working-class formation is a vital one and an integral part of the broader discussion of social changes accompanying industrial growth. Analysis of the creation of an industrial work force has rested upon an analytic differentiation between rural and urban spheres as well as between agrarian and industrial activities. Historians have acknowledged that rural areas con tribute labor to industrial settings; they implicitly correlate labor efficiency and adaptability for industrial pursuits with social and psychological distance from the countryside. This correlation has become one important ingredient in

Cardinal Place Geometry

Cardinal Place Geometry

Interdependence in Urban Systems and Its Application to Political Reorganization

Formal political subdivision of space and areal functional organization rarely coincide. Recent political redistricting in England has recognized this asymmetry and reorganized political units in terms of city regions. A similar approach to that employed in studies preceeding the English legislation is applied to a study area in the United States and a similar methodology is employed. The datasets used to delineate urban spheres of influence and inter-settlement relationships include telephone flows, banking relations and newspaper circulation. The techniques of analysis include those of cartography, graph theoretic techniques and principal component analysis. The lack of correspondence between the functional and formal political spatial organization is demonstrated.

SYMPOSIUM: DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW TRANSPORTATION NETWORKS AND LOCAL CITIES

The expansion of the new transportation networks, including supper-express railroads, expressways, and the reconstruction of highways, have great influence on the competitive relations between cities. Particularly, local cities are facing urban remodeling and improved services for their hinterlands by constructing these networks. The purpose of this symposium was to make clear through studying the impact which results from the new networks, the changes in urban functions and urban spheres. The reporters were as follows: 1. FUTAGAMI, Hiromu and JITSU, Kiyotaka: Changes in urban functions along Hokuriku Expressway. 2. KITAGAWA, Kenji: Changes in urban functions along Chugoku Expressway. 3. YOKOYAMA, Shoichi and KAGAWA, Katsutoshi: Competitive relations between cities—a case of the Western Shikoku. 4. DOI, Shigehiko: Changes in transportation networks and urban system in Shikoku. 5. KONNO, Shuhei: Changes in marine transportation and port city. Through considering the reports, comments, and discussions, the organizers recognized that this symposium achieved quite good results. The following point, however, remains to be studeid: positive approach to analysis of the mechanism of influence by the new networks.

The delineation of urban spheres of influence: Evaluation of an interaction model

Berry B. J. L. and Lamb R. F. (1974) The delineation of urban spheres of influence: Evaluation of an interaction model, Reg. Studies 8, 185–190. Data on newspaper market circulation in the United S...

The delineation of a national system of planning regions on the basis of urban spheres of influence

Huff D. L. (1973) The delineation of a national system of planning regions on the basis of urban spheres of influence. Reg. Studies 7, 323–329. Efforts to provide and coordinate geographically a delivery system for various federal programmes have been severely restricted because of the vast number of political artifacts that characterize the organization of American space. Strong feelings of territoriality associated with these political units have made the achievement of programmes extremely difficult. Competition among political units has been much more characteristic than cooperation. Furthermore, this fragmentation has resulted in duplication, inefficiencies, and higher costs. This paper advances a method of consolidating political units geographically in an effort to alleviate such problems. A distinguishing feature of the method is that it utilizes a spatial model and companion computer programme rather than subjective or empirical procedures. The regions that are delineated represent the spheres of...

A Stochastic Model of the Geometric Patterns of Urban Settlements and Urban Spheres of Influence: A Clumping Model

A Stochastic Model of the Geometric Patterns of Urban Settlements and Urban Spheres of Influence: A Clumping Model

Central Place Studies: A Bibliography of Theory and Applications

Abstract : Contents: Statements of central place theory Studies of systems of central places Studies of urban spheres of influence and the trade areas of cities Ideas of areal functional organization Fairs and markets The internal business structure of the city On town-country relations, rural neighborhoods and communities Medical service areas Planned shopping centers On measuring retail trade areas and urban domin ance fields; store location research Relations of business structure and consumer shopping and travel habits Central place theory as location theory Ecological theory and central places Planning concepts, community organization, and business centers Business structure and the theory of retailing Urban business structure and urban land use theory