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Economic Geography
Contents Articles Regional Institutional Convergence? Reflections from the Baltimore Waterfront
Does Place Still Matter? Accounting for Income Variation Across American Indian Tribal Areas Social Capital, Collective Action, and Adaptation to Climate Change
Moving Beyond Postdevelopment: Facilitating Indigenous Alternatives for "Development" Producing and Consuming Chemicals: The Moral Economy of the American Lawn Book Reviews Governance of Europe's City Regions: Planning, Policy and Politics, by
Tassilo Herrschel and Peter Newman Private Firms and Public Water: Realising Social and Environmental Objectives in Developing Countries,
Edited by Nick Johnstone and Libby Wood Abstracts Regional Institutional Convergence? Reflections from the Baltimore Waterfront Abstract: This article discusses the process of institutional change across regions in response to structural economic, social, political, and technological change. It accepts as a starting point the assertion that institutional differences between regions account, at least in part, for differences in regional development outcomes. This assertion raises the question of whether institutions in different locales will converge or diverge over time. The article explores this question through a case study of institutional changes associated with the process of containerization at the Port of Baltimore. Despite considerable pressure for convergent change in various formal institutions, specifically with respect to port pricing and terminal leasing policies, important elements of a common-user approach to the operation of the port were maintained. This particular trajectory of institutional change is reflective of both the local political economy and the role of public officials in deliberating over formal institutional choices in the face of considerable uncertainty. The evidence supports a notion of institutional transformation in which regional institutional diversity, albeit in new forms, is maintained. Key words: institutions, institutional change, regional development, port authorities, containerization.  TopDoes Place Still Matter? Accounting for Income Variation Across American Indian Tribal Areas Abstract: Persistent poverty is frequently identified as a key problem on American Indian tribal lands in the United States. Yet the fact that tribal lands tend to be located in isolated, nonmetropolitan areas suggests that relatively lower levels of per capita income in tribal areas may be due largely to locational factors, such as the lack of access to markets, the absence of agglomeration economies, and an inadequate infrastructure. The study presented here explored the role of location-specific factors and other characteristics in accounting for variation in income levels between tribal and nontribal areas and across different types of tribal areas. The results suggest that location indeed plays a significant role in accounting for variation in income across both tribal and nontribal areas, but that human capital, demographics, and structural factors also matter. In particular, college-educated and retirement-age shares of the population have a positive effect on income levels in all areas, while unemployment rates and shares of the population that are American Indian have a negative effect in all areas. The results further indicate that once locational, structural, and demographic factors are controlled, tribal areas do not have significantly lower levels of income than do other areas. The lower income levels found in tribal areas may thus be understood as a function of location, industrial structure, human capital, and demographics, rather than as a reflection of problems that are inherent only in tribal areas. Key Words: Native American; economic development; regional income; poverty. TopSocial Capital, Collective Action, and Adaptation to Climate Change Abstract: Future changes in climate pose significant challenges for society, not the least of which is how best to adapt to observed and potential future impacts of these changes to which the world is already committed. Adaptation is a dynamic social process: the ability of societies to adapt is determined, in part, by the ability to act collectively. This article reviews emerging perspectives on collective action and social capital and argues that insights from these areas inform the nature of adaptive capacity and normative prescriptions of policies of adaptation. Specifically, social capital is increasingly understood within economics to have public and private elements, both of which are based on trust, reputation, and reciprocal action. The public-good aspects of particular forms of social capital are pertinent elements of adaptive capacity in interacting with natural capital and in relation to the performance of institutions that cope with the risks of changes in climate. Case studies are presented of present-day collective action for coping with extremes in weather in coastal areas in Southeast Asia and of community-based coastal management in the Caribbean. These cases demonstrate the importance of social capital framing both the public and private institutions of resource management that build resilience in the face of the risks of changes in climate. These cases illustrate, by analogy, the nature of adaptation processes and collective action in adapting to future changes in climate. Key words: social capital, vulnerability, adaptation, resilience, global climate change, coastal management, economic development. Top
Moving Beyond Postdevelopment: Facilitating Indigenous Alternatives for "Development"
Abstract: Using the example of smallholder oil-palm production in Papua New Guinea, this article illustrates how elements of a market economy and modernity become enmeshed and partly transformed by local place-based nonmarket practices. The persistence, even efflorescence, of indigenous gift exchange, in tandem with greater participation in the market economy, challenges conventional notions about the structures and meanings of development. The introduced market economy can be inflected to serve indigenous sociocultural and economic goals by place-based processes that transform market relations and practices into nonmarket social relationships. These kinds of inflections of the market economy are common and widespread and therefore worthy of consideration for their theoretical insights into processes of social and economic change and the meanings of development. The article concludes by outlining some preliminary thoughts on how development practice could be modified to provide more scope for this process of inflection, so that development strategies accord better with indigenous sociocultural meanings of development. TopProducing and Consuming Chemicals: The Moral Economy of the American Lawn
Abstract: The burgeoning application of fertilizers and pesticides to residential lawns, which has begun to offset the gains made in reducing the use of chemicals in agriculture, represents a serious environmental hazard in the United States and elsewhere. Increased use and purchase occur specifically among a sector of consumers who explicitly and disproportionately acknowledge the risks associated with chemical deposition, moreover, and who express concern about the quality of water and human health. What drives the production of monocultural lawns in a period when environmental consciousness has encouraged "green" household action (e.g., recycling)? And why does the production of chemical externalities occur among individuals who claim to be concerned about community, family, and environment? In this article, we explore the interactions that condition and characterize the growth of intensive residential yard management in the United States. We argue that the peculiar growth and expansion of the moral economy of the lawn is the product of a threefold process in which (1) the lawn-chemical industry has implemented new and innovative styles of marketing that (2) help to produce an association of community, family, and environmental health with intensive turf-grass aesthetics and (3) reflect an increasing local demand by consumers for authentic experiences of community, family, and connection to the nonhuman biological world through meaningful work. Top
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