----------------- HES POSTING -----------------
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: I am especially interested in including a
historical section on location theory and agglomeration economies, etc.
- Larry Moss
Larry Moss
CALL FOR PAPERS
City and Country : An Interdisciplinary Collection
American Journal of Economics and Sociology
In 1883, the social reformer Henry George complained that "the cities
grow, unwholesomely crowding people together till they are packed in
tiers, family above family, so are they [also] unwholesomely separated
in the country." Many other social thinkers expressed alarm at the
manner in which the migrations to the city robbed humans of the
gratifications that are so necessary to both health and dignity. Today,
the problems of suburban sprawl, country greenfields, traffic
congestion, and ghostly Edge Cities springing up at highway
intersections seems to have confounded, submerged, and overwhelmed
George's late nineteenth-century world of stark contrasts and simple
dichotomies. The monocentric city model that informed George's
thoughts also informed Johann von Thuenen's influential model of land
use. The urban reformers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries -- a
group that includes Ebenezer Howard and Patrick Geddes of the
"garden city" movement fame -- carried over the monocentric city
paradigm and pondered what it implied for reform. This pattern of
thinking informed the historical studies about the origins of the city in
history, especially under the towering influence of Lewis Mumford.
Mumford's architectural criticisms and insights about civic space
influenced the (Chicago) Prairie school of modern architecture
identified with Frank Lloyd Wright. In recent years, the monocentric
model has given way to the "the polycentric pattern of urban
development."
Polycentricism now characterizes most of the cities in the world today
as captured by the sophisticated density functions that Edwin S. Mills
and others have prepared. The irregularity of the resulting spatial
forms, and the politicians' stubborn resistance to value-based taxation
of land values have spawned an enormous policy-oriented literature.
Why cannot financial incentives be used to alter the otherwise natural
shape and pattern of urban spatial development? Civil society requires
and depends on public access to civic spaces. Platforms of public
discourse and expression are essential to democratic forms and as
Peter G. Rowe insists "the most productive opportunities for creating
public spaces . . . are across the conceptual divide between the state
and civil society." These platforms can be found at shopping malls,
city plazas, and even gambling casino lobbies. Still, as philosopher
Jurgen Habermas reminds us, these opportunities for meaningful
communication can be lost when the market system is allowed to
deform and destroy its precious public spheres.
There are a growing number of economists who have joined with the
early reformers and urban sociologists to provide new types of analysis
that stubbornly refuse to ignore or abstract from location and
geography. This includes the new economics of what Brian Arthur and
Paul Krugman others describe as "increasing returns and path
dependence." The presence of the agglomeration economies as
positive feedback expanding the scale of the economy have changed
the way we work and live and given new shape to the evolution of the
city.
The October 2000 issue of The American Journal of Economics and
Sociology will have a focus on the broad theme of "City and
Country." Interdisciplinary studies are cordially welcomed as are
papers in urban economics and planning. All proposals in the form of
200-250 word abstracts must be sent to the editor by March 1, 2000,
with a target date for delivering the final paper on July 15, 2000. Please
write to:
Professor Laurence S. Moss, Editor / The American Journal of
Economics and Sociology Babson College / Mustard Hall / Babson
Park, Massachusetts 02457 USA (FAX: 617 728 4947)
Email: [log in to unmask]
------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------
For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]
|