Journal Information
Area Development and Policy (ADP) is to be a world-class journal publishing original academic research examining the multi-scalar and geographically differentiated relationships between economic and political organization, ways of life and work and their context, as they shape regions, cities, rural areas and their inter-relationships.
Geographically it concentrates on issues relating to the Greater BRICS and aims to publish research emerging from these countries as well from the developed world.
ADP recognizes that the economic, political, cultural and geographical context plays a fundamental role in shaping development. ADP therefore recognizes that research should examine the role of diverse national and regional institutional configurations and values, and that theories should derive from the experiences of these countries and regions and not necessarily from theories derived from the possibly exceptional experiences of Northwest Europe and North America.
ADP aims to expand common ground while accepting differences, improve mutual communication and increase cooperation and shared learning.
Along with standard Research Articles (8,000 words) and Review Articles (6,000 words), Area Development and Policy also welcomes Research Notes (short articles presenting the results of original research and which briefly situates the research in relation to the existing empirical and theoretical literature) of up to 4,000 words, and Commentaries (short articles commenting in a significant way on, or supplementing arguments and evidence in, a Research Article or a Review Article) of up to 2,000 words.
RSA members have full access to this journal as well as to 20 other subject related journals. For more details on RSA membership, please go to www.regionalstudies.org/membership
The papers published in the second issue are:
1. Brazil: accelerated metropolization and urban crisis by Clélio Campolina Diniz & Danilo Jorge Vieira
Abstract
Migration and rapid demographic growth in large metropolitan areas in Brazil are associated with high levels of territorial and social inequality. Four indicators of an associated urban crisis are examined: inequality in housing conditions, per capita income and years of schooling; a poor (or lack of a) public transport system, urban congestion and traffic accidents; high levels of violence and murder and the rapid diffusion of diseases linked to the lack of sanitary facilities. Territorial guidelines for a more balanced polycentric urban network and an active urban policy are required to address these issues but face a lack of political will.
2. Repositioning Yunnan: security and China’s geoeconomic engagement with Myanmar by Xiaobo Su
Abstract
China’s geoeconomic engagement with Myanmar derives from three Myanmar-related security concerns (social security along the Yunnan–Myanmar border, economic security for the global expansion of Chinese capital and energy security). To facilitate this engagement, Yunnan is repositioned as a strategic bridgehead. To understand this geoeconomic engagement, this paper examines two specific transnational projects: Yunnan’s agricultural investment in northern Myanmar; and the Sino-Myanmar oil and gas pipelines. The construction of Yunnan as a bridgehead shows that the Chinese state incorporates economic rationale into geopolitical concern with Myanmar. Through Yunnan’s geoeconomic repositioning, the Chinese state hopes to build a China-oriented transnational network of production and consumption which includes Yunnan and neighbouring countries.
3. South–south mobility: economic and health vulnerabilities of Bangladeshi and Nepalese migrants to India by Lopamudra Ray Saraswati, Avina Sarna, Ubaidur Rob, Mahesh Puri, Roopal Jyoti Singh, Vartika Sharma & Amitabh Kundu
Abstract
This paper reports the results of a three-country study of the social, economic and health vulnerabilities of migrants from Bangladesh and Nepal living in India and of returnees. Overall, migration was found to be economically beneficial for those who succeed in the host labour market. However, it is associated with significant psychosocial and health vulnerabilities for most migrants in both communities. Further, migrants returning to their home countries with expectations of a better life continue to be in debt and experience poor health, indicating that migration may not always alleviate economic distress and highlighting the need for financial guidance.
4. The BRICS' impacts on local economic development in the Global South: the cases of a tourism town and two mining provinces in Zambia by Peter Kragelund & Pádraig Carmody
Abstract
Research on how emerging economies affect other areas of the Global South has flourished in the past decade, and it is now well established that this impact occurs through a variety of channels, but knowledge of local developmental effects is scant. This article seeks to open up this black box by scrutinizing the effects of investments by the BRICS in a tourism town and two mining areas in Zambia. Recently, investments by the BRICS have been heralded as a key driver of structural transformation in the rest of the Global South; however, the lack of linkages and spillovers from BRICS actors to the local economy, in the Zambian case at least, leads instead to continued technological and economic dependence and consequent economic narrowing.
5. Multifamily housing construction in Russia: supply elasticity and competition by Tatyana D. Polidi
Abstract
Housing unaffordability and unavailability are major socio-economic problems in modern Russia, and result from market failure to provide a sufficient volume of new housing at reasonable prices. About 29% of new newly constructed housing units are self-build single-family houses produced outside the market. Professional builders are specialized mainly in constructing multifamily houses, generally in urban areas. This study analyses the efficiency of this market segment of housing construction, and shows that: (1) it is characterized by low price elasticity; (2) the responsiveness of new housing supply to demand changes is weak due to various supply restrictions and the imperfectly competitive behaviour of building companies and (3) self-built housing construction helps limit the market power of builders, which is stronger in more developed (and more profitable) regional markets and weaker in less developed ones.
6. Social inequality, city shrinkage and city growth in Khuzestan Province, Iran by Ahmad Pourahmad, Amir Reza Khavarian-Garmsir & Hossein Hataminejad
Abstract
The phenomenon of urban shrinkage is found in developing as well as in developed countries but the patterns differ. In developing countries, socio-economic inequality can explain population mobility between cities. A comparative study of shrinking and growing cities in Khuzestan Province in Iran showed that social conditions in the former were significantly worse than in the latter and that these conditions played an important role in the decisions of residents to leave. The impacts of the Iran-Iraq war, post-war reconstruction and the attractiveness of some cities such as Ahvaz (the provincial capital), Tehran, Esfahan, and Shiraz played a part.