1999 - Finse, Depertment of Geography Univeristy of Bergen, Norway, July 3-7th

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Book of abstracts : AESOP PhD workshop 1999, Finse, Depertment of Geography Univeristy of Bergen, Norway
(AESOP, 1999)
The AESOP PhD Workshop 1999 aims at constituting a small forum of discussion of PhDs in Planning Issues, bringing together a group of PhD students from AESOP member schools and a group of well known planning professors in an informal environment. The focus of the workshop is dedicated to the specificity of a PhD in planning. We are focusing on the role of paradigms in planning research, the role of theory and methodological approach, the relation between theory and empirical analysis in a PhD thesis. We will as well discuss the process in PhD work from idea to final thesis and whether there are identifiable trends in planning research. The workshop is structured into plenary lectures and group sessions. There will be five lectures by the invited teachers. There will be group sessions on Sunday and Monday at which the PhD students will present their papers, and group sessions on Tuesday at which there will be sought a structured discussion on the different theoretical and methodological aspects of the work with a PhD thesis. Structure of the workshop The workshop is structured in three types of sessions with specific, and different objectives: Plenary sessions of approximately 90 minutes length. There will be 5 such sessions - two on Sunday morning, two on Monday morning and one on Tuesday morning. In these sessions the invited professors and lecturers will present their lecture followed by a discussion. In these discussions all participants are urged to approach the themes of discussion in the light of their own training background, research and practice experience, as well as in the context of the planning school you come from. It is fundamental to keep track of the content of these plenary sessions in order to adress the topics in group sessions, after the PhD presentations.
Open Access
From Theory to Methodology and Back Again: The Need for Planning Researchers to Engage with Methodological Concerns
(AESOP, 1999) Campbell, Heather
Concerns associated with the development and implementation of the methodologies which underpin empirical investigations often seem to be treated as if they are of marginal significance to the research endeavour. For example, refereed journal articles seldom discuss the detailed decisions surrounding the conduct of a piece of research. This element is omitted in favour of concentration on the theory informing the research and the implications of the findings; yet it is the methodology which provides the link between the theory and the findings and consequently is instrumental in determining the validity and reliability of the conclusions. The result of this lack of discussion and engagement with methodological concerns has been the creation of something of an academic myth that carrying out a study is a relatively straight-forward and unproblematic undertaking. Experience suggests quite the reverse and that moreover if the quality of research is to develop and progress in the planning field there is much to be gained from open and honest discussion of the theoretical and practical issues associated with the methodological aspects of research. The purpose of this paper therefore is a plea for greater engagement with methodological concerns. In the context of this discussion it is assumed that methodology includes both the techniques used in the field to collect data and also the approach adopted to analyse and interpret the resulting material. The paper is divided into two parts, the first examines existing perspectives on research methods in planning while the second focuses on the seemingly poorly developed relationship between theory and methodology.
Open Access
Theory for Practice: Anticipating not only Interactions but Success and Failure
(AESOP, 1999) Forester, John
I have been exploring not only theories OF planning practice,but theories FOR planning practice as well. Theories OF practicemight help us to understand what planners do in some new ways,and they might help us to link the behavior and thought of planners to encompassing institutions, planning and political-economic history, or cultural influences (Sandercock 1995; Sandercock and Forsyth 1992; Friedmann 1987; Healey 1992, 1993, 1997; Hoch 1994;Baum 1997a, 1997b). But theories FOR practice might go one step further: to suggest, in effect, to planners that if they view their work in a certain way, they may avoid specific problems and achieve certain desired ends instead. Such a «use» of theory is not quite instrumental (to achieve this goal, use this means), but it is practical (by viewing value conflict, for example, in THIS way, we can consider THESE responses that might FIT our situation WELL and avoid substantial problems). Such theory depends on our having a sense of success and failure in planning, a sense of value to be gained or squandered, achieved or lost, a sense of welfare to be achieved or harms to be avoided. Thus «theory FOR planning practice» is intimately tied to a sense of the ethics of practice, what can be gained or lost in practice. So far, this does not specify which ethical arguments are necessarily involved, but it means that the «use» or «application» or «appropriation» of a «theory FOR practice» might enable planners to achieve some value or welfare and avoid some loss or harm. A theory that is USEFUL IN THIS WAY is necessarily (if often implicitly) wrapped up in ethics, since that is just what «useful» (consequentially good!) means. Otherwise, the theory would be use-less.
Open Access
Using Planning Theory in a PhD in Planning: Plugging into Paradigms
(AESOP, 1999) Needham, Barrie
It is not easy to do PhD research in spatial planning! And one of the main reasons is that there is not one, not even several competing, paradigms which can be used as a framework for the PhD research. The result is either that the researcher has to spend a lot of time searching for a theoretical framework for his/her research, or that the researcher carries out the work without being able to put it into such a framework, whereby the relevance of that PhD research (what it contributes to knowledge) cannot easily be assessed. More experienced researchers have fewer problems: and the reason is illuminating. It is that they / we have built up over the years our own theoretical framework that we use as a basis for our research, refining it, testing it critically, only very rarely rejecting it and starting out on another one. We have that great advantage. But we tend to keep it for ourselves, for we seldom make it explicit (not even to ourselves) whereby other people (and in particular those with less experience) cannot benefit from it. My message it that we - the senior researchers - have a responsibility to make explicit the theoretical framework that we use for research into spatial planning, so that others can use it, improve it, tell us why it should be rejected. That will help PhD researchers. And it will help also to build up cumulatively a body of knowledge, for it will help all researchers to relate their research to the research of others.
Open Access
«Are there identifiable trends in Planning Research? .... I wouldn't say so; there's actually no planning research at all!»
(AESOP, 1999) Fubini, Alex
The title of my paper is provocative; I intend to say that - at least in Italy- planning research has been extremely static over the last 40 years, with the consequence that no new trends in research have been developed. Through a discussion on the meaning of planning as a profession, on planning teaching as intended in Italy and a comparison with other European cases, derives my suggestion for a new planning teaching strategy based on a critical and theoretical formation of the student rather than on his/her practical training via professional simulation. The Italian context; «too much means nothing». Since the '60s the concept of planning reform has been linked to a wider and more comprehensive context including land and local authorities reforms, where the latter were considered prerequisites for the former to happen. Planners attributed themselves a political role (land and planning reforms are different though, being the first a political matter and the second a social, theoretical and technical one), with the consequence of impoverishing the planning profession as a whole.
Open Access
From Idea to Dissertation or From Practitioner to Researcher
(AESOP, 1999) Nilsson, Kristina
A practitioner of municipality planning lives in a system of hierarchical organisations and are often expected to work in a technical-rational way and give realistic alternatives possible to implement in a narrow future. In the past time planners were respected professionals in the local authority and in the duty for the politicians. But today in the post-modern era it is not that easy to be a planner, the planning processes are questioned and criticised not to be enough flexibel and useful in a new liberal society. In this questioning of the past and in a vacuum before something new, it is understandable that the practitioners ask the researchers how to handle the situation. After 18 years as a planner in urban and regional planning I started for teaching at the newly established planning education at an also recently established small university in Karlskrona, Southern Sweden. During the years of teaching I had profited from my earlier experiences from practice and the new situation gave me motives to reflect over my earlier practice. The question started to grow, what is going to happen with the planning profession in the future, what knowledge and competence are going to be expected from the planners? My questioning got so urgent to me that instead of asking other researchers I started own research studies in which I have combined my interest for planners competence with a focus on sustainability issues in comprehensive planning. Research is a quite different way of thinking than practice. The researcher doesn't accept the ordinary description or explanation to something without scrutinise both earlier knowledge and thinking about a phenomena or questioning the phenomena itself. Research is to study critically, test, develop ideas, theories, perspectives, way of observing and understanding phenomenon.
Open Access
Thinking Outside the Box : A Case for Comprehensive Choice Examination in Infrastructure Provision
(AESOP, 1999) Anthony, Jerry
Provision of adequate quantities of safe drinking water for a settlements population is an ever increasing problem in all urbanizing contexts in developing countries. Quite often conventional wisdom dictates setting up of more infrastructure, both physical and administrative, as a solution to the problem. More often than not, these solutions, if they fructify at all, soon degenerate into inefficient and cost-effective schemes supplying inadequate quantities of water with negligible cost recoveries. A significant body of planning literature also talks about improving project development and management practices, both at the planning and implementation stages of infrastructure projects as a way to improve their capital and operational benefits versus costs. However, much of such discussion takes place in the context of a project, designed to alleviate or radicate a problem in a community, that has been approved and is soon to be funded. Traditional wisdom in tackling the problems present in these communities, is completely ignored, even when such solutions are community based, more egalitarian and frequently very low cost. Such a situation exists in Imphal the capital city of the state of Manipur in India.
Open Access
In search of the urban field: Past, present and future of urbanisation and urbanisation policy in the Netherlands and Europe
(AESOP, 1999) Bontje, Marco
At the end of the 20th century, the future spatial design of the Netherlands is being debated heavily in the public sphere. The government intends to publish the Fifth Report on Physical Planning before the end of this year. This provokes a lot of discussion about which direction planning policy should take. Quite often, scientists and politicians mention the formation of so- called urban fields. This would be the next step in the process of continuous deconcentration of population, work and services: first there were cities, then monocentric urban regions, then polycentric urban regions (like the Randstad) and now, the urban fields are supposed to be the 'next big thing'. These urban fields lack a clear centre. Population, work, services and recreational facilities are spread across a large area. The mobility pattern connected to this is characterised by a 'criss-cross' pattern: daily travels are no longer for the largest part between suburb and city, but more and more city-to-city and suburb-to-suburb. This formation of urban fields might actually be happening, but it might as well not be. So far, a lot of visionary things have been said about the urban fields, but empirical evidence was hardly presented. Are we really heading for urban fields in the Netherlands? What consequences would this have for Dutch planning policy, at the moment still aiming at a compact city development?
Open Access
Policy formation in rural development in the Netherlands
(AESOP, 1999) Boonstra, Froukje
In this abstract I will give an impression of my PhD-research project on policy formation in rural development. The nature of rural development and rural policy making has changed considerably, not only in the Netherlands, but throughout Europe. Underlying are changing demands placed on rural areas by society. In the next section I will give an image of the specific features of the development process in rural areas in the Netherlands and the policy problems at stake. I will proceed with the objectives of my PhD-research. These are followed by my research design combined with some central theoretical notions guiding my research. Finally, I will address a couple of methodological issues concerning my research project. Rural policy change in the Netherlands In rural areas in the Netherlands an important process of change is taking place. Both practices and policy arrangements in rural development differ considerably from the previous model for agriculture and rural areas based on the notion of modernisation. Until recently, Dutch society's main interest regarding the rural was agriculture's contribution to food security and gross national product. Rural development became almost synonymous to agricultural development. Now additional and partly substituting demands are placed on rural areas and agriculture. Rural areas are supposed to provide peace and quietness to weary city people and should offer attractive living surroundings for rural dwellers. The declining number of farmers should not only produce food as efficiently as possible; they also have to meet severe environmental, animal welfare and food quality standards. Furthermore, infrastructure, house construction and nature demands put an increasing pressure on rural space.
Open Access
Interdependencies of Spatial Planning «in» and «for»Europe Effects of European spatial planning perspectives on the spatial planning systems of the Nordic countries especially at the regional planning level
(AESOP, 1999) Bohme, Kai
A new catchword, as bright and promising as a rainbow, echoes in our circles: «European Spatial Planning». The term covers at least two different concepts. Ever since the first official draft of the «European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP)» was presented and adopted in Noordwijk (1997), European Spatial Planning has been mainly connected to the idea of planning for Europe. In addition, however, there is another conception, a bottom-up approach, on which the ESDP is based: European spatial planning also describes the variety and diversity of spatial planning concepts and systems within Europe. In this contribution I will try to briefly examine the interrelationship between planning for Europe and planning in Europe, focusing on the Nordic countries and especially their regional planning level. The principal aim is to investigate, how different European spatial planning systems influence the spatial planning approach for Europe and vice versa. To facilitate discussion, I use a grouping of European national spatial planning systems into certain families, one of which covers the Nordic countries. In the first part of the paper I look at the question of families/groupings of spatial planning systems in Europe. Proceeding from this to the main topic of this paper, the second part touches the question of the influence of the ESDP on the Nordic countries as manifest at the regional planning level. Since spatial planning is not included in the competence of the European Commission, the ESDP is designed as a bottom-up and not a top-down process. In fact, it is an inter-governmental approach adopted by the EU member states, although it has often be claimed that the ESDP is a product of French, German and Dutch planning thinking and planning traditions (Rusca 1998). Viewed from the perspective of planning families, this would mean that the ESDP rests on a mixture of Napoleonic and Germanic styles. If this is the case, what would this mean for planning in Europe, i.e. the bottom-up dynamics? Even more problematic s the reverse side of the coin: Would the top-down pressure strengthen harmonisation tendencies affecting other planning traditions in Europe?
Open Access
The "Urbanisation" of Infrastructure: An Interpretative Design Model
(AESOP, 1999) Calabrese, Luisa M.
As far as urban planning is concerned, the XXth Century is characterised by a problematic position of large-scale infrastructure networks with regard to urban settlements. Recent planning policy shows that the integration of infrastructure is a top priority in large cities. It has proved difficult to create positive interactions at local level, between urban' and 'hon-urban' elements belonging to the same physical environment. Large-scale infrastructure elements are usually considered as a paradoxical combination of burden and necessity. They are perceived as physical barriers, as generators of low quality suburban areas, although they are essential to the existence and development of the contemporary cities. The disconnection between urbanisation and infrastructure in contemporary cities is the result of a complex process, which will be investigated in this research program. The research program includes three categories of definition of the problem of infrastructure integration: 1. Towards a multidisciplinary approach; 2. Theory and practice of planning for infrastructure: questioning the complexity of contemporary cities; 3. Methodology of the decision making process for an integrated development of infrastructure and public spaces quality achievement.
Open Access
Designing Enviromental Planning Strategies that Intergrate Stakeholder Beliefs and Scientific Models: A Case Study of Lake Lanier
(AESOP, 1999) Coffin, Sarah
Integrated assessment modeling (IAM) is a method for handling complex issues, integrating information from various scientific disciplines and stakeholders, such that decision-makers are informed of the science as well as the stakeholder interests (van Asselt and Rotmans, 1995). It was popularized as the method for studying the impacts of global climate change on various environmental factors such as agricultural production. The focus of IAM is on process, with integration among disciplines and stakeholders, offering solutions that otherwise would have been ignored by a study with singular focus, for example climatology (Rotmans et. al., 1997). While typically focusing on the larger issues associated with global change, we find the IAM exercise offers lessons in integrating multiple disciplines and community interests in studying the impacts of the environmental issues associated with planning. We have applied IAM to the issue of water quality, focusing on the effects of various determinants on the water quality of a rapidly urbanizing watershed. Lake Sidney Lanier was created in 1956 as one of the US Army Corps of Engineers projects designed to manage water flow and supply, river navigation, and to provide additional power supply to the rural regions in the Southeastern section of the US. The project involved construction of the Buford Dam, which impounded stream flow from the Chattahoochee River, just south of where it is joined by the Chestatee River. Originally intended to serve rural communities, Lake Lanier is now considered part of the rapidly growing Metro Atlanta, Georgia Region of the US, providing additional important economic development opportunities such as recreation and tourism. As a multi-use reservoir, the lake provides recreation, water supply, electrical supply, navigation,and flood control. In 1991, Lake Lanier was the most frequently visited of the Army Corps lakes in the US. Given the region's rapidly developing urbanization, the Lake Lanier watershed is facing increasing pressure to make wise land-use decisions, thus bringing more focused attention to the area (Hatcher, et. al., 1994; Beck, et. al., 1998; Kundell, et. al, 1998; Limno-Tech, inc., 1998).
Open Access
The Municipal and the Territory; The Municipal Eologist Perspective on Environmental Issues in Land Use Planning
(AESOP, 1999) Dovlén, Sylvia
My PhD-studies is a part of a multidisciplinary research project, «The Municipal and the Territory», on the need to redefine planning to cope with the challenge of sustainability (Asplund & Orrskog 1996). The project is administrated by a core group of researchers at the Department of Infrastructure and Planning at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. Researchers from other disciplines and institutions are associated for complementary studies through the project. The focus of the project is on strategic land-use planning at the municipal level. The municipal competence will be empirically investigated and discussed. The competence concept in the project is interpreted in two ways: "professional competence" and "political competence". By professional competence we mean the competence developed within the administration of the municipality. Such competence is made up of knowledge and professional skills, steering instruments, organisation, decision-making processes, ways of co-operation among officials and between officials and politicians, etc. Political competence refers to the competence to involve the inhabitants as well as local economic actors in the transformation of the society towards sustainability.
Open Access
The Constitution of Spatial Transport Concepts
(AESOP, 1999) van Duinen, Lianne
In discussions about regional economic development a few key concepts regularly keep turning up. These key concepts focus on issues of infrastructural connections and transport systems, in relation to (spatial) characteristics of the region. In the Netherlands planners are struggling with these concepts. Since the nineties there has been an increasing mismatch between national spatial concepts and local ideas and concepts. My research project aims on identifying causal factors for this mismatch by focusing on the constitution of spatial transport concepts. In the Netherlands there has been a tradition of working with spatial concepts5 in spatial policy. With the Fourth National Report (1988), Dutch Government introduced a large amount of relatively new spatial concepts. In the following years some of these concepts turned out to be missing a connection with wishes and ideas of local planners or other actors in the policy process. The concept of ABC-locations is a clear example of this disconnection. Based on targets of environment and public transport, national government was trying to stimulate location of economic activity -as they formulated- "on the right spot". Their policy aimed at location of industries and services with a lot of visitors and employees in areas with a perfect connection with public transport, so-called A-locations. Other industries and services which had less employees and visitors combined with a strong dependency on highways for their production process had to be located in areas with a perfect connection with the national road-system, just outside the city. These locations are called C-locations. Unfortunately it appeared that this national policy of ABC-locations didn't match with wishes and practices of local government and most of all: with preferences of the industries themselves. In many cases industries and services preferred location on C-locations above A-locations, because of the better car-accessibility. Due to the expected positive economic effects local government turned out to be eager on attracting economic activity within their municipality-boundaries.
Open Access
High-Rise Housing Estates as Vehicles of Social Exclusion in Post-Socialist Cities
(AESOP, 1999) Egedy, Tamas
Housing estates cannot be considered merely as products of the socialist system since they can also be found in Western Europe thought their significance and role differ from that of the former socialist countries. Housing estates on the housing market of Western countries are important, nevertheless they represent only a low proportion of the whole dwellingstock (P. Dunleavy 1981, U. Herlyn 1989, E. Van Kempen - S. Musterd 1991). In spite of that, from the beginning of the 1980's almost all western-european governments made attempts to carry out various programs on modernization and rehabilitation of housing estates. The problems in East-Central European countries turn up to be more serious, since the number of dwellings in housing estates and people living there goes far beyond the West-European scales. (W. Rietdorf - H. Liebmann - T. Knorr-Siedow 1994, E. Müller 1997). Building quality is in many cases lower and rehabilitation is very needed, However, steps for renewal have not been accomplished as yet. The idea of housing estate and the building of the first housing estates in Hungary dates back to the turn of the century, but an overall expansion was not accomplished till after the II. World War. Considering the size, building material and technology, we can talk about generations of high-rise estates, which apart from the built environment show significant differences in terms of the natural and the social environment (Hegedûs J. 1987, Szelényi 1990, Kovács Z. 1998).
Open Access
Power Relations in the British Development Control System
(AESOP, 1999) Ellis, Hugh
The operation of development control is the most visible and arguably the most controversial aspect of the British planning system. At its best it has been described as a valuable defender of environmental quality (HMSO 1994) and at its worst it has been exposed as secretive and sometimes corrupt instrument dominated by vested interest (Doncaster DC 1997, Bassetlaw DC 1996 etc.). The increasing complexity of planning applications has compounded the growing disenchantment by the general public at what appears to be a closed and insular arena of planning decision making. Indeed, there has been a significant increase in the level of direct action by the public at major development sites (Newbury 1996, Manchester 1997) which indicates that at least for some, the system is no longer a legitimate instrument in the defence of the public good. Ultimately these new pressures present challenges to both the philosophical rationale of the planning system and the practice of the professional planner. These pressures provide a clear motivation for investigating planning practice thereby to penetrate this complex pattern of decision making which has important consequences for society and the environment. The following paper provides a brief description of the research programme highlighting some of the key methodological and theoretical dilemmas as well as its implications for planning knowledge.
Open Access
Shifting Spaces of Consumption: An Institutional Analysis Of Retail Policy And Development In Northwest Europe
(AESOP, 1999) Evers, David
One of the most socially important, yet often neglected, aspects of spatial behavior regards how and where goods are obtained. Shopping, be it for everyday items such as milk or bread or durable items such as washing machines or stereo systems, constitutes a major activity which is clearly linked to the existing physical structure. It is widely accepted that changes in individual shopping habits can create new traffic patterns and even alter social and cultural relationships (Zutkin, 1998; Miller et al, 1998). Furthermore, the ramifications of major shifts in the retail structure, the establishment of a large out-of-town regional center for example, can have profound effects on the viability and vitality of town centers (DETR, 1998) and can place the consumer choice of less-mobile segments of the population at a disadvantage. Since the retail market has generally proved swift in reacting to consumer demand, it has generally been thought to function well, and thus require comparatively little guidance from the public sector (Davies, 1995). Regulation, when it does occur, usually takes the form of rules regarding opening hours, distribution, antitrust laws, and more importantly, land-use planning. The latter offers a particularly wide range of indirect and direct mechanisms to control the retail sector, from transportation and environmental policies which tend to favor certain types of development, to conscious promotion of inner cities through urban renewal programs and zoning ordinances. Despite its potential, however, little continues to be written about public sector retail planning policy. This is confirmed by the virtual studied neglect within the spatial planning literature: despite its uncontested importance to the fabric of the urban environment, planning textbooks often fail to devote a chapter or even a section to retail issues (Cullingworth, 1997). In fact, barring a few exceptions (Davies, 1996; Guy, 1994), little has been heard from academic circles in this regard. This paper seeks to partially redress this deficiency by examining the mechanisms and ideologies underlying retail development policy in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK.
Open Access
Change of the Urban Periphery: Indicators of Restructuring Existing Spatial Structures
(AESOP, 1999) Friedrich, Sabine
The urban development in the last fifty years in Western Europe is characterized by the period of postwar growth, which has provoked the sub- and disurbanisation. The present agglomeration is the result of these processes. This newly developed urban creation is now consolidating and at the same time a process of renewal has begun. This become visible in the increasing need of change, which for example is represented in the growing rate of fallows, costs of renewal for the owners of the buildings but also shown in a more and more small scale and differentiating change of the social structure. In the building investment balance-sheets of Switzerland, in 1989 the costs for urban renewal has forced up the costs for new construction (Wüest and others 1990). But most of these renewal projects take a planless course, in the way for example of facade renovations, modernisations of the ground plans and therefore only short time superficial improvement is produced. Still the demolition rate is less than 0.5 per mille (Wüest and others 1990). And still the urban sprawl of the agglomeration is faster than the population growth. The existing potentials to limit the growth were used inadequately. For the understanding of the growth processes and the slowly starting restructuring of «the urban» there has to be developed a deeper knowledge of the reasons. The period of urban growth was a result of the fordism, which had its dominant period between 1950 and 1975. The need for land for industrial use in the booming branches and residential areas for the employees exploded the borders of the traditional cities. The urban development moved more and more into the environment, the periphery, deep into the urban hinterland.
Open Access
Institutional Potential of Housing Cooperatives for Low Income Households: The Case of India
(AESOP, 1999) Ganapati, Sukumar
Several countries have often considered Housing Cooperatives as a third sector alternative to the public and private sector for low-income housing (1). They emphasize different roles of the cooperative; for example, as tenant management organizations that replace public housing management (2); as community based and self-help organizations (3); or as vehicles for group credit (4). The cooperative organizations have also obtained preferential treatment (e.g. subsidies, land allocation, etc.) based on the rationale that they benefit low-income households (5). However, there is scarce literature on the institutional capacity of the cooperatives to serve low-income households and the conditions under which they do serve such households. As the experience of the housing cooperatives in New York, Sweden, Turkey, and India indicate, they serve a range of income groups, and they may or may not reach the lower income strata. This paper examines the organizational potential of the cooperatives to indeed provide housing to low-income households, and the institutional conditions under which the potential is achieved. The examination is based on the Indian context, using the three cities of Bombay, New Delhi, and Madras as empirical basis. Although the study is based in India, it offers broader lessons for housing policy on the role of collective organizations like cooperatives for low-income housing. The study is especially germane in the present context when international agencies are emphasizing an enabling approach to housing (6). The examination is done by a comparative institutional analysis of the Housing Cooperatives in the three cities. There are two dimensions affecting the functioning of the cooperatives: (i) the internal governance features of the cooperative (e.g. management), and (ii) the external institutional framework (e.g. laws, policies). As a collective organization, the cooperative has several features that potentially aid low-income households.
Open Access
Economic-Geographical Aspects of Development of International Tourism in Bulgaria
(AESOP, 1999) Gasanov, Zaur
Bulgaria is one of the South-eastern European countries, in which the tourist activity in the last years has developed substantially. The economic-geographical study of recreational resources and economic activity and the evaluation of their their rational usage in Bulgaria may have practical significance for consideration of organizational-methodical problems of realization of the recreational potential in Azerbaijan. I have for this reason undertaken an investigation of the Bulgarian tourist industry, aiming at a comparative evaluation of the tourist potentialities of Azerbaijan. Bulgaria possesses favourable recreational resources. The premises for development of seaside recreation are significant. Of the 378 kms. of the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria about 100 kms. Have beaches with quartz sands. The northern and central parts of the coast are specially well endowed with beaches of considerable size. The general beach areas constitute 7 million. sq. meters, and with allowance for 16 million sq. meters of dunes this roughly accounts for the ability of the Bulgarian coasts to accept in a season (120-150 days) 5-6 million visitors, and in the peak weeks 0.7-0.9 million people recreating on the coast. The recreational resources of the inland regions in Bulgaria have been utilized to a much lesser degree than the seaside, though in Bulgaria there are good conditions for development of inland tourism as well; 28.2 % of the country's territory are mountains, from which 2,5 % are in a high-mountainous belt higher than 1600 m. above sea level. The duration of the possible recreation season in the mountains constitutes 210-240 days, making a profit of the needed infrastructure investments reasonably secure. In Bulgaria there is an impressive material and technical basis for tourism. But this material and technical basis have a rather uneven geographical distribution, about 60 % is concentrated in the seaside districts, the concentration in large resort complexes is characteristic such as : 'Golden sands', 'Albena', 'Sunny beaches ' etc. According to the forecasts, in year 2000 the number of hotel rooms on the coast will reach 470 thousand.