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In recent years Richmond, British Columbia, a quintessential middle class suburb of Vancouver, has seen its Chinese immigrant population grow significantly; a change that has not gone uncontested by a largely 'white' European incumbent population. This long‐established suburban neighbourhood provides an opportunity to examine contested place imagery and a discourse of racism that is shaping spatial relations in ways that depart from earlier discussions of inner‐city Chinatowns. The paper has three principal objectives. The first is to develop a conceptual framework for interpreting the actual and imagined geographies of ethnic change and the tensions it can generate within local space. The second is to evaluate the social and physical changes brought about within Richmond by a relatively recent arrival of Chinese immigrants. Questions of scale are explored both at the community and neighbourhood levels, and we seek to determine whether the patterns of Chinese residential settlement represent a break from the past. Finally, we seek to employ the conceptual framework to evaluate local responses to ethnic change in Richmond given the spatial context within which ethnic change is being experienced.

Crush, Jonathan and James Wilmot (eds.) Crossing boundaries: mine migrancy in a democratic South AfricaSmith, Michael Peter (ed.) Marginal spaces: comparative urban and community research, volume 5Harrington, J.W. and B. Wharf Industrial location: principles, practice and policyKing, Desmond Separate and unequal. Black Americans and the US Federal government

The political ideology driving urban statutory planning in the United Kingdom has held a central place within planning literature during the 1980s and 1990s. The distinctiveness of leadership style and political ideology associated with the Thatcher governments have been widely recognized both in practice and academia. However, the distinctiveness of political ideology to determine the form and status of statutory urban planning since John Major acceded to the prime ministership in 1990 has not been assessed so markedly. Questions emerge on whether Thatcherite ideology is continuing in the 1990s within the realm of planning and environment, of whether a watered down version of New Right policies are being implemented, or whether central government policies towards planning over the last six years marked a change in ideological direction. This paper examines statutory planning during the Major years with reference to the ideological components of Thatcherism. From this assessment, a comparative analysis is undertaken of both political administrations. The paper concludes by finding that although elements of Thatcherite ideology are continuing, there have been initiatives that move away from the primacy of the market. However, these do not form any 'big theory': the differences between Thatcher and Major are more related to style than substance. Thatcherism is continuing but in a neo‐Thatcherite way.

A critique has recently been made of research and theory on ageing in spatial research, arguing for the development of approaches which are informed by critical theoretical perspectives. Perhaps the most significant of these is the recognition that 'old age' is culturally constructed. This paper illustrates the value of such an approach with reference to understanding of fear of crime. It is suggested that many difficulties with past research result from epistemological problems, including ageism. A number of assumptions about elderly people and crime can be contested if scrutiny is informed by humanistic, feminist and social constructionist perspectives. Drawing on in depth interviews with elderly people, some of the problems and prospects of work on old age are discussed. Age is only one dimension by which people situate themselves and are situated by others in relation to the risk of crime. Local contexts, life course experiences and other social identities are involved in the constitution of fear for each individual. While the role of ageing can be understood within a framework of power relations, its positive as well as negative impacts on reactions to crime require representation. Similar analysis could profitably be developed in other areas of urban research.

Sayer (1995) has argued that the division of labour has a structure that is distinct from capitalist relations of production, and, following Hayek, that it is determined most strongly by the use of knowledge by enterprises. Conscious coordination or alteration of the division of labour therefore usually result in reduced efficiency and in an authoritarian suppression of difference. In this article we argue that the division of labour in capitalism is strongly determined by conflict within and between classes, and that in the short term socialist policy can and should aim to alter it. A model of socialist economic coordination is presented which is feasible and ameliorates many of the problems of the capitalist division of labour. This model would enable the development rather than suppression of positive differences.

Harloe, Michael The people's home? Social rented housing in Europe & AmericaHitz, Keil, Lehrer, Ronneberger, Schmid and Wolff (eds.) Capitales Fatales: Urbanisierung und Politik in den Finanzmetropolen Frankfurt und ZürichAscher, François (ed.) Le logement en questionsShapira, Philip, Ian Masser and David W. Edgington (eds.) Planning for cities and regions in Japan

Building on previous work by Castells, and Adler and Brenner, I explore the public character of a lesbian concentration in the Connecticut River Valley region of Massachusetts. From the late 1980s this area has gained national media attention for its lesbian population. Using a number of data sources I examine how lesbian residences and services are distributed in the Valley. I find a strong service core in the small city of Northampton, but residences, while showing some clustering around Northampton, reach well into a rural hinterland. In these rural towns lesbians live at low physical densities while forming relatively high proportions of the towns' populations. Unlike previous studies of gay male and lesbian space that have tended to focus on center cities, this paper starts to chart this space on the low‐density, semirural edge of a metropolitan area. Previous studies of residential concentrations of gay and lesbian persons have also found highly visible gay male territories ‐ sometimes with a lesbian minority ‐ but showed lesbians forming social networks or somewhat underground concentrations. Several parts of the Valley area are different; comprising a visibly lesbian space. This paper contributes to analyses of diverse populations in contemporary metropolitan and exurban regions and to discussions of methods in research on lesbian and gay populations.