The Geography Of Mobility Wellbeing And Development In China

Big data is increasingly regarded as a new approach for understanding urban informatics and complex systems. Today, there is unprecedented data availability, with detailed remote-sensed data on the built environment and rich mineable web-based sources in the form of social media, web mapping, information services and other sources of unstructured "big data". This book brings together a group of international contributors to consider the geographical implications of mobility, wellbeing and development within and across Chinese cities through location-based big data perspectives. The degree of urban sprawl, productive density and vibrancy can be reflected from location-based social media big data. The challenge is to identify, map and model these relationships to develop cities at different places in the urban hierarchical system that are more sustainable. This edited book aims to tackle these issues through two inter-related geographical scales: inter-city level and intra-city level. The text is designed for graduate courses in planning, geography, public policy and administration, and for international researchers who are involved in urban and regional economics and economic geography.

This book investigates critical urban issues related to socio-spatial segregation, housing, daily travel, mobility of the elderly, etc. from the perspective of wellbeing. This is a collection of the latest research works by frontline researchers working in the fields of geography, urban studies, transport, and sociology. Drawing on theoretical and empirical explorations, collected chapters in this book connect mobility and wellbeing, bridge geography and health, and analyze the implications of mobility disadvantages on urban marginal groups’ wellbeing. Research findings presented in the book are also highly relevant for practitioners and policy makers in the pursuit of improving urban livability since wellbeing, or quality of life, is increasingly considered as an important criteria alternative to income growth to evaluate economic, social and urban development.

This book considers how rurality interacts with the mental health and wellbeing of individuals and communities in different regional settings. Through the use of international and comparative case studies, the book offers insight into the spatiality of mental health diagnoses, experiences, services provision and services access between and within rural areas. It is the first book to specifically address rural mental health geographies from an international perspective, and will be of interest to researchers and policymakers in rural studies, regional studies, health geography and rural mental health.

Chen, He and Yan present a range of applications of multiple-source big data to core areas of contemporary sociology, demonstrating how a theory-guided approach to macrosociology can help to understand social change in China, especially where traditional approaches are limited by constrained and biased data. In each chapter of the book, the authors highlight an application of theory-guided macrosociology that has the potential to reinvigorate an ambitious, open-minded and bold approach to sociological research. These include social stratification, social networks, medical care, and online behaviours among many others. This research approach focuses on macro-level social process and phenomena by using quantitative models to statistically test for associations and causalities suggested by a clearly hypothesised social theory. By deploying theory-oriented macrosociology where it can best assure macro-level robustness and reliability, big data applications can be more relevant to and guided by social theory. An essential read for sociologists with an interest in quantitative and macro-scale research methods, which also provides fascinating insights into Chinese society as a demonstration of the utility of its methodology.

This book explores the relationship between families, firms, and regions and the extent to which these relationships contribute to regional economic and social development. Although family business participation in economic activities has been a common phenomenon since pre-industrial societies, and its importance has evolved throughout time and across spatial contexts, the book suggests that these factors have often been neglected in family business and regional studies. Taking this research gap into account, the book aims to deepen our understanding of the role family firms play in the regional economy. In particular, it explores two seldom studied questions. Firstly, what role do family firms play in regional development? Secondly, how do formal and informal regional contexts shape family firm operations and performance? This book presents a model of "regional familiness" and uses themes such as productivity, networks and competitiveness to shed new light on family businesses. Moreover, it evaluates the juxtaposition and cross-fertilisation between family business and regional studies to encourage the cross-fertilisation of ideas, theories, and research methods between the two fields. Bringing together leading experts in entrepreneurship, regional economics and economic geography, this book will be valuable reading for advanced students, researchers and policymakers interested in family firms, regional studies and economic geography.

This book analyses an increasingly important phenomenon in contemporary regional development, namely ‘traveling expertise' and policy ideas. Drawing on the fields of urban and regional development, and informed by the emerging school of governmentality studies, it offers a theoretically and empirically original exploration of this subject, and of the linkages between local and global contexts and their interplay more broadly. Symbolically denoting the traveling expertise as ‘hired guns’, the book explores different segments of the political sphere, from policy consultants and the creative class, to the polity apparatuses in which policies are recalibrated. The book presents a unique assessment of how this external expertise impacts on regional development in terms of power, politics and governance. Traveling Expertise and Regional Development will be a valuable resource for scholars, policymakers and advanced students interested in regional development, public management and public policy.

Drawing on a range of European cases, this edited volume analyses the offshoring and outsourcing of foreign companies, with a focus on territorial embeddedness. The book opens by developing a theoretical framework and then presents a range of international case studies exploring the experiences of the service hub cities of Brno, Bratislava, Budapest, Krakow, and Prague. Attention is also given to internal and external determinants of embeddedness, with chapters on the employee perspective, the Fintech industry, corporate social responsibility, and the role of universities. This volume will be of interest to advanced students and researchers in regional economics, economic geography, innovation studies, industrial economics, European economics, and international business.

The Regional Economics of Technological Transformations provides a comprehensive overview of 4.0 technological transformations in Europe and their socio-economic impact, with a particular emphasis on the regional dimension of the phenomena. The authors employ extensive original data and robust quantitative methods to analyse technological change in all regions of the 27 EU countries plus the UK and shed light on this trend for Europe and beyond. Structured in four parts, the book first looks at conceptual definitions, empirical measurements and expected impacts on both the economic performance (GDP and productivity growth) and the labour market, and then moves on to analyse where 4.0 technological transformation actually takes place in Europe and the reasons for this. Next, it offers original empirical evidence on the impacts of the different transformations, and of their intertwined effects, on both the economy and the society. Finally, the book explores the policy implications of this technological transformation. This book will be valuable reading for advanced students, researchers and policymakers working across regional economics, industrial economics and innovation policy. It will be of primary interest to regional scientists interested in the field, who may enjoy the conceptual and empirical solutions to the study of a very complex, timely and still largely unexplored theme. Sociologists, engineers and political economists can benefit from the book’s analysis, noting the urgency of the development of new ethical rules governing the new digital and labour markets. Finally, the book may appeal to policymakers interested in opportunities to increase regional competitiveness and sustainability goals through the advent of 4.0 technologies.