Volume (15): Issue (1)

Metropolization has been studied essentially through census analysis. Despite its incontestable interest, it presents an ‘interrupted’ portrait of reality that omits the continuous aspect of metropolitan development. Moreover, the focus is placed predominantly on territories and their demographic evolution rather than on households. To overcome these shortcomings, the project ‘Residential Trajectories and Metropolization: Continuities and Changes in Lisbon Metropolitan Area’ focuses on households as the main protagonists of spatial structuring processes. It aims to reconstitute the trajectories of Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA) inhabitants (born between 1945 and 1975) by means of a life course approach. Housing stability is an important finding, but should not be understood as a Portuguese peculiarity. Moreover, it is important to underline the great heterogeneity of each trajectory, both in terms of their protagonists and their meanings. Either within ‘centrifugal’ and ‘province’ trajectories we found four ‘similar’ sub-groups: pioneers, modern families, the established and the socially vulnerable. Their similarities are, however, essentially formal and their distribution is quite different concerning the two trajectories.

Using data from the Biographies et Entourage ‘Event histories and contact circle’ survey, conducted by INED in 2001, we will examine urban transformations via the mobility behaviour of 2830 residents in the Paris region. The analysis of residential trajectories has been a major focus of research in recent years but the influence of the social environment has rarely been taken into account. The aim of the article is to understand the urban dynamics and the process of social segregation (from the city centre gentrification to the peripheral settlement dynamics) over a period of 40 years. We will try to include social change at municipal level in the analysis of residential trajectories, taking into account changes in the social structure of municipalities which are partly the result of these individual mobilities. From a ‘nominal harmonic analysis’ several types of trajectories could be identified: those that took place between municipalities of equivalent social standing and those that involved change, either upwards to a municipality with a higher social standing or downwards to a municipality with lower social standing.

Starting from the description of sample surveys and research on spatial mobility (migration and daily mobility) and on other dimensions strictly connected with this topic (local identity and housing projects) organized and conducted by the University of Pisa over the last fifteen years, this article presents an extensive and in-depth overview of methods that can to be used for analysing this type of statistical information and the type of results that can be achieved, with particular focus on the biographical approach.

The article is the result of the research project ‘Residential Trajectories and Metropolization: Continuities and Changes in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area’ and analyses the residential trajectories of families in Lisbon. Following some international studies, our overriding objective is to examine the relationship between housing dynamics and family and professional contexts related to moving house. We observe three generations (born between 1945–1954, 1955–1964 and 1965–1975) in central Lisbon and the northern and southern metropolitan areas. More specifically, this article aims to explore three fundamental dimensions: (1) the intensity of the residential mobility of households in Lisbon and the profiles associated with more and less mobility; (2) the typology of trajectories in relation to tenure status as well as an analysis of the profiles associated with each type of trajectory; and 3) the different reasons for moving house during the residential trajectory. The research outcomes on housing trajectories seem to indicate limited residential mobility due to the historical dynamics of the housing market in Portugal and the social and cultural options of families that tend to prefer home ownership. Moreover, the research indicates that family and social class are pertinent variables when analysing housing movements in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area.

These last few years, the Barcelona metropolitan region has had two main distinct residential mobility flows, each defining their own spatial patterns. On the one hand, there has been one made by Spanish people who, since the late 1970s, have been moving from the dense metropolitan centre towards its periphery where they can find medium-sized towns and small municipalities to which they are attracted. On the other hand, since the early twenty-first century there has also been that of foreigners moving from Barcelona to the neighbouring central cities. This article analyses recent intensity and spatial pattern changes due to the economic and housing market crises. Focusing on the 2009–2012 period, it compares two previous decades from 1988–2008. Our main hypothesis is that in recent years the flows have slightly diminished but they have had a stronger geographic impact as spatial trends existing before the economic crisis have blurred.

This article examines how Walmart became successful in Argentina by applying the tenets of ‘glocalization’ theory. ‘Glocalization’ refers to the strategies a multinational corporation employs abroad to cater to local idiosyncrasies. When Walmart built its first stores in Argentina, it imposed its US-based blueprint of low-pricing tactics and shopping traditions that were rapidly rejected by most Argentinian consumers. After a few years of trial and error, Walmart finally brought forth five major business and cultural changes that proved successful: (1) adaptation of store design, (2) adaptation of products to local tastes, (3) adaptation of shopping culture, (4) adaptation of employment practices and workplace culture and (5) acceptance of trade unions.

Marcello Caetano: Uma Biografia Política, J. M. T. Castilho (2012) hb, Coimbra: Almedina, 1012 pp., ISBN: 9789724049861, €35.00