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Whilst personal knowledge networks between organisations have been argued to be important for regional economic development, their functioning and, within this context, the exact role of spatial proximity has been empirically underexplored. This paper addresses these issues by, first, examining the dynamic mechanisms of the formation, maintenance, and knowledge interaction of important knowledge relationships of R&D workers in the Cambridge information technology cluster in the UK. It is demonstrated that personal relations tended to transform from an initially professional context into privately governed relationships. Furthermore, it is argued that a sophisticated understanding of the role of spatial proximity requires an investigation of the spatiality of several stages of the network mechanisms. The results show that permanent spatial proximity and face-to-face interaction are more important for the formation of relationships than for the maintenance stage and, in particular, for work-related knowledge interactions. Finally, it is argued that, in contrast to the emphasis in much of the literature on communities of practice and epistemic communities, the knowledge relationships do not tend to be anchored in collective groups. Instead, the paper highlights the usefulness of the concept of individualised networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides information on several research papers discussed at the 4th conference on Advances in Corrosion Protection by Organic Coatings, held at Christ's College in Cambridge, England on September 20 to 24, 2004. Comparison of electrochemical techniques for assessing anti-corrosive organic coatings; Aspects regarding the protective function of polyaniline towards mild steel; Direct measurement of diffusion of phosphate and chloride in epoxy coatings.

A somewhat overlooked aspect of the geography of 'after-Fordist' regulation concerns the precise role of different branches of the state in managing tensions between local economic development and the collective provision of social and physical infrastructure. In the United Kingdom, the state's reluctance to manage or spatially redistribute growth in the South East has resulted in localised pressures on housing markets, the land-use planning system, infrastructure, and the environment, intensifying struggles between progrowth and antigrowth factions in certain places. In this paper the authors examine conflicts arising from the rapid growth of new economic spaces in and around the Cambridge subregion and explore various attempts by different branches of the state and locally dependent factions of capital to overcome barriers to further growth within existing and proposed frameworks for territorial management. A key arena of conflict in this instance centres upon land-use planning and provision of infrastructure. The Cambridge 'growth crisis' raises a series of issues about the ability of interests claiming to represent nationally important city-regions to detach such places from their formative local and national modes of regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on the receipt of University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England Professor of Applied Economics David Newbery of the Outstanding Contributions to the Profession of Energy Economics Award in 2002 from the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE). The Award was presented to Newbery at the IAEE Prague Conference in 2003. University of Cambridge has been the locus of his academic career, but he has spent time at other academic institutions, with organizations such as the World Bank, and has served on several commissions. His publication and research record is indeed prodigious, much of it relating to taxation, regulation, transportation, commodity pricing, cost-benefit analysis, resources, and especially of late, electricity. Here he has been spearheading research on electricity markets, dealing with the thorny problems of market liberalization, regulation, restructuring and privatization. His contributed paper on energy tax policy is indicative of his long term interest in this topic, an interest that dates back at least to the mid-1980s.