Complaints about the scholarly book market being saturated by „companions“ should be quickly dispelled by this valuable collection of essays by some of the top scholars in the field. Castro-Klaren (Johns Hopkins Univ.) has put together a rich collection of 38 essays that propose new ways to understand how the literature and culture of Latin America (including Brazil and the Caribbean) interact now and more importantly how they interacted in the past. Particularly valuable is the volume's focus on crucial shifts now occurring in the perception of Latin American culture, society, and subjects--and specifically the way colonial studies shed light on periods other than the colonial period itself. In this sense, one can almost read Walter Mignolo's useful „Preamble: The Historical Foundation of Modernity/Coloniality and the Emergence of Decolonial Thinking,“ one of the most provoking and profitable contributions of this volume,„ as programmatic; he proposes extending the study of the colonial matrix into considerations of modernity and documents the transition “from the city of letters to the city of signs." In short, this is a fascinating panoply that goes from a reevaluation of pre-Columbian America to an intriguing consideration of recent developments in the debate on the modern and postmodern. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. -- G. Gómez-Ocampo, Wabash College (Choice, February 2009)
Mass Appraisal Methods
An International Perspective for Property Valuers
herausgegeben von Tom Kauko und Maurizio d'AmatoThis book takes a cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural look atmass appraisal expertise for property valuation in different marketconditions, and offers some cutting- edge approaches.
The editors establish an international platform and present thescientific debate as well as practical feasibility considerations. Heretic and orthodox valuation methods are assessed based onspecific criteria, partly technical and partly institutional. Methodological evaluation is approached using two types ofcriteria: operational concerns about how to determine propertyvalue differentials between spatial and functional units of realestate in a valid and reliable way (technical criteria); and thekind of market circumstances being operated in (institutionalcriteria). While technical criteria are relatively well-researched, there is little theoretically informed work on the connectionbetween country context and selection of property appraisalmethods.
The book starts with an examination of current mass propertyappraisal practices, presenting case studies from widely differingmarkets - from the American and Dutch, where regression-basedmethods have been used successfully for some time; to the EasternEuropean and other emerging economies, where limitations have to becompensated by focusing on the modelling assumptions.
The second part of the book looks at sophisticated modellingapproaches, some of which represent combinations of elements fromtwo or more techniques. Whatever the exact modelling approach, therequirements are always high for the quality of the data andsuitability of the method. In the final section, methods areevaluated and compared according to technical criteria and againstinstitutional contexts. With its exceptionally wide coverage ofvaluation issues, Mass Appraisal Methods: an internationalperspective for property valuers addresses property valuationproblems common to different countries and approaches applicable inboth developed and emerging economies.
The editors establish an international platform and present thescientific debate as well as practical feasibility considerations. Heretic and orthodox valuation methods are assessed based onspecific criteria, partly technical and partly institutional. Methodological evaluation is approached using two types ofcriteria: operational concerns about how to determine propertyvalue differentials between spatial and functional units of realestate in a valid and reliable way (technical criteria); and thekind of market circumstances being operated in (institutionalcriteria). While technical criteria are relatively well-researched, there is little theoretically informed work on the connectionbetween country context and selection of property appraisalmethods.
The book starts with an examination of current mass propertyappraisal practices, presenting case studies from widely differingmarkets - from the American and Dutch, where regression-basedmethods have been used successfully for some time; to the EasternEuropean and other emerging economies, where limitations have to becompensated by focusing on the modelling assumptions.
The second part of the book looks at sophisticated modellingapproaches, some of which represent combinations of elements fromtwo or more techniques. Whatever the exact modelling approach, therequirements are always high for the quality of the data andsuitability of the method. In the final section, methods areevaluated and compared according to technical criteria and againstinstitutional contexts. With its exceptionally wide coverage ofvaluation issues, Mass Appraisal Methods: an internationalperspective for property valuers addresses property valuationproblems common to different countries and approaches applicable inboth developed and emerging economies.
