Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
be, to some degree, resistant to these forms of communication 'without a face'. People
can communicate through e-mail, but their most important decisions are still made
during face-to-face contacts. In fact, the increase in appointments made by e-mail has
actually intensii ed formal and informal meetings between people (Storper and Venables,
2002). Of course, at the same time the networks became worldwide as well. Working at
home is possible, but remains up to now often coni ned to more standardised admin-
istrative work or very specialised personalised work (for example editing, translating
and writing), which requires no resources other than knowledge, a PC and a broadband
connection. Yet, even in these activities, people seek contact with their colleagues in
the workplace or at clubs and social events. The work conducted and the relations, in a
setting other than at home, form an essential component of modern lifestyles and rou-
tines. However, spatial proximity can be, at least partly, replaced by activities and rela-
tions in topological 'economic space' or networks (Boschma, 2005; Huber, 2007).
Although the ef ect of ICT on spatial development seems to be more limited than
the earlier prophets predicted, there still are some important ef ects, for instance on the
business organisation, on the global division of labour, on shopping behaviour and on
the ways of intercommunication of many households. The processes of suburbanisation
and polycentricity have been established in many countries for some time now, but most
studies to date show that ICT is playing a facilitating role in these processes. The ef ect
of ICT on the development of other kinds of urbanisation
may become stronger in the
future (Graham and Marvin, 2001; Spuf ord, 2006).
Bartley contends that the ef ects of ICT on urban de-concentration are less certain
than was expected by adherents to the 'death of distance' hypothesis (Bartley, 2006).
However, Sassen (1991) argued that three transformations can be discerned: (1) the geo-
graphic dispersal of manufacturing and the decline of industrial centres; (2) the growth
of the i nancial services; and (3) the changing relations between cities, more in particular
between the global cities. According to Scott (2006), contrary to what many believe,
larger urban regions remain attractive in terms of the composition of economic activi-
ties rather than the so-called 'quality-of-life indicators' or the impact of ICT. It seems,
however, that workers do not just act with the opportunities of ICT in mind. They still
prefer urban locations with a better quality of life for knowledge workers, as Florida
(2002) and Glaeser and Gottlieb (2006) contend.
Our conclusion is that the resistance to spatial change presumably is now stronger
than at the beginning of the earlier revolutionary waves of economic and technological
development, because we already live in a strongly urbanised world.
New conceptual frameworks seem to be necessary to ef ectively analyse the spatial
developments of path-breaking new technologies like ICT. Until now, dif erent terms
have been used such as 'polycentric urban structures', 'networked cities', 'externalities',
'spaces of l ows', 'penetration of computer automation', 'splintering urbanism' and
'dispersed de-concentration'. These are the terms that can form part of the major struc-
turing elements of future research into the relationship between ICT on the one hand
and spatial (urban) development on the other. Because these concepts were introduced
only rather recently, there is as yet little research available to coni rm or disprove their
validity. In order to judge the impacts of ICT a longer time-horizon is needed.
Previous
technological developments fostered a strong process of urbanisation, but that took a
long time to evolve. It seems that comparable developments of the changes in technol-
