Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
London
South East
South West
East
North West
East Midlands
West Midlands
Yorkshire-Humberside
North East
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
Note:
UK = 100; year 2000.
Source:
Martin (2004).
Figure 23
.
1
Index of knowledge-based business
Figure 23.1 illustrates the lead that southern regions in England had built by 2000
over those in the north with respect to knowledge-based businesses. These are identii ed
according to the proportions of managerial, professional and technical workers they
employ. This lead has been established cumulatively over the years principally since the
1960s. Despite government aspirations to the contrary it is dii cult to see how, in the
kind of circumstances outlined above, the economies of those regions in the north can be
made to converge with those in the south given the overall signii cance of the contempo-
rary knowledge-based economy.
5. Paradigm change
In addition to the evolutionary argument that i rms, sectors and economies 'normally'
evolve along established trajectories, are path dependent and marked by incremental
innovation, they are also subject to gales of creative destruction. These are driven by
breakthrough innovations in particular economic sectors that then spread through other
parts of the economy. Breakthrough innovations are also situated in a combination of
economic, institutional and social factors that contribute to the establishment of new
technological paradigms (Dosi, 1982, p. 153). Dosi dei nes a technological paradigm 'as
a model and a pattern of solution of selected technological problems, based on selected
principles derived from natural sciences and on selected material technologies' (Dosi,
1982, p. 152).
Each new technological paradigm has drastic organisational and geographical impli-
cations. In the UK, the i rst modern industrial wave, based on key innovations in
weaving, iron manufacture and transportation, drove the development of the factory
system, a laissez-faire economic regime and the new growth of towns around coali elds
and ports. The second wave, based on key innovations in steel and steamships, was
