Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
to describe, typify and explain the spatial evolution of the knowledge and information
economy.
The new information economy is characterised by an uneven spatial division of
labour. ICT is the key technology underlying this economy. The distribution of ICT
competences among the workforce in England is concentrated in and around the metro-
politan area of London and the greater south east. A part of the explanation for this has
to do with changes in the national political economy regime wrought in the 1980s and
early 1990s by successive Thatcher governments. These hastened the deindustrialisation
of the north and London, while deregulation in i nancial services stimulated the growth
of electronically delivered trading services in the City of London. Part of the result of
these changes is the very high level of all services in places like the London TTWA where
they are approaching some 90 per cent of the entire local economy.
A characteristic of the evolution of new services is that their quality is unevenly dis-
tributed. The spatial division of labour shows highly paid electronic i nancial traders
concentrated in London. In contrast Leeds has become the call-centre capital of England
(Leeds City Council, 2007).
Knowledge and information are the key raw materials of the information economy.
The agglomeration and concentration of such economies is partly driven by the availabil-
ity of knowledge spillovers. There are a number of mechanisms by which such spillovers
take place. Two of these are the growth of sectors that make their living by transferring
knowledge, and the development of various forms of network.
KIBS are an example of the former. They provide commercial, interactive knowledge
spillovers between themselves and between knowledge-based and capable businesses in
other sectors. They have grown rapidly over the past few decades on the basis of the
increasingly sophisticated division and re-division of labour in the information economy.
There tends to be a spatially symbiotic relationship between KIBS and other knowledge-
based businesses. They co-evolve together and so where KIBS are found it is also to
be expected that there will be concentrations of other knowledge-based businesses. In
England this is especially the case in the City of London and mainly around the greater
south east. These locations provide another example of the uneven spatial division of
labour in the information economy.
Networking is also an important mechanism for enabling knowledge spillovers. Dense
co-location of complementary knowledge-based sectors and networking is illustrated
by the banks and KIBS concentrated within the City of London. These networks also
extend beyond the City into Canary Wharf and out into the mainly western arc around
the GSE. These strong local networks also form the basis for international knowledge
transfers through the interchange of high quality labour facilitated by high capacity ITC
infrastructures.
In the City, networking was found to facilitate innovation through knowledge transfers
between complementary services and their customers and also as a result of knowledge of
competitors. Although innovation in services has proved dii cult to conceptualise it can
be seen in the recombination of competences and knowledge on a pick and mix basis into
new bespoke knowledge for specii c customers.
Evolutionary economic theory suggests some relatively uncomfortable realities for
i rms and sectors. Both are subject to constant competitive selection processes as they
seek to adapt their existing routines to proceed along existing technological trajectories.
