Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 6
Developed countries:
the United Kingdom
and Spain
Apart from the consideration of theory and of the general shift in the content and
orientation of development, geographers are commonly at pains to ground their
ideas in observation of real world examples. Despite the onset of globalization,
the best units for this observation are the individual states and their component
regions. As there are such great differences between the advanced countries and
those that are just now becoming industrial and urban, it is worth examining
cases of both kinds. Within the countries, there are two kinds of observation to
be made, first of the course of development and spatial pattern, and secondly, of
the policies that have been followed to influence this pattern. For the advanced
countries, two European countries are chosen: the UK and Spain.
First the actual course of development in the two countries is sketched; then
there is an examination of regional development policies by governments. The
UK provides important information, since it was early into the field of regional
development, and has tried a variety of approaches. The most recent of these
approaches will be discussed later, but policies from the recent past show how
the problems have evolved and how the proposed solutions have evolved with
them. Spain provides a different kind of example, a country whose development
can be portrayed as having been checked after an early surge in the nineteenth
century, and which is now recovering lost ground, but in ways and areas quite
separate from the earlier period.
The United Kingdom
Within the UK, development has not been a constant and smooth evolution from
pre-industrial times. Instead the country has pushed forward in stages when there
were new inventions and changes in technology, to be followed by periods of
stagnation or relative inaction. This is true for the nation as a whole, but even more
so for individual regions within it. These stages have been represented, for
example by Prestwich & Taylor (1990), as a set of Kondratiev waves: long
waves of development involving a multiplicity of interconnected changes, in
technology, in social organization, and in the use of specific resources, goods and
services. On the upswing of each wave, there is the introduction of new
technology and a decline in the price of raw materials. This upswing is followed
