Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Other rigths have added further features, such as an emphasis on research and
educational functions, the existance of exibition and conference centres, and
further identifiers. King (1990) makes much of the special kind of population
inhabiting such cities. There is a large wealthy elite group, an international
executive which create a wealthy region in the city for itself. There are many
white-coller workers, and few blue-coller workers; the growth in the city is in
office space and high-class residential space, excluding or pushing out poorer
groups, and creating conflict. This conflict also calls into being a large informal
sector, providing cheap services and goods. The city authorities have problems in
controlling such a city, with limited urban budgets. One main point about such
cities is that they can act as relay point between the centre countries and the
periphery. Global cities obviously exist, aside from any overarching model about
the nature of developement process, and they present a problem of a special kind
for the countries that host them, as well as a challange for study, because of their
special population characteristics and economy (Findlay et al. 1996).
Spatial divisions of labour
A left-wing model more relevant to the rigions of Europe today is Massey's
(1984) “spatial divisions of labour ”, which was developed for the British case.
According to this model, which derives from a broader model of uneven
development, a neo-Marxist alternative to Frank's dependency theory (Weaver
1984), in the early industrial period of the nineteenth century manufacturing
industry was organized by regions, with a complete structure in each for the lead
sector. Thus, for example, southern Lancashire became a cotton textile district,
with a complete set of vertically integrated industries, from cotton-washing,
carding and spinning, through to weaving and finishing industries, often in
different mills with different owners. But in the present century this arrangement
has been changed so that regions become specialized, not according to sector but
according to stage in the general industrial process. Thus London and the
southeast of England have become the main industrial centre for research and
design, and for company headquarters, especially of the light industries that have
emerged in recent decades such as electrical and electronic goods. The old
industrial regions of the nineteenth century have tended to become regions of
component manufacture, using the large pool of labour skills in these regions.
Some regions, notably in the outer periphery of the north of England, Scotland
and Northern Ireland, have become largely assembly regions, their skills having
declined over long periods of depression, and their wage costs now being lower
than elsewhere.
This model adds some complexity to the overall picture, with the assertion,
also presented in the world systems writings, that the role of any specific region
may very over time: that for one period and one technology it may be central and
nearly so, while at another time it may be peripheral. This means that each region
has an individual character and set of problems. Thus South Wales, at one time a
