Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
places that were chosen long ago as appropriate sites
for administrative or educational activities based on
cultural values
or political compromises. The American ideal of the
“university town” (which originated in Germany) led to
the establishment of many universities at a distance
from major commercial and population centers, in such
towns as Champaign-Urbana, Illinois; Norman,
Oklahoma; and Eugene, Oregon. Political compro-
mises led to the establishment of major seats of govern-
ment in small towns. Ottawa, Canada, and Canberra,
Australia, are examples of this phenomenon. The point
is that historical location decisions infl uence the geog-
raphy of the quinary sector. And it is not just university
professors and government offi cials who are affected.
All sorts of high-level research and development activi-
ties are located on the fringes of universities, and a host
of specialized consultants are concentrated around
governmental centers. These then become major nodes
of quinary activity.
of technopole developed outside Boston, where the
concentration of technology-based businesses close to
Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology gave rise to what is called the Route 128
high-technology corridor. The Route 128 corridor has
been largely supported by the federal government
rather than the local government, which supports many
other technopoles.
Technopoles can be found in a number of countries
in western Europe, eastern Asia, North America, and
Australia. Few are on the scale of Silicon Valley, but they
are noticeable elements of the economic landscape.
Many of them have sprung up on the edges of good-
sized cities, particularly near airports. In Brussels
(Belgium), for example, the route into the city from the
airport passes an array of buildings occupied by com-
puter, communication, and electronics fi rms. In
Washington, D.C., the route from Dulles International
Airport (located in the Virginia suburbs) to the city
passes buildings housing the headquarters of companies
such as AOL, MCI, and Orbital Sciences (the Dulles
Corridor). In the Telecom Corridor of Plano-
Richardson (just outside of Dallas, Texas), telecom com-
panies such as Nortel and Ericsson have taken root, but
so too have numerous high-technology companies that
are not telecom related (Fig. 12.19). In each of these
technopoloes, the presence of major multinational com-
panies attracts other startup companies hoping to
become major companies, provide services to major
companies, or be bought by major companies.
Many of the technology fi rms are multinationals,
and like their counterparts in other countries, they func-
tion in an information environment and market their
products all over the world. Being near raw materials or
even a particular market is unimportant for these fi rms;
what matters to them is proximity to major networks of
transportation and communication. High-technology
industries have become such an important symbol of the
postindustrial world that local, regional, and national
governments often pursue aggressive policies to attract
fi rms in this sector. Bidding wars sometimes develop
between localities seeking to attract such industries.
Although high-technology industries often bring a vari-
ety of economic benefi ts, they have some drawbacks as
well. Communities that have attracted production facili-
ties fi nd that the manufacture of computer chips, semi-
conductors, and the like requires toxic chemicals and
large quantities of water. And even more research-ori-
ented establishments sometimes have negative environ-
mental impacts in that land must be cleared and build-
ings constructed to house them. Despite these
drawbacks, the high-technology sector is clearly here to
stay, and areas that can tap into it are likely to fi nd them-
selves in an advantageous economic position in the com-
ing years.
High-Technology Clusters
A high-technology corridor is an area designated by local
or state government to benefi t from lower taxes and high-
technology infrastructure, with the goal of providing
high-technology jobs to the local population. The goal of
a high-technology corridor is to attract designers of com-
puters, semiconductors, telecommunications, sophisti-
cated medical equipment, and the like.
California's Silicon Valley is a well-known example
of a high-technology corridor. Several decades ago a
number of innovative technology companies located
their research and development activities in the area
around the University of California, Berkeley, and
Stanford University near San Francisco, California.
They were attracted by the prospect of developing links
with existing research communities and the availability
of a highly educated workforce. Once some high-
technology businesses located in the Silicon Valley,
others were drawn to the area as well. The area became
what geographers call a growth pole , not just because
other high-technolgy businesses came to Silicon Valley,
but because the concentration of these businesses
spurred economic development in the surrounding
area. Today, the Silicon Valley is home to dozens of
computer companies, many of which are familiar to the
computer literate (such as Cisco Systems, Adobe,
Hewlett-Packard, Intel, IBM, and Netscape). The
resulting collection of high-technology industries pro-
duced what Manuel Castells, Peter Hall, and John
Hutriyk call a technopole , an area planned for high
technology where agglomeration built on a synergy
among technological companies occurs. A similar sort
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