Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
less expensive transportation of goods and people. The consequence was a drastic
reduction in the economic vitality of many western towns and cities, leaving many
to stagnate or even decline. This trend was accelerated by the increasing mecha-
nization of many processes which required less labour, especially of the unskilled
sort, which has led to limited employment prospects for the unskilled in developed
countries. Yet the negative changes in the west have led to the explosive growth of
many urban places in parts of the less developed world, unfortunately with limited
labour rights and safety standards, poor housing, and often high levels of poverty,
poor health and also pollution because of the absence of environmental regulations.
These globalization trends, combined with more intense capitalist processes and
the decline in the number of communist states, have meant that most cities have
become increasingly open to a similar range of economic pressures. So there is a
greater urban competiveness as well as making them less local, increasingly vy-
ing with others in a global world for economic activities. Many have lost the site
advantages they once possessed, for the old industrial-age 'trinity' of localization
advantages based on the incidence of raw materials, differential transport costs and
industrial skills, have been replaced by the new 'gods of location'—information,
amenity and image—which many small and older industrial centres do not possess.
Certainly these older locational requirements are still important for some industries.
But even in the places that have attracted new economic activities there is now a
greater danger that these may be moved to other places by decisions from remote
corporations with little concern about the effects on the original location. Also, in
many other parts of the word there are simply not enough jobs, certainly meaning-
ful and well-paying jobs, to absorb the growing population. Yet the rapid pace of
innovation has brought new growth to some places and placed a premium upon
knowledge creation. Unlike the spread of manufacturing, invention and innovation
has become increasingly localized in a small number of centres. The change has
focused attention on the knowledge-creation processes in these cities in order to
understand why some have able to develop and attract new innovative activities.
Better understanding of these locational imperatives may help improve the job pros-
pects in other centres as part of their efforts to remain competitive.
Many of these changes have been lubricated by the growth of almost instant
world communication via electronic systems, such as the Internet and mobile de-
vices, and by more rapid, cheaper and regular transport connections by sea, air and
land, creating a far more inter-connected world. In the case of sea, the explosion of
container ships and very big bulk carriers has transformed the transport of cargoes
and raw materials. Air transport expanded especially rapidly from the 1970s with
the introduction of wide-bodied jets and later low cost new airlines, as well the
growth of new cargo planes for freight. On land, road transport has increased due
to more and better roads and more efficient vehicles, while the introduction of high
speed railways has slashed the connection times between many big cities in Europe.
In this context it is China, with a high speed rail network of 12,000 km, bigger than
Europe's network in 2014, and with plans to double this by 2020, that has made
enormous strides in the last decade. Certainly some continents and parts of others
have been left behind in this transport and communication revolution. But these
