Services and Uneven Development

This book surveys the development of service industries in Britain from a geographical perspective, assessing their contribution to other sectors of the economy. The location of new service industries is described and explained, with an analysis of the effect of locational changes on employment opportunities and patterns. The contributors consider the economic role of private sector producer services and provide a British view of issues to complement parallel work already published on the situation in the USA. A final chapter gives the international perspective with contributions from the USA, Canada, and the European Community. This book is the outcome of the Producer Services Working Party, a limited-life working party established in 1984 by the Institute of British Geographers (IBG) and funded by the IBG and the Economic and Social Research Council.Table of ContentPart 1 The growing interest in services: the importance of service activities; is manufacturing the basic sector; monitoring of changes in service activity; the role of producer services in the space economy; producer services in a depressed manufacturing economy. Part 2 Defining and analysing producer services: problems of definition and the development of service studies; defining producer services; classification and measurement of producer services; problems of analysis. Part 3 The role of producer services in the economy: interpretations of structural change; the contribution of producer services to employment growth; producer services and manufacturing industry; producer services and final demand; the contribution of producer services to the performance of other sectors of the economy; do spatial variations in producer services matter. Part 4 The location of producer service employment: which services are unevenly distributed; the regional distribution of producer service employment; the urban character of producer service industries; regional changes in the location of service industry and manufacturing employment; the changing location of producer service industries in local labour markets; the changing location of individual producer service industries; changes in the distribution of producer service industries by sub-period. Part 5 Case studies of producer service location: the international context for producer services; non-production employment in manufacturing; physical distribution; the financial sector; business service offices. Part 6 Understanding the location of producer services: existing approaches; market changes; corporate reorganization; employment, technological change and the labour process; spatial implications. Part 7 Policy towards services: British regional policy towards services; non-regional policy assistance towards services; European regional policy towards services; infrastructure. Part 8 Conclusions, research questions and priorities: the nature of the service economy; understanding the dynamics of producer service growth and decline. Part 9 International perspectives on producer services: the view from the United States, W.B.Beyers; some international perspectives on services and development - the European Community, M.Bannon; the economic role of producer services - some Canadian evidence, P.Wood; employment matters - a comment, J.Lewis.