Post on 14-Jan-2016
Economic Restructuring and the Information City
1973 - present
Historical Context 1973 Oil Embargo
“Stagflation” – 1973-1982 economic slowdown w/ price inflation
Shift from Keynesian policies
OPEC & Economy Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries
Yom Kippur War – October 1973
Impact on industry & areas of American life
Rationing
Auto Industry
Economic Restructuring
Schlitz Park
Diversion of Investments From primary sector (industrial
production)
To secondary sectors (capital investment)
Or – tertiary sectors (education or technology research)
Winners & Losers Big Winners – speculative
commercial development & technology research
Losers – industrial production
Houston
Permissive or enabling technologies A. Production process technologies:
electronically controlled assembly lines; robotics; automated sewing systems
B. Transaction technologies: computer-based just-in-time inventory; eliminate need for larger buffer stock
C. Circulation technologies: communication satellites, fiber-optic networks, microwave communication, FAX machines
Production & Consumption
Geographic Implications Technology provides increased
opportunity to take advantage of spatial variations in costs of land and labor due to separability & flexibility
Wider geographic market to an increasing range of business activities
Tiger Economies & Silicon Places
“Informational City” Development of new international &
intermetropolitan divisions of labor
Degree to which cities are “hooked in” define status
“spaces of flows” versus “space of relative locations”
World Cities Hierarchy Global Cities – London, New York, Tokyo
World City – cities at the center of “spaces of flows”
Regional command & control centers
Specialized producer – service centers
Dependent centers
Hierarchy
Demographic & Social Change Baby Boomers: Household formation;
affordability crisis
The Elderly: 1970-1990 – over 60 population increased from 9.2% to 12.4%
New Immigration: abolition of quotas in 1965; immigrants account for nearly 1/3 in growth of urban system in 1980s
Baby Boomers
Elderly
New Immigrants