Chapter 12

Services

What are services?• Service:

• Any activity that fulfills a human want or need and returns money to those who provide it

• Space:• Where services are located in space, creates a link

between services and settlements• Rural villages to megalopolis

• Why services are clustered??? • Proximity to market• Optimal location for services is near customers

• Locating a service• Uses more precise geographic skills than Industry

• Tend to be specific places• “location, location, location”

• Distribution must be where people live• Also driven by socio-economic factors

Where did Services Originate?

• Services provided in all societies• In MDCs majority of

workers engaged in the provision of services

• North America 3/4th of workers in services

• % in LDCs less than 1/4th

• Services provide more than 2/3rd of the GDP in MDCs• Less than ½ in LDCs

• Three types of services:• Consumer services• Business services• Public services

Types of Services

• Consumer Services• Definition:

• purpose to provide services to individual consumers who desire them and can afford to pay them

• Nearly 44% of jobs in US are in consumer services

• Types:• Retail and Wholesale

Services− 15% of jobs in US− Department stores,

grocers, clothing• Education Services

− 10% of jobs in US• Health Services

− 12% of jobs− Health care, primarily

hospitals, nursing homes

• Leisure and Hospitality Services− 10% of jobs− Restaurants and bars,

lodging and entertainment

Business Services

• Definition: • Purpose is to facilitate other

businesses• 24% of all jobs in US

• Types:• Financial services

• 6% of US jobs• Called “Fire” for financial,

insurance, real estate• Financial = banks

• Professional Services• 12% of US jobs• Technical services: law,

accounting, architecture, engineering, design, and consulting

• Support Services: clerical, secretarial, custodial

• Transportation and Information Services

• Businesses that diffuse and distribute

• 6% of US jobs• Transportation

− Mainly trucking• Can also include:

− Publishing/ broadcasting− Utilities such as water and

electricity

Public Services

• Definition:• Purpose is to provide

security and protection for citizens and businesses

• 17% of jobs in US• Mainly Federal

government, state, or local government

Changes in number of employees

• Between 1972 and 2009• All growth in service

sector• Decline in employment in

primary and secondary jobs

• Business Services• Expanded in professional

services most rapidly− Engineering,

management, law• Grew more slowly in

finance and transportation services− Mainly due to improved

efficiency

• Consumer services• Rapid increase in health

care− Including nursing

homes and home-health care

• Other large increases in Education, Entertainment, recreation

• Public services• Declined over past two

decades

Services in Contemporary Rural Settlements

• Before establishment of Permanent settlements people lived as nomads

• At some point, people decided to build permanent settlements• Were they established

because of need to services?

• Based on archeological studies settlements built first for consumer and public services− Later came business services

Early Consumer Services

• Earliest permanent settlements may have been established to offer consumer services• Specifically burial of the

dead

• By 5,000 years ago many settlements existed

• Settlements also may have been places to house families

• People also needed tools, clothing, shelter, containers, fuel, and other material goods• Settlements became

manufacturing centers

• The variety of consumer services expanded as people began to specialize

Early Public Services

• Public services probably followed religious activities into early permanent settlements

• Everyone in settlement vulnerable to attack so some members became soldiers

• Settlement likely was a good base from which the group could defend nearby food sources against competitors

• Might build wall around settlement for extra protection• Settlements became

citadels• Centers for military power

Early Business Services

• Everyone in settlements needed food• Initially brought in

through hunting and gathering

• What about extra supply?

• Led to storage

• Settlements also became a place where people could trade goods and services• Eventually led to

record keeping, currency system, and setting fair prices

Services in Early Urban Settlements

• Services in Ancient Cities• Earliest Urban settlements

• First documented ones in Mesopotamia− Ur, Uruk

• Evidence suggests that cities were well-planned

Services in Early Urban Settlements

• Ancient Athens• First Mediterranean

settlements established 2500 B.C.E.

• Oldest include Knossos, Troy, and Mycenae− Trading centers for

thousands of islands– Organized into city-

states

• Athens• Largest city-state• Provide consumer services

and cultural activities

• Ancient Rome• Rise of Roman Empire

encouraged urban settlement

• Settlements established as centers of administrative, military, and other public services− As well as retail and

consumer services

• Trade encourages through transportation

• With fall of Rome, urban settlements declined

• Trade diminished

Services in Early Urban Settlements

• Urban life revived in 11th century Europe

• Feudal lords established new urban settlements• Feudalism

• Rise of small towns to facilitate trade by 14th century

• Large Medieval urban settlements served as power centers for lords and church leaders

• Most important services in town square• Church, palaces

Key issue #2-Where are contemporary services located?

• Services are clustered in settlements• Rural Settlements

• Centers of agriculture• Provide small amount

of services

• Urban Settlements• Centers for consumer

and business services

Services in Rural Settlements

• A clustered rural settlement is a place where a number of families live in close proximity to each other

• A dispersed rural settlement is characterized by farmers living on individual farms isolated from neighbors• Typical in North America

Clustered Rural Settlements

• Typically includes homes, barns, tool sheds, and other farm structures

• Includes consumer services such as religious structures, schools, and shops

• May have a handful of business services

• Often these settlements are called a hamlet or village

Circular Rural Settlements

• Circular Rural Settlements• Circular form consists of a

central open space surrounded by structures

• Example: kraal villages − Enclosures for livestock

in center, surrounded by ring of houses

• Example: German Gewanforf settlements− Consists of core of

houses, barns, and churches, encircled by different types of agricultural activities

− Von Thunen observed this in his agricultural studies

Linear Rural Settlements

• Comprise of buildings clustered along a road, river or dike to facilitate communications• Fields extend behind the

buildings in long, narrow strips• Can be seen today along St.

Lawrence River in Quebec

• French long-lot system• Houses erected along river• Narrow lots established

perpendicular to river so that each settler had access to river

Colonial American Clustered Settlements

• New England built clustered settlements centered on an open area called a common

• Settlers grouped their homes and public buildings around common

• In addition to houses, each settler had a home of 1 to 5 acres• Contained barn, garden, and

enclosures for feeding livestock

• Favored for several reasons:• Settlers typically traveled in

groups• Colonists wanted to live

close together• To protect from Indian

attacks

• Outsiders could only obtain land by permission of the town’s residents

• Contemporary New England landscape contains remnants of the old clustered rural settlement patterns

Dispersed Rural Settlements

• Outside of New England, dispersed rural settlements were more common in the American colonies

• In New England and Great Britain, clustered rural settlements were converted to a dispersed pattern

• Many disadvantages to clustered pattern• Farmers lost time moving between

fields• Villagers had to build more roads

to connect smaller lots• Farmers were restricted in what

they could plant

• United States• Middle colonies settled by more

heterogeneous groups than New England

• Led to land being bought individually

• Dispersed pattern spread to Mid-West and later New England

• Worked better with larger populations

• People less interested in religious and cultural values

• Great Britain• Converted to improve agricultural

production• Led to enclosure movement

− Consolidated individual land into one large farm

− Brought efficiency but destroyed village life

− Coincided with Industrial Revolution

Services in Urban Settlements

• Population of urban settlements exceeded that of rural settlements for the 1st time in human history in 2008• 1800- 3%• 1850- 6%• 1900- 14%• 1950- 30%• 2000- 47%

Services in Urban Settlements

• Differences between urban and rural settlements

• Differences identified by Louis Wirth in 1900s

• Defined cities by three characteristics

• Wirth argued these characteristics produced differences in the social behavior of urban and rural residents

• Large size• Rural – small• Urban- medium/ large

• High density• Rural- low pop density• Urban- high pop density

− Only way people can be supported is through specialization

• Social heterogeneity• The larger the settlement the

greater diversity of the people

Increasing # of people in cities

• Process by which the population of urban settlements grows is called urbanization

• Two dimensions• Increase in number of people

living in cities• Increase in the % of people living

in the cities• Distinction important because they occur

for different reasons and have different global distributions

• Large % of people living in cities reflects a country’s level of development

• MDCs have a higher % of urban residents BUT LDCs have very large urban settlements• Eight of the ten most populous

cities are in LDCs• Buenos Aires, Dehli, Dhaka, Calcutta,

Mexico City, Mumbai, Sao Paolo and Shanghai

• Fueled by people migrating from countryside for economic opportunities

• Also connected to high natural increase rates