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    Juan Iso

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    of 49
    Also by Doreen Massey CAPITAL AND LAND (with Alejandrina Catalano) ‘THE GEOGRAPHY OF INDUSTRIAL REORGANISATION (ith Richard Meegan) ‘THE ANATOMY OF JOB LOSS (with Richard Meegan) GEOGRAPHY MATTERS! elied with John Allen) POLITICS AND METHOD (edited with Richord Mecgan) "THE ECONOMY IN QUESTION (edited with John Allen) UNEVEN RE-DEVELOPMENT (edited with John Allen) HIGH-TECH FANTASIES (with Paul Quinta and David Wild) SPACE, PLACE AND GENDER Spatial Divisions of Labor Social Structures and the Geography of Production SECOND EDITION i 10% 29 West 3th Steet New York NY 10001 (© Doreen Massey 1984, 1995 ‘A ight reserved No epraton, copy ortasmlsion of ‘Ay eran who doce any nathan at natn th ‘ubleanon my bebo emia prssitan a cll Repened 1988, 1987, 1990, ‘ston! eiion 1998, Pubes in 1995 by 25 Wea 35 Sree ‘New York Cy NY 0001 brary of Congress Cataloging n-Pblton Date Spat son bor: il artes nde seoraphy ‘produto Deen Macy. De Teles igri references sins ISuNo-2is-9f209 4 ISBN O-a15-91296-2 964) { Great Bn Economie condivons—1945-Regiong ‘isprtes. 2 Inna eeton “Great itn, 3. Repos pluming Gres Briain Te FOR NANCY AND JACK with many thanks and much love Contents Preface tothe First Baton Preface tothe Second Edition List of Tables Lis of Figures List of Abbreviations “The Tess Social Relat 21 The debate 22 Characterising capital The problem Pace in economic structure Contrast in Tabour proses The organisational structure of capital Some contusions 2.3 Social structures and capitalist relations of| production ‘A framework laborations Reflections 24 The social and the spatial: an impossible dichotomy Geography matters Places end politics 25. An enimple nd Spatal Organisation Uneven Development and Spatial Stratures AI The approach 432 Spatial structures of capitalist production ‘Conceptualising the spatial organisation of production Some isscs ‘An example 33 Spatial structures of production and geographical inequality a 2 0 0 2 2s 28 20 x0 » 8 ® ° 6 vill Contents Not two-dimensional patterns, but underying relations Spatial structures and social structures 24 The uniqueness of place 4. Some Changing Spatial Structures in the United Kingdom 441" Setting the sane “The inheritance: social and spatia! The ities wasted decade The eracks begin to show 42 Bletonics and instruments industries “The charter ofthe industry Labour asa "loeation factor” social process Spatial structures of large firms Spatial structures of smal firms 43 Clothing and footwear ‘The characer ofthe industry increasing pressures ‘The search for new labour two diferent steategies Spatial structures of big Firms ‘The impact on national geography Methodological rections 44 Servis ‘The industry: what are “services” anyway? Selremployment and family enterprises Other consumer services: private capital and the sate Producer serviss ‘An emerging spatial structure ‘5. The Rifects on Lacal Areas: Clase and Gender Relations S11 The general and the unique 52 The coalfield areas “The pre-existing structure ‘The impact, othe combination of layers" 5.3 A citfrent kind of "periphery’ the case of Cornwall The preeising structure ‘The impact, or"the combination of layers" 36 106 a 4 BI oT D8 na m2 1s 140 us Me 8 Iss 159, 164 166 169 169 10 us 8 ua wer i 188 188 196 ais ais 218 Contens (Class, Poles andthe Geography of Employment 61 Spatial structres and spatial divisions of labour 62 Uneven development and national politics Modernisation Mudaling through Monetarism 63. Changes in the geography of cass relations “The geography ofthe ownership of production White colar hierarchies Socil and spatial restructuring inthe working clas 7. The Reproduction of Inoquality: A Question of Polite 4. Reflections om Debates over a Decade 84 Themer 82. Marsism and the analysis of capitalism Capitalism Strbtutes, laws and tendencies Flows of value and the analysis of clas relations 83 Explanation ‘Outcomes a causes Aticalation/thinking in terms of rations ‘A final note on varity and specicty 4 The conceptualisation of space “The geography of the relations of production Broadening the analysis ‘A concluding note on spatial structures 85. Gender and feminism Reapitulaton of themes AA question of concept proach [Notes and References Bibliography “Author Indes ‘Subject Index 26 26 ns ns, as 255 a6 m1 296 206 ar 27 son 07 312 us wa 26 m6 m xe ul a ue 385 a2 36 Preface to the First E ‘This book has been a long time in the making. It began life as @ contribution toa debate within the branch of geography known a “industrial location theory’ ~ as what I hoped would bea trenchant critique ofall, or pretty much al, that had gone before, together ‘with a second half which would present ‘an allenative approach. A ‘number of things have happened in the period since then. I got bored with the extigue. The second “hal became the length of @ book in itself, and it also changed its 1 ® ting on in Britain and in other advanced capitalist counties, But more thaa anything else I bocame increasingly convinee of the importance of the isuer involved and of the fact that they should have a wider audience. My basic aim had been to link the srography of industry and employment to the wider, and under {ying structures of society. And one ofthe things I doi the Book preset an approach which, I hope, makes that posible, The iii Intention, in other words, was to start from the characteristics of| cconomy and society, and proced to explain their geography. But the more I got involved inthe subject, the more it seemed thatthe proaiss was not just one way. Its aso the case would argue — that understanding geographical organisation is fundamental to understanding an economy and a society. The geography of @ soviety makes a difeence to the way it works this is true analytically, ts als true politically. For there to be any hope of altering the fundamentally unequal geography of British economy and society (and that of other capitalist coun- ne, foo), 4 pics is nacesary which links questions of geogea- pica distribution to those of social and economic organisation Erfectvely to confront the spatial inequality in Britain today means taking on much the same battles ~and much the same social srata— tis necessary to win any wider prgresive change, But it equally {eue that any wider national political strategy must be Seasive the variations in economic structure, in occupations, in poi tradition and inthe fabric of day-to-day ite which exist between ferent pars of the country. Preface ¥i T have had lot of elp and support during the production ofthis ‘book: Most of the book was writen while Iwas the SSRC Fellow in Tdustrial Location Research, and T should ike to thank the SSRC and its staf The development ofthe ideas and arguments has been (ded and stimulated by many fends and colleagues over a number Of years Tt would be imposible to mention everyone by name. What has been best about the process his been the gradual evelopment of a practice which atleast tees to argue without ‘Scoring points, and feiss by being constructive. For ther hel, particularly in the final stages, however, 1 should lke to thank Michael Ball and Huw Beynon, who read the xanuserpt, Nancy ‘Massey for typing it magnificenty, and a numberof times, Richard ‘Mecgan, my co-worker for many eventful years, and Ron Martin. Faculty of Social Scenes Doreen Massey The Open University Mitton Keynes, England Preface to the Second Edition ‘When the idea of a second edition of Spatial Divisions of Labow was fist suggested to me, some time ago, I was reluctant initially 10 {ake i up. Above all [as unsure of the form which it should take “The frst edition of the book wae stimulated in part by empirical changes, by the great shifts which began to take place in regional (Ge. sub-national) economic and social geographies in the first ‘worl, from about the middle years of the 1960s. Such changes ‘were important ~ they affected the lives of people in cities and regions across large pats ofthe world. But the message I wanted 10 draw Irom those changes was mos importantly theoreti The det was to communicate a way of andertanding uneven geograph- fal development, rather than to advance an interpretation of the Shape of the world at some particular moment. The latter was Important too but it was, as much as anything, 2 vehicle for a more ‘general message. The arguments concerned, above all, tbe way in ‘which we conceptualise economic and to some extent more general Socal space, about how we understand the differences ad sic tures of inequality witin i and about how we might begin to think ofthe economic identities of unique places, ‘Thos isues, it seems to me, remain important. Much of the argument of Spatial Divisions of Labour has been widely accepted ‘mong geographers. Bu there remain ambiguiis and (as they soem to me!) misunderstandings. Moreover, since the time of the fist, ciliion there has been wide-ranging dsbate, discussion, not to say oatroversy, in part sparked by the book isl, part originating leewhere but within which the book has nevertheless become fmbroild, As Ann Markusen and Ron Martin point out in their eset asessments ofthe book and its eacer (Progress in Human (Geography, 1993), some ofits ways of arguing foreshadowed issues ‘only now emerging mote broadly on tothe agenda of intellectual ‘bale. They are, morcover, issues which go way beyond the ‘discipline of geography to engage with currents of argument — bout spatially, location and place, about uniqueness, contingency land modes of theorising ~ now preoceupying a wide range ofthe ‘numan siences. Preface i It therefore seme appropriate or 2 Second edition to be focused on these debates and on an exploration ofthe theoretical argument ‘tthe book in the content of some of the discussion of which over the last decade it har been part and in the light of subsequent theoretical developments. The body af the book, rom Chapter 2 (0 the orginal ‘Postscript, therefore remains unchanged except forthe correction of some minor typographical erors. However, bth the fart and last chapters of ths ediion are new and, as well as considering resent changes in the nature and form of uneven ‘evelopment, most centrally take on this task of making, more fexplict the Key theoretical arguments and methodological stances fof the book and of setting them in the context of wider carent ‘debate. The new fir chapter teaseses the purpose and broad form ‘ofthe book and pulls out the isues which are most important and ‘which have become foi of subsequent debate. The new las chapter provides a detailed commentary on the text under these major headings. It is hoped that this will clarify some of the book's positions and iterions and set them in a wider context, that in particular twill make the book more helpful for teaching purposes {by tracing threads of arpumeat as they appear ~ as theoretical Statement or in concrete use in diferent parts of the book), snd that it wil provoke yet further disusson on issues which remain of central importance. T should like to thank my publisher Steven Kennedy for goading ime into this, and for his continued advie and cheerful encourage: tment T should ao like to thank John Allen, Allan Cochrane and ‘Andrew Sayer for belpfl comments and much discussion. In the ten yes since I wrote the frst eton of SparalDisions of Labour TThave been working atthe Open University. Tt sa place which has 4 perhaps unique and certainly very collaborative and cooperative trap, have been a constant source of new ideas and of itlleetual mulation, and Tam grateful for that. T should farther lke 10 ‘hank Dorcen Warwick and Margaret Charters, also of the Open University, for typing the material for this second eiton. Dosis Masa List of Tables 4 42 a3 44 sa 54 61 62 AL Aa ‘Changes in the sectoral distribution of employers and self-employed within services, beeween 1961 and 1975, Selemployment as a pereeniage offtal sectoral, employment, by region, in 197 ‘The percentage of UK research establishments in the south-east of England, 1968 Employment-based location quotients for ofice occupations, 1971 (England and Wales) Industrial jobs created in Wales, 1977 Economic activity rates in industrial south Wales and Great Britain ‘Agecspecific activity rates for men, 1974: 3 comparison between regions Workers living in Rhonda in 1966 but working slaewhere Some employment characteristics ofthe ‘modernisation period Some employment characteristics of the mid-1970s ‘Gass composition and clas seltimage of mining and resort ares, 1970 (in perentages) Partisan selimage by class in mining areas and resorts, 1970 Gn percentages) m 3 12 186 ry 203 205 as me ae us ues List of Figures A basic framework Managerial hierarchies and relations of ownership sind possesion: abasic shape 42 The division of labour in production in parts of clestronict 43 Three locations showing thee different spatial siructures 344 ‘Three diferent part-proces posites 355. Occupations rations and social clases 5.1 The aecimatation of labour 52. and the aclimatisation of management 6.1 The role of regional poliy in the National Pan 62 Competition between areas .0 n 1s 16 07 2078 238-9 232 List of Abbreviations ran Rose ser Amalgamated Union o Engng Workers Sic Bats Lslnd Motor Cmporsion a Bntsh Stet Corporation bi DEA EAG EC csc EDC EBC ESRC HMSO we. ILAG. ME IRC Loe MP NALGO NeB NEB NEDO. NUFLAT. NUGMW NUM. NUTGW oxcD, Confederation of British Industry Community Development Project Cornwall Indutria! Development Association Gol nd Publi Serviees Association Cental Statistical OMice Department of Economic Affairs Beonomisis Advisory Group Buropean Community European Coal and Stet Community Economie Development Council Buropean Economie Community eonomie and Social Research Counell Her Majesy’s Stationery Office Industria! Development Certiate Inquiry ito Location Attitudes Group International Monetary Fund Industrial Reorganisation Corporation Location of Offices Bureau Member of Parliament National Association of Local Goverament Officers National Coa! Board National Enterprise Board [National Economic Development Office National Union of Footwear, Leather and Allied Trades [National Union of General and Municipal Workers [ational Union of Mineworkers [National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers Organisation of Beonomic Cooperation and Development List of Abbreviations i Payment By Resuls Regional Employment Premium Rest of South East Selective Employment Tax Standard Industral Cassication Soci Scienee Research Council “Transport and General Workers Union ‘Trades Union Congress The Issues ‘This is « book about industrial geography and economic uneven development. I explores the mechansms of industrial leation, the ‘hanging form ofthe inequalities between cites and regions, and the Jmpoctance ofthese things to the economy and society more widely ‘Tals forms its empirical focus. However, it became clear as Twas cploring ther sss that what we needed above all was new way fof thinking about economic space. We need, or so T argue io this book, to think of economic space as the product of the diferen tiated and intersecting socal cations ofthe economy. Its wth this sway of coneeptualising economic space that much of the book is concerned. Such an approach iafluness the way we analyse the location of economic activity, the way we understand uneven evelopment, the way we conceptualise individual aeas (lacs), fand the approach we may ake {0 any attempt to tackle the inequality ~ the relations of dominance and subordination ~ currently inherent in all these things. Let me begin, thes, withthe Central nub ofthis argument "To say that socal spe is relational has become commonplace But things are more easly sad than fully understood or thought trough into practice. To sey that space i relational means. bth that itshould not be conceptualised as some absolute (that iso say, pre-sxstng) dimension and also thats is actly constructed out Of, is 4 product of, the relations between Socal phenomena. We actively create space time-space, time-space) in the organisation and living of life" Moreover the way in which we do so wil have its impact back upon the structuring of society and of our ives ‘Now, inspite of all the dabate that thee has been over the last docade, it 8 my feeling that ~ even within geography, that most "spatial of disciplines, and certainly within industrial geography this real meaning of the slogun that “space it relational has not boon taken on board. Uneven development ~ perhaps the ceatal concept of economic geograph's field of enquiry ~ is sill most Frequently discussed as iit were only a matter of more development 1 2 Spatial Divisions of Labour in some places than others; more jbsfinestmentfincome here than there. Implicit in this Is a nolion of economic space as an tndulating surface, with successful high-poins and lee fortunate lows. ‘The argument here is that space can be more helpfully cconceptstised as the product of the stetehed-ou, intersecting tnd articulating socal elations of the economy. Not only does this integrate "the social and “the spatial” from the moment of inital ‘conceptualistion, it alo introduces ~ relly into space ise the issue of social power “Take a very concrete example. tn the United Kingdom in the ‘arly 1990s the newspapers wer fll of talk of the collapse of the ‘conomy of the south-east of the country. Equivalent debates ‘existed in other frst world countries. This reesion was diferent from previous ones. Every week redundancies were announced in sectors which in the previous decade had been booming, whose employees at least the upper echelon ones) had sulted the country with a selconfidence which enraged those in other areas (the forth, Liverpool...) where the eighties economic razeumatart {ook longer to reach and was anyway fill The message from the redia in the early nineties was tha all that was over. Unemploy- ‘ment inthe south-east was no longer even the lowest in the county, the pap between levels of unemployment in “north” and "south" had narrowed. Most commentary, both tabloid and seriously considered (and including some seademic), announced @ fundamental change in the regional geography of the count Such am interpretation was gravely misconccved (which is not to deny that the ezomomic situation inthe southeast had deteriorated Sramatcally, nor to deny us northerners some grim satisfaction that things should be so)- But to ty to interpret economic space ough the dstebution of unemployment numbers (ort interpret any space simply through distributions of suck phenomena) i to landerestimate the compli of scil space; most particularly cis to evade reading it relational. “To begin at the most obvious leva, this interpretation docs not fake into account, for instance, the quality, interest and above all the power inheret in the very diferent kindof jobs done by those ‘who ere sill in work in the diferent repions of the county. A lace at the statistics revealed yawning contrasts. twas the south, Especially the south-east, which had the bulk of the quality jobs, ‘Yet eten this elaboration is still to look at distibuions, to consider the spatial as an aray of fre-floating objects in this ease The Lawes 3 jobs. (So many managers here, scientists there, manual workers there) But, T want to argue, what construct economie spaces s relational are the social relations on which those objectajobs themssves depend, and which link them together (or ot) in thei ‘mutual constitution, So the existence of variation in kinds of jobs| bears witness to the geography of the social relations of the cconomy, And in the light of that geography the souttvesst was ll in postion of structural dominance im comparison with, and In relation to, lher regions ofthe country. was (and sil) the prime locus of control, of stategic planing, of finance, of the sources for research and innovation; i was (ad ils the crcl (nd most politically validated) hinge inthe relation between the UUK economy and the world economy. Thi isnot the same thing as ying that i unemployment rate was low or that everyone in it Jha w classy job, What is being argued is that this way of looking at things, a¥ sptilted social relations, i likely to lead to. more Interesting questions and more enlightening enguey. This i a seography, not of jobs but of power relations, of dominance and Subordination, of enablement and influence, and of symbols and Signiieaton. And its geography which matters, which has effects both an the people ofthe diferent regions and on the economic and social trajectory ofthe country his insistence on the interpretation of economic goography in terms of the spatial organisation of the relations of production (defined in the widest sense of that term), a8 dstint from the seographical distribution of jobs isthe central cove ofthis ook. It Js, moreover, the socio-economic aspect ofa more general argument "that space (and the phenomena which constitute i) i more helpfully conceptualised in terms of relations, and specifically powerfiled social relations than simply a5 patterns and distribu tions of atomised obj. “Thus, to take up centrally the subject-matter ofthis book, new spatial divisions of bou (forms af economic uneven development) tare thorough re-workings of the socal relations which construct ‘economic space (Tor divisions of Inbour themselves are concep Tse as constrocted through social relations). They are more than just_new patterns of employment, a kind of geographical re Shulling of the sume old pack of cards. They represent whole new sets of relations between activities in diferent places, new patil forms of socal organisation, new dimensions of inequality ad new relations of dominance and dependence. Each new spatial 4 Spatial Divisions of Labour vision of labour represents areal, and thorough, spatial struct ing Itmarks« new form of regional problem; and more basicaly i marks not a new eo-organistion of relations in space, but the cretion af a nee space ‘Tho empisical focus and conceptual core of this book, then, concern certain (economic) aspects of that “impossible dichotomy’ the social and the spatial ‘However there ate other ways, oo, in which the book sets out a theoretical positon. A numberof these, while appreciated by some, ‘were to provoke among others ows of pan, and much shock and I, these ‘ssues turned on my concern with the the global fnd the local (which ae not the sume ws the general and the particular though they ae frequently misunderstood tobe 3) and the attention to particulary, variability and contingency. Over and over again in ‘Spt Divisions of Labour, particular ‘eausal relations” are seen 3s enabling rather than a determinate in thei elets, and forever lable to be altered in their implications, oe even nliid, by other sets of| relations ensting inthe particularity of their oocurrence at that precise point in time-space. The howls of protest came mainly from those who detected too close a focus (or them) on contingency, on ‘variation, on dillerence. Indeed on uniqueness. “The ie edition of this book was writen at a moment (the very carly 1980s) which allowed it to reflect back on the major transformations which had been taking place since the sixties in the industrial geography of first word countries. Those transforma. tions form the central empirial focus of enquiry, the laboratory Tor the reconeptvalittion. It was also 2 moment when considerable ‘movement Was under way in academic studies of industrial geo- ‘raphy. In the United Kingdom atleast, the approach through ‘neoclassical economics 10 modeling the locational behaviour of individual firms had been discredited. A "behavioural schoo? had Mlourished for # while, to document the huge variety of company- ‘organisation then being recognised but it failed Co get much beyond ‘documentation. Throughout i all and ail today ~ school of| cheery empiri continued, based oa censuses and surveys, and tinconceraed with atention to theoretical formulation or problems ‘of conceptatsation. In 1976, the most comprehensive and author tative review of current empirical changes reflecied that: The tewes 5 “These various deficiencies thus unfortunatly rule out adoption of| any formal theoretical framework for this study, (Keeble, 1976, 4) In response to this impasse new work had been developing, and Spatial Divisions of Labour was par ofthat new trajectory. However, ithad a specific bias andthe beginnings ofa ertigue, which was of course subsequently to become much more generalised, of a Particular form of rigid and economistic Marxism which had taken Some hod in industrial studies and geography more widely. ‘The orginal introduction put it ths: “This book trie to contribute both to some of these theoretical issues and debates and to the interpretation of what has been happening in the United Kingdom's ypace-economy since the ‘any ites focus ie om industrial geography. In spite of the impasse reached in traditional theory there has continued to bea Fich vein of empirical and desenptive work, some examining the development of individual corporations, some, les auisfatory, ‘uaaling with aggregate numbers and patterns. Bu the period has Also seen the gradual and often eolectve building of'a Marxist schoo! of thought. For industrial geography is part of the social ‘eionces andthe alarming transformation of is object of tay ‘was not the only thing undermining its credibility inthe sites dnd seventie. It was slo drawn into the revolution affecting socal scenees more generally. Its within the second, Maras, tradition that this book lies. It aims to set the changing ography ‘of industry and employment within the wider context of the evelopment of capitalist society and to examine the particular developments in Britain through the prism of the evolution of class and economic relations both within the country and internationally. Specially, i aims to explore the geography of industry and of jobs through an interpretation of the spatial ‘organisation ofthe socal relations of capitalist production, I will be clear by the end of the book dhat regional problems, and spatial inequality more generaly, have not ean fundamentally challenged by any ofthe considerable variety of pola strate- {isin force since the sties, for none of them inthe slightest ‘degree challenged the underying cause of that uneven develop- ment ~ the organisation of production on capitals lines. 6 Spatial Divisions of Labow But the Marne tradition, ike others, alo has its variations and its internal debates. There ate versions which look at the work! as iit were metely the pre-determined product ofa set of laws and tendencien. Such approaches leave itl seope or real ‘conflict and struggle, sles for surpeise and setback. They lead leo to that same dchotomssation between formal models on the fone hand and empirical description onthe other which plagued ‘raditionl industrial location theory. Like i, too, this version of the Marrs tradition has «problem with particularity. Both have fan urge to normalise for the specificity of outcomes ~ and in fproptaphical studies this can have major repercussions, for a large part of what we are about is understanding unevenness, ditference, place and locality. Finally, this version of Marsism tends to be, though it not accessrily, economic, For one thing “the economic’ level of society is 50 much easier pin ‘down 30 much more amenable othe derivation of abstract lon: rn tendential developments. And so, from the actions of rmainagement to the politics of the State, explanations are Frequently in terms solely of what is necessary for continued sccurulation. “The approach adopted here aims not to bein that tradition. It adopts # mode of explanation which tres to break with the ‘ichotomy between formal models and empirical description. It recognises underlying causal proces, but recognise, (00, that such process never operate insolation. For its precisely their ‘operation in varying combinations which produces varity and ‘Uniqueness. The particular nature of capitalism in specific countries, the very diferent ways in which different pars ofthe ‘conomy respond to the general situation of economic recession, the very diferent impact which the entry of particular forms of ‘economic activity can have on different regions and local areas all ae ‘products of many determinations. Instead of trying to normalise for such differences, or co treat them as merely ‘evistions from a tendency, iti important to recognise their ‘existence, to understand their constretion and o appreciate their ‘fects. British economy and society can ony be understood by Fecopnising its Fundamentally capitalist nature. Bu it ean only be changed ~ challenged poieally~ in ts speeiie form. Both the ipneral and the specific are esental, both to analysis and to The tees 7 ‘That basic poston still holds good, Indeed iti appropriate, ten years on, to elaborate i Firstly, these arguments foreshadowed what was to become a such wider debate, n part within Marais and over whether and how some ofits basic insights could be re-thought or embedded in Wier fields of theorising, in part in the seemingly unproductive lash between modernism and postmodernism, and in prt, stacting ‘earlier and proceeding more quicly, inthe wealth of theoretical ‘debate witin feminism. The relationship ofthe book to these latter ‘bates wil be considered in the concluding chapter; when the book was fist written ic was a product primarily ofthe discussions going ‘on within and around Marxism ‘The focus of Spatial Divisions of Labour is on what is traditionally called “the economic’ It ix a study of industrial location and of the geography of eccupational ad socal struc ture, But the attempt sto Be neither economistic nor deterministic, eis argued hat the study of industry and production is ot just a matter of “the economic, and that economic relations and phenomena are themselves’ constucted within a wider field of focial, political and ideological relations. A real exploration of industrial geography takes one into istrial shifts in national politics, into the vast variety of social forms of capita, into the whole area of gender relations and into many another wider Geil of enquiry. “The overall argument of ths book ie that behind major shifts between dominant spatial divisions of labour within a county lie ‘hag inthe spatial organisation of relations of production, the ‘development and reorganisation of what aze called here spatial structures of production, Such sift in spatial structures are a response to changes ia class relations, economic and. politcal, ational and intemational. Their development ie @ rocial and conflictual process; the geography of industry is an objet of struggle. The world is not simply the product of capital requirements. Sccondly, the arguments of the book relate closely to tht other constellation of debates which hae blossomed in recent years around difference, place and locality. Geography’ focus on place and on uneven development represents its own particular way into the concern with difernce and with identity which is now #0 salient in socal seiences generally. Spatial Divisions of Labour And thirdly there is the related focus on the explanation of ‘unigueness and variability, not to the exclusion of generalities but ts their complement. The debate on thi tbe has perhaps provoked fore heat than ight, and has demonstrated the existence of @ ‘isagreement between the partcs about the very terms at issue ‘which has proved remarkably resistant to eliidation, From my point of view, it seems that the concepts local, particular, and Contingent (all of which are distinc ia their meaning) remain widely Imsunderstood (a8 well as fequenty conflated). The very mention ‘Of contingcncy sil strikes feat into the hearts of those who would have their world more ordered, more pianed-down, than that "These issues wil be explored in the Final chapter, which will address some ofthe more recent debates that have taken place, in part provoked by Spatal Divisions of Labour, i past of more feneral provenance. Signalling them now it urge that the Intervening chapters be read a8 much for their conceptual appara- {us and ergoments as for ~ if not more than for ~ thelr empirical conclsions “The first part of the book (Chapters 2 and 3) develops the theoretical framework, Chapter 2 deals with the most fundamental ‘stumbling-block of ail ~ conceptualsstion. If we relly are to Understand spatial change a5 integral to social change iti neces sary to go back to some of the busi, 1o reconstruct some ofthe building blocks, One obvious example: this book i about industry, but how do we relate those easy labels used in industrial stuies “the ear industry, ‘al minin’ ‘the clothing ecto’ ~ to concepts of capital as class, and more specifically to particular national fapitals as a dass? More generally Chapter 2 explores some ofthe ‘connections between prodbetion and social structure before turning to 4 consideration of the elation between these (wo and spatial orm. This latter is largely done in Chapter 3, which examines the range of variation of spatial stractares of capitalist production. Here too the argument is for better concepualistion~ this time of the geography of industry itself. Towards the end, the chapter turns from the analysis ofthe geographical organisation of industry to the impact on particular pass. Here the problem ef conceptualisation is that of recognising both tht particular places are embedded in wider spatial structures, ase part of brouder spatial divisions of| Tabour a fact which they share with other places ~and that exch The Kswes 9 locality brings to that situation its own specific history and its own character. Once agin the challenge st hold on to Both the general movement and the particulary of circumstance, and the final section ofthe chapter elaborates elements of an approach by which this can be done “The purpose of allthis reconceptulisstion is to enable beter analysis, understanding and action. The second part of the book ‘ses the approach outlined in Chapters 2 and 3 get to grips with "upheavals inthe indus geography of Britain between the sites and the eighties. Ic was 4 momentous period. Throughout, the British economy was on the slide, and its international postion slumped. The post-war consensus was eejuvenated,vefurbished and then thrown out, Class relations were remodeled and the socal sirueture of the country underwent & major shift. The argument here is thatthe changing geography ofthe country was an integral clement in all this. josie 4 bes by sing the broad ses, keting i he longer-term contest of economic structure and class relations, looking at Britain both asa capitalist society and as & portcular ‘From then on the analysis takes a number of differnt sles ‘heough the problem, The rest of Chapter 4 uses the concep of spatial structure to analyse the quite dramatic transformations in a ‘number of major sections ofthe economy. In che end the primary imterestis in employment, and occupational and sell structures — in spatial divisions of labour. For that reason, the focus here is on Tabout, on changes in the spatial structure of the labour fore, changes in the Use of labour in production, and labour as a determinant, both as “location factor’ and ae an active agen, of industry's choice of location. Intensified economic pressures, in various forms throughout the period, brought with them changes in ‘roduction process, shifts in the use of labour, atempis to search ‘out cheaper and ess combative worker, tind enormous reorganst tions of geographical form Al this had dramatic eects on particular pees. In some the previous economic base was removed: in others it was substantially transformed. And jst a the cause and shape of industrial change Ado not le wholly within “the economic’ 50 the Impact of indi change has far wider repercussions than simply the percentages ‘employed in diferent industries, oF not employed at all Chapter 5 takes up this regional focus and looks at the kind of industrial 10 Spaiel Divisions of Labour change analysed in Chapter 4, but from the point of view of some Of the places most affected by it, In particular the chapter explores the major implications that changes in industrial geography had for Social structure and. gender telations in particular parts of the ‘ounry. Quite deliberately the chapter examines these sues inthe content of wo very different types of are, but areas which inthe Sins and seventies were on the reosving end of the same general hational change ~ the decentralisation of jobs ‘for women? to Smaller towns and peripheral regions, Wha the analysis shows is how different the impact ofthis process was inthe different regions Tn spte oftheir Being embedded in similar places inthe new spatial structures of prodiction, the area retained thir differences, their Characters changed under the impact ofthe same national process fan yet remained quite distinc. As in cach of thse chapters on ian, then, the analysis isnot oly concerned to produce & new perspective on changes under way; is also the vehicle for a deeper {theoretical argument "in Chapter 6 the political level is examined more closely. From Wikon to Thatcher a number of very different politieal and cconomic strategies were adopted in the UK. Chapter 6 argues that cach of these strategies had very different geographical fepercussons, each pushing forward differenaly particular ee- nents of the decline ofthe old spatial division of labour and the Crnetzing dominance of the new. The second half of the chapter hoses the state of play ~ the new geography of clas in the early leit ‘Chapter 7, originally the Postscript tothe ist edition, picks up from these issues ofelass and begins by emphasising the changing nature of regional inequality as it presented isl inthe ealy 1980s. It is deeply to be regretted that the subsequent decade was to ‘demonstrate beyond doubt one of the theses emphasised in the ‘chapter, for if ever a decade exemplified the argument that spatial {or indeed other) inequality may be, not a product of difeental trom or decine, but inegrl to certain types of growth isl, it tras the eighties, Today, in the mid-1990s that point has sill not been made forefully enough, Finaly, the chapter reflects aguin “pon the polities of change and argucs the need ~ emerging from all the previous theoretical nd emplical argument ~ to address (and challenge) not spatial distributions in themselves but the nature of| the socal relations which constitute them and this both in terms of their general character as capitalist and in terms oftheir particular The les form in any piven situation, With regard to the United Kingdom “It also means challenging the social power of certain stata... in particular the upper echelons of white-collar hierarchies, manage- Fil, professional and technical, and those who occupy and maintain the Archie stvctore of the British establishment i its broadest Sense" (p. 294) And, a has born arpued throughout the book, the Aifeential power relations of UK society are in part maintained by fsography ~ by the stuctring of social space Finally, by way of introduction, are one or two definitions the significance of which may already have become apparent. By Industry is meant all economic activity, all forms of paid employ- rent. The term is no used ony to refer to manufacturing; indeed large element of Chapter 5 revolves around.» primary sector industry (coal-mining) and a long section in Chapter 4 i speci cally concerned with service industries. Second, the term region does not necessarily refer to standard regions, the major administrative

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