Service Worlds People, Organisations, Technologies

As the twenty-first century begins, significant changes are occurring in the way that services and goods are produced and consumed. One of the key drivers of this change is information and communications technology (ICT). It has transformed the role of space and time in patterns of economic development, in the rise of globalization and in the scale and structure of organizations. ICT has therefore accelerated the process of continual change and evolution that is the hallmark of both the capitalist economy and of organizations. Giving astudent-friendly accountof the diversity of theoretical perspectives, thisoutstanding bookaidsunderstanding the evolving economic geography of advanced capitalist economies. A series of detailed firm and employees' case studies from Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific, are used to inform useful theoretical case studies, whichalso investigate the significance of increased blurring of the lines between services and manufacturing functions in the production and consumption process.

Acknowledgements 1. Services Worlds 2. Changing Perspectives on the Service Economy 3. From Networks to New Forms of Regulation 4. Service Knowledge and the Production Process 5. The Rise and Role of Producer Services 6. Service Work 7. Information and Communications Technology and Services: Opportunities and Impacts 8. Consuming Services: Circuits of Knowledge, Stages and Performances 9. Service Spaces 10. Services and Globalisation 11. Global Services: from Trade to Foreign Direct Investment 12. Service Worlds Revisited References

Peter Daniels is Professor of Geography ay the University of Birmingham, UK.John Bryson is Senior Lecturer in Economic Geography at the University of Birmingham, UK. Barney Warf is Professor and Chair of Geography at Florida State University, USA.