Services and Metropolitan Development International Perspectives

During the 1980s it became clear that the restructuring of economic activity and its geographical contribution have been increasingly dominated by processes operating at the international level. The importance of services, specifically producer services, to the development of the global urban system, to the economic welfare of individual metropolitan areas, and to the transformation of the internal structure of cities is now widely recognized.
"Services and Metropolitan Development" is a timely attempt to reflect this new dimension in urban and economic studies. It incorporates an impressive array of international, multidisciplinary perspectives based on the results of recent and ongoing research by geographers, business management and public administration specialists, and economists. The impact of the internationalization of services is currently marked by a great deal of national and international conformity as well as some interesting differences between economies and within individual metropolitan areas. Multidisciplinary in nature and global in scope, this study will be of interest to students of regional and urban planning and business studies, as well as to policy makers.

The dynamics of national and international urban systems, as well as individual metropolitan areas, are closely connected with the decisions and actions of firms and institutions in the service sector. Services and Metropolitan Development explores the processes guiding both the development and the spatial impacts of services on the urban system and individual areas. The book describes the symbiotic relationship between the internationalisation of services and the effects of this re-structuring on urban systems. The multidisciplinary nature of the subject and its global development are reflected by the international range of contributors, specialists in geography, business management, economics and public administration. The book analyses the theoretical, conceptual and measurement issues confronting research on the development of services in North America, Northern Europe and Australia.

Contributors: A.S. Bailly, University of Geneva; W.B. Beyers, University of Washington; Joanne Brion, New York University; M.T. Daly, Director of the Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific; P.W. Daniels, Portsmouth Polytechnic; G. Durrenburger, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology; David W. Edginton, University of British Columbia; Michael A. Goldberg, University of British Columbia; Robert W. Helsley, University of British Columbia; T.A. Hutton, City of Vancouver; C. Jaeger, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology; P.Y. Leo, University of Aix-Marsaille; Maurice D. Levi, University of British Columbia; David Ley, University of British Columbia; D. Maillat, Institut de Recherches Economiques de Neuchatel; Mitchell L. Moss, New York University; Thierry Noyelle, Columbia University; Kevin O'Connor, Monash University, Melbourne; Penny Pearce, Columbia University; J. Philippe, University of Aix-Marsaille; Peter J. Rimmer, Australian National University; Pieter P. Tordoir, Institute of Spatial Organisation, Netherlands

Peter W. Daniels