Progress in Industrial Geography (Routledge Revivals) by Michael Pacione

Author:Michael Pacione [Pacione, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781134598809
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 22505588
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1985-08-22T00:00:00+00:00

Source: Derived from Dunning, J.H. and Norman G. (1983), Table 2, p. 684.

Should Service Industries be Examined Separately?

There is at least one important question arising from the growing volume of recent research on aspects of an intrinsically diverse industry sector; is separate analysis of services a realistic way forward? The emergence of, for example, a more sector-specific approach together with a continuing recognition that non-production activities attached to manufacturing must also be incorporated in any analysis of service activities (Crum and Gudgin, 1978; Gershuny and Miles, 1983) has perhaps contributed to a devaluation of, in particular, office location research. In order to examine the location of offices within this sectoral framework it is, for example, necessary to take cognizance of organisational, operational, or business variables which may only have a tangential influence on office location choice. This causes the distinction between the office function and other functions within increasingly complex organisational structures to become blurred, creating undoubted difficulties for the effective analysis of office location and development as a separate phenomenon. Instead, Pickvance (1981) or Scott (1982) would argue that the office-based services are but one component of the capitalist mode of production and their contribution to the urbanisation process, for example, should be analysed in that context rather than as a distinctive entity.

It would seem unwise to accept this view until it can be convincingly shown that the analysis of service industry location is indeed subsumed by the larger problem of the relationship between urbanisation, planning and the socio-economic infrastructure within which it exists. In order to justify such a position, detailed efforts will continue to be necessary to see whether individual elements, such as business or financial services, conform to the general model. The brief and inevitably selective review offered here indicates that much remains to be done which is specific to the location of service industries and their role in urban or regional employment, development and change. It may well be, of course, that the location of services is determined by the larger scheme of things but this should not preclude attempts to understand it by approaching analysis from the direction of service firms, decision-makers, the office and commercial development industry (Barras, 1983; Fuchs, 1983) or the planners endeavouring to use service industries to achieve their goals for providing employment or changing the internal structure of metropolitan areas.

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