Economic Restructuring and the Information City

1973 - present

Historical Context 1973 Oil Embargo

“Stagflation” – 1973-1982 economic slowdown w/ price inflation

Shift from Keynesian policies

OPEC & Economy Organization of Petroleum Exporting

Countries

Yom Kippur War – October 1973

Impact on industry & areas of American life

Rationing

Auto Industry

Economic Restructuring

Schlitz Park

Diversion of Investments From primary sector (industrial

production)

To secondary sectors (capital investment)

Or – tertiary sectors (education or technology research)

Winners & Losers Big Winners – speculative

commercial development & technology research

Losers – industrial production

Houston

Permissive or enabling technologies A. Production process technologies:

electronically controlled assembly lines; robotics; automated sewing systems

B. Transaction technologies: computer-based just-in-time inventory; eliminate need for larger buffer stock

C. Circulation technologies: communication satellites, fiber-optic networks, microwave communication, FAX machines

Production & Consumption

Geographic Implications Technology provides increased

opportunity to take advantage of spatial variations in costs of land and labor due to separability & flexibility

Wider geographic market to an increasing range of business activities

Tiger Economies & Silicon Places

“Informational City” Development of new international &

intermetropolitan divisions of labor

Degree to which cities are “hooked in” define status

“spaces of flows” versus “space of relative locations”

World Cities Hierarchy Global Cities – London, New York, Tokyo

World City – cities at the center of “spaces of flows”

Regional command & control centers

Specialized producer – service centers

Dependent centers

Hierarchy

Demographic & Social Change Baby Boomers: Household formation;

affordability crisis

The Elderly: 1970-1990 – over 60 population increased from 9.2% to 12.4%

New Immigration: abolition of quotas in 1965; immigrants account for nearly 1/3 in growth of urban system in 1980s

Baby Boomers

Elderly

New Immigrants