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Current
Issue
Economic
Geography
| Vol.
80 |
October 2004 |
No. 4 |
Contents
Articles
French Economic Geography: Introduction to the Special Issue
. . . . . Georges Benko and Caroline Desbiens, Page 323
 Read or Print the Introduction
Culture, Language, and the Location of High-Order Service Functions: The Case of Montreal and Toronto
.
. . . . Mario Polése and Richard Shearmur, Page 329
Read
Abstract Read or Print the
Article
Nation to Nation: Defining New Structures of Development in Northern Quebec
.
. . . . Caroline Desbiens, Page 351
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Abstract Read or Print the
Article
The Innovative Milieus Approach: Toward a Territorialized Understanding of the Economy?
. . . . . Olivier Crevoisier, Page 367
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Abstract Read or Print the
Article
The Decentralization of Intrametropolitan Business Services in the Paris Region: Patterns, Interpretation, Consequences
. . . . . Ludovic Halbert, Page 381
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Abstract Read or Print the
Article
Book Reviews
The New Competition for Inward Investment: Companies, Institutions and Territorial Development., Edited by Nicholas Phelps and Philip Raines
. . . . . Martin Hess, Page
405
Read or Print the
Book Review
The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Right to the City, by
Don Mitchell
. . . . . David R. Reynolds, Page
407
Read or Print the
Book Review
Race and Place: Equity Issues in Urban America, by
J. W. Frazier, Florence M. Margai, and Eugene Tettey-Fio
. . . . . Mark Duda, Page
409
Read or Print the
Book Review
Global Shift: Reshaping the Global Economic Map in the 21st Century (4th ed.), by
Peter Dicken
. . . . . Robin Leichenko, Page
411
Read or Print the
Book Review
The Chinese Diaspora: Space, Place, Mobility, and Identity, Edited by Laurence J. C. Ma and Carolyn Cartier
. . . . . Susan M. Walcott, Page
413
Read or Print the
Book Review
Voices from the North: New Trends in Nordic Human Geography, Edited by Jan Öhman and Kirsten Simonsen
. . . . . Dominic Power, Page
415
Read or Print the
Book Review
The Economics of Rising Inequalities, by
Edited by Daniel Cohen, Thomas Piketty, and Gilles Saint-Paul
. . . . . Mick Dunford, Page
417
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Book Review
Abstracts
Culture, Language, and the Location of High-Order Service Functions: The Case of Montreal and Toronto
Mario Polése and Richard Shearmur
Abstract: Today, there is plenty of evidence of metropolization--the concentration of economic activity, particularly of high-order services--in the world's largest cities. Furthermore, within most national systems, the urban hierarchy is stable, especially toward the top: cities that were the largest 100 years ago continue to dominate their respective systems today. In Canada, however, this is not the case. Over the past 40 years, there has been a reversal at the top of the urban hierarchy, with Montreal losing its dominance in favor of Toronto. In this article, we document the reversal and elaborate a model that accounts for the spatial shifts in high-order services. Our analysis reveals the continued relevance of culture and language and suggests that there are limits to the concentration of high-order service activity. This finding is corroborated by a more detailed look at occupational shifts within a variety of key economic sectors in Montreal and Toronto. We conclude by suggesting that these results and the model we put forward to explain them have implications that go beyond Canada: even in a globalizing world in which the constraints of distance are lessened, cultural and linguistic factors will continue to play an important role in determining the spatial distribution of high-order economic activity.
Key Words: high-order services, culture, language, location model, Montreal, Toronto.
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Article
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Nation to Nation: Defining New Structures of Development in Northern Quebec
Caroline Desbiens
Abstract:
In February 2002, the Crees of Quebec and the Quebec government signed a new agreement that was designed to implement new structures of economic development in northern Quebec. The document, known as "La Paix des Braves" (Peace of the Braves), was characterized as a "nation-to-nation" agreement and promises greater participation by the Crees in the management and exploitation of natural resources on the territory. Starting from the premise that the Crees and the Québécois do not simply compete for the resources of James Bay but can be said to define and firm up the boundaries of their respective nation in and through the use of these resources, this article explores the close intertwining of colonialism, culture, and the economy in James Bay, as well as its potential impact on the new agreement. First, it analyzes how the Crees and the Quˇbˇcois have articulated nationhood in relation to land and resources, particularly over the past three decades. Second, it examines how these discourses are informed by a third national scale, that of Canada. The intersection among nature, nation, and economic development in northern Quebec is a key example of how resources are embedded in complex national geographies that are shaped across a broad historical span. Although sustainability is often defined in terms of the needs of future generations, this article calls for greater attention to past colonial and political relations in defining structures of development that ensure the renewal of resources.
Key words: Cree, Québécois, hydroelectricity, colonialism, nationalism, Canada, sustainable development.
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The Innovative Milieus Approach: Toward a Territorialized Understanding of the Economy?
Olivier Crevoisier
Abstract: Space has always been more or less present in economic theories. Nevertheless, traditional approaches, as well as the so-called new economic geography, introduce space subsequently. Economic theories are first built independently of spatial and temporal contexts, for example, through costs varying according to distance. The innovative milieus approach is based on the ideas that space--or, more precisely, territory--is the matrix of economic development and that economic mechanisms transform space. This article describes innovative milieus as an ideal type that articulates three paradigms: the technological paradigm, which stresses innovation, learning, and know-how as the most important competitive advantages; the organizational paradigm, which emphasizes the role of networks, competition, and rules of cooperation, as well as relational capital; and the territorial paradigm, which accounts for the role of proximity and distance and stresses the idea that competition occurs between regions. The originality of the innovative milieus approach is that it considers these three paradigms as a whole, thus providing a stabilized set of concepts that allow for an understanding of economic development processes in their space and time contexts.
Key words: Innovative milieu, territory, innovation, learning.
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Article
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The Decentralization of Intrametropolitan Business Services in the Paris Region: Patterns, Interpretation, Consequences
Ludovic Halbert
Abstract: What is the importance of the decentralization of business services in a Parisian metropolitan region that is known for its inherited monocentricity? Using revised statistical and cartographic methodological tools, I try to answer two questions: Is the new Parisian metropolitan economic geography one of dispersal or of polycentricity? Does decentralization mean the decline or the reinforcement of the economic core? If secondary suburban economic centers benefit from the decentralization of business services, neighboring spaces of the municipality of Paris, such as the inner western suburbs of La Défense and Boulogne-Billancourt, are affected, too. This article demonstrates that polycentricity is not opposite to the constitution of a new golden triangle within the dense part of the agglomeration. This means both that economic centrality still matters (and thus that dispersed cities may not be the twenty-first century's metropolitan archetype) and that an enlarged core business district (CBD) straddling Paris and the western Hauts-de-Seine dˇpartement is being reinforced (thus invalidating the theory of CBD decline). Thanks to the widening of the business district from Paris to La Dˇfense, the labor market remains integrated; meanwhile, secondary economic centers in the Outer Suburbs tend to create fragmented subregional labor markets of their own.
Key words: business services, economic decentralization, polycentricity, spatial differentiation, labor market subfragmentation
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Article
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Economic Geography
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Economic Geography
