Manufacturing Services and Servicing Manufacturing: Knowledge-based Cities and Changing Forms of Production

• Published in: Urban studies (Edinburgh, Scotland) Vol. 39; no. 5/6; pp. 977 - 991
• Main Authors: Daniels, P. W., Bryson, J. R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England Carfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis Ltd 01.05.2002; SAGE Publications; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Business structures; Capitalism; Cities; Commercial production; Consulting services; Consumer economics; Consumer goods industries; Economic geography; Economic sectors; Knowledge; Manufacturing; Manufacturing industries; Manufacturing processes; Production; Production methods; Section 3. Services: Traded and Untraded Knowledge; Service economies; Service industries; Services; United Kingdom; Urban studies
• ISSN: 0042-0980; 1360-063X
• DOI: 10.1080/00420980220128408

There is an important shift away from production that is dependent upon material resources to production that utilises knowledge as the key source of competitiveness and innovation. Urban areas are key locations for a process that is also changing the way in which goods and services are consumed. The decade of the 1990s was a period of innovation and revitalisation in economic geography; it was also a time when economic geographers began again to explore old concepts in different ways—for example, new industrial spaces—intent on explaining the changing economic landscapes of capitalism. There is a real danger, however, that for economic geography the first decade of the 21st century will be a period of repetition and extension rather than one of development. This paper reviews aspects of the debate about the distinction between service and manufacturing activities and suggests that it needs to be reconsidered in relation to on-going and important changes in the production process that are as important for cities as they are for the economy as a whole.