Research Policy and Review 19. Britain's New Spatial Paradigm: Technology, Locality and Society in Transition

Abstract

‘Postmodernisation’ is introduced as a unifying concept for the set of processes which characterise the development of the space economy in the 1980s. The concept consists in effects which include: an increase in the unevenness of developmental potential between ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ British regions, growing polarisation in income and unemployment indices over space, a shift towards economies of scope by producers, a growing dynamism in localities with large service-class components displaying a privatistic consumption culture, and a growth of casualised and informal labour-market opportunities at the expense of ‘lifetime’ employment. This contrasts with a set of processes characteristic of what may be termed the ‘modernisation’ period circa 1945–1975 in which there was a relatively even spread of developmental opportunities across regional space, there was income and employment convergence, production pursued volume markets and economies of scale, collective consumption provision was socially predominant and employment was relatively secure. It is suggested that this change is consistent with but by no means fully explained by the recent monetarist shakeout of the British economy.