Economic Specialization and the Contemporary Metropolitan Growth Process
Abstract
Contemporary United States metropolitan growth patterns are such that while numerous MSAs are growing slowly or losing population, others are growing rapidly. We contend that (1) despite the myriad problems associated with many large cities, these metropolitan growth patterns are not first and foremost a function of city size, and (2) underlying the contemporary metropolitan population experience is an economic structure consideration that is of major importance. We further argue that this underlying structural influence is indicative of the relation between national economic development patterns and the settlement process. A major economic transformation is in progress, with settlement implications as important as those assigned to the
agrarian-to-industrial transformation of the past century. This economic transformation contributes to a shift in the locus of growth, and thus to a dichotomy, i.e. a pattern of urban growth and a pattern of urban decline.References
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