Papers by Nicholas Phelps
Urban Studies, Jul 8, 2016
Recent work on world city networks, urban polycentricity and megapolitan urban forms share an int... more Recent work on world city networks, urban polycentricity and megapolitan urban forms share an interest in the economic functionality of inter-city linkages. The intersection of these bodies of literature is in the often overlooked defining features of megalopolitan forms-their being the 'hub' that links national to international urban systems and the 'incubator' within national urban systems (Gottmann, 1976). With this intersection in mind, this paper measures the functional polycentricity of China's Yangtze River Delta Region (YRDR) at different geographical scales from an intercity knowledge collaboration perspective. The paper uses data on co-publications as an indicator of knowledge linkages between cities within and beyond this megalopolis. The YRDR can be seen as functionally polycentric at the megapolitan scale but this functional polycentricity decreases with increases in the geographical scale at which interurban linkages are considered. Furthermore, a multi-scalar analysis of functional polycentricity helps identify the hub role of Shanghai. The results show that Shanghai's knowledge hub role is currently present at the national scale. It may take some time for Shanghai to become a knowledge hub at the global scale given its not-so-strong international links and relatively weak local links. The paper concludes with some suggestions for future research agendas.
Regional Studies, Nov 22, 2016
Inspired by the two defining but often overlooked features of megalopolises as 'hinges' and 'incu... more Inspired by the two defining but often overlooked features of megalopolises as 'hinges' and 'incubators', this paper presents a multi-scalar and dynamic analysis of the knowledge polycentricity of China's Yangtze River Delta Region. Using data on publications and co-publications from 2000 to 2014, the results show that the structures of knowledge production and knowledge collaboration within and beyond the region have, to differing degrees, become more polycentric. Whereas the region has acted as an 'incubator' of knowledge at the megalopolitan scale, its 'hinge' role in knowledge collaboration has been mainly played at the national scale.
n-aerus.net
Pilar is a city located in the third ring of the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Region (Argentina). Ov... more Pilar is a city located in the third ring of the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Region (Argentina). Over the last 30 years, its population has grown 70%. This growth has been encouraged by the private sector and particularly the development of gated communities contributing to the ...
Annals of the American Association of Geographers
Business History
Large firms are faced with an ever-widening array of consultancy services and providers. From man... more Large firms are faced with an ever-widening array of consultancy services and providers. From management consulting to accounting to logistics to human relations, the professional services industry has seen extraordinary growth in the number of firms and range of services they provide. In this paper, we examine the history of one consultancy firm, albeit a small and particular one. The Fantus Factory Locating Service was established in 1919 and pioneered what we know today as the site selection or location consulting industry. Brokering between firms and communities seeking to attract investment, Fantus was able to structure and powerfully shape the landscape of economic activity in the United States. Drawing on a variety of secondary sources and a primary source of archived company files the paper examines the growth of the firm, the nature and scale of its work and its extraordinary and lasting influence on the changing US economic landscape.
In Hardil I and Benneworth P and Baker Mb and L the Rise of English the Regions Routledge London, 2006
The ‘zombie subdivision’ is a phenomenon identified by the Lincoln Institute as ‘oncepromising pr... more The ‘zombie subdivision’ is a phenomenon identified by the Lincoln Institute as ‘oncepromising projects’ now ‘distressed’, with the fulfilment of plans or visions for the site effectively stalled. The pattern of subdivision may also be criticised as inappropriate or unviable in a contemporary context. Services such as water, electricity, and roads are often absent in these areas, leaving them partiallyoccupied, or more often, completely vacant. These incomplete subdivisions fit into a broader framework of urbanisation, albeit as punctuations in a narrative of growth and development. Numerous examples exist of inappropriate subdivisions where the machinery of governance and planning have allowed resolution through buy-back schemes and subsequent restructure plans: Summerlands, in Phillip Island, and the Ninety Mile Beach Subdivision along the Gippsland coast, are two such recent local examples. Past research by three of the present authors has established the Solomon Heights estate i...
Urban Geography, 2019
We develop the relational economic geographical potential of the incubator and hinge functions of... more We develop the relational economic geographical potential of the incubator and hinge functions of megalopolis incorporating ideas from the literature on regional innovation systems and New Argonaut connections respectively. Empirically, we investigate how China's Yangtze River Delta (YRD) has incubated but also articulated knowledge interactions at different geographical scales. Drawing upon co-patent data from the World Intellectual Property Organization database, we show that the YRD's knowledge hinge role has strengthened over time, notably as a result of the role played by economic entities in Shanghaithe YRD's gateway city. To unpack the YRD's knowledge hinge role, we use information attached to co-patents to distinguish different channelsmultinational enterprises, Chinese domestic enterprises, universities and research institutes, and "New Argonaut" linkagesby which YRD cities have accessed exogenous knowledge at different geographical scales. In conclusion we highlight the value of megalopolis as a meso-scale unit of analysis for relational economic geography.
Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2019
Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2018
In part, the origin of this theme issue rests in the view that, as the social division of labor h... more In part, the origin of this theme issue rests in the view that, as the social division of labor has developed and as production has evolved, the economy has become ever more ‘roundabout’ in nature (Young, 1928). However, this theme issue also goes further to explore the ways in which, rather than simply adding ever greater complexity to the pattern of economic activity or increasing the layers through which we make sense of it, the roundabout nature of production also strongly implies an economy in which an influential set of actors, practices, and even industries can no longer be adequately captured through our long-standing frameworks of industrial and occupational classification. The central interest of the papers in this theme issue is the question of intermediation and its role in enabling and shaping the roundabout nature of the economy. Intermediation is, by conventional definition, a relational term and the papers that follow seek to ‘unpack’ the ways in which we might define, theorize, and study the practice of intermediation. Producers and consumers of goods and services have long served as the staple traditional units that frame the study of economic geography. Those interests and organizations that mediate between them have occupied a rather more marginal role. The interest in producer or business services has been one exception to this in which the emergence of intermediaries presages the formation of important new industries and professions. These activities, in turn, commonly make a significant contribution to the productivity and innovative performance of a wide range of established industries (Den Hertog, 2000; Howells, 2006; Rantisi, 2014; Wood, 1986). In many other cases, the actors and activities that play intermediary roles have remained largely in the shadows and bypassed by the literature. Both the place and role of intermediaries and our understanding of them is an uneven one within the economic landscape. Intermediation – in the form of brokering between parties – is particularly important within the financial industries (Allen and Santomero, 1998; French,
International Development Planning Review, 2016
It has been argued that the growth potential of industry clusters in developing countries is depe... more It has been argued that the growth potential of industry clusters in developing countries is dependent on join action to release external economy effects that otherwise remain latent. In this paper we report on the progress and impacts of a programme in Central Java to develop capacity for joint action in industry clusters via economic forums in local government jurisdictions. We focus in on the emerging relationship between industry clusters and their respective economic forums in four local government jurisdictions. Despite progress, the findings reveal the difficulties of developing new institutions to support joint action. These difficulties follow from the limits presented by the private sector dynamics underlying industry clusters and from variations in local government organisation, resourcing and understandings of the remit of these new institutions. 2 A further complication is that there are distinctly different forms of industry agglomeration. Gordon and McCann (2000) contrast 'pure Marshallian' and 'social network' forms (in which external economies are likely to be latent and available to small businesses) with the 'production complex' (where vertical integration around a few large firms precludes the development of external economies).
Cities, 2020
The suburban territory of Tokyo Metropolis experiences new path-dependent, multifaceted shrinking... more The suburban territory of Tokyo Metropolis experiences new path-dependent, multifaceted shrinking processes, especially in outer reaches, which are considered a product of synchronized changes in socio-demographic, economic, and political and administrative (fiscal) dimensions. Outer suburban shrinkage is an urgent policy and planning issue for Tokyo's suburban sustainability while Tokyo itself emerges as something of a frontier case globally. We analyze different growth/decline transformation types of Tokyo's suburban municipalities in both pre-bubble growth and post-bubble shrinkage periods with the combined use of Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis, and identify their different trajectories in the contextual transition from growth to shrinkage. By making direct comparisons between growth and shrinkage from a long-term evolutionary perspective, we identify the following: 1) outer suburban impoverishment, 2) different processes of suburban shrinkage from suburban growth, and 3) outer suburban divergence. Suburban shrinkage is revealed as more complicated than suburban growth, generating equally complex challenges for policy responses that will soon reverberate globally. In conclusion, we underline the importance for policy makers worldwide to understand the specificities of outer suburban shrinkage even during periods of suburban growth in order to ensure suburban resilience across different phases of urbanization.
Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2017
This exchange urges economic geographers working within several major extant schools of thought t... more This exchange urges economic geographers working within several major extant schools of thought to pay greater attention to uneven economic development in general and the dark side of the economic geographies in particular.
Town Planning Review, 2016
The UK Coalition Government's commitment to 'localism' in Planning is in marked contrast to the e... more The UK Coalition Government's commitment to 'localism' in Planning is in marked contrast to the emphasis on cross-boundary strategic planning initiatives under the previous Labour Government. Against this background the paper examines the implications of evolving economic governance arrangements in three sub-regional 'soft-spaces' in England's SouthEast region. A distinctive evaluative frame derives a set of criteria for 'good economic governance' as perceived by the stakeholders concerned, and a judgement regarding the 'quality' of economic governance in each case is presented. The conclusion triangulates these results against economic growth outcomes across the respective sub-regions.
Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 2014
Progress in Planning, 2004
Political devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and the developing regional agenda i... more Political devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and the developing regional agenda in England are prompting changes in the organization of business interest representation within the devolved and decentralized territories. In this paper we seek to describe the realignment of business interest representation at the 'regional' scale, first through a detailed review of changes underway across specific business associations and representative fora, and secondly through an initial attempt to compare and 'map' the patterns of institutional change recorded in the various territories. In broad terms the overall scale, operation and degree of formalization of the new political arrangements for business representation tend broadly to reflect the established institutional and political contexts of the respective nations and regions and the level of devolution ceded to the territories. However, there are important variations in a complex process of uneven development. In the concluding section we present some initial thoughts on the nature of the changes observed in the institutional framework for business representation. A key argument is that to date such changes suggest a reconfiguration of business political activity rather than a step-change in the institutional foundation for sub-national business interest representation in the UK.
Policy & Politics, 2005
English This article considers the role of business interests within the devolved political and g... more English This article considers the role of business interests within the devolved political and governmental arrangements introduced by New Labour. We focus on the involvement of business in shaping post-16 education and training policy in Wales. Continuities apparent in the process of devolution across its administrative and political forms have produced a distinctive Welsh political economy involving public sector-dominated policy agendas periodically punctured by specific business interests. Devolution appears to have underlined such continuities. An increased imperviousness of public sector-dominated post-16 education and training strategy-making to business interests coexists with the ability of specific business interests to distort such strategies at an operational level.
Local Economy: The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit, 2002
The launch of Local Economy as a new journal in 1986 con rmed the arrival of a local orientation ... more The launch of Local Economy as a new journal in 1986 con rmed the arrival of a local orientation to economic development policy in the UK that had begun to emerge through the 1970s and was strongly reinforced into the 1980s (Eisenschitz and Gough, 1993). As such the contributions to the journal highlighted a number of developments that were elevating the local scale as a focal point for innovative thought and practice in economic development policy. Here, the various expressions of 'central government localism' took their place alongside the alternative economic strategies of the metropolitan county councils, emergent themes of local partnership, inner city regeneration programmes and the growth of local authority economic development functions and departments. At this moment the 'local' had become a key site for economic policy making and implementation, for associated institutional innovation, and for political experimentation and opposition. These developments embodied something of a shift in emphasis from previous patterns of sub-national economic policy formulation and implementation. For much of the postwar period, the regional scale had constituted simultaneously the site for important administrative and political settlements (Keating, 1997) as well as for interventions in economic development, particularly through attempts to redistribute economic activity between the UK regions. Yet, as numerous authors have demonstrated, redistributive regional policy was fraught with dif culties and inef ciencies, such as the high costs per job created, the economic fragility associated with the 'branch plant syndrome', the overlybroad coverage of regional supports, and the systematic failure to signi cantly Devolution, Regionalism and Local Economic Development
Urban Geography, 2021
The overall context of decline in the polycentric suburban territory of Tokyo Metropolis contains... more The overall context of decline in the polycentric suburban territory of Tokyo Metropolis contains divergent trajectories of municipal change. The key outer suburban centers of Tachikawa, Hachioji, and Ome City have different trajectories of socio-demographic, economic, and political and administrative (fiscal) change. This paper explores the mechanisms underlying their different trajectories to reveal the likely diversity of experiences. We reveal that their different trajectories have been materialized mainly by local or intra-suburban differentiations of inter-governmental, inter-sectoral, and inter-actor dynamics. Different strategies have thus emerged in the policy domain of industrial and commercial promotion. Recognition of the importance of suburban economic development tends to be delayed for municipal governments and differentiation in strategies possibly results in difficulties in promoting inter-municipal collaborations in this policy domain. We thus emphasize the necessity of integrating industrial and commercial promotion strategies in both vertical and horizontal dimensions of government to avert further suburban shrinkage.
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Papers by Nicholas Phelps