The paper is an attempt to clarify the concept of locality for further research by investigating two common meanings of locality: locality as localised social structure and locality as agent. The first is developed through linking local dependence to territorial forms of the division of labour; to enable this a new concept, ‘the scale division of labour’, is introduced. This concept describes what roles in the social division of labour exist at different scales, and hence of what social relations the localised social structure consists. The locality as agent concept is developed from the idea of locally dependent actors with interests in the same locality forming an alliance, acting together to develop and implement strategies to further their interests. This avoids spatial fetishism because locality was first defined not in physical terms, but as localised social structure.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BeauregardR, 1988, “In the absence of practice: The locality research debate”Antipode2052–59
2.
BluestoneBHarrisonB, 1982The Deindustrialization of America: Plant Closings, Community Abandonment and the Dismantling of Basic Industry (Basic Books, New York)
3.
BoddyMFudgeC (Eds), 1984Local Socialism? Labour Councils and New Left Alternatives (Macmillan, London)
ClavelP, 1986The Progressive City (Rutgers University Press, Princeton, NJ)
6.
CookeP, 1989, “The contested terrain of locality studies”Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie8014–29
7.
CoxKRMairA, 1988, “Locality and community in the politics of local economic development”Annals of the Association of American Geographers78307–325
8.
CoxKRMairA, 1989, “Levels of abstraction in locality studies”Antipode21121–132
9.
DahlRA, 1961Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT)
10.
DuncanSSavageM, 1989, “Space, scale and locality”Antipode21179–206
11.
Esping-AndersenGFriedlandRWrightEO, 1976, “Modes of class struggle and the capitalist state”Kapitalistate4–5186–224
12.
GoodK, 1976, “Settler colonialism: Economic development and class formation”The Journal of Modern African Studies14597–620
13.
GregsonN, 1987, “The CURS initiative: Some further comments”Antipode19364–370
14.
HartDA, 1983, “Urban economic development measures in West Germany and the United States”, in Urban Economic Development: New Roles and Relationships Eds YoungKMasonC (Macmillan, London) pp 9–33
15.
HarveyD, 1982The Limits to Capital (Basil Blackwell, Oxford)
16.
HarveyD, 1985a, “The place of urban politics in the geography of uneven development”, in The Urbanization of Capital (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD) pp 125–164
17.
HarveyD, 1985b, “The urbanization of capital”, in The Urbanization of Capital (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD) pp 185–226
18.
HillRC, 1984, “Economic crisis and political response in the motor city”, in Sunbelt/Snowbelt Eds SawersLTabbWK (Oxford University Press, New York) pp 313–338
19.
HirschJP, 1983, “The Fordist security state and new social movements”Kapitalistate10–1175–88
20.
HudsonRSadlerD, 1986, “Contesting works closures in Western Europe's old industrial regions: Defending place or betraying class?”, in Production, Work, Territory Eds ScottAJStorperM (Allen and Unwin, Winchester, MA) pp 172–193
21.
JaggiMMullerRSchmidS, 1977Red Bologna (Writers and Readers, London)
22.
McArthurR, 1989, “Locality and small firms: Some reflections from the Franco-British project, ‘Industrial Systems, Technical Change and Locality’”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space7197–210
23.
MairA, 1982, “Urbanism and locality: Capitalism and the form of the welfare function”, MA research paper, Department of Geography, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
24.
MairA, 1986, “The homeless and the post-industrial city”Political Geography Quarterly5351–368
25.
MairA, 1988Private Planning for Economic Development: Local Business Coalitions in Columbus, Ohio, 1858–1986 PhD dissertation, Department of Geography, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
26.
MairABehlingJCoxKR, 1985, “The new federalism in practice: Unemployment, poverty and policy response in Columbus, 1980–1985”, report prepared for local social service agencies; copy available from Dr Cox
27.
MairAFloridaRKenneyM, 1988, “The new geography of automobile production: Japanese transplants in North America”Economic Geography64352–373
28.
MasseyD, 1984Spatial Divisions of Labour (Macmillan, London)
29.
MasseyD, 1985, “New directions in space”, in Social Relations and Spatial Structures Eds GregoryDUrryJ (Macmillan, London) pp 9–19
30.
MollenkopfJH, 1983The Contested City (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ)
31.
PivenFFClowardR, 1984The New Class War: Reagan's Attack on the Welfare State and its Consequences (Pantheon Books, New York)
32.
SayerA, 1985, “The difference that space makes”, in Social Relations and Spatial Structures Eds GregoryDUrryJ (Macmillan, London) pp 49–66
33.
SchulzeRO, 1961, “The bifurcation of power in a satellite city”, in Community Political systems Ed. JanowitzM (The Free Press, Glencoe, IL) pp 19–80
34.
ScottAJ, 1988Metropolis: From the Division of Labor to Urban Form (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
35.
ScottAJStorperM (Eds), 1986Production, Work, Territory: The Geographical Anatomy of Industrial Capitalism (Allen and Unwin, Winchester, MA)
36.
SmithN, 1984Uneven Development (Basil Blackwell, Oxford)
37.
StoneCNSandersHT, 1987The Politics of Urban Development (University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS)
TaylorPJ, 1982, “A materialist framework for political geography”Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers715–34
40.
TherbornG, 1983, “Problems of class analysis”, in Marx: A Hundred Years On Ed. MatthewsB (Lawrence and Wishart, London) pp 161–198
41.
UrryJ, 1981, “Localities, regions and social class”International Journal of Urban and Regional Research5455–474
42.
UrryJ, 1983, “De-industrialisation, classes and politics”, in Capital and Politics Ed. KingR (Routledge, Kegan and Paul, Andover, Hants) pp 28–48
43.
WalkerR, 1985, “Class, division of labour and employment in space”, in Social Relations and Spatial Structures Eds GregoryDUrryJ (St Martins Press, New York) pp 164–189
44.
WardeA, 1988, “Industrial restructuring, local politics and the reproduction of labour power: Some theoretical considerations”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space675–96
45.
WardeA, 1989, “Recipes for pudding: A comment on locality”Antipode21274–281
46.
WeissM, 1980, “The origins and legacy of urban renewal”, in Urban Planning in an Age of Austerity Eds ClavelPForresterJGoldsmithW (Pergamon, New York) pp 53–80
47.
YoungE, 1988, “Rhetoric, division and constraint: Elements in local social mobilisation”Sociological Review36297–319
