ALL 7 - Postindustrial City Economy

What characterises the suburban economy and domestic work in the post-war period?

• Durable goods as basis of economic growth

• Bigger standards of hygiene

  • More sinks in houses

  • --> more household labour necessary (mostly done by women)

• More take away meals, outsourced cleaning, taxi driving, …

How is gentrification and domestic work related?

• …

• Leisure time and domestic work collectively organised (and experienced)
  (e.g. child care)

What is the urban informal economy?

• ‘Remaining category of economic activities’

  • Economy that the government doesn’t have numbers about

  • Black market, no labour control, no taxes, …

  • On rise since 1970s (after economic crisis)

What is the informal economy driven by?

• Desire of companies to remain competitive

  • Businesses push informal labour

  • Attempt to maintain competitiveness / cheap prices

What classifies the informal economy?

• (Two criteria: remuneration (salary) & regulation)

• Formal economy: remunerated and regulated

• Domestic work: unremunerated and unregulated

  • … Household (work) not included (--> sexist)

• Community / neighbourhood work: unremunerated and regulated

• Illegal work: remenurated and unregulated

  • … pushed by economic struggles

What are survival strategies in the post-industrial context?

• Shift from individual to collective consumption

  • Laundry shops, internet cafés, …

• Urban density as advantage

• Turkish migration

  • chain migration (--> strong social networks)

  • Less strict interpretation of Koran

  • … Turkish people more successful as entrepreneurs

• …also (combined) informal market activities

How is the informalisation a firm strategy?

• Informal economy penetrates the formal economy

• Some informal labour is spatial

• Informalization of economy linked to self-employment, …

• … e.g. left out districts that grow their own economy

What is of importance for a new economic base in the post-industrial city?

• Density as possible advantage of the city

• Locality as (generic) resource <> specialised resources

  • … Work force, resources, social and physical infrastructure

  • More than ever it’s about specialised resources

    • Fashion industry --> world academy for fashion, fashion designers

    • … flax industry --> important for weaving textiles

  • --> territorial innovation system

• Stimulating innovation, knowledge, development

  • … with believe in density and proximity

  • New use of buildings

=> Economy and education intertwining with new typologies

What are the key points of a new economic base of post-industrial cities?

• Density, locality, specialised resources, a territorial innovation system, stimulating innovation - knowledge - development

What are urban economic clusters related to?

• Cities have economic/competitive advantage

  • Inner city with bad image

  • No value / no investments

• ‘Centrality matters’ – economic potential of the inner city:

  • Strategic location

  • Strong demand for certain economy

  • Unique (local) human resources

=> Important approach to the city

What are knowledge economy hubs and creative cities about?

• New class in the city --> creative class

  • Independent from industry

  • Possible employees have preference of urban living

• … How to measure right conditions for a creative class

=> Policy makers go a long way to establish knowledge institutes

What are global cities in a post-industrial context?

• ‘global space of flows requires space of places’

  • spatial flows need locality to take place (… e.g. central business districts)

• Global economic elite

  • Business as exclusive and specialised

  • … comes with large scale service sector

  • --> Dependent on cheap labour (ethnic communities)

What are the main characteristics of the industrial city?

• Urbanization as direct consequence of capitalisation and industrialisation

• City as economic powerhouse

What are the consequences of the industrial city?

=> Change to industrialisation --> change in economic structure

• Through expansion – industry / factories had to move further to edge of the city

Which consequences did the industry in the city face in the first transition?

• Congestion has economic cost

• Cities become victim of their own success

• Demand of environmental legislations, parking garages, …

In what sense is the factor of globality important to the industrial city?

• Global competition through open/free markets

  • Whole world as possible location for industrial activities

  • The industry that stayed was less labour intensive

What are the characteristics of the industrial transition?

• Rise of tertiary economy

  • Expansion of office building, shopping streets (retail), more parking

What characterises the post-industrial city?

• Cities are not the place to invest capital anymore

  • Industry buildings moved – brownfields were left behind

  • City as economic powerhouse changed

=> ‘What could be the added value of the city’