INTRODUCTION

The rapid expansion of the service sector is a principal feature of contemporary global economic restructuring. The service sector’s share of the world’s workforce rose from 24 per cent to 35 per cent between 1965 and 1990, and its share of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased from 50.6 per cent to 62.4 per cent between 1960 and 1990 (International Labour Organization 1995). Recognizing this, economic development practitioners and academics alike have embarked on a reconsideration of the role of the service sector in economic development. For the most part, this rethinking has focused upon the contributions made by producer services (i.e. services which supply other businesses). In stark contrast, few have sought to explore the role of consumer services (i.e. services which supply final demand), even though such services constitute the vast bulk of the service sector. Instead, consumer services are predominantly assumed to be residual activities simply dependent upon other economic sectors for their vitality and viability. Being a by-product of the wealth created in these other sectors, consumer services are thus deemed uninteresting, unrewarding and unworthy of investigation. Indeed, so dominant is this perception that apparently no book has been written before on consumer services and economic development. Contemporary wisdom about this sector, which in advanced economies such as Britain employs some 40 per cent of all employees, instead remains grounded in little more than inference and supposition.