ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses some recent trends and mechanisms relating to technological change in the urban and regional systems of Canada and the US. It discusses the effects of technological change and its challenges for planning. A useful shorthand description of North American urban-regional growth during the 1950–1980 period is decentralised concentrated dispersion. The decentralisation of economic activity refers to the marked suburbanisation of manufacturing, distribution and office functions within metropolitan regions over the past few decades. A persistent feature of urban systems noted earlier is the presence of some degree of hierarchical structure, especially for control and innovation, which tends to focus on large urban regions first and peripheral regions only later. The urban-regional impact of technological change that is perhaps most pervasive, then is a polarisation of the labour force, both locationally and organisationally.
