ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes trends in the inter-regional distribution of manufacturing employment within the period 1952 to 1979, and highlights significant patterns of change that do not accord with a simple north/south division of the country. In analysing structural change in different manufacturing sectors over the period 1973–8 Massey and Meegan make an important distinction between three overlapping types of corporate strategy – production intensification, rationalization and technical change. The book suggests that overall employment decline is now a widespread characteristic of urban cores of Metropolitan Economic Labour Areas. It explores further the nature of service sector employment change. The book focuses on population change which provides some evidence that the rate of dispersal has indeed declined during the 1970s. It also focuses the need to take careful account of the very different conditions prevailing in each of the British conurbations.
