ABSTRACT
This chapter presents thoughts about the relationship between sectoral clustering and metropolitan development. It addresses the possible explanations for such clustering. The chapter starts with brief notes on intrametropolitan clustering. It has been studied extensively, and what is known about it may provide insight into intermetropolitan area clustering. An intrametropolitan cluster is a cluster of activities in a set of contiguous locations in a metropolitan area. An intermetropolitan cluster is a cluster of activities in a particular metropolitan area. Consider the suburban shopping center, which has been extensively studied. Two factors account for these intrametropolitan clusters. Downtown office activities and suburban office and industrial parks are the other prominent intrametropolitan clusters. The chapter discusses that Clustering of office activities may relate to intrametropolitan or intermetropolitan considerations. Even at the three-digit level, production is sufficiently diverse that any one of the causes of clustering to be discussed could occur within one sector or among several sectors.
