ABSTRACT
Clark’s (1969) analysis of industrial location in Western Europe highlights one group of processes, subsumed under the heading of transport costs, that have operated in the recent past to reduce the earlier correlation between manufacturing sites and mining towns or major markets. ‘A general description of what is happening in the modern industrial world is that the macro-location of industry and population is tending towards an ever-increasing concentration in a limited number of areas 1 ; their micro-location, on the other hand, towards an ever-increasing diffusion or “sprawl” ’ (Clark and coworkers, 1969, p. 197). However other important processes are at work which include a wide range of policy measures for decentralizing industry away from flourishing economic cores and for stimulating manufacturing activities in less-developed, predominantly rural regions. Such measures vary considerably in detail and are best examined in their appropriate national contexts in later chapters. In spite of these various trends for weakening resource-based manufacturing locations, changes in energy supply and consumption should not be underestimated as factors contributing to regional problems and potentials in Western Europe.
