ABSTRACT
In Chapters 1 and 2 the emphasis on definition, classification and macroscale variations in the distribution of service activities has, of course, overlooked so far any attempt at explanation. It is not intended that this chapter should completely fulfil this role-the explanation of spatial differences in distribution will come later. But this will not be comprehensible without recourse to aspatial factors which also contribute to our understanding of the spatial patterns of service activity. There is a general consensus that economic systems pass through stages of development for which one symptom is an increasing proportion of employment in service industries. There is less agreement about how far these changes will proceed; or whether they are part of an ongoing evolutionary process rather than representative of a new kind of ‘post-industrial’ economy and society; or the role which technology will play; or whether they presage detrimental effects on spatial patterns of economic development within individual countries as well as between them. Much seems to depend on the disciplinary viewpoint and three examples-from economics, sociology and political economy-will be considered here.
