ABSTRACT
As the industrial city developed in the nineteenth century, its raison d’être was economic activity and manufacturing industries were its driving force, dominating its essential functional features and land-use. Large industries often occupied large tracts of central city space, housing was closely linked to places of employment, power structures were aligned to industrial interests, and the city as the locus of industry and commerce was sharply differentiated from rural areas. As the post-industrial city emerged, the character of the economic institutions changed from manufacturing to services but the urban economy, still the foundation of the city, became more complex with activities that were both more dispersed spatially and variegated by type. At the same time, the social dimension to urban life became more complex and assumed greater significance. Soja (1989), in his Postmodern Geographies, tried to express this when he spoke of society becoming contextualised and regionalised around a multi-layered nesting of supra-individual modal localities. Older ideas of urbanism and urban/rural differences had less relevance. Large cities now encapsulate modern trends which have profound effects upon lifestyles and quality of living. Innovation and change are integral to the growth of cities but by no means always in positive ways. In Chapters 11 and 12 some of these changes and the related issues will be explored. Here, the emphasis will be upon the social dimension to urban life, and Chapter 12 looks more generally at social problems in the city.
