ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the relationship between global and local practices, focusing attention on the intersection of social reproduction, or everyday household life, and processes of modern urbanisation. More conventional standpoint by reviewing London's overall 'institutional structures' relating to employment, housing, retailing and transport. It begins from a more concludes with a discussion of both the tensions that constitute the city, the city that many of us live in, and move about, every day, and the broader institutional context within which this activity takes place. In effect, west London is closely related to growing industries and prosperous communities, and east London is linked to industrial and community decline, unemployment and social deprivation. As a daily urban system, the expansion of London's boundaries and its merging with adjacent towns suggests a persistent trend of decentralisation. The 1970s and 1980s saw dramatic change in British retailing, characterised by some as a 'retail revolution' sweeping through the country.
