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Chapter 12 The Implications of the New Economy for Industrial
Location The growing media, academic, and public policy interest in understanding global capitalism and the new economy has spawned increasing debate around the question of where exactly is the new economy? Several popular studies have suggested that the new economy and the “digital revolution” it embodies have significant potential to redefine where people live and work. In particular, Joel Kotkin (2001) has provocatively described how the ensuing upheaval could have massive consequences for the vitality of different local communities, cities, and, indeed, entire nations, without any particular sense of social or territorial justice. He writes, “it is as if the locational deck has been reshuffled. The once sharp distinctions between frostbelt and sunbelt, city and suburb, countryside and metropolis are now increasingly blurry. In the new paradigm, there are both successful and unsuccessful places of every type and distinction. What matters is not so much whether a place is little or big, hot or cold, old or new, but whether it has found or not found a viable niche within the new economic order.” Thus, this is posing two very significant questions for academic research, ostensibly among economic geographers. First, what is the geography of the new economy going to look like, and how will it differ from the geography of the old economy? Second, what are the critical factors determining industrial location in the new economy and, therefore, who will be the likely winners and losers? |