Les villes dans une économie mondiale : le cas de New York

Abstract

Four main mechanisms can be identified in the formation of the world towns. Firstly, the geographic dispersion of the manufacturing industry, which contributed to the decline of the old industrial centres, has created demand for greater centralisation of company management and planning, and for an increase in the specialised services which are indispensable for growth in the world towns. Then, the growth of the finance industry, and in particular some key sectors of this activity have benefited from governmental measures and from conditions which have actually been damaging to other industrial sectors, particularly the manufacturing industry. The overall effect of such development, once again, has been to encourage the growth of the specialised services situated in the large towns and to erode the economic base of other types of localities. Lastly, the conditions and arrangements underlying the two first transformations suggest a change in the economic relations between the world towns, the nations in which they are situated, and the world economy. Finally, the new growth conditions have supplied the elements for reorganisation of the social classes in the world towns. The professional structure of the most important expanding activities, characterised by the geographic concentration of the most important growth sectors in the world towns, in combination with the polarised professional structure of these sectors, has created and supported the development of two salaried classes, those with high salaries and those with low salaries. The combination of intensive speculation with the multiplicity of small companies which make up the centre of the complex of services to the production sector and financial services raises a question regarding the permanence of such a growth model.