Metropolitan Polarization, the North-South Divide and Socio-Spatial Inequality in Britain

Abstract

Spatial inequalities have been a constant feature of capitalist development in Britain. Today there are two major macro-geographical divides. The first is between the Greater London metropolitan area and the rest of Britain. The second is a related division between North and South which assumed particular prominence after the inter-war depression when the industries of the old industrial heartland went into decline. Attention is paid first to a variety of social, economic and political indicators of these persistent divisions and of the more complex mosaic of in equality that underlies them. An attempt will be made to explain the evolution of these divisions via refer ence to some of the underlying structures specific to British capitalism, the deep-seated process of relative economic decline that dates from the late nineteenth century, the dynamics of the post-war boom and the impact of the neo-liberal, two-nations accumulation strategy of the Thatcher era which saw a regionally differentiated process of de-industrialization in 1979- 83 followed by a speculative, service industry-led boom and a service-led recession after 1989. To con clude I shall try to identify the relationships between inequality and economic dynamism, focusing in par ticular on the contradictory character of inequality.