Spatial Divisions of Labour and the New Inter-Regional Imbalance in Spain

Abstract

Restructuring of the productive system during recent decades, accompanied by rapid technological development, and parallel changes in modes of social and institutional regulation, define a new framework for the deep transformations that have characterized labour markets. However, individual territories react differently to these overall processes, according to their inherited structures (economic, sociodemographic, political and spatial), and the innovative capacities of their businesses, public bodies and social authorities. These factors contribute to a redistribution of the spatial division of labour. As a result, reference to national, regional and local labour markets has become commonplace in recent research, giving rise to controversies concerning, for example, their demarcation, thematic contents, the powers and factors which shape them, and dominant processes and trends. This article provides a framework for interpreting the features and the evolution of labour markets and then applies this to analysing tendencies in Spain's spatial division of labour.