Publication
Until about the end of WWII, the territorial organization of the economy could be expressed along a very strong center-periphery gradient, with industries and services concentrated in cities while the countryside supplied agricultural products. Since the industrial revolution, industrial regions had emerged essentially in mining regions which perturbed this very simple scheme, but without fundamentally modifying it. In the first half of the 20th century, with the advent of mass transportation and of the individual car, the residential functions started to deconcentrate and residential suburbs developed. However, as a general rule, most non-agricultural economic functions remained tightly attached to the city core and its immediate surroundings, and with them their jobs. These structures were accounted for by various theoretical models, of which the Von Thunen land-rent model family, the Weber models of industrial localization and regional specialization, and the Christaller model of hierarchical city networks were the most prominent. However, since 1945, those jobs have seen their territorial distribution shift. First, the importance of agriculture dwindled, to the profit first of industrial activities, then of services. Land-hungry activities, such as the industry and logistical activities vacated the urban centers in search for ample space, which they generally found in suburban settings under the guise of industrial zones. But they weren't alone at deconcentrating. Retail and personal services tended to follow their customers in the suburbs. During the last quarter of the 20th century, selected suburbs evolved from purely residential or industrial functions to more complete economic ones, integrating retail, high tech and professional services. By 1990, the phenomenon was largely recognized in North America, where those job-intensive suburbs were nicknamed edge cities. Empirical studies showed convincingly that the same patterns of job and functional deconcentration were found in the whole world and especially in western countries. Job suburbanization is contemporary with major spatial and functional economical upheavals. The economy, for instance, evolved from the fordist integrated economical model dominated by very large companies internalizing most of their functions in a vertical, hierarchical relationship pattern to a post-fordist disintegrated model where companies concentrate on their core competencies and subcontract in a horizontal, contractual manner their non-core needs. Economical spatial deconcentration is also contemporary with the current version of globalization, materialized by the emergence of global cities and metropolises which keep constant communication flow between themselves, in a horizontal manner, and which are less and less dependent on their hinterland for their economical survival and development. Likewise, the economy becomes more and more informational, relying on knowledge, immaterial services, instant worldwid