Spaces of economic development

The topic of this section, spaces of economic development, persists as a dominant kind of physical form in cities across the globe. High tech production zones, new conspicuous consumption retail districts, greying industrial zones and neighbourhoods comprising spatial divisions of labour are the most visible imprint of these spaces. The city is fundamentally an economic apparatus, David Harvey repetitiously tells us, and its most visible manifestation in the production of spaces that give form, life and texture to the economic functioning of cities. In these spaces conflict and contentiousness often bubble to the surface or lie lurking. As powerful exchange value advocates typically must navigate the reality of use value fervency, no other kind of space in cities seems to engender more conflict and controversy. The urban economy and its social relations ultimately carve out spatialities via claims and counter-claims about best cities as functioning economic units whose resolution is beyond simple. Economics, politics and space in current cities, as always, dynamically interconnect.