Industrialization and Urbanization: A Geographical Agenda.

The paper opens with a redefinition of the urban question in terms of the logic of industrialization. It is shown how processes of vertical and horizontal disintegration lead to increasing external economics of scale, and how these then translate out into a basic urban dynamic. These same processes are susceptible to reversal, with vertical and horizontal integration as the result. This reversal intersects with a series of other processes (linkage changes, scale adjustments, deskilling, and so on) leading frequently to industrial decentralization and dispersal. An attempt is made to show how the structures of production and work are expressed in (and are at the same time dependent on) the peculiar forms of residential and social activity that occur in the modern metropolis. The paper concludes with a brief allusion to the political significance of the urban question as redefined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]