Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Telecommunications, cities and technological opportunism

  • Published:
The Annals of Regional Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The advent of telecommunications and the emergence of the ‘information age’ have given rise to great expectations regarding urban change. The paper examines the assumptions underlying the claims for change and distinguishes between processes which may alter the structure of the city and those which change the functions of cities. In the former, it examines the assumptions underlying the decentralization-concentration hypotheses, suggesting that there is no deterministic effect of telecommunications, and that the structure of cities is largely affected by the persistent need for physical transport. Telecommunications can be used by agents to exercise greater flexibility in location decisions. At the global scale, the emergence of the world cities is facilitated by telecommunications, but only few cities are likely to gain this status. The effects of telecommunications on urban form and function are mostly the result of opportunities seized by individual agents and not by deterministic or naive policy approaches.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abler R (1987) What if somebody built a teleport and nobody called? Communications and regional development in the United States. Paper presented at the government of Greece-OECD seminar on information and telecommunications technology for regional development. Athens. 7/8 December

  • Abler R (1991) Hardware, software and brainware: mapping and understanding telecommunications technologies. In: Brunn S, Leinbach T (eds) Collapsing space and time: geographic aspects of communications and information. Harper Collins Academic, New York, pp 31–48

    Google Scholar 

  • Archigram (1965) Cited in Raeburn M (1980) Architecture of the western world. Rizzoli, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Batten D (1989) The future of transport and interface communications: debating the scope for substitution growth. In: Batten D, Thord R (eds) Transportation for the future. Springer, Berlin, pp 67–86

    Google Scholar 

  • Batten D (1995) Network cities: creative urban agglomerations for the 21st century. Urban Stud 32(2):313–327

    Google Scholar 

  • Bortz P (1985) Being realistic about videotext. In: Greenberger R (ed) Electronic publishing plus. Knowledge industries publications, NY, pp 113–120

  • Brunn S, Leinbach T (eds) (1991) Collapsing space and time: geographic aspects of communications and information. Harper Collins, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Business Week (1985) America's high-tech crisis: why Silicon Valley is losing its edge. March 11, pp 56–57

  • Button K, Maggi R (1994) Videoconferencing and its implications for transport: an Anglo-Swiss perspective. Transp Rev 15(1):59–75

    Google Scholar 

  • Castells M (1993) European cities, the information society and the global economy. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 84(4):247–257

    Google Scholar 

  • Chinitz B (1991) A framework for speculating about future urban growth patterns in the US. Urban Stud 28(6):939–959

    Google Scholar 

  • Corey K (1991) The role of information technology in the planning and development of Singapore. In: Brunn S, Leinbach T (eds) Collapsing space and time: geographic aspects of communications and information. Harper Collins Academic, New York, pp 217–231

    Google Scholar 

  • Dery D (1984) Problem definition in policy analysis. University of Kansas Press, Lawrence Ka

    Google Scholar 

  • Drucker P (1989) Information and the future of the city. Urban Land (June)

  • Friedmann J (1986) The world city hypothesis. Dev Change 17:69–84

    Google Scholar 

  • Garreau J (1991) Edge cities. Doubleday

  • Gillespie A, Robins K (1991) Non-universal service? Political economy and communications geography. In: Brotchie J, Batty M, Hall P, Newton P (eds) Cities of the 21st century. Longman Cheshire, NY, pp 159–170

    Google Scholar 

  • Gold J (1991) Fishing in muddy waters: communications media and the myth of the electronic cottage. In: Brunn S, Leinbach T (eds) Collapsing space and time: geographic aspects of communications and information. Harper Collins Acedemic, New York, pp 327–341

    Google Scholar 

  • Golding P, Murdock G (1986) Unequal information: access and exclusion in the new communications market place. In: Ferguson M (ed) (1986) New communication technologies and the public interest. Sage, London, pp 71–82

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottmann J (1983) Urban settlements and telecommunications. In: The coming of the transactional city: collected writings of Prof. J. Gottmann. University of Maryland Press, College Park, Md, pp 17–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris N (1994) The emerging global city: transport. Cities 11(5):332–336

    Google Scholar 

  • Howard E (1985) Teleshopping in North America. Environ & Plan 12(2):141–150

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones P, Salomon I (1992) Technological and social developments and their implications for inhome/out-of-home interactions. In: Nijkamp P (ed) Europe on the move. Avebury, Aldershot, pp 95–113

    Google Scholar 

  • Keen P (1987) Telecommunications and organizational choice. Commun Res 14(5):588–606

    Google Scholar 

  • Kellerman A (1990) The role of telecommunication in assisting peripherally located countries: The case of Israel. In: Brunn S, Leinbach T (eds) Collapsing space and time: geographic aspects of communications and information. Harper Collins, London, pp 252–277

    Google Scholar 

  • Knight R (1995) Knowledge-based development: policy and planning implications for cities. Urban Stud 32(2):225–260

    Google Scholar 

  • Koppelman F, Salomon I, Prossalouglou K (1991) Teleshopping or store shopping: a choice model for forecasting the use of new telecommunications-based services. Environ & Plan B 18:473–489

    Google Scholar 

  • Larsen J, Rogers E (1988) Silicon Valley: the rise and falling off of entrepreneurial fever. In: Smilor R, Kozmetsky G, Gibson D (eds) (1988) Creating the technopolis: linking technology commercialization and economic development. Ballinger, Cambridge, pp 99–127

    Google Scholar 

  • Maggi R, Salomon I, Orfeuil J (1995) Why do people travel. Presented at the second Euroconference on European Transport and Communications Networks. Espinho, Portugal

  • Masser I (1990) Technology and regional development policy: a review of Japan's technopolis programme. Reg Stud 24(1):41–53

    Google Scholar 

  • Meier R (1962) A communications theory of urban growth. The joint center for urban studies. MIT and Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass

    Google Scholar 

  • Mette M (1995) Impact of teleconferencing on the demand for air travel. MIT Flight Transportation Laboratory Report R95-1

  • Mokhtarian P (1990) A typology of relationships between telecommunications and transportation. Transp Res A 24A(3):231–244

    Google Scholar 

  • Muller P (1986) Transportation and urban form: stages in the spatial evolution of the American metropolis. In: Hanson S (ed) The geography of urban transportation. Guilford, New York, pp 24–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Nijkamp P, Rietveld P, Salomon I (1991) Barriers in spatial interaction and communications; a conceptual exploration. Ann Reg Sci 24:237–252

    Google Scholar 

  • Owen W (1968) Transportation, communications and the future of the city. Ekistics 25:3–5

    Google Scholar 

  • Porat M (1978) The emergence of an information economy. Econ Impact 24:29–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Salomon I (1985) Telecommunications and travel: substitution or modified behavior. J Transp Econ Policy 19(3):219–235

    Google Scholar 

  • Salomon I (1986) Telecommunications and travel relationships: a review. Transp Res A 20A(3):223–238

    Google Scholar 

  • Salomon I, Tsairi B (1995) Global production, transport and telecommunications: a case study of coping with barriers in Japanese-Israeli collaboration. J Transp Geogr 3(1):15–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Sassen C (1994) cities in a world economy. Pine Forge, Thousand Oaks

    Google Scholar 

  • Shachar A (1994) Ranstad Holland: a ‘world city’? Urban Stud 31(3):381–400

    Google Scholar 

  • Silvestri G (1993) Occupational employment: wide variations in growth. Monthly Labor Review (November), pp 58–86

  • Smilor R, Kozmetsky G, Gibson D (eds) (1988) Creating the technopolis: linking technology commercialization and economic development. Ballinger, Cambridge, pp 205–208

    Google Scholar 

  • The Economist (1995) The death of distance. Sept 24, 1995

  • Toffler A (1981) The third wave. Bantam Books, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • UN — United Nations (1993) Statistical yearbook. Thirty-ninth issue

  • Warf B (1995) Telecommunications and the changing geographies of knowledge transmission in the late 20th century. Urban Stud 32(2):361–378

    Google Scholar 

  • Wise (1971) Impact of electronic communications on metropolitan form. Ekistics 32:188

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolman A (1968) The metabolism of the cities. Cities: a scientific American book. Alfred A Knopf, New York, pp 156–174

    Google Scholar 

  • Zuboff S (1995) The emperor's new workplace. Scientific American, Sept, pp 162–163

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

    Ilan Salomon

Authors
  1. Ilan Salomon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Salomon, I. Telecommunications, cities and technological opportunism. Ann Reg Sci 30, 75–90 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01580538

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01580538

Keywords

Search

Navigation