Discussion
There are two major schools of thought regarding the effects of information
technology on cities. The most widely held view is that new information
technologies will ultimately lead to the demise of cities by allowing
electronic means of communication to substitute for face-to-face transactions.
Advanced telecommunications technologies, in this context, make it
possible to obtain all the benefits of urban life, such as access
to a diversity of cultural and information sources as well as contact
with work and family, without confronting the frictions of urban life
- such as commuting, crime, congestion, and pollution. Ronald Abler
(1970) was one of the first geographers to suggest that as cities
evolved from manufacturing to information centers, the very location
of a city could be called into question.
Advances in information transmission may soon permit us to disperse
information-gathering and decision-making activities away from metropolitan
centers, and electronic communications media will make all kinds of
information equally abundant everywhere in the nation, if not everywhere
in the world. When that occurs, the downtown areas of our metropolitan
centers are sure to lose some of their locational advantages for management
and governmental activities.
The idea that information technology would obviate the need for cities
was also raised by urban planners, such as Melvin Webber (1973) who
asked: "Could the forthcoming and unprecedented demands for long-distance
communication combine with the space-spanning capacities of the new
communications technologies to concoct a solvent that could dissolve
the city?" (Webber 1973) One writer has even suggested that "telecommunications
has done more than anything else, since the invention of money, to
reduce the constraints of the physical environment on organization"
(Kellerman 1984).
The alternative perspective, drawn largely from the history of the
telephone, holds that communications technologies can facilitate both
concentration and dispersion of economic activities. As Jean Gottmann
(1977) has stated, "The telephone's impact on office location
has thus been dual: first, it has freed the office from the previous
necessity of locating next to the operations it directed; second,
it has helped to gather offices in large concentrations in special
areas."
George Sternlieb and James W. Hughes' essay, "Information Technology,
Demographics, and the Retail Response," builds upon the Gottmann
thesis by examining the way in which economic and demographic forces
have contributed to both centralizing and decentralizing trends. The
authors believe that technology is an "enabling element rather
than a deterministic one. The impact of technology must be viewed
through a matrix of societal elements which shape its ultimate real
resolution - and settlement patterns as well." They present a
detailed analysis of demographic trends in the United States, highlighting
the processes of decentralization of cities, suburbanization, and
regional shifts from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West.
Sternlieb and Hughes' principle argument, however, concerns the "homogenization
of space," the way in which "information technology has
made much of the historical functions of the older core areas obsolete
or, at best, opened them to very substantial and increasingly successful
competition." Drawing upon a case study of the retailing industry,
they demonstrate how communications and information technologies have
led to the rise of the national chain stores, the decline of the traditional
downtown locally owned retail department store, the growth of computerized
credit bureaus, and the end of credit based on personal ties and knowledge.
The interaction of technology with spatial patterns does not often
work in predictable ways, as the authors insightfully note: "The
rejuvenation of decentralized retailing is in part a reflection, therefore,
of the centralization of consumer credit." Indeed, it is one
of the great ironies of consumer services that the availability of
national credit cards, in combination with the 800 telephone number
system, has stimulated retail growth in what are geographically remote
stores, such as L.L. Bean's in Maine, Land's End in Wisconsin, and
a variety of other specialized establishments. Telecommunications
has converted the "mail order" catalogue operation, initially
designed for farmers far from cities, into an electronic shopping
center - utilizing long-distance telephone, on-line credit verification,
and mail-distributed print catalogues - that extends the geographic
reach of stores in rural areas to urban and suburban households throughout
the nation.
The issues raised by Sternlieb and Hughes highlight the need for
a greater understanding of the relationship of information technology
to patterns of urban development. Clearly, technology does not, by
itself, bring about locational change. Yet new telecommunications
systems do open up opportunities for development that were not previously
available, and not all cities and regions are able to take advantage
of the opportunities presented by technological change effectively.
The growth of national banking operations in Delaware reflects the
strategic role of state tax and regulatory policy in attracting footloose
financial service firms. Where firms once located manufacturing plants
near natural resources and transportation networks, the information
based services of the 1980s and 1990s will require access to high-speed
data networks, a skilled labor force, and a favorable set of residential
and educational services - all of which are subject to public intervention.
Moreover, there is growing evidence that the process of technological
innovation is quite uneven and that the deployment of new fiber optic
systems will occur in large metropolitan centers first, thus giving
major urban centers a "technological edge" over small- and
medium-size cities (Moss 1986). In fact, despite the popular rhetoric
about telecommunications leading to geographic dispersion, advanced
producer services are predominantly concentrated in the largest American
cities (Noyelle 1983).
Although many firms have moved out of central cities, most of the
movement has been to outlying suburban areas and to a handful of cities
in the South and West, not to a randomly distributed set of places
across the North American continent. Far more attention is given to
a locational change resulting from a move out of a central city than
to the equally pervasive expansion of financial or management service
firms within the central business districts of large world cities.
What is perhaps most remarkable about the growth of new information
technologies is the fact that we have not yet found a substitute for
face-to-face contact. There are far more bits of information transmitted
through the business lunch than through the videoconference. The challenge
for researchers is to determine how interpersonal contact has been
enhanced through the use of advanced telecommunications systems. For
example, the "trading room" of an investment bank is designed
to accommodate an elaborate telecommunications infrastructure and
an equally high level of informal information exchange among the traders
who sit "cheek by jowl."
Our knowledge of information technology is far greater than our understanding
of how such technologies influence the day-to-day activities and locational
choices of individuals and firms. The distinctive contribution of
Sternlieb and Hughes has been their analysis of how demographic trends
are likely to shape the future use of new technologies. It is not
enough, however, to examine one social parameter as a guide for understanding
the impact of technology. The use of information technology generates
its own set of social and economic consequences. Our intellectual
frameworks for studying urban regions need to recognize the dynamic
nature of communications technology and its influence on the operations
of the manufacturing and service sectors. To date, far more attention
has been given to the false prophets who predict the potential impacts
of information technology than to the more important task of assessing
actual effects of new information technology so that we can formulate
an informed and intelligent policy to assure the economic health of
cities and large metropolitan regions.
References
Abler, Ronald. 1970. "What Makes Cities Important." Bell
Telephone Magazine 49, no. 2 (March-April):15.
Gottmann, Jean. 1977. "Megalopolis and Antipolis: The Telephone
and the Structure of the City." In The Social Impact of the
Telephone, edited by lthiel de Sola Pool. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT
Press, p. 310.
Kellerman, Aharon. 1984. "Telecommunications and the Geography
of Metropolitan Areas." Human Geography 8, no. 2 (June):222,
citing C. Cherry, "Electronic Communication: A Force for Dispersal."
Official Architecture and Planning 33:733-36.
Moss, Mitchell 1. 1986. "Telecommunications
and the Future of Cities." Land Development Studies.
Noyelle, Thierry J. 1983. "The Rise of Advanced Services."
Journal of the American Planning Association 49, no. 3 (Summer).
Webber, Melvin M. 1973. "Urbanization and Communications."
In Communications Technology and Social Policy, edited by George
Gerbner et al. New York: John Wiley, p. 301.
Originally published in Services in Transition:
The Impact of
Information Technology on the Service Sector,
Ballinger, New York, 1986