CHAPTER 4 (CONT’D) GEOG 240 DAY 7

HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS Outlines are due today. I skipped over Lee on Monday. Reminder that tomorrow is the talk by Mike Lewis at 5 p.m. in the Malaspina Theatre. It’s free, they have snacks, and there will be a cash bar. Members of the VIU Board of Governors have invited the Faculty of Social Sciences (students, faculty members, & staff) to join them for a complementary Meet & Greet lunch on Thursday from 12:00 to 1:00 in the Dean’s Office 356/310. In addition to deindustrialization of traditional industrial areas, new industrial spaces have emerged: ∙craft-based districts with small and medium firms (watch-making in Jura; specialty co-ops in Emilia-Romagna); ∙centres of high technology close to major cities (Silicon Valley, Boston 128, etc.), and ∙clusters of advanced financial & producer services (e.g. New York, etc.).

Craft-Based Districts Are Not Entirely New…  An interesting example of a highly successful region that relies on relatively small, skill-intensive enterprises and co- ops is Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, an area centered on Bologna.  The region has 4.4 million people and boasts a business ratio of one business for every 11 persons, 90% of which have fewer than 99 employees. In Capri, the knitwear capital of Europe (population: 60,000), businesses do over $2 billion in sales, and the average enterprise has five employees.  Collaboration amongst businesses is a prominent feature of economic life, as are co-ops.

EMILIA-ROMAGNA

In Emilia-Romagna is noted for its parmesan cheese, produced by over 700 farm co-operatives:  cooperatives make up over 40% of the GDP of the E-R region  in Bologna two out of three adult citizens are members of a cooperative  in Bologna, over 85% of the city's social services are provided by social co-ops  per capita income in E-R has risen from 17th to second among Italy's 20 regions  per capital income is 50% higher than the national.

EMILIA-ROMAGNA  Of the European regions, E-R is number 11 of 122 regions in terms of GNP per inhabitant  Bologna has the highest disposable income of any of Italy's 103 provinces  Bologna has the highest per capita expenditure on the arts of any city in Italy  The unemployment rate of 4% is virtually full employment  70% of Bologna's households have home ownership. Source:

EMILIA-ROMAGNA If you Google “co-ops in Emilia-Romagna,” you'll find lots of other interesting info as well. Another famous example of a co-op economy is the system of famous Mondragon co-ops centred in the Basque country of northern Spain. Source: Wikipedia

SILICON VALLEY See page 80 for a description of its origins and development. Cooperation between firms and their personnel, and constant innovation give the Valley a comparative advantage. Home to Intel, Apple, and Sun Microsystems. Similar high tech hub near Boston Route 28.

MAJOR FINANCIAL CENTRES

SPACES OF CONSUMPTION There are a number of issues involved here. If time and her schedule permits, I will bring in Pam to address changes in the retail landscape over time. See also the article she and I wrote in the summer issue of Plan Canada.  concentration of retail activity increasingly in the hands of large corporations;  corresponding changes in the scale of retail activity;  transformation of the landscape by retail activity and loss of the uniqueness of place, and  spread of a global consumer culture around the world, aided by advertising and multinational corporations.

SPACES OF CONSUMPTION There are a number of issues involved here. If time and her schedule permits, I will bring in Pam to address changes in the retail landscape over time. See also the article she and I wrote in the summer issue of Plan Canada.  concentration of retail activity increasingly in the hands of large corporations;  corresponding changes in the scale of retail activity;  transformation of the landscape by retail activity and loss of the uniqueness of place, and  spread of a global consumer culture around the world, aided by advertising and multinational corporations.

CONCENTRATION OF RETAIL

LOSS OF UNIQUE PLACES Artist: Andy Singer

NEW SPACES OF CONSUMPTION: LOCATION, MARKETING, AND PACKAGING OF COMMODITIES AS PART OF AN ALL-EMBRACING SPECTACLE

GLOBAL CONSUMER CULTURE

MODIFICATIONS As the text and someone in this class have pointed out, there is variation in how products are used and consumed in different parts of the world. How significant is this in the larger scheme of things? What about the positive aspect of globalization – the flow of local influences back into the global pot, thereby enriching it and transforming specific places. Can you think of examples? This ties in with Doreen Massey’s theory that places are not airtight containers but are constantly being redefined by the in and out flow of people, ideas, and cultural products.