Services: Key Issue 4
Why Do Business Services Cluster in Large Settlements?
Rubenstein, pp. 394-400
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● HIERARCHY OF BUSINESS SERVICES
Cities can be classified (in a hierarchal fashion) by the services they perform. Cities can be classified as
1. World cities
2. Dominant cities
3. Major cities and
4. Secondary cities
1. What sets World class cities apart?
2. Take brief notes under the following headings as they appear in the book on page 395-396:
a. Business Services in World cities
b. Consumer Services in World cities.
c. Public Services in World cities.
3. Give city examples for each of the following levels and sub-levels based on Business Services (Note – if no cities are given try and come up with your own):
· World Cities
o Dominant World Cities – most important stock exchanges
o Major World Cities – some corporations and banks have head offices
o Secondary World Cities –
· Command and Control Centers
· Specialized Producer-Service Centers
· Dependent Centers
o Resort, Retirement and Residential
o Manufacturing Centers
o Military Centers
o Mining Centers
● BUSINESS SERVICES IN LDCs
4. Offshore Financial Services: Small countries, usually islands offer to important functions in the global circulation of capital, what are those functions?
5. Offshore Financial Services: List other examples of offshore countries that offer the same services as above. I will bet you do not know where most are on a map!
6. Back Offices: What are Back Office services? What two characteristics related to labour is needed to have back offices?
7. Back Offices: List examples of countries that offer Back Office services.
● ECONOMIC BASE OF SETTLEMENTS
8. Define the following terms.
a. basic industry:
b. nonbasic industry:
9. What is the economic base of a community?
10. Explain how a basic industry creates new types of jobs.
11. Simply list the cities beside each specialization:
Business Specialists
· General business –
· Computing and Data Processing Services –
· High-tech industries support services –
· Military activity –
· Management –
Consumer Specialists
· Entertainment and Recreation -
· Medical services -
Public Specialists
· State Capitals – no examples needed
· Large Universities – no examples needed
· Military bases – come up with two cities -
12. Read Distribution of Talent on page 399, but only if you enjoy reading pure, unadulterated crap. This subsection of the chapter summarizes the pathetic, ridiculous, and flawed studies of an apparently perverted social scientist named Richard Florida.
Explain why you can see that this is 3 paragraphs of total garbage.