Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of figures
- Preface
- 1 Geographical space: a new dimension of public concern and policy
- 2 Employment mobility in Britain
- 3 Leads and lags in inter-regional systems: a study of the cyclic fluctuations in the South West economy
- 4 Spatial structure of metropolitan England and Wales
- 5 Poverty and the urban system
- 6 Some economic and spatial characteristics of the British energy market
- 7 Growth, technical change and planning problems in heavy industry with special reference to the chemical industry
- 8 Freight transport costs, industrial location and regional development
- Index
4 - Spatial structure of metropolitan England and Wales
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of figures
- Preface
- 1 Geographical space: a new dimension of public concern and policy
- 2 Employment mobility in Britain
- 3 Leads and lags in inter-regional systems: a study of the cyclic fluctuations in the South West economy
- 4 Spatial structure of metropolitan England and Wales
- 5 Poverty and the urban system
- 6 Some economic and spatial characteristics of the British energy market
- 7 Growth, technical change and planning problems in heavy industry with special reference to the chemical industry
- 8 Freight transport costs, industrial location and regional development
- Index
Summary
This chapter has two objectives. The first and more general is to discuss the conceptual and technical problems of defining urban areas. (The term ‘urban areas’ is used in preference to particular words like ‘towns’ or ‘cities’, because it is the most general expression, without specific conventional connotations.) This is done in the first section. The second and more particular is to consider the applicability to Britain of one well-known definition of urban area: the Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area. This is done in the second section. The third section presents some results of the exercise; and a discussion of some policy conclusions rounds off the chapter.
The general problem
Definitions
That there is a problem and that it seems important, is evident from the literature. Statements are frequently made there about the percentage of the population of different nations that is urban, or about the growth of urban population in different nations as a percentage of their total population growth; but on inspection, such comparisons prove to depend on quite different national definitions of what is urban. In Denmark a place with 250 people is urban, in Korea a place with less than 40,000 is not (Hall, 1966, 19). So there is need for international standardisation. And even within any one nation, there is need for a closer definition of what is meant by an urban area.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Spatial Policy Problems of the British Economy , pp. 96 - 125Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1971
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