The geographies of services: New wine in old bottles

This report has given an account of some of the continuities and discontinuities in research into the economic geogrnpliy of services. Given the phenomenal changes that have taken place elsewhere in geography which have seen considerable developments in, and melding of, cultural geography, political economy, political geography and so on, the preservation of an agenda which examines the spatial distribution and economic impact of services is remarkable. In much of this research there is more than a residual understanding of the service economy as being subject to essentially logical forces. Yet, as Joan Robinson (1966:17) cogently argues, 'It is impossible to understand the economic system in which we are living if we try to interpret it as a rational scheme. It has to be understood as an awkward phase in a continuing process of historical [and, we may add, geographical] development'. Here, I have shown that even within the economistic approach to the geography of services, there has been a growing awareness of, and sensitivity to, issues of power and politics and, in the research on labour markets in particular, to exclusion and inclusion. These are themes I will take up in the two following reports, when I explore the politicization and enculturation of service research.