IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v7y1975i7p821-832.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Evaluation of Growth-Center Theory and Practice

Author

Listed:
  • N M Hansent

    (Center for Economic Development, Department of Economics, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA)

Abstract

This paper examines empirical and theoretical issues associated with the growth-center approach to regional development, and argues that despite many difficulties the major themes of the growth-center literature still have relevance to regional policy. Although there has been increasing interest in analyzing the nature and significance of spontaneously growing urban places, the growth-center approach is most meaningful in the context of induced growth. There is little evidence that induced growth centers generate significant spread effects on their economically lagging hinterlands; but they can properly serve as regional centers of in-migration. It is difficult to derive an adequate growth model from a market-oriented hierarchy of central place schemes. If one is concerned with innovations and impulses of economic change, using the central place model as a locational matrix or landscape, it should be recognized that information and innovations can be transmitted upward through the hierarchy or laterally among centers of the same level, even though the diffusion process is likely to operate in a downward direction. Recent studies by Pred, Törnqvist, and Goddard indicate that these issues may be clarified by shifting attention to organizational information flows within urban systems. Nevertheless, attempts to focus on the functioning of the ‘postindustrial’ society should not detract from the opportunities that manufacturing decentralization represents for many nonmetropolitan areas. Of course, better access within national (or even international) communications networks can be of considerable help to these areas, not only in attracting more manufacturing activity, but also in upgrading its quality. This in turn depends on the ability of people in lagging regions to take advantage of opportunities, that is, on the quality of rural human resources. The failure of most growth-center theory and practice to include explicitly human resource and manpower dimensions is at least equal to the neglect of information circulation.

Suggested Citation

  • N M Hansent, 1975. "An Evaluation of Growth-Center Theory and Practice," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 7(7), pages 821-832, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:7:y:1975:i:7:p:821-832
    DOI: 10.1068/a070821
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a070821
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a070821?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John B. Parr, 1973. "Growth Poles, Regional Development, And Central Place Theory," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 173-212, January.
    2. Rodney A. Erickson, 1974. "The Regional Impact of Growth Firms: The Case of Boeing, 1963-1968," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 127-136.
    3. Morgan D. Thomas, 1975. "Growth Pole Theory, Technological Change, And Regional Economic Growth," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 3-25, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luis Suarez-Villa, 1988. "Metropolitan Evolution, Sectoral Economic Change, and the City Size Distribution," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 25(1), pages 1-20, February.
    2. Randall Jackson, 2015. "Are Industry Clusters and Diversity Strange Bedfellows?," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 45(2), pages 113-129, Fall.
    3. Randall Jackson, 2015. "Fellows Address: Are Industry Clusters and Diversity Strange Bedfellows?," Working Papers Working Paper 2015-04, Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University.
    4. Edward J. Malecki, 1983. "Technology and Regional Development: A Survey," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 8(2), pages 89-125, October.
    5. Dimitrios TSIOTAS & Nikolaos AXELIS & Serafeim POLYZOS, 2022. "Detecting City-Dipoles In Greece Based On Intercity Commuting," Regional Science Inquiry, Hellenic Association of Regional Scientists, vol. 0(1), pages 11-30, June.
    6. Hughes, David W. & Litz, Vaneska N., 1996. "Rural-Urban Economic Linkages for Agriculture and Food Processing in the Monroe, Louisiana, Functional Economic Area," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(2), pages 337-355, December.
    7. Rees, John, 2001. "The Landscapes of Liberty," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 31(2), pages 111-120, Fall.
    8. Quatraro, Francesco, 2010. "Knowledge coherence, variety and economic growth: Manufacturing evidence from Italian regions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 1289-1302, December.
    9. Carole Doucet, 2004. "Espaces ruraux, espaces périphériques ? Les perspectives de développement économique associées au vignoble de Bordeaux," Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, INRA Department of Economics, vol. 70, pages 49-76.
    10. Vogel, Stephen & Miller, Cristina & Ralston, Katherine, 2021. "Impact of USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on Rural and Urban Economies in the Aftermath of the Great Recession," Economic Research Report 327185, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    11. Paolo Veneri & Vicente Ruiz, 2016. "Urban-To-Rural Population Growth Linkages: Evidence From Oecd Tl3 Regions," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 3-24, January.
    12. Cattaneo, Andrea & Adukia, Anjali & Brown, David L. & Christiaensen, Luc & Evans, David K. & Haakenstad, Annie & McMenomy, Theresa & Partridge, Mark & Vaz, Sara & Weiss, Daniel J., 2022. "Economic and social development along the urban–rural continuum: New opportunities to inform policy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    13. Francesco Quatraro, 2009. "Diffusion of Regional Innovation Capabilities: Evidence from Italian Patent Data," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(10), pages 1333-1348, December.
    14. Quatraro Francesco, 2011. "Knowledge Structure and Regional Economic Growth: The French case," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis LEI & BRICK - Laboratory of Economics of Innovation "Franco Momigliano", Bureau of Research in Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge, Collegio 201112, University of Turin.
    15. Carole Doucet, 2004. "Espaces ruraux, espaces périphériques ? Les perspectives de développement économique associées au vignoble de Bordeaux," Post-Print hal-01201062, HAL.
    16. Baruch A. Kipnis, 1977. "Center-Hinterland Interrelationships in a Nodal Region: An Input-Output Analysis," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 14(3), pages 347-351, October.
    17. Carmen Delgado-Viñas & María-Luisa Gómez-Moreno, 2022. "The Interaction between Urban and Rural Areas: An Updated Paradigmatic, Methodological and Bibliographic Review," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-21, August.
    18. Shiran Zhang & Jiaping Yang & Changdong Ye & Weixuan Chen & Yixuan Li, 2023. "Sustainable Development of Industrial Renovation: Renovation Paths of Village-Level Industrial Parks in Pearl River Delta," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-22, June.
    19. R P Oakey & A T Thwaites & P A Nash, 1982. "Technological Change and Regional Development: Some Evidence on Regional Variations in Product and Process Innovation," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 14(8), pages 1073-1086, August.
    20. Benedikt S. L. Fritz & Robert A. Manduca, 2019. "The Economic Complexity of US Metropolitan Areas," Papers 1901.08112, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:7:y:1975:i:7:p:821-832. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.