The Politics of Location: An Introduction (Routledge Library Editions: Human Geography)

This book, originally published in 1982, begins with an examination of space, and its role in the process of public provision and collective consumption. Variations in provision are linked to the Weberian notion of social status and political struggles over consumption and externality issues. Health care and education are considered in spatial contexts, and the whole basis of the electoral system is also discussed together with geographic underpinnings. In each case emphasis is placed on the jurisdictional organization of space by public bodies. The author examines the various examples of spatial cleavages, in which political events are redirected by issues such as nuclear power, airport location, road construction and urban renewal. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Original Title Page 6 Original Copyright Page 7 Dedication 8 Table of Contents 10 Acknowledgements 13 Preface 15 Introduction 17 Part l Space 24 1 A perspective on space 26 Space as an idea 26 Spatial schema, spatial structure and spatial patterns 28 'People poverty’ and 'place poverty’ 32 The location of externalities 36 The politics of collective consumption 39 Conclusion 43 2 Deprivation 46 Consumption and deprivation 46 The concept of deprivation 48 The causes of deprivation 48 Structural inequalities 50 Distribution and social status 52 The measurement of distributional effects 53 The mechanisms of deprivation 56 Examples of class-specific deprivation 61 Summary 64 Part II Inequalities 70 3 Educational and medical provision 72 Education: a personal achievement? 72 Attainment and expenditure 75 Provision within authorities 77 The spatial organization of education 80 Resume 82 Spatial issues and medical concerns 83 The provision of health care 85 Mobility and morbidity 91 An overview of space 94 Summary and conclusions 95 4 Electoral organization 99 Elections in three dimensions 99 Spatial and electoral bias 100 Partisan bias and malapportionment 105 Political support and financial rewards 110 The neighbourhood effect in ‘Thatcherland’ 112 Postscript 116 Conclusions 118 Part III Conflicts 122 5 Spatial cleavages 124 The Third London Airport (TLA) 125 A chronology of the TLA 125 Roskill and after 127 The implications of the TLA 130 The planning system 130 The ‘community' 135 The political system and the planning inquiry 137 Resume 140 Nuclear technology: a spatial issue? 140 Windscale: the political system and conflict resolution 141 The Windscale Inquiry and the planning system 144 The communities of interest 146 Conclusions 149 6 Local conflicts 153 Roads as externalities 153 Roads and group protest 157 Roads and conflict: a case history 160 Roads and conflict: general principles 166 The political process: public inquiries into road proposals 169 The planning process: forecasts and predictions 170 Urban renewal and the planning process 174 Renewal as externality 175 Protest and community action 177 Urban social movements 180 Part IV Change 184 7 Spatial change and social change 186 Spatial change and social change 186 Segregation and education 187 Wider issues (1): the Rate Support Grant (RSG) 189 Wider issues (2): electoral reform 197 Proportional representation 201 Conclusions 204 8 Implications 207 Space – yet again 207 ‘Death, degeneracy and radical eclecticism1 211 Consumption, production and political action 213 Conclusions 214 Name index 216 Subject index 219