SERVICES
I. TYPES OF SERVICES
The service (tertiary) sector of the economy is divided into
three types: consumer, business, and public services, and
make up about 80% of all jobs in the U.S.
- Consumer services
- Purpose is to provide services
to individual consumers who
desire them, and can afford
them
- More than ½ of all jobs in the U.
S. are consumer services
- Four main types: retail,
education, health, leisure
I. TYPES OF SERVICES
- Business services
- Purpose is to facilitate other
businesses
- About 15% of all jobs in U.S.
- Three main types: professional
(law, design, accounting,
technical services), financial
(banks, investing, insurance),
transportation (trucking,
shipping)
I. TYPES OF SERVICES
- Public services
- Purpose is to provide security
and protection for citizens and
business
- About 15% of all U.S. jobs (does
not count public school teachers under consumer services)
- Government workers at all levels
(local, state, federal)
I. TYPES OF SERVICES
- Over the last several decades,
growth in the primary and
secondary sectors has remained
stagnant (or slightly decreased).
- The biggest areas of growth
have been in the retail and “other
personal” - includes services that
caters to a consumer’s
needs/wants
II. DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS OF SERVICES
Many large MDC economies - the U.S., Britain, Japan - are trending towards a
service-dominant economy (retail, public services).
WHERE & WHY ARE SERVICES LOCATED?
-Central Place Theory (Walter Christaller, 1930s)
- Explains how services are distributed and why a regular pattern of
settlements exists (most applicable in MDCs such as the US)
-A central place is a market center for the exchange of goods and services
by people attracted from the surrounding area - called a market area (or
hinterland)
-Every urban center has an economic reach (measure of centrality)
-Centers compete to provide services and goods
II. DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS OF SERVICES
-Central Place Theory (continued…)
-Services’ location must factor:
-Range of service: max.
distance people are willing to
travel for a service
-Threshold: min. number of
people required to support the
service
II. DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS OF SERVICES
-Central Place Theory (continued…)
-Settlements create a regular pattern
- Each hexagon is a market area, size of
the market determined by range and
threshold
-Hierarchy of settlements:
-Hamlet: fewest goods and services available
Each type of settlement below includes the
previous type in its region
-Village
-Town
-City
II. DISTRIBUTION
PATTERNS OF SERVICES
-According to CPT, market
areas across MDCs are a
series of hexagons of various
sizes, unless interrupted by
physical features
-Larger settlements (cities)
have larger thresholds,
ranges, and market areas
-Neighborhoods can also
provide services with
smaller thresholds and
ranges within the larger
settlement
II. DISTRIBUTION
PATTERNS OF SERVICES
Central Indiana is a
good example of
Central Place
Theory in action.
II. DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS OF SERVICES
Retailers and other service providers analyze market areas to
help determine the best location for their services
- Gravity model
- Predicts that the optimal location of
a service is directly related to the
number of people in the area and
inversely related to the distance
people must travel to access it
- Threshold and range most
important factors
- Does not take into account
income levels
III. SERVICES & SETTLEMENTS
The most services are located in larger cities - large cities can influence the
development of smaller ones.
Geographers study patterns of settlement in order to understand where/why
services are located.
-Rank-size distribution
-Second largest city will be roughly
half, third will be roughly ⅓ the size,
of the largest city
-While not always exact, settlement
patterns in most MDCs, and some
LDCs, show a linear pattern of
city size distribution
-Ex: NYC is roughly twice the size
of L.A., but when the metropolitan areas (suburbs) are compared, the
two cities are much closer in size
III. SERVICES & SETTLEMENTS
Rank-size rule can be observed in many MDCs (like the U.S.), but in some
MDCs, and most LDCs, patterns follow the primate city rule.
-Smaller cities typically follow linear pattern (rank-size), but the largest city
(primate city) is more than twice as populous than the second largest city
-Factors that most often affect high degree of primacy
-developing economy
-agriculturally-dominate economy
-rapidly expanding population
-(relatively) recent colonial history
Examples of primate
cities:
Baghdad, Bangkok,
Buenos Aires, Cairo,
Jakarta, Lima, Mexico
City, Seoul, Tehran.
-POSITIVES: large market, ease of service distribution and trade
-NEGATIVES: brain drain, resource inequality, unsustainable growth, slums
IV. HIERARCHY OF BUSINESS SERVICES
Hierarchy of settlements based on the clusters of services provided was
developed by geographers to categorize and visualize settlement patterns.
FIRST TIER: WORLD CITIES
-large percentage of the world’s globalscale business services
- banking headquarters
- publishing and media
headquarters
- leading centers of law,
medicine, scientific/
technological development
-disproportionately high share of the
world’s arts, culture, consumer
spending, and political power
-Ex: New York, London, Paris, Tokyo
SECOND TIER: COMMAND & CONTROL CENTERS
-headquarters of many large corporations, high
concentration of other business services
-Ex: Toronto, Seoul, Brussels
THIRD TIER: SPECIALIZED PRODUCER-SERVICE
CENTERS
-Offer narrower and more specialized services, such
as automobile manufacturing, steel manufacturing,
food processing
-Ex: Detroit, Pittsburgh, Taipei
FOURTH TIER: DEPENDENT CENTERS
-provide relatively unskilled jobs, services
-resorts/retirement centers, smaller manufacturing
centers, military centers, mining centers
IV. HIERARCHY OF BUSINESS SERVICES
V. WHY DOWNTOWN?
Historically, a city’s center, or downtown, has had a high
concentration of services. Geographers use the term central business
district (CBD) to describe this area.
-Small area of a city, but contains a large percentage of
businesses and other services
-Types of services:
-retail with high threshold (ex: department stores)
-retail with high range (ex: speciality shops,
attractions - museums, sporting events)
-retail servicing downtown workers (ex: office supplies,
dry cleaners, restaurants)
-business & government services (ex: office clusters)
High cost of
land in CBDs
creates need
to expand
vertically
V. WHY (NOT) DOWNTOWN?
Central Business Districts (continued…)
-Throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s CBDs in the United States declined as
suburbanization drew residents and services to the periphery of urban areas.
-Many cities have seen a revival in
CBDs as residents look to live in
more diverse areas, with access to
cultural attractions, closer to work
-Many European CBDs do no reflect same
pattern as U.S. cities - deliberate
preservation of older architecture
and structures