Keys to the City: How Economics, Institutions, Social Interaction, and Politics Shape Development

289 Pages·2013·1.586 MB·English

by  Michael Storper

Keys to the City

Keys to the City
How Economics, Institutions,
Social Interactions,
and Politics Shape
Development
Michael Storper
Princeton University Press
Princeton and Oxford
Copyright © 2013 by Princeton University Press
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Jacket Art: Lucian Freud,1922–2011. Man and Town, 1940–41.
Private Collection, courtesy of Harry Moore-Gwyn/Moore-
Gwyn Fine Art Ltd. UK. Courtesy of ©The Lucian Freud
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Storper, Michael.
Keys to the city : how economics, institutions, social interactions,
and politics shape development / Michael Storper.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-691-14311-8 (hardcover)
1. Cities and towns—Growth—Economic aspects. 2. Regional planning—
Social aspects. 3. City planning—Social aspects. I. Title.
HT371.S76 2013
307.76—dc23
2013003220
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Sabon
Printed on acid-f ree paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1. Introduction. Cities and Regions in the Twenty- First
Century: Why Do They Develop and Change? 1
part i the economic context of city and regional development
2. Workshops of the World Economy: People, Jobs, and Places 14
3. The Motor of Urban Economies: Specialization 32
4. Disruptive Innovation: Geography and Economics 52
5. Cities and Individuals: How We Shape Cities, But Not the
Way We Want To 67
part ii the institutional context of cities and regions
6. Winner and Loser Regions: The “Where” of Development 92
7. Communities and the Economy 104
8. Robust Action: Society, Community, and Development 115
part iii social interaction and urban economies
9. Technology, Globalization, and Local Interaction 140
10. Local Context: The Genius of Cities 156
11. Face- to- Face Contact 167
part iv the political context of city and regional development
12. Exit or Voice? Politics, Societies, and City- Systems 184
13. Justice, Efficiency, and Cities: Should Regions Help
One Another? 204
Conclusion. Dear Policymaker: Some Keys for You 224
Notes 229
References 239
Index 267

Dedicated to
les jeunes de Crouy-s ur- Ourcq
and
Franck Monfort (1965–2 011):
L’écho de ton rire: nous nous en souviendrons pour toujours.

Acknowledgments
This book builds on research that I have carried out alone and in collabo-
ration, in my three “home” universities. In the Department of Geogr aphy
at the London School of Economics, there is an unusually large group of
geographers and economists who share the language of geography and
economics. I would particularly like to acknowledge my coauthors on
other works, including my current colleagues Riccardo Crescenzi and
Andrés Rodríguez- Pose along with my former colleagues Gilles Duran-
ton and Tony Venables. I also have the pleasure of regular stimulating
conversations with other colleagues who work on economic geography:
Simona Iammarino, Ian Gordon, Henry Overman, and Christian Hilber.
Working with Tom Farole, a former PhD student at the London School
of Economics, and Fabrizio Barca on a team with Rodríguez-P ose on
regional policy issues was important to my thinking as well.
My thinking in this period has also been influenced by working with
my PhD students at the University of California at Los Angeles, notably
on a project supported by the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes
Foundation that explored the foundations of urban growth. I am grate-
ful to Tom Kemeny, Naji Makarem, and Taner Osman for their intensive
participation in this project, and our interactions in struggling with how
growth is sorted into different places. I have benefited also from coau-
thorship with Tom Kemeny, Mike Manville, and Allen J. Scott.
Last but not least, since 2003, I have been privileged to be a member
of the faculty at Sciences Po in Paris, where I am a member of the Center
for the Sociology of Organizations. The partnership of economic geog-
raphy and economic sociology proposed in this book comes from that
experience. My colleagues at Sciences Po have helped me think about
how social forces make certain kinds of institutions possible in certain
places. I thank Erhard Friedberg, with whom I codirected our master of
public affairs program, for many stimulating discussions about how or-
ganizations and institutions “really work”; Patrick LeGalès for our many
exchanges on urban political economy; and Christine Musselin, the di-
rector of the Center for the Sociology of Organizations, for the ongoing
welcome I have had there. In the master of public affairs program, we
have had a lively concentration in “territorial development policies,” and
the colleagues who have taught in that area have given me much to draw
on in this book. In Paris, I would also like to thank Jean-C laude Prager
and Pierre Veltz for many years of stimulating discussions about regional