some temporal and spatial aspects of inter-urban industrial differentiation

Some Temporal and Spatial Aspects of Inter-Urban Industrial DifferentiationAuthor(s): Barry BeckhamSource: Social Forces, Vol. 51, No. 4 (Jun., 1973), pp. 462-470Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2576692 .

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462 / SOCIAL FORCES / vol. 51, june 1973

REFERENCES

Blau, P. M. 1970. "A Formal Theory of Differen- tiation in Organizations." American Sociological Review 35(April) :201-18.

Blau, Peter M., and Richard A. Schoenherr. 1971. The Structure of Organizations. New York: Basic Books.

Childers, G. W., B. H. Mayhew, and L. N. Gray. 1971. "System Size and Structural Differentia- tion in Military Organizations: Testing a Base- line Model of the Division of Labor." American Journal of Sociology 76(March):813-30.

Coe, R. M. 1970. "Innovation in an Organizational Setting." In Rodney M. Coe (ed.), Planned Change in the Hospital. New York: Praeger.

Ezekiel, Mordecai, and Karl A. Fox. 1959. Methods of Correlation and Regression Analysis. New York: Wiley.

Litwak, E. 1961. "Models of Bureaucracy Which Permit Conflict." American Journal of Sociology 67 (September): 177-84.

Mayhew, B. H., T. F. James, and G. W. Childers. 1972. "System Size and Structural Differentia- tion in Military Organizations: Testing a Har- monic Series Model of the Division of Labor." American Journal of Sociology 77(January): 750-65.

Zipf, George K. 1949. Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort. Reading: Addison- Wesley.

Some Temporal and Spatial Aspects of Inter- urban Industrial Differentiation* BARRY BECKHAM, University of Toledo

ABSTRACT

This article examines the differences between industrial employment profiles among a set of 65 urban communities in the East North Central region. A review of literature on between-community differentiation led to the following hypotheses: (1) over time there is increasing differentiation between communities; and (2) proximity promotes increasing differentiation between communities. Findings suggest re- jection of the hypotheses. Communities tended to become more alike over time, and those closer together tended to be more alike than communities farther apart. These results lead to a discussion of convergence. It is urged that functional convergence be included as a dimension in the conceptualization of systems of cities.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

It has long been argued that inter-urban differentiation is a basic developmental process among communities. To state this traditional argument in simple form: technological im- provements bring self-sufficient communities into contact. Because these communities possess similar attributes they must compete for the

same scarce resources. Threats attending com- petition are resolved as the communities dif- ferentiate, fixing on those activities which they can most efficiently perform. Cities no longer exist to serve and be served by a local hinterland but are linked to other cities in a highly complex network of interdependent relationships.

Durkheim's (1933:188-9) study of the division of labor, although primarily concerned with occupations, also notes that an interre- gional division of labor has been developing since the fourteenth century and that cities always tend toward various specialties. Roderick McKenzie (1927; 1933) was much impressed

* Revision of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Ohio Valley Sociological Society, 1972. The research was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (GS 1916). I am indebted to Neil M. Palmer, Ruth Searles, and Robert Forman for advice and com- ments.



Inter-urban Industrial Differentiation / 463

with the effect of improved transportation and communication, producing increased interde- pendence and specialization among communities. Hawley (1950:349-52) also notes that technological advances have the effect of ex- tending the potential territorial scope of inter- dependence and that the extent of specialization varies with the frequency of trade. Specializa- tion of function, according to Lampard (1955: 92), inevitably makes for specialization of areas-a territorial division of labor develops between town and country and also between town and town. It is indicated by Duncan et al. (1961:17) that ". . . in modern societies and advanced economies a real differentiation of activities-division of labor on a territorial basis-is a basic structural principle and not an adventitious outcome of historical acci- dents." Bogue (1949:3), approaching this issue from the perspective of metropolitan dominance, states that if metropolitan dominance obtains, one should find a territorial division of labor.

Such a description of a set of interacting communities (i.e., a system of cities) is most often assumed rather than stated as a research hypothesis. Duncan et al. (1960:35) assert that we have given little explicit attention to functional differentiation among communities. Lam- pard (1968:100) also points out the paucity of sustained research on this topic.

One conclusion from the literature is that an inter-urban division of labor obtains in a system of cities. This inter-urban division of labor is possible only with advances in techniques of transportation and communication, permitting interchange among cities. This division of labor involves and is limited by the exchange of goods and services (Labovitz and Gibbs, 1964). It is a safe assumption that the capacity of a society to exchange goods, services, and information has increased, making it possible for given communities to develop certain specialties which complement the specialties of other communities with which they deal. This leads to Hypothesis 1: Over time there is increasing differentiation between communities.

The preceding discussion suggests another relationship. It is assumed that the division of labor among communities in any given set is strongly conditioned by the extent of interchange among them. Other things equal cities

which are closer together are more likely to develop a division of labor among themselves than would cities which are distant from one another, owing to the greater likelihood of in- teraction over a shorter physical distance. Or, following Browning and Gibbs (1961:452), ". . . modes of transportation and communication being the same, functional specialization is more likely to occur among cities which are located in close proximity to each other. This leads to Hypothesis 2: Proximity promotes increasing differentiation between communities.

Although the second hypothesis is supported in the literature, some qualification seems in order. Where regional specialization is tied to some specific resource base, then cities within that area may develop some similar industries. These situations certainly are found in certain instances. For example, one may think of steel producing or paper mill areas. But the influence of distance on differentiation in a large set of urban communities of varying sizes remains a largely unanswered empirical question.

RESEARCH PROCEDURES

The general research problem requires the gathering of comparable data over a period of time to permit an examination of functional differences between pairs of urban communities. Growth Patterns in Employment by County 1940-1950 and 1950-1960 (Department of Commerce, 1965) draws from the 1940, 1950, and 1960 censuses of population and for each of these points in time reports employment for all counties in the United States according to 32 comparable industrial categories.t Four of the industrial categories (agriculture, forestry and fisheries, armed forces, and industry not reported) were omitted in the analysis either because of their rural character or for difficulties in interpreting the category.

The community is operationalized in terms of county units. This has the advantage over other designations of urban areas which might

1 A qualification in the use of these data is that employment is reported by the place of residence of the employee and not by place of work. Data reported by place of work would have been pre- ferable for this study. It is believed, however, that any distortion which may result from the former method of reporting employment is minor.




restrict analysis to certain size classes of communities such as Standard Metropolitan Statis- tical Areas (SMSAs). Further the boundaries of reporting units such as these are likely to vary during the period studied. Given the vari- ety and change in designations of urban areas, the county seems to be an appropriate opera- tional unit for a temporal analysis of communities.

All the counties selected are in what is roughly the East North Central Region as desig- nated by the U.S. Census, an area that was settled at approximately the same time and under similar technological conditions, mini- mizing the need to control for age of city. This area includes Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and por- tions of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Missouri, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.

Counties were selected so as to permit analysis across urban communities of various sizes. The central counties of all SMSAs within the region, by the Census Bureau designations as of 1960, were included.2 It is assumed that the bulk of the industrial activity, even in the larger SMSAs, occurs in the central counties of the SMSAs. There were 45 central SMSA counties.

In addition, a 50 percent random sample of what might be called smaller urban counties were included in the analysis. All counties within the boundaries of the region having a city with a 1960 population of 10,000 persons, and not contiguous to any 1960 SMSA county were listed. To avoid components of the population of the larger communities, counties contiguous to SMSA counties were excluded. From the 40 counties which met these criteria, 20 were randomly selected to be included in the study. Together with the central SMSA counties, this brought the total to 65 counties.

The operation required to test the hypotheses is to compare the functions performed in one community with those performed in another. One generally accepted means to examine the functional composition of a community is by examining its industrial employment figures. In this study a community's functional composi-

tion is indexed by its industrial structure as re- flected in the employment-by-industry data de- scribed above.

A measure is required, therefore, which describes the way in which the activities in one community are differentiated from the activities in other communities. The index of dissimilarity is a measure that appears to meet this re- quirement satisfactorily (Duncan and Duncan, 1955a, 1955b; Duncan et al., 1960:6 1ff.; Isard, 1960:255).

In general terms, the index of dissimilarity measures the extent to which two percentage distributions (in this case the percentage distributions of community employment over 28 industrial categories) are nonoverlapping, i.e., dissimilar. It is defined as one-half the sum of the absolute values of the differences between the two percentage distributions. Theoretically, the index ranges from zero, where the distributions are identical, to 100, where they are com- pletely dissimilar. An increase in this index over time is interpreted as an increase in the differentiation between the two distributions and hence between the communities.

Differentiation, here, always refers to a between-community phenomenon. This approach differs from some other methodological ap- proaches to community differentiation, e.g., the use of Guttman scaling by Freeman and Winch (1957), Young and Fujimoto (1965) and Young and MacConnell (1967); the measure of economic differentiation suggested by Amemiya (1964); and the industry division of labor measure suggested by Gibbs and Martin (1962), Gibbs and Browning (1966), and Lab- ovitz and Gibbs (1964). These measures, with the exception of Guttman scaling techniques, describe some areal unit by the degree to which persons or activities within that unit are evenly distributed over a set of categories.

Duncan and Lieberson (1970), using the same data source as used in this study, also employed the index of dissimilarity in an examination of between-community differences. The analysis of the indexes in the present study

2 Three of the central SMSA county units are combinations of two counties. This was done where it was difficult to determine a "central" county.

3 It may be that a term such as complementarity or functional complementarity would better describe the community characteristic treated in this article rather than the more general term-differentiation.




diverges somewhat from that in Duncan and Lieberson (1970:148) who state: "To sum- marize the overall pattern of differences in industrial structure among major centers and especially to describe it in the context of differentiation among a broader group of centers is a near impossible task." Although the diffi- culty of the task is certainly appreciated, the approach reported here does allow an informative analysis of between-community differences.

Indexes of dissimilarity were generated for all possible community-pair combinations. This provides a set of 2,080 indexes each for 1940, 1950 and 1960. A random sample of 450 pairs was drawn for analysis from the total list.

That community structure varies according to the size of the community is an observation which should not require much elaboration (e.g., Duncan and Reiss, 1956). Therefore, community size was controlled when between- community comparisons were made.

The second hypothesis (proximity makes for increasing differentiation between communities) is a direct extension of the first. It uses the same randomly selected set of 450 indexes of dissimilarity but with the addition of a measure for proximity. Proximity is measured by the straight line distance between two communities assuming that this provides a satisfactory index of the "friction of space."4

It is expected, other things equal, that communities which are closer together are more differentiated than those farther apart. Of course all other things are not equal: hence some additional factors must be held constant. Browning and Gibbs (1961;:456-7) note "... that all observations on patterns in the location of urban centers suggest some connection between the nonspatial characteristics of urban centers and inter-urban distance." They men- tion two characteristics of this type: population size, and the services provided by a community to its hinterland. Christaller (in Ullman, 1951), points out that larger communities tend to be located farther apart. This suggests that population size of the pair members should be held constant when the values of their indexes of dissimilarity are considered.

The extent to which a community's service activities were oriented toward its hinterland was impossible to assess directly in this study. One can use a control which indirectly taps this dimension. Distance to nearest larger place describes the degree to which a community possesses a hinterland unencumbered by com- peting communities of larger size. It is likely that two communities of similar size serving the same local hinterland are more deficient in their individual service structures than would be the case for a single community of that size drawing on that hinterland. It is true, however, that these two controls are related to each other (Browning and Gibbs, 1961 :458-9).

ANALYSIS

Table 1 presents the mean indexes of dissimilarity for the industrial employment profiles and changes in these indexes over time. For

Table 1. Mean Indexes of Dissimilarity for Industrial Employment Profiles for 450 Community Pairs by Size, and Decade with Between-Decade Change

Between-Decade Change Pair Population Size Combination* 1940 1950 1960 1940-50 1950-60 1940-60

SS 26.58 ( 66)t 24.73 ( 39) 23.59 ( 39) -1.85 -1.14 -2.99 SM 30.80 (146) 29.72 (113) 26.40 (107) -1.08 -3.32 -4.40 SL 28.65 (70) 26.91 (79) 24.59 (85) -1.74 -2.32 -4.06 MM 31.25 ( 79) 27.37 ( 79) 25.67 ( 70) -3.88 -1.70 -5.58 ML 27.93 ( 66) 30.06 (101) 26.06 (104) +2.13 -4.00 -1.87 LL 25.29 (23) 25.54 ( 39) 24.49 ( 45) +0.25 -1.05 -0.80

Tota l 29.38 (450) 28.43 (450) 25.39 (450) -0.95 -3.04 -3.99

* S = less than 75,000; M = 75,000-250,000; L = 250,000+.

t The number in the parentheses is the number of pairs upon which the mean index is based.

4 Bogue (1949) has pursued the relationship between differentiation and distance from metropolitan centers in his study of metropolitan dominance. Although it is beyond the scope of the present investigation, it would be informative to examine the hypotheses suggested in this study in the broader context of metropolitan dominance. See also Kish (1954).




each point of time studied, fairly substantial differentiation is revealed. For example, the mean index for all 450 pairs in 1960 is 25.39. This indicates that on the average 25.39 percent of one city's labor force would have to be redistributed to make its distribution among industrial employment categories equal to that in another community.

The indexes show a decrease in differentiation from 1940 to 1960. This finding holds not only for the total set of places but also when one controls for population size of the community pairs. The decreases range from 0.80 where the pair members are both in the large size class (LL) to a maximum of 5.58 for the combination of middle-sized communities (MM). The only increases occur for pairs com- posed of middle-sized and large places (ML) and large place pairs (LL) from 1940 to 1950. These, however, decrease from 1950 to 1960 resulting in a net decrease from 1940 to 1960. The hypothesis predicted an increase in differentia-

tion. What is observed is a decrease-a convergence of industrial employment profiles. Al- though the degree of convergence is not large, it is significant in its direction.

Table 2 reports information on the relationship between proximity and differentiation. Some definite patterns emerge suggesting nega- tion of the second hypothesis. Most pair combinations, with the exception of those involving two large places (LL), show higher indexes of dissimilarity for communities which are farther apart. The three rows of column totals reflect this same pattern.

The one significant exception to this pattern is the last three distance categories involving pairs of large places (LL). In these cases there is a consistent decrease in the indexes of dissimilarity as distance increases. This suggests that for large communities at greater distances, proximity may be related to differentiation as predicted by the hypothesis.

It is interesting to note that the magnitude of

Table 2. Mean Indexes of Dissimilarity of Industrial Employment Profiles for 450 Community Pairs, by Size, Distance, and Decade

Distance Apart (Miles) Pair Size Combination* 0-74 75-149 150-224 225-324 325+ Total

1940

SS 24.77 (3) 24.67 (25) 26.77 ( 12) 27.60 ( 15) 29.80 ( 11) 26.58 ( 66) SM 25.55 ( 9) 26.13 (23) 30.82 ( 42) 32.01 ( 35) 33.82 ( 37) 30.80 (146) SL 20.16 (7) 25.39 (20) 29.16 ( 17) 32.63 ( 17) 34.00 ( 9) 28.65 ( 70) MM 24.78 ( 3) 25.63 (13) 32.55 (15) 31.08 ( 24) 34.46 ( 24) 31.25 ( 79) ML 21.45 ( 6) 23.66 ( 9) 30.10 (16) 29.00 ( 16) 29.27 ( 19) 27.93 ( 66) LL 40.76 (1) 24.25 (6) 27.34 ( 5) 25.75 ( 7) 19.60 ( 4) 25.29 ( 23)

Tota 1 23.77 (29) 25.18 (96) 30.74 (107) 30.52 (114) 32.18 (104) 29.38 (450)

1950

SS 30.87 ( 1) 22.13 (14) 24.93 ( 7) 26.79 ( 8) 26.12 ( 9) 24.73 ( 39) SM 25.44 ( 5) 26.79 (25) 30.41 ( 27) 30.18 ( 25) 31.80 ( 31) 29.72 (113) SL 20.59 ( 9) 24.12 (20) 28.52 ( 21) 29.54 ( 17) 29.77 ( 12) 26.91 ( 79) MM 24.52 ( 4) 28.29 (18) 27.97 ( 14) 29.40 ( 24) 34.07 ( 19) 27.37 ( 79) ML 27.40 ( 7) 22.95 (12) 31.18 ( 28) 31.30 ( 28) 31.52 ( 26) 30.06 (101) LL 19.59 (3) 23.32 ( 7) 32.75 (10) 26.83 ( 12) 17.79 ( 7) 25.54 ( 39)

Tota I 23.86 (29) 25.10 (96) 29.78 (107) 29.61 (114) 30.48 (104) 28.43 (450)

1960

SS 24.22 ( 1) 21.43 (14) 21.85 ( 7) 25.28 ( 8) 26.72 ( 9) 23.59 ( 39) SM 21.20 ( 5) 24.19 (24) 26.10 ( 24) 26.22 ( 24) 29.43 ( 30) 26.40 (107) SL 20.42 ( 9) 22.81 (21) 25.31 ( 24) 26.71 ( 18) 26.08 ( 13) 24.59 ( 85) MM 22.78 ( 4) 24.99 (18) 24.23 ( 13) 25.90 ( 22) 28.55 ( 13) 25.67 ( 70) ML 24.43 ( 7) 22.54 (11) 26.67 ( 28) 26.49 ( 29) 26.77 ( 29) 26.06 (104) LL 18.88 (3) 22.62 ( 8) 27.84 (11) 24.97 ( 13) 23.35 ( 10) 24.49 ( 45)

Total 21.82 (29) 23.32 (96) 25.75 (107) 26.10 (114) 27.34 (104) 25.39 (450)

* S = less than 75,000; M = 75,000-249,000; L = 250,000+. t The number in the parentheses is the number of pairs upon which the mean index is based.




the mean indexes of dissimilarity reveal little pattern by population size. Large communities are just as different from each other as are small communities. Time, again, has the effect of lowering the mean index of dissimilarity in most cells of Table 2, so providing more detailed cor- roboration of the findings discussed for the first hypothesis.

Controlling for distance to nearest larger place does not substantially alter the findings reported in Table 2 (see Table 3). Again in Table 3 there is revealed a definite tendency for the mean indexes of dissimilarity to increase with distance. There is but one instance, where cells have sizeable Ns, of a reversal of the general pattern. This reversal is found in the 1940 combination of large and small places (SL) when they are both within fifty miles of the nearest larger place (Near, Near), but this becomes blurred by 1950 and almost disap- pears by 1960.

One is left with the distinct impression that, at this level of data aggregation, as the distance between two communities increases so does their degree of differentiation. It also appears that controlling for population size of the pair members and the distance to nearest larger place does not gainsay this finding. A zero- order correlation coefficient between the indexes of dissimilarity for the 450 pairs of places and the distance between them was +.27 in 1940, +.22 in 1950 and +.20 in 1960. Although this manner of describing the association between these variables might suggest some lessen- ing of the degree of association, the results of the correlation analysis are consistent with the results of the contingency analysis.

DISCUSSION

The analysis leaves little doubt that there is functional differentiation between communities, with many communities retaining distinctive specialties. But between-community differentiation is shown to decline from 1940 to 1960. This finding becomes significant since the literature would lead us to expect increased differentiation. Results of this research suggest that we need to give greater attention to functional convergence.

In their analysis of intercenter differences Duncan and Lieberson (1970:145-81) are re-

luctant to interpret their findings as revealing a convergence of industrial profiles, although it appears that some of their findings suggest this. They conclude that generally between-community differences have remained stable. At any rate their findings do not appear to reveal a trend toward increasing community differences.

There are additional studies which tend to corroborate the findings reported here. D'Arcy (1968) in a study of 46 Canadian cities for a fifty-year period found no evidence of an increase in occupational specialization among the cities in his sample. Also, a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland (1964) noted convergence in industrial employment profiles among large SMSAs in the Eastern and North Central regions for the period 1950-60. Convergence among state and regional units from 1870-1950 in structure of the labor force and income has been amply documented (Eld- ridge and Thomas, 1964:321-68). McKinney and Bourque (1971) describe the convergence of the American South with the rest of Ameri- can society. Such evidence seems to indicate that these results hold for some levels of com- parison other than those reported here.

How is this finding to be interpreted? Of course, it is possible that differentiation among cities can be occurring at levels undetectable at the level of data aggregation used in this study. More detailed analyses could produce different results. The fact remains, however, that convergence has been observed at the level of data aggregation reported here.

When cities are highly specialized they bear a somewhat precarious relation to the environment. The specialized city possesses only a limited set of responses with which it can counter challenge from its environment. Thompson (1965:18-21) describes the serious difficulties encountered by Boston, Pittsburgh, and Detroit due to their industrial specialization. These cities were able to avoid structural contraction only through their ability to di- versify their industrial composition. The haz- ards of overspecialization are also well illus- trated by Service (1960) in his "Law of Evolutionary Potential," which describes the disadvantages entailed when a society adapts to a highly specific set of environmental conditions. But while it is easy to see that diversi-




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fication can act as a hedge against instability, this does not tell how it occurs.

An important factor in the existence of any city is its ability to exploit a given environmental niche-to develop exportable products using advantages provided by the local environment. Environmental variation has had a major influence on the various specializations which have developed in cities (e.g., Wade, 1959). If the association between city specialties and environmental variation is valid, then the convergence in industrial employment structure may be associated with a convergence in the environmental influences on a city. Such a conclusion seems plausible.

Societal development has been a history of increasing control over the environment. En- vironmental determinism is a somewhat useful explanatory device at primitive levels of societal development, but this explanatory power falls away when applied to technologically more sophisticated societies. Technology (especially transportation and communication) as it has developed has had the effect of standardiz- ing the environment. A city's access to both nonrural and rural hinterlands has been in- creasingly equalized. The effect of space, for example, as a friction to movement, though not eliminated, has been diminished. This standardization can probably never be com- plete, and significant environmental differen- tials remain, as evidenced by the retention of specialties by cities. The trend toward environmental standardization, however, makes possible the diffusion to new areas of activities that were previously restricted to certain lo- cations.5

When the environments in which cities exist

converge, in the sense of environmental standardization, so does the structure of cities which are adapting to that environment. This explanation meshes well with the results of testing Hypothesis 2: the closer together cities are the more alike they are. Making the assumption that cities close to one another are more likely to occupy similar environmental niches, it follows that these cities should be more alike than cities which were farther apart and which presumably occupy different environmental niches.

Obviously, this discussion is quite abstract and glosses over many of the intricacies of urban structure. But the original concern of the research was with a macrosociological concept, differentiation, and it seems appropriate to apply a macrosociological explanation.

It is also the case that no attempt has been made to establish a theoretical straw man with the sole and simple advocacy of increasing between-community differentiation. The theoretical issues are, indeed, more complex. An argument opposing the general notion of societal convergence is presented by Feldman and Moore (1962:151-69). On the other hand Hawley (1971:313), after considering various issues, concludes that ". . . the evidence that has been assembled lends very strong presump- tive support to the convergence hypothesis. Al- though urbanization begins in very different cultural contexts, in each instance the trend soon begins to reproduce phases and patterns that have occurred in other times and places." Convergence among communities is discussed by Lampard (1968:104). He views convergence as a kind of system entropy resulting from intensive communication and movement among the communities, but with this tendency balanced by forces leading to city specialization. It would appear that any attempt to con- ceptualize a system of cities should pursue, theoretically and empirically, not only the as- pect of functional differentiation but also the somewhat neglected dimension of functional convergence.

5The functional convergence which has been observed suggests the possibility of the application of a principle from biological ecology. "The tendency for one group of organisms to develop . . . resemblances to another group of different ancestry is called convergence" (Volpe, 1967:123). In a closely related fashion, Hawley (1968:334) describes the principle of isomorphism which states, "Units subject to the same environmental condi- tion . . . acquire a similar form of organization." The convergence occurs because of independent but similar responses to similar environmental conditions. Although the populations begin differently they become similar as the similarity of the environment for both populations results in the sur- vival of similar adaptive responses.

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some temporal and spatial aspects of inter-urban industrial differentiation

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