Chapter 12
Services
What are services?
• Service:
• Any activity that fulfills a human want or need and
returns money to those who provide it
• Space:
• Where services are located in space, creates a link
between services and settlements
• Rural villages to megalopolis
• Why services are clustered???
• Proximity to market
• Optimal location for services is near customers
• Locating a service
• Uses more precise geographic skills than Industry
• Tend to be specific places
• “location, location, location”
• Distribution must be where people live
• Also driven by socio-economic factors
Where did Services Originate?
• Services provided in all
societies
• In MDCs majority of
workers engaged in the
provision of services
• North America 3/4th of
workers in services
• % in LDCs less than 1/4th
• Services provide more
than 2/3rd of the GDP in
MDCs
• Less than ½ in LDCs
• Three types of
services:
• Consumer services
• Business services
• Public services
Types of Services
• Consumer Services
• Definition:
• purpose to provide services
to individual consumers
who desire them and can
afford to pay them
• Nearly 44% of jobs in US
are in consumer services
• Types:
• Retail and Wholesale
Services
− 15% of jobs in US
− Department stores,
grocers, clothing
• Education Services
− 10% of jobs in US
• Health Services
− 12% of jobs
− Health care,
primarily hospitals,
nursing homes
• Leisure and
Hospitality Services
− 10% of jobs
− Restaurants and
bars, lodging and
entertainment
Business Services
• Definition:
• Purpose is to facilitate
other businesses
• 24% of all jobs in US
• Types:
• Financial services
• 6% of US jobs
• Called “Fire” for financial,
insurance, real estate
• Financial = banks
• Professional Services
• 12% of US jobs
• Technical services: law,
accounting, architecture,
engineering, design, and
consulting
• Support Services: clerical,
secretarial, custodial
• Transportation and
Information Services
• Businesses that diffuse and
distribute
• 6% of US jobs
• Transportation
− Mainly trucking
• Can also include:
− Publishing/ broadcasting
− Utilities such as water and
electricity
Public Services
• Definition:
• Purpose is to provide
security and protection
for citizens and
businesses
• 17% of jobs in US
• Mainly Federal
government, state, or
local government
Changes in number of
employees
• Between 1972 and
2009
• All growth in service
sector
• Decline in employment
in primary and
secondary jobs
• Business Services
• Expanded in
professional services
most rapidly
− Engineering,
management, law
• Grew more slowly in
finance and
transportation services
− Mainly due to
improved efficiency
• Consumer services
• Rapid increase in
health care
− Including nursing
homes and homehealth care
• Other large increases in
Education,
Entertainment,
recreation
• Public services
• Declined over past
two decades
Services in Contemporary
Rural Settlements
• Before establishment
of Permanent
settlements people
lived as nomads
• At some point, people
decided to build
permanent settlements
• Were they established
because of need to
services?
• Based on archeological
studies settlements built
first for consumer and
public services
− Later came business services
Early Consumer Services
• Earliest permanent
settlements may have
been established to
offer consumer
services
• People also needed
tools, clothing,
shelter, containers,
fuel, and other
material goods
• By 5,000 years ago
many settlements
existed
• The variety of
consumer services
expanded as people
began to specialize
• Specifically burial of the
dead
• Settlements also may
have been places to
house families
• Settlements became
manufacturing centers
Early Public Services
• Public services
probably followed
religious activities
into early permanent
settlements
• Everyone in
settlement
vulnerable to attack
so some members
became soldiers
• Settlement likely was
a good base from
which the group
could defend nearby
food sources against
competitors
• Might build wall
around settlement for
extra protection
• Settlements became
citadels
• Centers for military power
Early Business Services
• Everyone in
settlements needed
food
• Initially brought in
through hunting and
gathering
• What about extra
supply?
• Led to storage
• Settlements also
became a place
where people
could trade goods
and services
• Eventually led to
record keeping,
currency system,
and setting fair
prices
Services in Early
Urban Settlements
• Services in Ancient
Cities
• Earliest Urban
settlements
• First documented ones
in Mesopotamia
− Ur, Uruk
• Evidence suggests that
cities were wellplanned
Services in Early
Urban Settlements
• Ancient Athens
• First Mediterranean
settlements
established 2500
B.C.E.
• Oldest include
Knossos, Troy, and
Mycenae
− Trading centers for
thousands of islands
– Organized into citystates
• Athens
• Largest city-state
• Provide consumer
services and cultural
activities
• Ancient Rome
• Rise of Roman Empire
encouraged urban
settlement
• Settlements established
as centers of
administrative, military,
and other public services
− As well as retail and
consumer services
• Trade encourages
through transportation
• With fall of Rome,
urban settlements
declined
• Trade diminished
Services in Early
Urban Settlements
• Urban life revived in
11th century Europe
• Feudal lords
established new
urban settlements
• Feudalism
• Rise of small towns
to facilitate trade by
14th century
• Large Medieval urban
settlements served
as power centers for
lords and church
leaders
• Most important
services in town
square
• Church, palaces
Key issue #2Where are contemporary
services located?
• Services are
clustered in
settlements
• Rural Settlements
• Centers of
agriculture
• Provide small
amount of services
• Urban Settlements
• Centers for
consumer and
business services
Services in Rural
Settlements
• A clustered rural
settlement is a place
where a number of
families live in close
proximity to each other
• A dispersed rural
settlement is
characterized by
farmers living on
individual farms
isolated from neighbors
• Typical in North America
Clustered Rural Settlements
• Typically includes
homes, barns, tool sheds,
and other farm structures
• Includes consumer
services such as
religious structures,
schools, and shops
• May have a handful of
business services
• Often these settlements
are called a hamlet or
village
Circular Rural
Settlements
• Circular Rural
Settlements
• Circular form consists
of a central open space
surrounded by
structures
• Example: kraal villages
− Enclosures for
livestock in center,
surrounded by ring of
houses
• Example: German
Gewanforf settlements
− Consists of core of
houses, barns, and
churches, encircled
by different types of
agricultural activities
− Von Thunen observed
this in his agricultural
studies
Linear Rural Settlements
• Comprise of buildings
clustered along a road, river
or dike to facilitate
communications
• Fields extend behind the
buildings in long, narrow
strips
• Can be seen today along St.
Lawrence River in Quebec
• French long-lot system
• Houses erected along river
• Narrow lots established
perpendicular to river so
that each settler had
access to river
Colonial American
Clustered Settlements
•
New England built clustered
settlements centered on an
open area called a common
•
Settlers grouped their homes
and public buildings around
common
•
In addition to houses, each
settler had a home of 1 to 5
acres
• Contained barn, garden, and
enclosures for feeding
livestock
•
Favored for several reasons:
• Settlers typically traveled
in groups
• Colonists wanted to live
close together
• To protect from Indian
attacks
•
Outsiders could only obtain
land by permission of the
town’s residents
•
Contemporary New England
landscape contains remnants
of the old clustered rural
settlement patterns
Dispersed Rural Settlements
•
•
•
Outside of New England,
dispersed rural settlements
were more common in the
American colonies
•
United States
• Middle colonies settled by more
heterogeneous groups than
New England
• Led to land being bought
individually
In New England and Great
Britain, clustered rural
settlements were converted to
a dispersed pattern
• Dispersed pattern spread to
Mid-West and later New
England
• Worked better with larger
populations
• People less interested in
religious and cultural values
Many disadvantages to
clustered pattern
• Farmers lost time moving
between fields
• Villagers had to build more
roads to connect smaller lots
• Farmers were restricted in
what they could plant
•
Great Britain
•
Converted to improve agricultural
production
•
Led to enclosure movement
−
−
−
Consolidated individual land into one
large farm
Brought efficiency but destroyed
village life
Coincided with Industrial Revolution
Services in Urban Settlements
• Population of urban
settlements
exceeded that of
rural settlements for
the 1st time in human
history in 2008
•
•
•
•
•
18001850190019502000-
3%
6%
14%
30%
47%
Services in Urban Settlements
• Differences between
urban and rural
settlements
• Differences identified by
Louis Wirth in 1900s
• Defined cities by three
characteristics
• Wirth argued these
characteristics produced
differences in the social
behavior of urban and
rural residents
• Large size
• Rural – small
• Urban- medium/ large
• High density
• Rural- low pop density
• Urban- high pop density
− Only way people can be
supported is through
specialization
• Social heterogeneity
• The larger the settlement
the greater diversity of the
people
Increasing # of people in cities
• Process by which the
population of urban
settlements grows is called
urbanization
• Two dimensions
• Increase in number of people
living in cities
• Increase in the % of people
living in the cities
•
Distinction important because they
occur for different reasons and have
different global distributions
• Large % of people living in
cities reflects a country’s
level of development
• MDCs have a higher % of
urban residents BUT LDCs
have very large urban
settlements
• Eight of the ten most populous
cities are in LDCs
•
Buenos Aires, Dehli, Dhaka, Calcutta,
Mexico City, Mumbai, Sao Paolo and
Shanghai
• Fueled by people migrating
from countryside for economic
opportunities
• Also connected to high natural
increase rates