Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, Geography
Revolutions in communications technology, transportation of people and goods, and the reorganization of economic production between the local and global scales have resulted in the spatial re-arrangement of daily human activities in the United States and other parts of the world. Traditionally rural, primary economic activities have waned as local sources of employment and wages due to both low-cost global competition and increasing productivity of capital versus labor. At the same time, the U.S. has shifted to being a service economy with many firms choosing the benefits of locating in, or close to urban agglomerations. Rising household incomes since World War II gave a growing number of people the ability to afford transportation between bucolic, rural residential and recreational locations and their workplaces in large cities or suburbs. Researchers have noted that areas rich in natural amenities, areas of pleasant climates and scenic beauty, have drawn people and jobs into their environs via inter- and intra-regional migration decisions.
The result has been the obliteration of clear distinction between urban and rural spaces. Rural landscapes and small towns are now homes to long-distance commuters, recreational entrepreneurs and artisans, retirees, sprawling manufacturing branch plants, back-office service jobs, and tech companies in addition to (or in place of) the farmer, the mining operation, and the lumberjack. Many new terms have been invented to put a name to this emergent face on the landscape, but few have addressed the new arrangement of human activities in addition to the evolving processes and flows that cross the urban-rural continuum.
The evaluation of urban and rural changes is important because the spatial organization of human activities impact ecosystems, social relationships, economic dynamism, as well as planning and policymaking. The conceptual toolkits of researchers engaging in spatial science, including geographers, need to be improve (open full item for complete abstract)
Committee: Darla Munroe (Advisor); Edward Malecki (Committee Member); Daniel Sui (Committee Member)
Subjects: Geography