Weekly Study Guide

Week 5

18th - 22nd August

Lectures

13. Industries and their geographies
14. Myth and reality of Silicon Valley
15. At work in a global industry

Content

Microelectronics has emerged as the dominant new technology in the last three decades. This series of lectures shows how the micro-electronics industry transformed not only local geographies and work practices in regions, but has had a profound and lasting influence on business and industry internationally.

References
NB: All these articles are contained in 'Geographies of Industrialisation'. This is a compilation of articles for Weeks 5&6 of the course. It is held in the short loan collection of the main library.

Saxenian, A. (1984) 'The Genesis of Silicon Valley', in Hall P. & Markusen A. (Eds.) Silicon Landscapes, Allan and Unwin, Boston, pp.20-34.

Saxenian, A. (1984) 'The Urban Contradiction of Silicon Valley', in Sawer, L. & Tabb, W.K. (Eds.) Sunbelt/Snowbelt: Urban Development and Regional Restructuring, OUP N.Y., pp.163-194.

Additional Reading

Dicken, P. (1986) 'Electronics', in Dicken, P. (Ed.) Global Shift, Harper and Rowe, N.Y., pp.316-354.

Siegel, L. & Markoff J. (1985) 'The Silicon Rush ' in Siegel, L. & Markoff, J. (Eds.) The High Cost of High Tech, The Dark Side of the Chip, Harper and Rowe, N.Y., pp.137-159.

Massey, D. (1987) 'Science and High Tech - the Reality, Proceedings of the Fourteenth New Zealand Geography Conference, NZ Geographical Society, Christchurch, pp.52-57.

Kelly, D. (1986) 'Santa Lucia's Female Electronics Factory Workers: key components in an export-oriented industrialisation strategy', World Development, vol. 14(7), pp.823-838.

Sayer, A. (1986) 'Industrial location on a World Scale: the Case of the Semiconductor Industry', in Scott, A.J. & Storper, M. (Eds.) Production, Work and Territory. The Geographical Anatomy of Industrial Capitalism, Allan and Unwin, Boston, pp.107-123.

Keywords

microelectronics production systems division of labour
production costs competitive advantage research and development product
diversification clustering agglomeration economies
spatial hierarchy of production vertical integration spatial division of labour
economies of scale labour migration State and industry
networks

Focusing Question

How has the geographic structure of Silicon Valley been influenced by the rise of micro-electronics and related industries?

Return to An Approach to Resource-based Learning in the Geography Department University of Auckland abstract

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