The economy of cities

Random House

1969

268 p.

Contents: Cities first, rural development later ; How new work begins ; The valuable inefficiencies and impracticalities of cities ; How cities start growing ; Explosive city growth ; How large cities generate development ; Some patterns of future development ; The simple export-generation process, diagramed ; The import-replacing process, diagramed ; Export generating in a large city, diagramed ; The two reciprocating systems of city growth ; Changing patterns of economic activities ; A brief list of some ordinary definitions

The thesis of Jane Jacobsʹ The Economy of Cities remains remarkably fresh and provocative three decades later. Cities, she asserts, are not the result of processes most scientists and economists have assumed they were: Cities do not develop because a pre-existing rural economic base develops and eventually becomes strong enough to support an essentially parasitic urban growth. Instead, Jacobs argues, cities are the prerequisite for any kind of rural economy. Where there are no cities, there are no sustainable rural economies, and the rural economy depends on the city rather than the other way around. Jacobs defines «city» as a «settlement that consistently generates its economic growth from its own local economy»; population centers of any size that have never done this do not meet her definition of city. Likewise, Jacob defines «urban» as pertaining only to cities.

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