| Abstract: | The restructuring of urban economies from manufacturing to service industries has been a major feature of the last twenty-five years. Large cities with a population of at least one million have been at the forefront of this change with the primate cities of the newly industrialized countries increasingly affected. The growth characteristics, planning experiences, and policy implications of the expansion of service industries in large and medium-size metropolitan areas around the world are examined. This has illuminated issues connected with the interurban competition for services. The service sector has shaped new urban planning and public policy agendas and the way in which metropolitan areas in this study have started to reshape their policies provides a good lead for others to follow. It is likely that new pressures will strengthen the need to look beyond their established urban planning policies to broader, integrated urban management policies. |
