Urban dependencies: New Forms of Use and Exchange in U.S. Cities

Changes in the international division of labor and the territorial organization of multinational corporations have altered the forms of urbanization in the United States. Like the “primate cities” of the Third World, North American cities have increasingly specialized in economic activities that provide neither a balanced employment base for local residents nor opportunities for autonomously generated growth based on the local market. We describe several emerging forms of cities—the headquarter city, innovation center, module production city, border entrepot, and retirement center. We argue that the urban future for average residents of such cities is bleak, and that efforts to change this future will require coordinated action among people in different cities and in the Third World.