Industrial geography: agglomeration and local milieu

Abstract: This thesis is an investigation of the impact of industrial development on a local community in Melbourne, Australia. The research is set in the City of Whittlesea, an outer manufacturing suburb with a rapidly expanding population. The sector chosen as a case study to evaluate the local impact is food and beverage manufacturing. It has seen considerable job growth and an increase in its location quotient in comparison with the sector located in other parts of Melbourne.

An overarching idea in this research is that the connections of industry to a local community (and hence the flow-on effects of industrial development) are strongest when they depend upon local knowledge and networks. To explore this idea, the research considered two key explanations put forward to explain local economic impacts of development: the industrial cluster model and the local labour market model. Relating these two approaches to the underlying idea of the research led to the hypothesis that the strongest local knowledge and connections between industry and a local community are likely to be found in the labour market, as in that dimension the scope for non-local contacts is considerably less. In essence, local knowledge essentially resides, not in local firm-to-firm or institutional interaction, but within the local workforce.

The methodology used to test these ideas produced qualitative and quantitative data via semi-structured interviews with 19 firm managers and separately explored the geography and operation of the labour market.

The hypothesis that the local labour market has the stronger connections between industry and a local community than the operations of an industrial cluster was confirmed by the research.

The thesis concludes by considering limitations associated with the methodological approach (especially the definition of ‘local’ used in the study) and relates that insight to broader methodological concerns of economic geography. It also observes that local economic development policy needs to pay much greater attention to the labour market circumstances in places like Whittlesea.

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