Arie Shachar

Reshaping the Map of Israel: A New National Planning Doctrine

The planning doctrine that guided Israels planning policy for the first forty years of its existence is being replaced by a new planning doctrine, prompted largely by the great wave of immigration from the Soviet Union starting in 1989. New approaches to housing, employment, and physical and social infrastructure were needed to meet the demands of the sudden influx of some 700,000 new immigrants. In addition to Soviet immigration, two other important factors influenced planning policy: the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, which changed the geostrategic importance of the peripheral regions of the country, and the development of the Israeli economy into an economy based on high-technology industry and producer services. The globalization of Israels economy has reduced the capacity of public policy to influence the location of economic activity. The new planning doctrine is highly sensitive to the scarcity of land and is based on a view of the future map of Israel as an agglomeration of four metropolitan regions, strongly interconnected and sharply delineated by the open spaces and green areas between them.

Evaluation of National Urbanization Policy

Abstract During the last twenty years, Israel has established more than thirty development towns, housing about 18 percent of the countrys total 1970 population. This evaluation of Israels urbanization policy, as formulated in the development towns program, considers achievements of national goals and their effects on urbanization patterns. Planning principles concerning the size, location, and economic base of the new towns are shown to be derived from theoretical frameworks based on urban hierarchical structure and city size distribution. Implementation of the “dispersion of population” policy appears generally effective when evaluated by geo-statistical techniques. However, success in changing the structure of the national urban system has been accompanied by failure to achieve regional integration, which suggests a new objective for future urbanization policy.

Randstad Holland: A 'World City'?

The paper deals with the application of the concept of world city to the urban phenomenon of Randstad Holland. The enquiry into Randstad Holland as a world city in the making is motivated by the recent designation of Amsterdam, the Hague and Rotterdam by national planning authorities as international centres. After reviewing the evolution of the world city concept, the article specifies the main characteristics of a world city as an international management centre; a concentration of advanced producer services; and a very high level of physical and social infrastructure. Various studies of the European urban system are reviewed in order to identify the position of the Randstad within the new European urban hierarchy. Most of these studies position the Randstad among the four or five European urban agglomerations which can be defined as having marked world city characteristics. The empirical part of the article deals with internationalisation processes of the Randstad economy and draws some policy implications for the future planning and development of the Randstad.

Regional inequalities in Israel

This paper deals with the magnitude and dynamics of regional inequalities in Israel during the period 1962–1976. Economic well-being is measured by regional motorization rates, which were found to be highly correlated with personal income levels. Various measures point towards a divergence in regional inequalities, although the rates of change of these measures are declining with time. An analysis of the spatial pattern of the regional levels of economic well-being indicates a well-defined core–periphery structure which is significantly stable over time. Spread and backwash effects are examined within the labour markets of the primary and secondary cores. This examination shows that backwash effects were the dominant factor in shaping the space-economy within the regional systems. The levels of economic well-being within the labour markets were found to be positively related to the levels of the respective cores. From a policy point of view it can be concluded that the persistent pursuit of the national objective of dispersal of population has been concomitant with an increase in the levels of regional inequalities within a national framework, and that backwash effects have caused an increase in the regional imbalances between the cores and their respective peripheries.

Urban Economic Development and High Technology Industry

This paper examines the economic development prospects for urban areas arising from localised clusters of high technology activity. Economic development opportunities are expected to be expressed in the development of local linkage patterns: employment linkages, production and service linkages and linkages to local universities. On the basis of survey evidence of high technology firms from two urban areas in Israel, linkage patterns are found to be weakly developed locally but extensively developed nationally and internationally. This is explained as a result of the international character of Israeli high technology activity resulting in a limited effect on the development of the local urban economy. Policy implications for urban economic development point to the need for the formulation of a public policy executed and administered at the local level rather than the present system of central government targeting of urban economic development at select locations.

Patterns of Population Densities in the Tel-Aviv Metropolitan Area

This paper deals with an empirical investigation of the applicability of two well-known functions—the Clark and Newling functions—for the description of the patterns of population densities in the Tel-Aviv metropolitan area. The density pattern is examined in a temporal cross-section in order to trace systematic changes in it. The fitting of the two functions is done by two different methods in order to find out the influence of the method of measurement on the type of pattern generated. The findings of the investigation enable several hypotheses to be developed concerning the factors involved in structuring the density pattern of the population in the Tel-Aviv metropolitan area.

Globalization Processes and Their Impact on the Structure of the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area

The chapter deals with processes of change in the functional structure of the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area (TAMA) in the wake of economic globalization processes of the 1980s and 1990s. Of all the components making up the spatial organization of the TAMA, the chapter focuses on the development of two Central Business Districts (CBD) in metropolitan Tel Aviv: the traditional central city business arena and a new emerging center. Rather than heralding the formation of a polycentric urban structure, the new Tel Aviv CBD represents a real-estate led response at generating a new center of gravity for economic activity in Tel Aviv. The new center therefore competes vigorously with the established center. A further unique feature of the developing metropolitan structure is the ex nihilo nature of the new development. Instead of following the well-known pattern of incremental CBD expansion via new building at the margins of the established center, the new Tel Aviv business district represents an attempt at re-directing growth to a new location altogether.

Deconcentration in a context of population growth and ideological change: The Tel-Aviv and Beer-Sheva metropolitan areas

Employment deconcentration in Israel’s Tel Aviv and Beer Sheva metropolitan areas is assessed in the context of rapid demographic growth, land scarcity, an ideological shift from welfare state to neoliberal values, and an erosion of policies to protect agricultural land. The study reveals rapid employment deconcentration, including retail and increasingly office activities, in the economically-prominent Tel Aviv metropolis. Deconcentration has been much weaker in Beer Sheva, where the major issue is to promote economic growth. The Israeli case is far from a laissez-faire regime, but parallels can be drawn between the transformations in Israeli and post-Communist European metropolitan areas. Israeli planning is unable to influence significantly the deconcentration from Tel Aviv’s core to its suburbs, but seems to be somewhat effective in limiting scattered patterns of deconcentration

Emerging Nodes in the Global Economy: An Introduction

The ‘global economy’ is increasingly perceived as a catch-all phrase. It evokes vastly divergent emotions ranging from resentment and anger over poverty and sustainability to pride and admiration over technological progress and human ingenuity. For all its fuzziness (Markusen, 1999), globalization does however convey two major shifts that pervade much of the economic and spatial change taking place in the world economy. The first relates to the notion of scale. Whether distance has died or simply been minimized (Cairncross, 1997), globalization has redrawn the limits on spatial interaction. The second relates to the seamlessness of the world economy. Globalization has led to the obliteration or neglect of borders. A truly global economy implies the unfettered flows of people, goods and services for whom regional or national boundaries are increasingly irrelevant.

Emerging Nodes in a Global Economy: A Postscript

Rather than adopting a summative or reflective stance, this postscript attempts to take stock of the experiences of Frankfurt and Tel Aviv with a view to looking forward. We attempt to generalize about the conditions under which node economies emerge in order to provide a conceptual infrastructure for understanding similar processes in other locations. Despite the glorification of the global city phenomena, most places will never attain or even aspire to that pinnacle. Notwithstanding massive public investment, global image creating events (Expos, Olympics, World Fairs), flagship regeneration and place-marketing, most locations will never be able to compete with historical accidents, time-honored business practices and human capital skills acquired over long periods. Thus the maximum aspiration for emerging nodes would seem to be selective engagement with the global economy and a passage of entry via particular global networks. Locations are likely to connect with other locations as nodes in a global market place and grounded in specialization: logistics nodes, high tech nodes, international finance nodes, cultural nodes and the like. The multiplicity of routes into the global economy is thus varied and fascinating. We attempt to synthesize the experience of Frankfurt and Tel Aviv in order to highlight this diversity. In addition, we draw out some dominant themes that arise from the different studies presented above. These are given cursory attention here but potentially provide a wide research agenda for understanding the role of nodes in the global economy.