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Article Excerpt
Despite her popularity among urban planning and sociology scholars, urban theorist Jane Jacobs' economic writings, with the exception of one basic insight, have failed to attract widespread attention. This neglect is unfortunate, because in spire of some factual errors and dubious analytical interpretations, Jacobs' lack of respect for traditional academic boundaries gave her the freedom to formulate several highly original insights and hypotheses.
After a brief overview of Jacobs' life and work, we summarize her key economic ideas and discuss in more detail the current popularity and shortcomings of 'Jacobs externalities' (or the diffusion of know-how across different lines of work in the context of a diversified urban economy) among academic economists. We suggest that some of her ideas, such as a scenario according to which agriculture might have been developed in cities rather than the countryside and what could be termed her dynamic structural theory of technical change, deserve more attention and scrutiny despite the fact that they might not be amenable to 'rigorous' statistical testing.
RESUMES
Malgre sa popularite dans de nombreuses disciplines allant de l'urbanisme a la sociologie, les ecrits economiques de la theoricienne urbaine Jane Jacobs n'ont eu que peu d'impact. Cet essai se veut a la fois un resume, une critique et un plaidoyer en faveur de certaines de ses intuitions et hypotheses ayant trait au developpement economique.
L'article debute par un rapide survol de la carriere et des ecrits de Jacobs. Une attention particuliere est portee a certains evenements formateurs allant de sa jeunesse dans une region miniere en proie a un declin rapide a son arrivee a New York pendant la depression economique des annees trente en passant par son combat contre les programmes de > des annees cinquante et soixante. Nous brossons ensuite un portrait rapide des principaux elements de sa theorie economique ou la ville en tant que carrefour de problemes, d'idees, de produits de toute sorte et d'interactions entre individus ayant des interets et des expertises differentes, joue le role primordial. Nous discutons dans la section suivante de sa popularite recente aupres de certains economistes du courant dominant qui suggerent a partir d'une interpretation etroite de ses ecrits qu'un tissu economique local plus diversifie que la moyenne favorise davantage la creation d'emplois. Bien que ces chercheurs expliquent ces resultats par le transfert de connaissances entre differentes activites economiques, ils n'ont aucune preuve directe pour etayer leur propos. Nous suggerons a cet effet une piste de recherche que nous croyons plus prometteuse, l'examen du processus combinatoire dans l'acte creatif et l'influence qu'un milieu diversifie peut exercer sur cette faculte. Nous discutons finalement de certaines forces et faiblesses de l'apport de Jacobs et concluons que, malgre certaines erreurs factuelles et hypotheses douteuses, son approche multidisciplinaire l'a amene a formule nombre d'idees originales qui meritent d'etre examinees plus en detail meme si elles se pretent mal aux analyses statistiques.
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Urban theorist Jane Jacobs' critique of the bulldozer-driven urban renewal policies of the post-war era, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), has exerted a profound influence on the thinking of legions of architects, planners, developers, urban politicians and community activists and was, as could be expected, the book most often mentioned in the obituaries published in the days following her death on April 25, 2006. (1) Yet, many people somewhat familiar with Jacobs' life and writings might be surprised to learn that her own favorite work was The Economy of Cities (1969) and that she thought her most significant contribution was in the area of economic development rather than urban planning (Nowlan 1997; Steigerwald 2001).
While Jacobs' economic writings have until recently been mostly ignored by regional scientists, urban economists and economic geographers, they have served as a springboard to scholars working in disciplines ranging from archeology (Algaze 2005) and philosophy (Lawrence 1989) to urban and economic geography (Desrochers 2001; Florida 2002, 2004, 2005; Hospers 2002; Taylor 2006b), development studies (Ellerman 2004; 2005) and heterodox economics (Cote 1991; Ikeda 2004). Somewhat surprisingly, "Jacobs externalities" (sometimes also labeled "Jacobs spillovers") have become a key concept among mainstream growth theorists who now associate Jacobs with the idea that a diversified local economy is conducive to knowledge spillovers between different lines of work (Glaeser et al 1992; Duranton and Puga 2000). And yet, it is probably the case that many economists familiar with the concept have no idea of the range of Jacobs' development work, or even of who she was.
This essay is both a preliminary critique and a plea for a greater appreciation of Jacobs' economic writings. While it is true that a number of her economic observations, interpretations and proposals are either factually wrong, questionable and/or probably ill-advised, it is our opinion that her utter lack of respect for traditional academic boundaries and heuristics allowed her to formulate several original insights that deserve closer scrutiny.
The paper is structured as follows. The first section presents a brief overview of her life and writings, with a particular emphasis on what we believe were some relevant formative events and personal circumstances. It is followed by a summary of her key economic ideas. The third section briefly discusses the roots of Jacobs' current popularity among mainstream economists, shortcomings in current empirical approaches to her work, and one alternative approach to "Jacobs externalities". We conclude by an assessment of the main strengths and weaknesses of her study of economic life.
Early Life and Work (2)
Although Jacobs is better known for her struggles against "highway men" and modern planners, it seems fair to say that her interest in economic development and decline predates her writings on the urban physical environment. One can certainly identify a few events and circumstances that sparked her interest in the issue, such as the fact that Jane Butzner was born and grew up in the declining Pennsylvania anthracite-mining city of Scranton; the six months she spent as a teenager in the isolated mountains of western North Carolina working with an aunt who ran a community centre for the Presbyterian home missions; and her move as young adult to New York City in the middle of the Great Depression where, unable to secure the newspaper or magazine appointment she was looking for, she fell back on a variety of stenographic and secretarial jobs working for, among others, businesses involved in drapery hardware, clock making, steel distribution and candy manufacturing. Being frequently unemployed and looking for work, she wandered extensively across the metropolis and wrote articles for newspapers and magazines about some of the local working districts that fascinated her.
She eventually secured a writing job with the trade journal Iron Age which she kept for three years, before being employed as a feature writer with the Office of War Information, and later as a reporter for the State Department and Overseas...
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