An empirical examination of megalopolitan structure

Recently, the emergence of a new community form has attracted considerable attention. Gottmann has written of the "megalopolis," and others have written of the development of "urban fields" which will replace the traditional concepts of "city" and "metropolis." The belief underlying these efforts is that an increasing intermetropolitan division of labor is bringing about a new type of community. Now, if we are to understand the process of urbanization in an industrialized society which is characterized by constantly shrinking spatio-temporal barriers, it seems necessary to determine if a new community form actually is present.This study of the metropolitan northeastern portion of the United States utilizes Census data on the industrial composition of the labor force in 1950 and 1960, and compares the variance of location quotients in various industries with that in retail food in an effort to determine whether there has been increasing economic differentiation. The author finds scant evidence of an increasing intermetropolitan division of labor and questions the validity of "megalopolis" as a community form.