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A central question for some sociologists is the shaping of geographical space into a particular rural or urban economic pattern. Castells (1976a, 1976b) studied the concrete ways in which the material elements of geographic space is shaped and articulated into the social structure as a whole. The question is about how geographic space becomes social space. For Castells the answer to this question lay in the surrounding economic and political structures. He asked:

In what way does a particular social structure contribute to the creation of the area concerned? To answer this it is not enough to describe particular events; one must first have a theory of the creation of space (Castells 1976a: 50).

This is a political economy perspective that tackled head-on the problem of understanding the marked differences between different places in the same society. The economic base is the single most important factor in explaining why Redfern is not like Wahroonga, or why Byron Bay is different to Wollongong. The interaction between broad and wide reaching social forces and local resources generates a niche in a wider society that is occupied by a local community with particular characteristics. A local community cannot function independently of the wider political and economic system of which it is a part, but the precise configuration of the local community also depends on the local resources in the locality. These might be the mineral deposits of Mt Isa, the sheltered harbour of Wollongong, the administrative offices located in Canberra by political decision, or the labour resources in western Sydney.

Broadly speaking, the economic base of a community generally falls into one or more of the following categories

• Resource based towns located near mineral deposits;
• Industrial centres, based around manufacturing;
• Trading centres and ports;
• Centres of government and administration;

Most towns or cities will have some mixture of these, and localities within towns include residential areas and cultural services supporting the larger town of which they are a part. Towns and communities do not have an immutable economic base. Economic and other features change through history.

The structural niche of the community is an important aspect of understanding its position in the wider economy. It provides the background against which day to day decision are made in the community, however, it does not tell us much about how local people interpret their experience of events, or how they construct their daily activities. The question of meaning was taken up by theories of social construction.

References

Castells, M. (1976a) 'Is there an urban sociology?' in C. Pickvance (ed) Urban Sociology Methuen, London.

Castells, M. (1976b) 'Theory and ideology in urban sociology' in C. Pickvance (ed) Urban Sociology Methuen, London.