Tertiarisation and socio-spatial differentiation in Wales

Processes of economic restructuring and social recomposition have been proceeding at an accelerated pace in Wales of late. This paper seeks to show that these changes, which began with a redistribution of manufacturing employment initially, but which have more recently been dominated by the restructuring of the tertiary sector, can best be understood as a regional effect of the growing spatial division of labour in the UK and internationally. Of special interest is the manner in which the dual spatial divisions in secondary and tertiary economic activity produce new combinations of spatial and social differentiation at the sub-regional level.