Entire Volume 17 issue 1 - Journal of World-Systems Research ...

FIVE CENTURIES OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT 212
flexibility (Dodgshon 1998: 190-198). Figures 6 and 7 show the growth of many regions close to
urbanized core regions.
Figure 7. Regional Development in the Twentieth Century: Total Population
However, development spreads not to all surrounding regions. Intrinsic qualities of a
region, like landscape, settlement structure and social climate, increasingly determine the
developmental potential of regions. The calculable production potential of a region has lost much
ground to perceived consumption possibilities. Agriculture no longer dominates rural economies,
but influences indirectly the quality and intensity of subsequent regional development. The idyllic
landscapes it has produced can make it very amenable for new developments. The traditionally
less well-off agricultural regions with infertile sandy soils have diverse small-scale landscapes,
free space, low land prices, and a social structure more open to new developments. On the other
hand, a long history of intensive commercial agriculture produces unattractive monotonous largescale
landscapes. Areas with fertile clay soils along the coast and with loess soils at the feet of the
more mountainous areas in the southeast developed in the past on this basis. These specialized
large-scale production landscapes contradict nowadays the imagery of an original landscape that
suits the leisure and identification needs of the new middle classes. This layer of previous
development hinders future developments (Massey 1984; Lamb 1975; Murdoch and Day 1998).
The twentieth century is characterized by a spread of development in different forms and
at different scales. This gives new opportunities to previously underdeveloped regions whose
success is still linked to historically formed characteristics.