Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Professor Stephen Graham
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
This article explores the urban social impacts of the radical liberalization and privatization of British utilities since the early 1980s, and relates these impacts to broader shifts towards more socially fragmented cities. The article has three parts. The first part introduces the experimental political project through which British telecommunications, gas, water and electricity networks were privatized and liberalized during the 1980s. In the second part, the changing relationships between these key network utilities and the users of utility services are analysed and the broad logic of 'splintering networks' is identified. Three elements of this restructuring are explored: the 'rebalancing' of tariffs and cost-reflective pricing; the use of new metering technologies for 'cherry picking' affluent consumers while 'socially dumping' more marginal ones; and the development of new IT strategies for supporting the social construction of segmented markets. The concluding part of the article identifies the implications of the reorientation of utilities for social and spatial polarization within cities, and draws out implications for urban policy and research.
Author(s): Graham S
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: European Urban and Regional Studies
Year: 1997
Volume: 4
Issue: 2
Pages: 135-150
Print publication date: 01/04/1997
ISSN (print): 0969-7764
ISSN (electronic): 1461-7145
Publisher: Sage
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/096977649700400203
DOI: 10.1177/096977649700400203
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric