From Sewing to Analyzing: The Historical Shift in Urban Work

At the height of the industrial era, urbanization was powered by the concentration of industry in cities. The rise of manufacturing brought huge waves of migration, as rural workers sought factory jobs in burgeoning industries located in cities. Boston grew as a center for textile and boot and shoe production. Pittsburgh grew as a center for steel-making. Detroit grew around automotive products. So day after day, these 19th century city dwellers engaged in exactly the kind of tasks memorialized by Charles Dickens and Upton Sinclair: braiding, sewing, threading, etc.

By now we all know that these types of jobs in textile mills and factories are no longer the economic engines of American cities. By the 1960s and 1970s, as heavy industry began to relocate outside of cities and city centers began to decline, economists began rethinking the entire concept that specialized industries and the clustering of capital and technology could really be drivers of economic growth.