Logistics Landscape

Abstract

Economists and geographers have distinguished between three historical configurations of North American industry: concentrated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, decentralized in mid-20th century, and distributed at the end of the 20th century. Each of these eras constructed distinct spatial organizations and shaped urban form in particular ways. The shifts between these modes of production are evident as ruptures in the urban form that preceded them, leaving previous spatial modes obsolete and abandoned in their wake. The first of these shifts, from the dense concentrated industrial model to a decentralized model, is closely associated with the decentralization of urban form in the second half of the 20th century. The second shift, currently underway, transforming industry from a nationally decentralized organization to an internationally distributed one, has produced a new form of landscape, a landscape of logistics. This logistics landscape is among the more significant transformations of the built environment over the past decade. It is characterized by new industrial forms based on global supply chains and vast territories given over to accommodating the shipment, staging, and delivery of goods. This paper offers a provisional theoretical framework and describes three emergent categories of logistics landscape: distribution and delivery, consumption and convenience, and accommodation and disposal. The aerial photographs, diagrams, maps, and other visual representations included here are an initial attempt to describe these spaces, to make them available for reading as landscape, and to begin the longer term project of their critical cultural appraisal.