‘Sameness’ and ‘Difference’ Revisited: Which Way Forward For Equal Opportunity Initiatives?

Recent interest in ‘managing diversity’ has reopened debates about forms of equality in the workplace. Approaches to equality developed in the 1970s and 1980s have been characterized as an attempt to ensure that if individuals bring the same abilities to work, or perform in the same way, they should receive the same access to jobs and employment benefits, regardless of social group membership. Managing diversity appears to be about a more positive valuing of difference. Benefits are seen to derive from different perspectives and approaches and these should be nurtured and rewarded rather than suppressed. Feminists have long argued about the extent to which women are the same as, or different from, men, and about the political consequences of adopting these positions. Recent theoretical developments have led to some novel solutions to this dilemma. These include asserting claims to both ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’, the deconstruction of ‘difference’, and the reconstruction of ‘sameness’ on women's terms. This paper explores approaches to equal opportunities through both established and novel theoretical perspectives. It argues that existing practice cannot be fitted neatly into the conventional distinctions between ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’, and explores the potential characteristics and strengths and weaknesses of equality initiatives based on the new theoretical perspectives.     

VW’s modular system and workers’ organization in Resende,Brazil

This article discusses the changes taking place in the Brazilian vehicle assembly industry of the 1990s with particular reference to the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It focuses upon a case study of Volkswagen’s bus and truck assembly plant, opened in 1996, and its workers at Resende. The experience of the `modular system’ of production has been presented as a major development in vehicle assembly. The article analyses the originality of VW’s new form of organization of production and the strategy of the firm to look for localities with weak labour unionism. It also argues that despite the difficulties the local union faced in its attempts to intervene in the process of wage bargaining and to influence the management of aspects of production, there has been a rapid process of mobilizing the new workers for effective labour union action. L’article traite des transformations intervenues dans l’industrie automobile brésilienne dans les années quatre–vingt dix, avec une attention particulière pour l’Etat de Rio de Janeiro. Il s’attache à l’usine d’assemblage que Volkswagen ouverte en 1996 à Resende pour y assembler des véhicules industriels. Cette expérience de production modulaire a été présentée comme une innovation organisationnelle majeure dans l’industrie automobile mondiale. Le texte met en évidence les spécificités de la nouvelle organisation de la production et la stratégie de localisation de la firme fondée sur la recherche d’espaces d’implantation à faible activisme syndical. Il montre que malgré sa faiblesse initiale et une intervention réduite dans la négociation salariale et l’organisation du travail, une mobilisation rapide des nouveaux travailleurs a permis la reconstitution d’un mouvement syndical actif.     

Residential Property,Cultural Practices and the ‘Generational Contract’ in England and Japan

Throughout the post‐war period, there have been increased prospects of inheritance in many capitalist societies, brought about by growing economies and labour markets as well as growth in the homeownership sector. This article aims to examine the commonalities and differences in views and strategies adopted by older homeowners in England and Japan towards accumulation of their housing assets and the disposal of them in later life. Changes in housing markets, social policy, and family structure and function affecting older homeowners in recent years have started to alter their attitudes towards bequests. Qualitative data from in‐depth interviews with older homeowners highlighted that independent living and the principle of equal shares among children are strongly valued by English elders. In Japan, the ‘generational contract’ involving inheritance and care provision is no longer as clear‐cut as it once was, and the contradictions and ambiguities in attitudes and practices exhibited by the current older cohort clearly illustrate the current transition. Pendant l’après‐guerre, les possibilités d’hériter se sont accrues dans de nombreuses sociétés capitalistes, grâce à la croissance des économies et des marchés du travail, ainsi qu’à l’expansion de la propriété individuelle. Cet article étudie les points communs et divergences de perspectives et stratégies adoptées par les propriétaires âgés en Angleterre et au Japon face à un accroissement du patrimoine que constitue leur logement et à sa transmission ultérieure. Les transformations des marchés du logement, de la politique sociale, ainsi que de la structure et la fonction familiale qu’ont connues récemment les anciens propriétaires ont entraîné un changement d’attitude en matière de legs. Des données qualitatives provenant d’entretiens approfondis avec des propriétaires âgés ont mis en lumière que l’indépendance de vie et le principe d’égalité des parts entre les enfants sont privilégiés par les seniors en Angleterre. Au Japon, le ‘contrat entre générations’— impliquant héritage et soins assurés — n’est plus aussi clairement établi qu’autrefois; en outre, contradictions et ambiguïtés dans les attitudes et pratiques de la cohorte âgée actuelle illustre clairement la transition en cours.     

Dubai in the ‘Middle’

In the early 2000s, Dubai seemed the apotheosis of the global city model. Lauded as an embodiment of globalist ideals, or harshly criticized as a representation of the dangers of contemporary urbanism, it was clearly under the spotlight. Then, like the concept of the ‘global city’ itself, it disappeared from the headlines, to be subject only to sporadic and cynical attention. Today some are heralding a ‘return’ of Dubai from the anonymity of the middle ground of global city hierarchies and rankings. What is often forgotten, however, is that urbanism in Dubai did not stop. On the contrary, Dubai's continuous ‘worlding’ offers a productive opportunity for the encounter of ‘global’ and ‘ordinary’ modes of urban analysis. By unpacking the construction of a global Dubai, this article advocates greater sensitivity to the multiscalar politics that shape its continuity. Stepping beyond rumours of crisis and decline, it aims to connect the global fortunes and everyday processes that jointly characterize the development of global cities. ‘Global’ and ‘ordinary’ urbanism, it argues, are but two registers of how we could, in Warren Magnusson's words, ‘see like a city’.     

‘Premium Network Spaces’: A Comment

This paper is a response to some of the arguments developed by Stephen Graham in an article published in IJURR in March 2000. In that article, Graham argues that the contemporary conditions of development of infrastructure networks worldwide are particularly favourable to ‘secessionary tendencies’ and lead to the deliberate creation of premium network(ed) spaces, i.e. ‘new or retrofitted transport, telecommunications, power or water infrastructures that are customized precisely to the needs of powerful users and spaces, whilst bypassing less powerful users and spaces’. In this response, I discuss cases in a variety of urban and national contexts that appear to stand in contrast with Graham’s narrative. In conclusion, I stress four directions which additional empirical research on these issues should address: incorporating the role of historical time; differentiating between developed and developing countries; expanding the analysis to spaces other than large cities; and integrating the features of socio‐political regimes. Cet article répond à certains arguments développés par Stephen Graham dans un article publié dans l’IJURR en mars 2000. Dans son article, Graham soutient que les conditions contemporaines de développement des réseaux techniques sont particulièrement favorables à l’expression de ‘tendances sécessionnistes’ (selon ses termes) et au développement d’espaces‐réseaux de première classe, c’est‐à‐dire ‘des réseaux de transports, de télécommunications, d’énergie ou de distribution d’eau, nouveaux ou redéveloppés, qui sont adaptés précisément aux besoins d’espaces et d’utilisateurs puissants, au détriment d’espaces et d’utilisateurs moins puissants’. Dans cette réponse, je présente un certain nombre de travaux empiriques menés dans des contextes urbains et nationaux divers et qui me semblent aller à l’encontre de la thèse défendue par Graham. En conclusion, j’indique qu’il serait souhaitable que les études empiriques à venir approfondissent quatre dimensions du problème: le rôle de l’histoire et du temps long; les différences entre pays développés (équipés en réseaux d’infrastructures) et pays en développement (en voie d’équipement); la situation des territoires autres que ceux des grandes métropoles (et les interactions entre les différents types de territoires); et l’influence des régimes socio‐politiques.     

‘Down with Big Brother!’ The End of ‘Corporate Culturalism’?

Hugh Willmott's classic 1993 JMS article, ‘Strength is Ignorance; Freedom is Slavery’, has greatly influenced how we understand culture management. It draws parallel's with George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty‐Four to reveal the totalitarian aspirations of ‘corporate culturalism’. While it is sometimes said that employee resistance is missing in Willmott's account, I argue that it is implicitly pervasive, prefiguring subsequent investigations of ‘micro‐emancipation’ in management studies. The recent waning of scholarly interest in this type of resistance, however, also points to the contemporary relevance of Willmott's analysis. Emergent forms of corporate regulation utilize ‘biopower’ rather than just cultural conformity, rendering micro‐emancipation inadequate, but inspiring other types of dissent.     

Categorizing Neighborhoods: The Invention of ‘Sensitive Areas’ in France and ‘Historic Districts’ in the United States

This essay offers a reflexive return to two research projects to demonstrate the value of Bourdieu's emphasis on the symbolic for the analysis of contemporary urban transformation. Bourdieu's insistence that we track the social genesis and diffusion of spatial categories of thought and action directs us to the empirical study of the struggles between agents and organizations that promote and/or oppose these categories, as well as the political, economic and other interests animating the agents. A retracing of the parallel invention of the ‘at‐risk neighborhood’ (quartier sensible) coined for and targeted by French urban policy since the late 1980s and the emergence of ‘historic’ or ‘diverse’ neighborhoods touted by gentrifying residents, cultural organizations and real estate agents in the United States since the 1960s challenges misleading oppositions between materiality and representations that often underpin and cramp urban research.     

LGBT Neighbourhoods and ‘New Mobilities’: Towards Understanding Transformations in Sexual and Gendered Urban Landscapes

In this article we apply insights from ‘new mobilities’ approaches to understand the shifting sexual and gendered landscapes of major cities in the global North. The empirical context is the purported ‘demise’ of traditional gay villages in Toronto, Canada and Sydney, Australia, and the emergence of ‘LGBT neighbourhoods’ elsewhere in the inner city. We reinterpret the historical geography of twentieth century LGBT lives and the associated ‘rise and fall’ of gay enclaves through the lens of the ‘politics of mobility’. In this reading, it is apparent that multifaceted movements — migration, physical and social mobility, and motility — underpin the formation of gay enclaves and recent transformations in sexual and gendered landscapes. After the second world war, LGBT communities in the global North were embedded in specific historical geographies of mobility and we trace these in the Canadian and Australian contexts. The ‘great gay migration’ from the 1960s to the 1980s has been joined by new LGBT constellations of mobility in the 2000s, and these have imprinted upon the sexual and gendered landscapes of Toronto and Sydney.     

‘Weltoffenheit schafft Jobs’: Turkish entrepreneurship and multiculturalism in Berlin

This article investigates the connections between multiculturalism, unemployment and self–employment in the case of Berlin’s Turkish economy. It first describes five trends that are currently shaping German–Turks’ business activities: heterogeneity, hybridity, professionalism, internationalization and state interest. The consequences of these five trends are partly contradictory. On the one hand, they challenge the relevance of the ‘Turkish economy’ concept. On the other hand, they give an unprecedented respectability to the ‘Turkish economy’, thus popularizing this concept. The article argues that this contradiction should be interpreted as an outcome of the growing importance of multiculturalism in Germany’s relation to immigrants. Acknowledging the presence of immigrants has led to an emphasis on their high rate of self–employment, viewed as a possible solution to their unemployment and ‘integration’ problems. What emerges is the economic dimension of multiculturalism, i.e. an ideology that sees immigration and ethnic pluralism as economically positive. The article concludes by a critical analysis of this ideology. Cet article étudie les liens entre multiculturalisme, chômage et entreprise individuelle dans le cas de l’économie turque berlinoise. Il décrit d’abord cinq tendances qui configurent actuellement l’activitééconomique des Germano–turcs: hétérogénéité, hybridité, professionnalisme, internationalisation et intérêt de l’État. Les conséquences de ces cinq tendances sont en partie contradictoires. D’un côté, elles remettent en question le concept ‘d’économie turque’ et, de l’autre, elles lui offrent une respectabilité sans précédent, propageant ainsi le concept. Cette contradiction devrait être interprétée comme le résultat de l’importance croissante du multiculturalisme dans la relation de l’Allemagne à l’égard des immigrants. Reconnaître la présence d’immigrés a conduit à souligner le rôle important des entrepreneurs, considérés comme une solution possible à leurs problèmes de chômage et ‘d’intégration’. Est ainsi révélée la dimension économique du multiculturalisme, c’est–à–dire une idéologie qui voit l’immigration et le pluralisme ethnique comme économiquement positifs. La conclusion expose une analyse critique de cette idéologie.     

US bombing and Afghan civilian deaths: the official neglect of ‘unworthy’ bodies

This article outlines the ways in which the US and allies’ bombing campaign in Afghanistan has resulted in well over 3,000 civilian deaths due to bombing impacts, the indirect deaths of tens of thousands of internally displaced persons, and thousands of injured in an agricultural society where limbs are crucial. In addition, the landscape and environment have been polluted with cluster bombs and depleted uranium. The intense bombing campaign destroyed urban and village residences, bridges, mosques, electricity and water supplies, communication systems, cratered roads etc. In contrast to the victims of September 11th, the dead Afghan civilians remain largely uncounted, faceless, de facto unworthy bodies. Cet article expose comment la campagne de bombardement des Etats–Unis et des alliés en Afghanistan s’est traduite par plus de 3,000 morts civils sous les impacts de bombes, par le décès indirect de dizaines de milliers de personnes déplacées sur le territoire, et par des milliers de blessés dans une société agricole où l’usage d’un membre est crucial. De plus, paysage et environnement ont été pollués par des bombes à fragmentation et de l’uranium appauvri. Les bombardements intenses ont détruit les habitats urbains et villageois, les ponts, les mosquées, les réseaux d’alimentation en électricité et en eau, les systèmes de communication, les routes défoncées, etc. Par rapport aux victimes du 11 septembre, les civils afghans morts restent pour beaucoup non dénombrés, dans l’anonymat, de facto des corps indignes.     

Cities and the ‘War on Terror’

Programmes of organized, political violence have always been legitimized and sustained through complex imaginative geographies. These tend to be characterized by stark binaries of place attachment. This article argues that the discursive construction of the Bush administration’s ‘war on terror’ since September 11th 2001 has been deeply marked by attempts to rework imaginative geographies separating the urban places of the US ‘homeland’ and those Arab cities purported to be the sources of ‘terrorist’ threats against US national interests. On the one hand, imaginative geographies of US cities have been reworked to construct them as ‘homeland’ spaces which must be re‐engineered to address supposed imperatives of ‘national security’. On the other, Arab cities have been imaginatively constructed as little more than ‘terrorist nest’ targets to soak up US military firepower. Meanwhile, the article shows how both ‘homeland’ and ‘target’ cities are increasingly being treated together as a single, integrated ‘battlespace’ within post 9/11 US military doctrine and techno‐science. The article concludes with a discussion of the central roles of urban imaginative geographies, overlaid by transnational architectures of US military technology, in sustaining the colonial territorial configurations of a hyper‐militarized US Empire.     

Social Movements and Public Administration: Spontaneous Citizens’ Committees in Florence

Urban protest is often carried out by citizens’ committees: that is, political groups that mobilize on issues affecting a small territorial area, use various forms of protest, and are organized in very loosely structured forms. Based on interviews with members of citizens’ committees in Florence, this article discusses their identities, strategies and organizational models, as well as their interaction with local authorities. Active mainly in issues of pollution and security, the Florentine committees frame their demands in terms of defending or improving quality of life in a defined territory. Mobilizing citizens who have often had previous experience in voluntary and/or political associations, citizens’ committees evidence a strongly participatory organizational model, with, however, notably discontinuous levels of activity. Whilst privileging moderate forms of protest, citizens’ committees also seem to have more and more channels of access to the institutions of local government, which sometimes perceive them as a source of information and aggregate consensus. The quality of the interactions between citizens’ committees and the public administration plays an important role in determining the extent to which this type of urban protest produces social capital. La contestation urbaine est souvent menée par des comités citoyens, c’est–à–dire des groupes politiques qui se mobilisent sur des problèmes affectant une zone territoriale limitée, emploient diverses formes de protestation et s’organisent selon des structures très informelles. A partir d’entretiens avec des membres de comités citoyens de Florence, cet article étudie leurs identités, stratégies et modèles d’organisation, ainsi que leur interaction avec les autorités locales. Surtout actifs sur des questions de pollution et de sécurité, les comités florentins formulent leurs revendications en termes de défense ou d’amélioration de la qualité de la vie dans un territoire donné. Mobilisant les citoyens qui, souvent, ont déjà eu une expérience dans des associations bénévoles et/ou politiques, ces comités démontrent un modèle organisationnel fortement participatif avec, toutefois, des degrés d’activité particulièrement intermittents. Bien que privilégiant des formes modérées de contestation, les comités citoyens semblent disposer de moyens toujours plus nombreux d’accéder aux institutions des gouvernements locaux, lesquelles les considèrent parfois comme une source d’informations et de consensus collectif. La qualité des interactions entre les comités citoyens et l’administration publique est importante si l’on veut déterminer dans quelle mesure ce type de contestation urbaine génère un capital social.     

Effectiveness and Empowerment in Women’s Shelter: A Study of Working Women’s Hostels in Bangalore,India

Policy debates on shelter for women have focused on family structure, gender roles and the importance of shelter in women’s economic development. They emphasize the need for shelter that is generally effective and empowering for women. Although valuable, these general policy proposals are often unable to account for the particular situations in specific cultural contexts in which family structure, roles and economic development are reshaped by women’s migration, and where cultural mandates for, and family‐based control of, women’s shelter are re‐articulated. Through a study of 12 working women’s hostels in Bangalore, India, which includes a survey of 126 residents and 4 focus groups, this article analyses the functions that hostels serve for women and explores the aspects of hostels that are effective and empowering. While only partially effective and empowering in ways that are specified within the current debates, hostels offer a significant policy opportunity to help women both expand their personal, social, economic and political universe without losing contact with the familiar and nurturing networks of family, and gain autonomy over their shelter and lives. The article discusses how hostels can provide a stepping stone for policy and programmatic interventions toward decent, secure and empowering shelter for women. Les débats politiques sur l’hébergement des femmes se sont concentrés sur la structure familiale, les rôles des sexes et l’importance de l’habitat dans le développement économique des femmes. Ils ont souligné le besoin d’un hébergement qui procure généralement à celles‐ci satisfaction et possibilités. Bien qu’appréciables, ces propositions générales sont souvent incapables de tenir compte de situations particulières, dans des contextes culturels spécifiques où la migration des femmes remodèle la structure familiale, les rôles et l’évolution économique, parallèlement au réajustement entre les directives culturelles et le contrôle familial à l’égard de l’hébergement féminin. À travers une étude sur 12 foyers de travailleuses de Bangalore (Inde), comprenant une enqu? te auprès de 126 pensionnaires et 4 groupes‐témoins, cet article analyse les fonctions que les foyers apportent aux femmes et explore les aspects de ces lieux porteurs de satisfaction et de possibilités. M? me si cet apport n’est que partiel, selon les modalités énoncées dans les débats actuels, les foyers donnent à la politique une véritable occasion d’aider les femmes àétendre leur univers personnel, social, économique et politique sans perdre contact avec les réseaux familiers et formateurs de la famille, tout en acquérant une autonomie sur leur résidence et leur existence. L’article explique comment les foyers peuvent constituer un premier pas vers des programmes organisés visant à un hébergement décent et sécurisé pour les femmes qui les rendent autonome.     

Beyond the Global City Concept and the Myth of ‘Command and Control’

The article argues that the lack of convincing empirical evidence for the global economy as being subject to ‘command and control’ results from that contention being a neo‐Marxist myth. First, imagining the global economy as being subject to ‘highly concentrated command’ through the function of some major cities as ‘strategic sites’ for the production of ‘command and control’ is traced back through several neo‐Marxist authors to narrate its genesis, and to argue that the lack of evidence for that proposition is a consequence of those antecedents envisioning capitalism as a totalizing structure, thus making the assumption that it is subject to control and coordination from a distance. Second, Taylor's interlocking world city network model is forensically examined to explain that it is fallacious because it is a structuralism that, bedevilled by a sorites paradox, contains the further problem of containing no credible evidence for the existence of ‘command centres’. Finally, the article moves beyond neo‐Marxism's key concepts by juxtaposing their assumptions with ethnographic results from social studies of finance, a manoeuvre which forges an understanding of cities as socio‐technical assemblages and eventful multiplicities, beyond, inter alia, the baseless assumption that the global economy is subject to ‘command and control’.     

Business To Business Exchanges: A Rich Descriptive Apparatus Derived From Macneil’s and Menger’s Analyses

The dichotomy ‘market’ or ‘hierarchy’ has exercised a dominant influence on the study of forms of governance and their operation for some time. However, in the past two decades there have been large numbers of investigations of intermediate forms of governance. Subsequently it has been recognized that the behaviour that occurs within exchanges is not determined by the forms of governance used and this points to a need to understand behaviour within a variety of exchanges. An apparatus, based on Macneil’s analysis, in conjunction with Menger’s insights into the nature of exchanges, for describing behaviour within exchanges is proposed.     

Hostile–vs.–white‐knight bidders

We examine the hypothesis that white knights enter control contests to spend free cash flow instead of paying it out to shareholders. Tobin's q is used to measure management's inclination to invest in negative NPV investments. We find that historically, white knights have over‐invested and their acquisition of the target is one more negative NPV investment. Alternatively, hostile bidders’ past investment decisions have increased shareholder wealth. Furthermore, white knights’ returns upon the announcement of their bid have a significant negative relationship with free cash flow, implying that their bid reveals information about white knights management's investment decisions. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Narrow‐Framing and Risk Preferences in Family and Non‐Family Firms

Building upon prospect theory’s concept of narrow‐framing, we explore family firms’ risk preferences across multiple decisions in corporate entrepreneurship. We argue that family firms’ decisions are less likely to be narrowly framed (more likely to be made as a group rather than in isolation) compared to non‐family firms. Examining the interaction between two risky decisions (internationalization and R&D investment) in two samples of publicly traded firms in the USA and China confirms our hypotheses. Family firms appear more likely than non‐family firms to diversify risk when making multiple decisions concerning corporate entrepreneurship. However, given inferior performance, risk taking across multiple decisions in family firms is positively related.     

Social Control,Urban Planning and Ethno‐class Relations: Mizrahi Jews in Israel's ‘Development Towns’

Urban planning is usually portrayed as a benign and progressive societal force. This interpretation is critically examined through an evaluation of Israel's development town project. According to the ‘best’ planning concepts available during the 1950s, Israel built 28 new towns, mainly on the country's peripheral ‘frontiers’. New immigrants, chiefly low‐income Mizrahi Jews, were housed in the towns, which provided a cornerstone of Israel's national project of ‘Judaising’ the country. The evidence shows that the planning of the towns has had many regressive consequences: it reinforced and reproduced patterns of deprivation and inequality through the creation of segregated and low‐status Mizrahi ethnic spaces. In the longer term, this spawned continuing grievances and protest, fluctuating political orientation and the emergence of a low‐status Mizrahi ethno‐class. The case in hand casts doubt over the notion of planning solely as a progressive force, and highlights its potential to act as an instrument of control and domination in the hands of societal elites. In Israel, promotion of the ‘national imperative’ of settling the frontiers, the advent of ‘modern urban planning’, and later ‘corrective’ policies to close the centre‐periphery gap, all worked to obscure the regressive stratifying processes caused by the development town project. La planification urbaine est généralement vue comme une force sociale bégnine et progressive. Cette interprétation est examinée de facon critique avec une évaluation du projet de développement de la ville en Israël. Suivant les ‘meilleurs’ concepts de planification des années cinquante, Israël a construit 28 villes nouvelles, principalement sur les ‘frontières’ périphériques du pays. Les nouveaux immigrants, avant tout des juifs Mizrahi qui avaient des revenus bas, furent logés dans les villes, qui étaient au centre du projet national israélien de rendre le pays plus judaïque. L'évidence montre que la planification des villes a eu de nombreuses conséquences régressives: elle a renforcé et reproduit les modèles de privation et d'inégalité par la création d'espaces ethniques Mizrahi de bas standing et isolés. À long terme, cela a donné lieu à des protestations et des doléances continuelles, à une orientation politique changeante et à la naissance d'une ethno‐classe Mizrahi de statut peu élevé. Ce cas d'étude met en doute le fait que la notion de planification soit uniquement une force progressive, et illumine le fait qu'elle peut servir d'instrument de contröle et de domination pour les élites sociales. En Israël, la promotion de ‘l'impératif national’ de stabilisation des frontières, l'arrivée de la ‘planification moderne urbaine’ et la récente politique ‘corrective’ pour réduire la distance entre le centre et la périphérie, ont toutes contribuéà obscurcir les processus régressifs de stratification dus au projet de développement des villes.     

Supersize It: The Growth of Retail Chains and the Rise of the “Big‐Box” Store

This paper documents and explains the recent rise of “big‐box” general merchandisers. Data from the Census of Retail Trade for 1977–2007 show that general‐merchandise chains grew much faster than specialist retail chains, and that general merchandisers that added the most stores also made the biggest increases to their product offerings. We explain these facts with a stylized model in which a retailer’s scale economies interact with consumer gains from one‐stop shopping to generate a complementarity between a retailer’s scale and scope.