The partitioning of a production process into separate elements. Gender divisions of labour separate tasks into male and female; see Padmanabhan (2008) J. Int. Dev. 20. A social division of labour divides workers by product: Mitsui (2003) 30th ISBC, Singapore sees social divisions of labour as crucial to small and medium enterprises in manufacturing, unable to survive if they simply rely on own limited resources and specialized skills. Meijers (2007) Reg. Studs 41, 7 detects spatial divisions of labour at the intra-urban level in the Randstad, the Flemish Diamond, and the Rhein–Ruhr Area, ‘whereas at the inter-urban level this division of labour is diminishing’. Within the ‘new’ international division of labour, capital and control functions are concentrated in the advanced economies or global core, while labour has been relocated to developing economies on the global periphery (Tonkiss (2008) Sociol. Compass 2, 2). May et al. (2007, TIBG 32, 2) explore the emergence of a new migrant division of labour in London.