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The global order is undergoing a crisis of hegemonic decline that has two dimensions that are distinct but deeply related. One is a crisis of the American empire that could best be characterized as one of ‘overextension’. This is principally a military and political crisis, which has mainly unfolded in the Middle East. The other ongoing crisis is that of US economic decline brought about by the dynamics of global capitalism, the main aspects of which are globalization, the rapid rise of China, deindustrialization, and financialization of the US economy. These trends have had domestic political and ideological ramifications for US hegemony. Considering the question of hegemonic transition in light of these developments, the article comes to the conclusion that what might be emerging could be not a hegemonic transition, but a condition of hegemonic stalemate between China and the United States because the United States has been countering China’s economic dynamism and global influence with its absolute military superiority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advanced welfare countries have faced a mix of policy constraints regarding employment growth, income equality, and budget discipline in managing the challenges of deindustrialization, often dubbed as the trilemma of the service economy. Yet, puzzlingly enough, there are some welfare countries that could choose policy options outside of these policy constraints in their responses to deindustrialization. This article argues that the source of this derestricting capacity can be found in the size of electoral district and the level of development in dynamic service sectors. Using the Service Economy Trilemma Index (STI), the author propounds that the expansion of dynamic services in the economy has differential effects on the combined performance in employment, income equality, and budget discipline conditional on the district magnitude. The findings of this article show that countries with large electoral districts and well-developed dynamic service sectors are better able to derestrict policy constraints in the age of deindustrialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Factory occupations are rare and sporadic events which shed light on the processes associated with the collective mobilization of workers' power. This article utilizes Kelly's agential and Atzeni's structural explanations of worker mobilization to examine two disputes which took place during Britain's long experience of deindustrialization: the occupations of Caterpillar's tractor factory in Uddingston, Scotland, during 1987 and Vestas' wind turbine plant on the Isle of Wight during 2009. Each occupation shared the context of multinational divestment and collective workforce grievance based on a common perception that their plant was economically viable and vital to the local economy. However, contrasting sources of leadership mobilized this sentiment in each case: union stewards from within Caterpillar, socialist activists from outside at Vestas. The article concludes that an effective explanation of occupations must synthesize structural and agential factors, emphasizing the coalescing role of activist networks and workers' perceptions of their labour's social utility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Core to his inquiry is understanding the continued experience of organised labour as an influential player in American capitalism. This recent book centres firmly on the era of shareholder capitalism and how organised labour sought to engage with it to shore up its influence and reinvent how it delivers on its historical objectives. Now, I Labor in the Age of Finance i extends that story through to the present period, exploring how pension funds and financialisation reconfigured forces that drive employment choices, reshaped the capacity of unions to influence employment practices, and continue to play a defining role in protecting labour's interests in the corporation. [Extracted from the article]

Against the backdrop of deindustrialization and the rise of the service economy, small artisan businesses have been promoted as a liberatory alternative to large-scale enterprise and mass production in the wake of the 2007 global financial crisis. We analyze advice manuals for aspiring artisan entrepreneurs by adapting Boltanski and Chiapello's (2005) framework and analysis of management textbooks to investigate books for would-be artisan business owners. These texts are "manuals of moral instruction" (58) that offer the reader the promise of a more fulfilling and ethical life through self-employment. We reveal that the artisan economy promoted by these advice manuals represents a further evolution in capitalism's co-optation of the artistic critique via the oppositional strata of punk and indie youth subcultures—and their style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What might it take for politically marginalized residents to challenge cuts in public spending that threaten to harm their health and wellbeing? Specifically, how did residents of Flint, Michigan contribute to the decision of an austerity regime, which was not accountable to them, to spend millions to switch to a safe water source? Relying on evidence from key interviews and newspaper accounts, we examine the influence and limitations of residents and grassroots groups during the 18-month period between April 2014 and October 2015 when the city drew its water from the Flint River. We find that citizen complaints alone were not sufficiently able to convince city officials or national media of widespread illness caused by the water. However, their efforts resulted in partnerships with researchers whose evidence bolstered their claims, thus inspiring a large contribution from a local foundation to support the switch to a clean water source. Thus, before the crisis gained national media attention, and despite significant constraints, residents' sustained organization—coupled with scientific evidence that credentialed local claims—motivated the return to the Detroit water system. The Flint case suggests that residents seeking redress under severe austerity conditions may require partnerships with external scientific elites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current understandings of worker mobilisation against factory closure and capital migration in Britain are dominated by the perspectives of male industrial workers. The narratives of displaced miners, shipbuilders and steel workers are prominent in the historiography and collective memories of deindustrialisation. There is considerably less understanding of the response of female manufacturing workers to these processes and the ways in which women mobilised in opposition to the free movement of capital. This article presents the testimony of Margaret Robertson, shop steward at the Lee Jeans factory in Greenock, Scotland, where the predominantly female workforce conducted a successful seven-month occupation in opposition to proposed closure beginning in February 1981. The contribution highlights the specific gendered challenges encountered by women workers. The occupation occurred in a period of accelerated factory closure in Britain, yet supporting female unionists resisting job loss was not a priority for the male-dominated union executive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tertiarisation, or perhaps more accurately, the deindustrialisation of the economy has left deep scars on cities. It is evident not only in the industrial wastelands and empty factory buildings, but also in the income and social structures of cities. Industrialisation, collective wage setting, and the welfare state led to a stark reduction in income differences over the course of the 20th century. Conversely, deindustrialisation and the shift to tertiary sectors could result in increasing wage differentiation. Moreover, numerous studies on global cities, the dual city, and divided cities have also identified income polarisation as a central phenomenon in the development of major cities. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we find an increasing polarisation of household income structures since the mid-1990s. In urban agglomerations, this income polarisation is even more pronounced than in the more rural regions. The income polarisation in Germany is likely to have multiple causes, some of which are directly linked to policies such as the deregulation of the labour market. But extensive deindustrialisation is probably also one of the drivers of this process, and it has directly weakened Germany’s middle-income groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to explain the evolution of urban governance in Spain during the last 40 years as a product of different waves of state rescaling. Historical, political and economic specificities shape the evolution of Spanish urban governance, especially because of the recent process of democratic transition, regional decentralisation and the specific process of de-industrialisation. We distinguish three periods in urban governance trends, from the restoration of democracy in the late 1970s to the current austerity urbanism marked by the economic crisis starting in 2008. For each phase, we highlight the three interrelated factors explaining urban governance: (1) the evolution of the Spanish political economy in the transition from Fordism to post-Fordism; (2) the evolution of the welfare state; and (3) the role of urban social movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a consequence of the international financial crisis in 2007, the region of Algarve, where tourism plays an important economic and social role, suffered a decrease in tourism demand, while unemployment increased sharply. Although tourism activities registered a quick recovery, unemployment levels continued to grow. This article examines the impacts of tourism activities on the sectorial structure of the regional economy, using a Bayesian vector autoregressive model. The results reveal that tourism growth did not automatically create the expected positive impacts on the economic performance of the other sectors, as was expressed by the objectives defined in the regional development strategies over the last two decades. The positive impacts of tourism were concentrated in the production of non-tradable goods and the construction sector, leading to a significant reduction of the weight of the tradable sector within the regional economy, similar to a process of deindustrialization described as the 'Dutch disease'. The decline of construction activities after 2007 has led to a significant increase of regional unemployment, although tourism growth has returned to 'pre-crisis' levels, revealing the lack of regional resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines trends in labour force participation of older men (55–64 years) in the Netherlands between 1992 and 2009 using Dutch Labour Force Survey data. In this period, the share of early retirees and disability recipients steadily decreased, while labour force participation of Dutch older men increased. The authors characterize these developments both theoretically and empirically in terms of policy reforms, normative change and deindustrialization. More specifically, institutional early retirement arrangements were abolished due to the rising costs associated with the ageing of the Dutch population. Older men, therefore, became more likely to be employed, unemployed or disabled compared to early retired between 1992 and 2009. The authors also find that deindustrialization increases the chances of employment for older men with a university degree. Moreover, a shrinking industry sector is particularly harmful for the lowest educated older men, as their likelihood to be in unemployment increases compared to early retirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines wage inequality in Australia from 1982 to 2012 using income distribution data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The analysis shows that wage inequality grew steadily during this period, and that the growth was particularly strong from 1996 onward. Through the use of quantile regression it is possible to decompose the growth in inequality into three components: changes in the wage structure, changes in workforce characteristics and a residual (‘unobservables’). The results of this analysis are conclusive among male full-time employees: despite the conventional wisdom that the changing nature of the workforce contributed to the growth of inequality, I find that the changes in the wage structure accounted for more than three-quarters of this growth. In the case of female full-time employees, changes in the wage structure accounted for about half of this growth. The article locates these findings within an analysis of neoliberalism in Australia and suggests that deindustrialisation and financialisation appear to be closely related to increased wage inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade unions often face complex and uncertain relations with multinational employers, particularly in old industrial regions. Such corporations have long histories in such regions, often attracted by a range of incentives such as financial support, cheap energy and a skilled workforce. However, the plants themselves often experience changes in ownership and face economic uncertainty. This constitutes the terrain within which recognised unions seek to organise, exercise their capacities and realise their purposes. Workers and their unions organise and operate in these plants, usually developing established routines and practices in relation to the terms and conditions of employment and advocacy of worker concerns. However, they also face difficult choices in relation to corporate decisions to restructure and/or close regional plants. In order for unions to respond to the shifting terrain of the employment landscape they must be able to mobilise around political and economic factors that impact on employment. These themes are addressed with specific reference to union struggles in North West Tasmania, a region that is undergoing a process of de-industrialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]