Search

The study calls for greater scholarly engagement with the generational experiences of the socialist working class in China. Through an analysis of collective actions in response to the reform of state-owned enterprises at the turn of the century, the paper divides the Chinese socialist working class into the Revolution Generation and the Transition Generation. Amid the restructuring of the state sector, workers from the Revolution Generation exhibited a proclivity for civic activism and petitions, while the Transition Generation, though grappling with unemployment, largely refrained from public dissent, instead expressing sentiments of bewilderment and resignation. The study illustrates how the differing lived experiences of two working-class generations played a pivotal role in shaping their interpretation of grievances and contention repertoire. The article underscores the significance of generational perspectives in gaining insight into the destiny of the Chinese working class, advocating for the integration of such perspectives into the broader fields of deindustrialization and labor studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the racialized experiences of industrial closure and economic restructuring of the former Pilpilco coal mine through oral histories and feminist arts-based methods. We argue that Pilpilco's industrial closure illuminates the layers of historical violence exerted on bodies and land as inseparable categories to colonize and extract resources and labour in the Chilean coal basin in Mapuche land. Pilpilco's industrial closure illustrates how coloniality operates in Latin America, perpetuating racial, gender, political and social hierarchical orders and prescribing value to certain peoples and territories while disenfranchising others (Quijano, 2000, Lugones, 2008). The article reflects on the colonial wounds that continue to harm inhabitants and their environments, prolonging their inability to heal intergenerational pain. Finally, we analyse residents' creative strategies to reclaim Pilpilco's land through heritage recognition, women's solidarity, and alliances with indigenous struggles. The study expands the reach and depth of deindustrialization studies, providing insights into how processes of industrialization, deindustrialization, and reindustrialization unfolded through the entanglements of settler colonialism and indigenous dispossessions, authoritarian regime and political repression, and neoliberalism and social demobilization. It also contributes to the field by providing a perspective on industrial closure from women's experience – those unpaid care workers who sustained life in coal mining communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through historical and anthropological inquiry, this paper addresses the issue of memory antagonisms involving cultural landscapes in the context of a former mining region: the Belgian Black Country. This region, which became increasingly industrialized in the 19th century through the massive development of coal mining and steel industry, subsequently experienced deindustrialization, and now finds itself mobilized in a process of 'post-industrial' mutation. The paper is divided into two parts. In the first part, it examines how the landscapes inherited from industry, and in particular the slag heaps of the coalfield, have over time become repositories of a working-class memory, through the living and working practices of the communities surrounding the mines. It also documents the various representations attached to these landscape objects, whose contradictions echo the oppositions between capital and labor that have marked the development of industrial capitalism. The second part of the paper, which focuses on the present situation, examines how these representations are remobilized in the valorization processes that are initiated by different actors, in the context of a 'post-industrial' urban transition strategy that seeks to produce a unified and pacified historical narrative. We'll be looking at how historical conflicts still permeate the representations of these landscapes, the question of their conservation, and their possible future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the divergent trajectories of automotive investment and employment in Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario. Located on opposite shores of the Detroit River, in the United States and Canada respectively, Detroit and Windsor are the founding cities of the North American auto industry. Long dominated by the Big Three, their factories have produced vehicles for the same continental market since 1965. Each has weathered parallel challenges since then, including spikes in the price of oil, the Big Three's loss of market share, the transition to lean production, and the near-collapses of Chrysler and GM. Yet Detroit began deindustrializing decades earlier and lost much more employment than Windsor. To determine why, we compared their automotive sectors from 1900 to the 2010s. Since the Depression, each city has repeatedly confronted the prospect of deindustrialization, but three factors have made Windsor more resilient: (1) federal and provincial interventions on its behalf, (2) Windsor's greater competitiveness with respect to factor costs, quality, and innovation, and (3) Windsor's annexation of outlying territory to capture new factories. These differences show how national, subnational, and regional/local policies have mediated corporate decision-making to produce a variegated North American Rust Belt, with Canada outperforming the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Far from simply being a 'bookend' of the industrial age, deindustrialization is an integral part of capitalist development and thus has a long history. In the North American context, the early scholarship on deindustrialization emerged from the efforts to resist plant closures as they were happening. More recently, the field of deindustrialization studies has been reinvigorated by authors who have shifted the centre of gravity from the US Rust Belt to Europe and increasingly to other parts of the world. This introduction traces the emergence and recent transformations in the field of deindustrialization studies. It also introduces this themed issue on the politics of deindustrialization, which tells the stories of shuttered mines, mills, and factories within the wider restructuring of the international division of labour in the late twentieth century. The articles, written from a range of disciplinary perspectives, extend outward to how workers, their unions, state actors, and the general public responded to the challenge of deindustrialization. The authors are all affiliated with the 'Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time' (DePOT) research project (deindustrialization.org), which brings together many of the world's leading deindustrialization scholars to put the field in transnational perspective. By extending the range of comparisons and scales of analysis, this special-themed issue invites us to broaden our understanding of deindustrialization, both thematically and methodologically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Job security has always been a paramount concern for the trade union movement. This article explores the ways that unions used collective bargaining to gain a measure of job security for their members in the face of deindustrialization as unionized factories in North America began to close in large numbers after the 1970s. These new measures included advance notice, severance pay, plant closing moratoria, restrictions placed on plant movements, transfer rights, and expanding the scope of collective 'social' bargaining to cover training and adjustment. In some sectors, such as automotive, collective bargaining has also been extended into areas normally left to management. The price was often high. Eventually some unions, notably the Canadian Auto Workers (established 1985; part of Unifor after 2013), prioritized winning new capital investments and product lines for unionized plants in their negotiations, though often at the cost of jobs, wage freezes or reductions, and other concessions. By focusing upon auto sector deindustrialization in Canada since the 1980s, we draw lessons from more recent union bargaining strategies, and how they constitute an important element of worker responses to industrial job loss and manufacturing closure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last quarter of the 20th century, worker ownership emerged as a popular option for North American workers trying to save their mills or factories from closing. Most of these efforts eventually failed, sometimes at great financial cost to workers who gambled away their savings or pensions. Yet a few worker buyouts succeeded over the long term. This article examines two of these success stories, one on either side of the Canada-United States border, while situating them within the wider history of worker ownership in North America. When the United Steelworkers of America engineered the worker buyout of Algoma Steel in 1992, Canada's third largest integrated steel-maker, it became the largest worker owned industry in North America. Before that, Weirton Steel had been the largest since 1984 when independent steelworkers there bought the mill from National Steel. If worker ownership offered short-termed relief to workers facing plant closings, its longer-term viability is highly suspect. Many worker-owned firms shut during the next down-turn. Both Weirton and Algoma eventually reverted back to corporate ownership, albeit this time inside Indian-based multinationals, but worker ownership saved the two steel mills and helped modernize them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The question of a declining non‐Hispanic white (NHW) population has sparked debate in the United States. In examining this question, three bodies of research have emerged. One group reports that the decline is real, a second argues that it is an illusion, and the third provides evidence that the decline is concentrated within socio‐economic segments of the NHW population. We use the third groups' insight as the starting point for our research objective. Methods: In conjunction with data from Census Bureau sources, we use a series of Regression Models in this inquiry. Results: Our results show that the decline of the NHW population is real and related to factors embedded in the institutional anomie theory (IAT) framework. Conclusions: We conclude that the IAT framework is a suitable approach for examining the question of NHW population decline. However, we suggest that future research consider refining our approach by: (1) using sub‐state areas as the units of analyses; (2) examining changes in the NHW population relative to lagged changes in the IAT framework at both the state and sub‐state levels; (3) placing our framework into an "algorithmic modeling approach" that employs machine learning; and (4) developing anomie predictors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anthracite coal mining landscape of northeastern Pennsylvania is in ruin, a by-product of two centuries of unchecked capitalism. Much of the land is stripped of its timber and surface mines lay abandoned. The industry began its decline after WWI and virtually collapsed during the post-WWII era. Waste piles of coal litter the landscape, and the streams and rivers are considered dead because of the minerals and high acid content of water draining from abandoned mines. Many scholars have written about the extreme work conditions the coal workers faced, the demise of the coal industry, and the impact of deindustrialization on the region's people. Often overlooked is how members of the mining communities had a radical hope. Radical hope helps oppressed people to see that another condition and another world is possible, although not guaranteed. Re-examining oral histories from the anthracite region recorded in the 1970s, when the industry was in its great decline, demonstrates how these mining communities anticipated a future good, understanding the struggle to attain it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite legal protections and growing acceptance in many industrialized countries, LGBTQ + workers continue to face considerable employment disadvantage. We explain this contradiction by detailing labor market processes that limit employment prospects for LGBTQ + workers in Sudbury and Windsor (both small cities with industrial histories). Drawing on 50 semistructured interviews and 662 community survey responses from LGBTQ + workers, we show how LGBTQ + employment opportunities are constrained by a constellation of multiscalar factors. These include the absence of good work opportunities outside of blue-collar work in deindustrializing labor markets, associated persistent cisnormativity and heteronormativity, and inconsistent protection from discrimination and social acceptance at work. As a result, respondents self-selected out of blue-collar workplaces, avoided and left jobs when they experienced or anticipated discrimination, and chose to remain in jobs with supportive employers rather than find a new job in a potentially homophobic or transphobic labor market. This article extends current understandings of labor markets economic geography by connecting production histories to persistent cisnormativity and heteronormitivity, and by showing how the search for emotional safety in cities with inconsistent social acceptance perpetuates economic disadvantage for queer and trans workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The article proposes an empirical analysis of Brazilian deindustrialization from a Marxian perspective. • Inter-regional input-output analysis is the quantitative instrument used to measure deindustrialization indicators. • Two critical situations indicating structural change are proposed. • The results indicate a process of deindustrialization in Brazil between 1995 and 2010. • The results show that the primary sector is gaining ground in the dynamization of Brazilian capitalism. The article brings new indicators that reinforce the thesis that the Brazilian economy went through a process of deindustrialization. Based on the guiding principle of Marx's reproduction schemes, the instrument of inter-regional input-output analysis was used as empirical method. The output multipliers obtained from the Leontief and Ghosh models were used as indicators for measuring structural changes. Critical situations that can show whether there were structural changes in the sectors of the economy, considering both the local economic activity and its relationship with the world economy, are presented. The main results confirm the existence of a deindustrialization of the Brazilian economy. However, it was found that, in absolute and relative terms, the reduction in the capacity of the Brazilian manufacturing to drive the economy oscillated between moments of greater and lesser intensity. Furthermore, strong indications that the Brazilian primary sector is becoming an enclave were found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Manufacturing share in India's GDP has increased by about 16 percentage points between 2003 and 2018. • Dominant contribution to increased manufacturing GDP share is made by petroleum refining. • There has been a tremendous increase in the real value-added share of ICT equipment industry. • For assessing properly the performance of manufacturing, double-deflation of GDP is essential. Contrary to a widely held impression that the share of manufacturing in India's GDP has long stagnated, the paper claims that it has increased significantly. Measured at the prices of different goods and services prevailing in 2004-05, and deflation applied separately with input prices as well as output prices to account for differential input price trends, the GDP share of manufacturing has increased during the post-reform period from about 17 per cent in 1993-94 to about 32 per cent in 2018-19. The paper notes that the concept of real share in GDP relates to the volume effect and represents the change in the share of the volume of manufacturing activity out of the volume of all economic activities in the Indian economy. Some explanation is provided for the apparent stagnancy of the share of manufacturing in India's GDP at current prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the deindustrialization experience in New England, using Fitchburg, Massachusetts, as a case study to explore the dynamics of industrial decline. Topics include the gradual erosion of industrial activity in multiple phases, the competition between municipalities within New England for capital investments and jobs, and the significance of intra-regional movement of businesses, shedding light on the complexities of the deindustrialization process.

Because of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent deindustrialization, Russian post-industrial neighbourhoods have experienced dramatic changes. During Soviet times, housing was given and owned by the state and the post-Soviet period was the time of 'neighborhood reassembling' when this Soviet housing stock was privatized and habituated by different social groups. Вased on Raymond Williams' (1997) distinction between residual and emergent cultures the gentrification in two post-industrial neighborhoods was shown. The post-Soviet transitions included the emerging culture of the global middle classes replacing or co-existing with the authentic residual culture of the Soviet industrial working class. The analysis of the Soviet housing stock (i.e. structure level) and the meanings of its habituation (i.e. agent level) discovers class differences: workers habituated it as part of their everyday life, while the creative group views it as part of their Soviet heritage. The Soviet housing stock, as a cultural 'residue', constituted the dynamics of class relations while the identities within groups are blurred. This article highlights the theoretical debate that identities and housing are not about structures or agents but are intertwined. Housing as a symbol of a class is produced by policy makers, while housing habituated by residents is re-signified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What happens to local communities when manufacturing disappears? I examine changes in associational density over nearly two decades as a proxy for social capital in US labor markets. Exploiting plausibly exogenous trade‐induced shocks to local manufacturing activity, I test whether deindustrialization is associated with greater or lower organizational membership. I uncover a robust negative relationship between the two variables, particularly acute in rural and mostly‐White areas. My findings, however, are sensitive to measurement: There are no clearly discernible effects of deindustrialization on social capital when I consider alternative proxies for the outcome. To reconcile these results, I present evidence suggesting that economic adversity may induce a qualitative, rather than quantitative, change in social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A roundtable with scholars Sheri Berman, Zachariah Mampilly, Andre Pagliarini and Nick Serpe on left politics, held in October 2023, is presented. Topics discussed include the development of the left in the Global North, cross-class coalition on the left in Brazil and deindustrialization as election issue in the country, the rise of identity politics and inequality in the African context, disconnect between protest movements for democracy and inequality and political parties, decline in political party membership in Europe and its effect on the left, fragility of Brazilian democracy, role of political parties in democracies, and potential transformation of electoralism in African democracies.

Two concurrent phenomena emerged in rural America in the 1970s: job losses due to deindustrialization and prison proliferation relating to mass incarceration. While supporters of the prison industrial complex promised an economic lifeline for rural America, opponents questioned the economic benefits of prison openings. Using county fixed-effects models and data covering 1960–2000, this study reveals a null association between prison openings and total rural employment. While prison proliferation marginally increased government employment, it simultaneously had a negative impact on private employment. Specifically, prison openings were associated with decreased employment in manufacturing, finance and recreational services; and had no impact on jobs in construction, wholesale, and local retail sales. Thus, the promises of employment growth relating to prisons were, overall, not kept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Brazil's economic experience between 2003 and 2016, its limits in promoting development and structural change while analyzing the policies adopted and their consequences. The economic growth model based on the conciliation of competing interests and the maintenance of liberal orthodoxy proved unsustainable in the medium term. Maintaining the overvalued exchange rate and high-interest rate hindered industry and national development. The timid attempt at developmentalism could not contain the process of deindustrialization and financialization. The neoliberal agenda was maintained, which prevented structural changes and deepened financialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China–Malaysia economic engagement has deepened since the 1990s. The scale and scope of this relationship has also expanded significantly following the 2013 announcement of the Belt and Road Initiative. Offering a context-rich, historically-nuanced perspective, this paper analyses how Malaysian policymakers have engaged with economic opportunities opened up by the burgeoning Chinese market. In particular, it examines how Chinese foreign direct investment has contributed to industrial upgrading trajectories in Malaysia. The paper makes two inter-related arguments. First, it uncovers a correlation between closer Chinese–Malaysian economic integration and services liberalization, which results in Malaysia’s lower emphasis on manufacturing and ‘proper’ industrialization. In other words, structural transformation has occurred, but it is geared towards the services sector. Relatedly, Chinese investment entering Malaysia, notwithstanding its relatively recent status, is composed primarily of service industries. The services-heavy nature of Chinese investment results in a relatively modest economic multiplier effect, potentially exacerbating some societal tensions and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the scale, causes and timing of significant episodes of industrialization and deindustrialization in Sub-Saharan Africa. Recent studies have argued that the turning point of manufacturing output and employment shares tends to occur "prematurely" in this region (Rodrik, 2016). We perform our analysis using panel data methods for fractional responses and data from a variety of sources for a panel of 45 African countries. Our results overwhelmingly do not support the common finding that Sub-Saharan Africa countries have begun to deindustrialize prematurely. Moreover, we document meaningful heterogeneity across subregions of Sub-Saharan Africa with the Southern region being the only subregion that witnessed limited deindustrialization. However, this deindustrialization of the southern subregion does not appear to be occurring prematurely. The study also explores the potential role of Dutch disease and resource-curse hypotheses in understanding Sub-Saharan Africa's manufacturing experience in resource rich countries. We conclude that manufacturing remains a viable and reliable path towards structural transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa. • The scale, causes and timing of industrialization and deindustrialization in Sub-Saharan Africa are investigated with a panel of 45 countries. • The share of manufacturing in economy-wide employment is rising, while the manufacturing value added share seems to be more or less stagnating. • Using manufacturing value added share as a measure of industrialization, we find no evidence of deindustrialization in sub-Saharan Africa. • Industrialization through manufacturing remains a leading and reliable path towards structural transformation in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, industrial metropolises in China have experienced a surge in proactive planning initiatives aimed at developing high-rise industrial structures, commonly known as “Industry’s Going Upstairs (IGU).” This study argues that the IGU represents a distinct form of urban verticality that is neither motivated by capitalist speculation nor sustainability prompts but rather by local states’ intervention to ensure economic resilience and enhance innovation capabilities. This study presents the case of Shenzhen to demonstrate how the adoption of the IGU initiative is catalyzed by concerns over manufacturing sectors’ out-migration and the effects of volatile US-China relations on the city’s competitiveness. In light of these circumstances, Shenzhen has embraced the ambitious IGU initiative as a practical approach to reverse the trend of deindustrialization while sidestepping the lengthy process of industrial land redevelopment. The paper concludes by emphasizing the need for a comprehensive understanding of political-economic factors that drive urban vertical expansion and their potential consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]