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Abstract: Corporate takeovers have added to the social and economic problems of industrial communities already devastated by plant closures. Foreign takeover activity has increased significantly in recent years in the [...]

TOMANEY J., PIKE A. and CORNFORD J. (1999) Plant closure and the local economy: the case of Swan Hunter on Tyneside, Reg. Studies 33, 401-411. This paper seeks to describe and account for the closure of a Tyneside shipyard and to illuminate the wider issues concerning plant closure and the local economy. It begins by reviewing the relevant literature and suggests the need for a political economy of plant closure and its aftermath, informed by insights from economic sociology and institutional economics. The paper attempts to integrate an understanding of the political and economic context of the demise of the shipyard with a study of the labour market impact of its closure. The argument is that the complexities of the yard's closure and its local economic consequences can be better understood when the political and economic context of the sociological production and institutionally framed character of redundancy are revealed. Key words: Plant closure Local economy Shipbuilding Tyneside, PLANT CLOSURE AND THE LOCAL ECONOMY This paper seeks to describe and account for the closure of the Swan Hunter shipyard on Tyneside in 1993 and to illuminate the wider [...]