The Rise Of The Rustbelt (PDF)

The Rise of the Rustbelt demonstrates the value of interchange and comparison of ideas and policies for industrial regeneration between three major regions: the Great Lakes of North America, the Ruhrgebiet of North-Rhine-Westphalia, and the industrial belt of South Wales. The top priority of these areas is to conserve and retain their status as industrial powerhouses by attracting investment to compensate for their dramatic structural decline over the past twenty years and more. They have much to learn from one another.
These great regions have shared a long industrial history based on coal-mining, steel-making and the associated manufacturing industries. They also share the experience of severe deindustrialization: coalmining has largely disappeared in Wales and is scheduled to do so in Germany; steel-making is slimmer but will never again be a major employer in any of the three areas. A restructured high-performance manufacturing sector is a major hope for the future.
The book reveals that regional restructuring in the Ruhr results in the internal diversification of problem industries, whereas in North America and the UK it is dictated by competitive policies that lead to the replacement of older industries by new ones, often involving significant investment from overseas companies. The North American steel industry has reduced to a vestige of its former scale; the Welsh steel industry is leaner and more profitable; the Ruhr steel industry is restructuring later, but most companies have diversified by acquisition or internal change into other industries. Retraining of workers was largely left to the market, leading to widespread redundancy among North American and Welsh workers. In the Ruhr, retraining programmes by companies assist some to transfer to new jobs in new industries. Environmental upgrading in the Ruhr is integrated with social, cultural and economic policies that take account of local aspirations. In Wales, this is used as a marketing tool to capture inward investment. It is proving successful, but it entails a democratic deficit. Hence, from having been world leaders in clean air control and land reclamation, areas such as Pittsburgh and South Wales have been over-taken by newer, much more integrated econo-environmental policy such as that if the Emscher Park International Building Exhibition in the Ruhr.
Encompassing environmental and sociocultural issues, as well as those of industrial economics and human resource development, The Rise of the Rustbelt will interest students, researchers and professionals in geography, planning, public policy, and industrial and business studies. It offers a wide-ranging and fully detailed analysis of some of the key issues arising in the wake of unprecedented industrial restructuring in three world-leading regions.