Deindustrialization

From Free net encyclopedia

Deindustrialization is the process by which the manufacturing-based economy of a country or region declines. In some instances the economic activity shifts to a service economy. Deindustrialization is often marked by an increase in structural unemployment.

Examples of deindustrialization include:

• Northern England (particularly the cities of Manchester, Leeds and Bradford) in the 1980s. Previously a global center of textile manufacturing, the region was subject to a long period of decline culminating in the 1980s, as the industry shifted to countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia and China.
• Detroit, Michigan, and surrounding states and parts of the neighbouring Canadian province of Ontario since the 1980s. Its economy dominated by the automotive manufacturing industry, the region was devastated when companies such as General Motors relocated many of their production facilities to Mexico, or closed them entirely due to lower sales.
• Patras, Greece as well as other areas of Greece and Southern Europe were deindustrialized during the late 1980s and early 1990s as a result to the reemergence of the Eastern European markets after the fall of communism. Other factors were the discorvengence with the rest of EU (then E.E.C.) entrance and lack of flexibility of the local economy. Big production units like the "Piraikí-Patraikí" textile plant and the "Ladopoulos" paper mill closed and hundrends of employees were laid off. Reportedly, Pirelli and other companies relocated their production facilities from Patras to eastern european countries in an effort to cut back on rising labor and production costs.

In a long-term time perspective, some authors have suggested that the currently favoured trend towards industrialization will eventually transition, either smoothly or abruptly, to a global deindustrialized period of neo-agrarianism.Template:Economics-stub