Integrating sustainable development and economic restructuring: a role for regulation theory?

Despite the growing importance of environmental issues within international and national economic policies, little attention has been paid to these issues in work on economic restructuring. However, the increasing adoption of the concept of sustainable development as a means to resolve conflict between the economy and the environment has major implications for the form and direction of economic restructuring. In this paper it is therefore argued that the growing adoption of sustainable development as a central guiding principle for economic development necessitates the incorporation of environmental issues into work on economic restructuring. The limited amount of existing work linking the environment with economic restructuring is criticized and it is suggested that there is considerable potential to use regulation theory to combine debates on economic restructuring and sustainable development.     

The regional differentiation of the Hungarian economy in transition

After 1989, the East Central European countries had to face three major challenges: stabilization and modernization of their economies and the transition to a market economy. Hungary, partly because of the early liberalization of the command economic regime enjoyed a significant competitive edge in the region in all three areas. The stabilization, modernization and restructuring of the economy was followed by the strengthening of processes of regional differentiation, the fast gaining on, and loosing of importance by certain areas and settlements. The capital city and the agglomeration area around it became the centre of the Hungarian as well as East Central European economic changes in all respects, the Western Transdanubian area is speedily integrating with the North Italian, Austrian, Southern German economic region, while the Southern parts of the country are presently in a state of transition and a prolonged crisis can be forecasted for the Eastern regions of the country.     

Australian manufacturing, 1968–1988: Recession,reorganisation and renewal

Australian manufacturing developed primarily to supply domestic customers. It played an important role in the country's postwar economic growth, employment increase and rising living standards. However, decades of heavy protection and limited opportunities for achieving scale economies because of the small local market and fragmentation of production across six states were among many factors that meant that by the late 1960s the sector was increasingly ill-equipped to deal with major changes in international and internal economic and political conditions. Over the last two decades, manufacturing has contracted, with employment falling sharply, and there has been a substantial and highly varied restructuring of production, although many past features survive. In the mid 1980s, several factors, most notably a large depreciation of the Australian dollar, have made local manufacturing more cost competitive and created new export opportunities. Nevertheless, many branches of manufacturing remain vulnerable to further rapid rationalisation and future prospects are uncertain.     

Regional and sectoral differences in the spatial restructuring of Chinese manufacturing industries during the post-WTO period

Based on the micro level data, this paper examined the spatial changes of Chinese manufacturing industries during 2002–2007. Liberalized and globalized industries are largely concentrated in the coastal region while low technology, resource-based and protected industries are widely dispersed in the inland regions. Some labor-intensive industries in the coastal region encountered congestion effects and are relocated to the central region. Statistical results indicate that industrial enterprises have significantly benefited from the geographical proximity of related enterprises. The agglomeration effects however differ across regions and sectors. The coastal region enjoys both localization and urbanization economies. The western region has no significant localization economies while the central region has no evidence of urbanization economies. The Capital Region enjoys urbanization economies to a certain degree. Both the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta have the benefits of agglomeration. The further agglomeration in the PRD however would generate congestion effects. Although labor-intensive industries gain from agglomeration effects they are more likely to suffer from the congestion effects of related enterprises. The empirical findings indicate that agglomeration effects are not pervasive in transitional economies like China. Industrial agglomeration would contribute to productivity improvement only in a globalized and liberalized environment.     

Migration between core and peripheral regions: a description and tentative explanation of the patterns in 22 countries

In the developed world at least, the century-long migration towards the high density core regions is over. To establish this thesis, internal migration statistics for 22 countries are examined, covering the period 1950–1979. Of these 22 countries, five categories are distinguished: (1) the countries of north-western Europe (Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and West Germany), in which there is moderate net out-migration from the core regions; (2) the countries of North America (Canada and the United States), in which net out-migration from the core regions has become quite substantial; (3) countries on the periphery of western Europe (Finland, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom), and including Japan and New Zealand, in which the modal pattern is one of increases in net migration towards the core regions between the 1950s and 1960s, followed by a sharp decline in the 1970s, though not to the point where a sustained net flow of population away from these regions has been observed; (4) the countries of eastern Europe (Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, and Poland), in which net migration towards the core regions, though quite moderate, has yet to show a systematic decline; and (5) two advanced developing countries in eastern Asia (South Korea and Taiwan), in which net migration towards the core regions is very large and showing no signs of imminent decline. The countries of the first three categories belong to the developed world, in which economies of further agglomeration in the core regions no longer exist, according to the hypothesis put forward in the second half of this paper. The distinguishing feature of the countries in the first two of these three categories is that their less urbanized, peripheral regions offer sites for urban and industrial development which are competitive with those of the core regions. In contrast, the peripheral regions of the countries of the third category do not offer competitive sites for industry and urban development, due to fundamental deficiencies in physical geography. Thus, despite the disappearance of the agglomeration advantages of the core regions, a sustained net flow of population away from these regions has yet to be observed. Finally, the countries of the fourth and fifth categories, according to our hypothesis, are those in which the economies of further agglomeration in the core regions are still present, due to a lower level of economic development. What distinguishes these last two categories of countries is the strong state policies of decentralization in the countries of eastern Europe, which seem to have avoided the very large and growing net flow of population towards the core regions observed for South Korea and Taiwan, where decentralization policies, though extant, are still subservient to national economic growth policies and are consequently much weaker.     

Optimal capital scaling: a new feasibility for small scale mining

Summary The historical trend in mine development has been the adoption of larger and more capital-intensive methods of production. Such methods have profited from the relatively low costs of investment capital and the reduction in unit costs afforded by technical economies of scale. More recently, rising real rates of interest have increased the investment costs of these capital-intensive mining ventures, amplifying their inherent financial diseconomies of scale and decreasing their economic viability.This paper used an economic framework to analyse the effects of rising rates of interest on the optimal level of capital investment and ultimate scale of operation. The conclusion suggests that rising real rates of interest can cause financial diseconomies to dominate the technical economies of scale. Under such circumstances, those mineral deposits more amenable to smaller scales of mining will prove economically superior to larger scaled operations.     

Industrial location in Japan since 1945

This paper outlines the main changes in industrial location in Japan since the end of World War II. After a brief introduction, the paper discusses the growth of industrial regions between 1955 and 1965, and gives particular attention to the establishment of heavy industrial complexes in coastal locations and to the growth of assembly-line industries in inland locations. Some reference is also made to the role of local government inducement policies. The paper then turns to an examination of trends since 1965, and considers the significance of external diseconomies, changes in local government policy, labour shortage, improvements in transport and communications, and regional development policy. The paper argues that these factors have been responsible for a limited dispersal of manufacturing away from the main industrial regions. In conclusion, the paper briefly considers the implications of current economic trends for industrial location.     

Social and environmental regulation in rural China: bringing the changing role of local government into focus

China’s rapid economic growth following the 1978 reforms has resulted in significant economic, social and environmental change. These reforms and their outcomes have been subjected to considerable scrutiny. However, relatively little research has been directed towards the relationship between the changing role of local government, which has itself been subject to substantial restructuring, and the local mediation of the social and environmental impacts of rapid economic growth. This paper investigates the local manifestation of social and environmental change in Zhejiang Province. In particular, it considers the changing role of local government in the regulatory process, and features a case study of Huzhou Municipality. A synthesis of the factual knowledge and perceptions of 48 key-informants from government and public institutions and rural industries is used as the platform for an analysis of the changing nature of local regulation with respect to the provision of key public services (health care and education) and environmental protection (water pollution control). The results reveal the ability of local government to selectively implement national and provincial policies in light of local priorities, which is taken as indicative of the emergence of local agency within local development processes. The case study suggests a need to re-evaluate conventional wisdom on the absence of autonomy at local levels of government in China, particularly as it relates to the continued devolution of administrative responsibility and the emergence of increasingly powerful economic interests.     

International students as urban agents: International education and urban transformation in Auckland,New Zealand

This paper discusses connections between the internationalisation of education, and in particular the growth in international students, and processes of urban transformation. The research is centred in Auckland, New Zealand, a city where the number of international students has grown rapidly over the last decade leading to significant impacts on the urban form and experience of the city’s CBD. This includes growth in educational services such as language schools and other private training establishments, new residential geographies characterised by low-cost and low-quality high-rise developments, and new ethnic economies of food, service and entertainment businesses that explicitly target international students. The paper draws on research with South Korean international students and a range of secondary materials to interrogate the connections between student mobilities and changing urban form. In doing so the paper contributes to emerging scholarship on student geographies and the role of students as urban agents through the inclusion of an international dimension that has largely been absent in the extant literature. The findings illustrate that while international students themselves clearly play a significant role in the transformation of urban spaces their influence cannot easily be separated from the contribution of a range of other actors including educational businesses, property developers, transnational migrants and local and national state actors.     

The economic restructuring of Moscow in the international context

This paper deals with the trends of economic restructuring in Moscow in the 1990s under globalization and reforms. The comparison of structural shifts in Moscow with the largest cities of the West gives an idea about the position of the Russian capital on the trajectory of post-industrial transformation. The analysis covers three dimensions: a) general trends of post-industrial restructuring, b) the role of large cities in national economies, and c) universal and special trends of intra-urban transformation. The reforms of the 1990s initiated many new developments in the economic life of Moscow, making it more similar to the Western cities, both in general sectoral structure and intra-urban landscape. Nevertheless, Moscow still lags far behind the world cities as regards the stage of the most important post-industrial processes. The conflict between new market developments and the inherited patterns of the socialist city becomes one of the driving forces of the economic transformation in Moscow as a whole and in different types of its districts.     

The role of environment and natural resources in territorial organization of the USSR economy

At present there is a tendency for the roles, in the economy, of the environment and natural resources to be interrelated. Economic factors have increasingly been affected by environmental impact in spatial economic organisation (ETO). The growth of production results in the constant increased consumption of natural resources. New sources (of inferior quality in the developed regions or in the regions with extreme conditions), formerly not exploited area now used. At the same time the following tendencies can be observed: increased concentration of production, more complicated branch structure, growth in number of manufacturing industries, decline in the share of mining in industrial output. This tendency is accompanied by the spatial disjunction of technologically interconnected industries (dealing with mining and processing of raw materials) and by the formation of new industrial integrations (not dealing directly with natural resources utilization). In this complicated situation the investigation of natural resources and of the environmental role in the spatial organisation of the economy is becoming of special relevance. In the author's opinion while investigating this problem the type of social system should be considered, as well as the level of development of productive forces and the combination of regional nature and economic conditions. Three aspects of investigation—branch, spatial and functional—are proposed. The analysis of natural resources and environmental impact the spatial organisation of the economy in each of mentioned aspects should be performed on different scales—local, regional, national and international levels. The approach to problem investigation is based on the analysis of data about the USSR. and exemplified. The investigators recommend the application of Soviet experience in this field by the geographers of other countries.     

Structural impact of international tourism in Yugoslavia

This paper outlines the structure of international tourism in Yugoslavia and then discusses thevarious impacts its development has had, notably changes in the population structure. The growth of international tourism has enabled a nontraumatic restructuring of the younger generation island and coastal population away from fishing and farming to employment in tourism. Tourism has revived some Yugoslav regions, especially the Adriatic Coast, in a demographic and economic sense and has made possible further development.     

Economic restructuring, housing policy and Maori housing in Northland, New Zealand

Since 1984 the New Zealand economy has experienced a significant phase of economic restructuring which has had a differential impact on various sectors, regions and social groups within the economy. This paper examines the extent to which economic change has affected the marginalized status of Maori households in the predominantly rural region of Northland. The social implications of economic restructuring are assessed by focusing on the housing circumstances of this indigenous people. Using a newly developed Maori housing database, we argue that relatively progressive housing policies, developed in the 1980s, have failed to address the housing problems of Maori and that the recent reliance on ‘market’ mechanisms to meet housing needs is likely to exacerbate problems of housing access and cost.     

Government assistance and the changing distribution of dairyfarming in Australia

An important proportion of Australian dairy production has been destined for export markets, where prices are below those received on the home market. This degree of dependence on international prices has adversely affected dairy farm incomes and thereby influenced both Government responses to the industry's problems and dairymen's decisions about levels of production and farm viability. Examination of the spatial impact on the now declining Australian dairy industry of Government-funded subsidies and of schemes for reconstruction of non-viable dairy farms, has indicated that withdrawal of farmers from the industry has not been areally uniform at the national level; but study of a major dairying region whose industry has undergone substantial decline suggests that this uneven pattern reflects industry and regional characteristics more than the deliberate or inadvertent results of Government intervention. Although Government policy has been broadly directed towards reducing the numbers of dairymen, and hence dependence on overseas prices for production surpluses, industry change has been greatest in regions where viable economic alternatives have been available for low-income dairymen.     

Ties that bind: State policy and migrant female domestic helpers in Singapore

Global economic restructuring has not only intensified the shift in reproductive work from the household to the market, but it has been predicated on the international mobility of labour to countries where locals are no longer willing to work in low-paying menial jobs. This paper focuses on Singapore as a country which has drawn upon female migrant workers from neighbouring developing countries to work as domestic helpers in Singapore such that the gainful entry of its own women into the formal economy has been facilitated. Drawing upon a range of secondary sources as well as field data, the paper demonstrates how state policies on labour migration in Singapore have played a crucial role in influencing the uneven employer-employee relationships that migrant female domestic helpers in Singapore households find themselves in. More generally, it argues that the availability of foreign domestic helpers in Singapore and the state discourse on the issue has contributed to perpetuating the patriarchal ideology of housework as women's work and of housework as non-work.     

Necessary restructuring or globalization failure? Shifts in regional supplier relations after the merger of the former German Hoechst and French Rhône-Poulenc groups

A large part of the work in economic geography and other social sciences surrounding globalization processes has focused on the prospects of economic growth due to the establishment of global production chains and the rise of new clusters of industrial activity. In recent years, much less attention has been paid to former growth industries and regions that have suffered from the negative consequences of internationalization processes. This paper will explore the cases of two chemical regions, i.e. southern Hessen, Germany and Rhône-Alpes, France. Both regions were forced to undergo drastic restructuring since the mid 1990s due to the merger of the chemical groups Hoechst and Rhône-Poulenc into Aventis. The paper argues that it is beneficial to develop a relational perspective of economic action and interaction in order to better understand these regional transformations and restructuring processes and their consequences. Instead of investigating the development of activities, which became the core operations at Aventis, we will focus on other activities that were considered less important and, consequently, split off. In analyzing the logic of restructuring and the associated changes in regional supplier relations, this paper aims to contribute to a relational understanding of economic globalization and its associated threats to regional development by focusing on agents who are subject to negative restructuring consequences.     

Universities and knowledge-based economic growth: the case of Delft (NL)

Knowledge about new technology is a main determinant of the competitiveness of cities and regions nowadays. It reduces the amount of uncertainty of companies in their daily operations. In addition, it is a basis for the establishment of new companies and the restructuring of old ones. The availability and use of knowledge has thus a major influence on the development of urban and regional economies. An amazingly small amount of research has been done on the knowledge capacity of cities to date, i.e. urban potentials to generate, store, transfer and use knowledge. This article explores therefore, the urban knowledge capacity in a theoretical and empirical sense. Attention will be given to essential urban knowledge activities, and to the comprehensive and complex nature of the phenomena involved. In addition, various planning tools aimed at knowledge-based economic growth will be considered, with a focus on differences between the actors involved, and opportunities and constraints for success. In the empirical part, the city of Delft in the Netherlands will serve as an example, particularly regarding local policies for knowledge-based growth. Delft is an interesting case given the abundant availability of new technology and the relatively low level of local new firm formation.     

The prospects of an adjustment policy based on collective learning in old industrial regions

This paper aims to discuss the possibilities of adopting a policy based on collective learning in old industrial regions. This is particularly interesting because old industrial regions are believed to have lost their learning capabilities, as indicated by notions of `technological' and `institutional' lock-in. Moreover, the success stories where positive effects of interactive learning have been observed (Silicon Valley, Baden-Württemberg) all share the lack of an industrial past.First, we specify how a theoretical framework based on interactive learning, which tries to explain the industrial decline of old agglomerations, may look like, and how such an approach differs from other approaches. Then, we set out a policy framework that aims to deal with the process of structural adjustment and which incorporates the ideas of interactive learning based on socio-cultural factors. In this respect, we distinguish between two possible routes of adjustment, which reveal a complex interplay between different types of agglomeration economies, innovations and restructuring processes. Finally, we devote attention to the problems such a policy based on the notion of the learning region may face, such as the problem of how to overcome a negative lock-in situation caused by localized path dependency.     

Public assistance and employment growth in the rural periphery: Some issues in policy design and implementation

This paper discusses the role of public policy in promoting economic development in a UK peripheral area, Devon and Cornwall. It is argued that traditional measures achieved some success in the context of national growth. However, more of the same at a time of economic recession is seen as inappropriate since a transfer of resources from one region to another cannot necessarily be justified nor relied upon. Future policy initiatives should seek to provide self-sustained growth in peripheral rural regions through creating conditions in which indigenous manufacturing can prosper. In particular, it is suggested that the public authorities should specifically target resources at those small and independent firms in the local economy with the greatest linkage potential, since this is likely to lead to new-firm formation and employment growth. At the same time, the local constraints to development should be recognised.     

The southern agglomeration zone of the GDR — Regional structure and development

Agglomeration areas in the GDR are those regions, which are characterized by an above average level of regional concentration of productive forces and their conditions of reproduction. The economic potential concentrated in these regions represents a large part of the national economy. It is possible to describe the territorial structure of these agglomeration areas by general indices (agglomeration core — agglomeration field — agglometation fringe; polycentric node-band-structure), but also the individual features of each one of these regions are to be attended. They are expressed for the first time by several forms of localization of plants and by the structure of settlements and settlement networks. The present main tendencies in the development of the agglomeration regions are:

They succeeded in minimizing the regional disparities of productivity between different agglomeration regions and within them, and in stabilizing the economic position of these regions by systematic measures for investment and rationalization and the hereby influenced structural changes.

At present and up to 1990 the completion of housing programme is of foremost importance by which the main activities will shift from the urban fringe to the centres of the cities; provincial towns and smaller settlements will also participate in this programme.

The main target of these activities is to remove imperfect structures and other burning problems of the agglomeration regions step by step. Geographical Institutes are dealing with the management of these tasks too.