ABSTRACT

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.
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.

chapter 1|19 pages

CHAPTERONE Introduction

chapter |4 pages

New wave urban policy initiatives

chapter |7 pages

Innovation and worker involvement in the Ruhr

One really decisive weakness of the Ruhr economy lies in the fact that the companies lack innovative dynamism. It is clear that the jobs being lost cannot be compensated for by the production of services or through the location of new industries and companies. In view of this need to renew jobs, the dynamic development of the resources of existing companies acquires a central significance in the Ruhr area.

chapter |1 pages

Note

chapter |6 pages

Further training policy in NRW

chapter |15 pages

Government action on training in Wales

The Welsh Office has responsibility for higher and further education and for training policy in Wales. It distributes funding, implements central government policy and conducts research into skill shortages and training needs. In 1994, the Welsh Office’s Industry Department took over training policy from TEED, the Training, Education and Enterprise Department (previously the Training Agency), in an attempt to

chapter |7 pages

Explaining the economic turnaround

There are several potential explanations and hypotheses for the economic transformation of the Industrial Midwest. Research by Michael Porter (1990) suggests that regional economic performance depends upon local competition and the vitality of industrial clusters of related and

chapter |5 pages

Issues for Wales

chapter |5 pages

Prospects

chapter 12|3 pages

Restructuring policies: the Emscher Park International Building Exhibition

The Emscher subdistrict is not an administrative unit, nor is it in any sense an important historical region. Such regional homogeneity as it displays arises from

chapter |20 pages

A theoretical debate of the IBA

The driving force behind the idea of the Building Exhibition was the Ministry of

chapter |4 pages

Conclusions and recommendations