ABSTRACT
Deindustrialization is a likely social and economic problem in any nation that has its economic potential dispersed among many small and isolated single-plant settlements. The problem is exacerbated in Sweden by major public sector investment in these settlements to upgrade and compensate for income differences. Large portions of the Swedish economy are very sensitive to price competition and business-cycle fluctuations. The Swedish economy is highly oriented towards international markets, a pattern that will become even more pronounced in the future. The deindustrialization process has led to a new international pattern of comparative advantage. In this new economic order, Swedish industrialists have become more and more international. The theoretically proper regional context in a study of the economic transformation of Western Europe is that including the economic cores and peripheries of the European economies. The perception of which regional problems are associated with deindustrialization has changed over time.
