Union Retreat and the Regions

Union Retreat and the Regions PDF Author: Ron L. Martin
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 0117023760
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
Since the beginning of the 1980s, British trade unions have experienced a dramatic retreat, marked by rapidly falling membership and declining industrial power. The authors examine the regional dimensions of this retreat of organised labour, paying particular attention to: The resilience of the unions' historical heartland areas. The impact of economic restructuring on local union traditions. The shrinking landscape of industrial militancy. The geographical decentralization of the new industrial relations. The link between these factors and the more general debate on regional development and regional labour markets. An important synthesis of economic geography and industrial relations work, this book marks a major contribution towards the newly emerging field of labour geography

Union Retreat and the Regions

Union Retreat and the Regions PDF Author: Ron L. Martin
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 0117023760
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 262

Get Book Here

Book Description
Since the beginning of the 1980s, British trade unions have experienced a dramatic retreat, marked by rapidly falling membership and declining industrial power. The authors examine the regional dimensions of this retreat of organised labour, paying particular attention to: The resilience of the unions' historical heartland areas. The impact of economic restructuring on local union traditions. The shrinking landscape of industrial militancy. The geographical decentralization of the new industrial relations. The link between these factors and the more general debate on regional development and regional labour markets. An important synthesis of economic geography and industrial relations work, this book marks a major contribution towards the newly emerging field of labour geography

Reanimating Regions

Reanimating Regions PDF Author: James Riding
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317395042
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
Writing regions, undertaking a regional study, was once a standard form of geographic communication and critique. This was until the quantitative revolution in the middle of the previous century and more definitively the critical turn in human geography towards the end of the twentieth century. From then on writing regions as they were experienced phenomenologically, or arguing culturally, historically, and politically with regions, was deemed to be old-fashioned. Yet the region is, and always will be, a central geographical concept, and thinking about regions can tell us a lot about the history of the discipline called geography. Despite taking up an identifiable place within the geographical imagination in scholarship and beyond, region remains a relatively forgotten, under-used, and in part under-theorised term. Reanimating Regions marks the continued reinvigoration of a set of disciplinary debates surrounding regions, the regional, and regional geography. Across 18 chapters from international, interdisciplinary scholars, this book writes and performs region as a temporary permanence, something held stable, not fixed and absolute, at different points in time, for different purposes. There is, as this expansive volume outlines, no single reading of a region. Reanimating Regions collectively rebalances the region within geography and geographical thought. In renewing the geography of regions as not only a site of investigation but also as an analytical framework through which to write the world, what emerges is a powerful reworking of the geographic imagination. Read against one another, the chapters weave together timely commentaries on region and regions across the globe, with a particular emphasis upon the regional as played out in the United Kingdom, and regional worlds both within and beyond Europe, offering chapters from Africa and South America. Addressing both the political and the cultural, this volume responds to the need for a consolidated and considered reflection on region, the regional, and regional geography, speaking directly to broader intellectual concerns with performance, aesthetics, identity, mobilities, the environment, and the body.

Empire in Retreat

Empire in Retreat PDF Author: Victor Bulmer-Thomas
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300235194
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 461

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Book Description
A sweeping history of the United States through the lens of empire—and an incisive look forward as the nation retreats from the global stage A respected authority on international relations and foreign policy, Victor Bulmer-Thomas offers a grand survey of the United States as an empire. From its territorial expansion after independence, through hegemonic rule following World War II, to the nation’s current imperial retreat, the United States has had an uneasy relationship with the idea of itself as an empire. In this book Bulmer-Thomas offers three definitions of empire—territorial, informal, and institutional—that help to explain the nation’s past and forecast a future in which the United States will cease to play an imperial role. Arguing that the move toward diminished geopolitical dominance reflects the aspirations of most U.S. citizens, he asserts that imperial retreat does not necessarily mean national decline and may ultimately strengthen the nation-state. At this pivotal juncture in American history, Bulmer-Thomas’s uniquely global perspective will be widely read and discussed across a range of fields.

Regional Worlds: Advancing the Geography of Regions

Regional Worlds: Advancing the Geography of Regions PDF Author: Martin Jones
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317526562
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 395

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Book Description
A key concern in the debate and empirical research on the geography of regions is the evolution of the conceptualizations and practical uses of the idea of ‘region’. This idea prioritises both the intellectual and the practical development of regional studies. This book drives the discussion further. It stresses the complex forms of agency/advocacy involved in the production and reproduction of regional spaces and space of regionalism as well as the importance of geohistory and context. The book moves beyond the territorial/relational divide that has characterized debates on regions and regional borders since the 1990s. The contributors answer key questions from different conceptual and concrete-contextual angles and to motivate readers to reflect on the perpetual significance of regional concepts and how they are mobilized by various actors to maintain or transform the contested spatialities of societal power relations. This book was based on a special issue of Regional Studies.

Working Regions

Working Regions PDF Author: Jennifer Clark
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135923841
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
Working Regions focuses on policy aimed at building sustainable and resilient regional economies in the wake of the global recession. Using examples of four ‘working regions’ — regions where research and design functions and manufacturing still coexist in the same cities — the book argues for a new approach to regional economic development. It does this by highlighting policies that foster innovation and manufacturing in small firms, focus research centers on pushing innovation down the supply chain, and support dynamic, design-driven firm networks. This book traces several key themes underlying the core proposition that for a region to work, it has to link research and manufacturing activities — namely, innovation and production — in the same place. Among the topics discussed in this volume are the issues of how the location of research and development infrastructure produces a clear role of the state in innovation and production systems, and how policy emphasis on pre-production processes in the 1990s has obscured the financialization of intellectual property. Throughout the book, the author draws on examples from diverse industries, including the medical devices industry and the US photonics industry, in order to illustrate the different themes of working regions and the various institutional models operating in various countries and regions.

Regional Development Agencies

Regional Development Agencies PDF Author: Nicola Bellini
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415688485
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
"Across Europe, regional development agencies (RDAs) have become a central feature of regional policy, both as innovative policy-makers and as the implementers of programmes and initiatives originating from the national or European level. Since the first generation of RDAs were established in the 1970s and 1980s, major changes have swept through the policy arena: - globalisation has increased competitive pressure and moved the position of regions in the international division of labour to the forefront of regional strategy-making - the digital revolution and the EU Lisbon agenda have highlighted the importance of production and access to knowledge as key factors in regional competitiveness - regional policy has become part of a wider system of multi-level governance so that their geographical horizon has expanded in terms of sponsors and collaborators - issues of governance and accountability of RDAs have been one of the drivers to devolution of powers to governments and bodies below the level of the nation state, raising questions over their status and distance from political control. The aim of this book is to develop a profile of the next generation of RDAs that will identify key issues and trends regarding: policy aims, strategy-making and the new role of knowledge; the organisation of policy delivery, with emphasis on interactive knowledge brokerage; the organisational shift towards smaller and more flexible RDAs; and the political governance of regional policy. By drawing on a combination of conceptual reflection, surveys, comparative research, and systematic use of critical case studies, the book provides a new point of reference by identifying key features of the current, and, indeed next, generation of regionally-based economic development organisations"--

Beyond Territory

Beyond Territory PDF Author: Harald Bathelt
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136710221
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
The main purpose of the book is to discuss new trends in the dynamic geography of innovation and argue that in an era of increasing globalization, two trends seem quite dominant: rigid territorial models of innovation, and localized configurations of innovative activities. The book brings together scholars who are working on these topics. Rather than focusing on established concepts and theories, the book aims to question narrow explanations, rigid territorializations, and simplistic policy frameworks; it provides evidence that innovation, while not exclusively dependent on regional contexts, can be influenced by place-specific attributes. The book will bring together new empirical and conceptual work by an interdisciplinary group of leading scholars from areas such as economic geography, innovation studies, and political science. Based on recent discussions surrounding innovation systems of different types, it aims to synthesize state-of-the-art know-how and provide new perspectives on the role of innovation and knowledge creation in the global political economy.

Place-making and Urban Development

Place-making and Urban Development PDF Author: Pier Carlo Palermo
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134632614
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
The regeneration of critical urban areas through the redesign of public space with the intense involvement of local communities seems to be the central focus of place-making according to some widespread practices in academic and professional circles. Recently, new expertise maintains that place-making could be an innovative and potentially autonomous field, competing with more traditional disciplines like urban planning, urban design, architecture and others. This book affirms that the question of 'making better places for people' should be understood in a broader sense, as a symptom of the non-contingent limitations of the urban and spatial disciplines. It maintains that research should not be oriented only towards new technical or merely formal solutions but rather towards the profound rethinking of disciplinary paradigms. In the fields of urban planning, urban design and policy-making, the challenge of place-making provides scholars and practitioners a great opportunity for a much-needed critical review. Only the substantial reappraisal of long-standing (technical, cultural, institutional and social) premises and perspectives can truly improve place-making practices. The pressing need for place-making implies trespassing undue disciplinary boundaries and experimenting a place-based approach that can innovate and integrate planning regulations, strategic spatial visioning and urban development projects. Moreover, the place-making challenge compels urban experts and policy-makers to critically reflect upon the physical and social contexts of their interventions. In this sense, facing place-making today is a way to renew the civic and social role of urban planning and urban design.

The Scottish Economy

The Scottish Economy PDF Author: Kenneth Gibb
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 131733602X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 373

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Book Description
The Scottish economy is at the heart of contemporary constitutional and public policy debates. This substantial new edited collection, the first comprehensive and authoritative analysis for more than 60 years, is a timely update on the classic volume of the same name edited by Sir Alec Cairncross in 1954. It is data rich, and offers links to updatable data and leading indicators of the Scottish economy including measures of public finances, distributional evidence and growth. Readers will find a series of easy to follow chapters covering the Scottish economy from every angle – oil and gas, health, education, finance, rural Scotland, inequality, climate change, gender and work, housing, infrastructure and cities. Each sector-based chapter explores the main issues, draws out key empirical facts and considers policy challenges that lie ahead. This book includes: an historical account of the development of the Scottish economy; the trajectory of economic policy in Scotland; reviews of the current fiscal position and the wider economic landscape; and also an intriguing insight into the emerging distinctive approach to Scottish public policy. This book brings together evidence and high quality research by experts on the Scottish economy in a politically neutral, accessible and non-technical way. The volume will assist readers in navigating their way through the many political debates about constitutional and economic futures that are underway in modern Scotland and the UK. A website also exists to accompany The Scottish Economy - www.scottisheconomy.scot. In today's inter-connected world, it makes sense to have a book on the Scottish economy supplemented by online access to important data, information and evidence as a means of keeping material current.

Urban Innovation Systems

Urban Innovation Systems PDF Author: Willem van Winden
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317917456
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Why are some regions and cities so good at attracting talented people, creating high-level knowledge, and producing exciting new ideas and innovations? What are the ingredients of success? Can innovative cities be created and stimulated, or do they just flourish by mere chance? This book analyses the development and management of innovation systems in cities, in order to provide a better understanding of what makes such systems perform. The book opens by developing a conceptual model that combines insights from urban economics with economic geography, urban governance and place marketing. This highlights the relevance of path dependence, different types of proximity (and the role of clusters, networks and platforms), institutional conditions, place attractiveness and place identity in the evolution of local innovation systems. The authors then draw on this conceptual framework to structure empirical case studies in three cities with a relatively high innovation performance: Eindhoven (the Netherlands), Stockholm (Sweden) and Suzhou (China). Through these case studies they provide a detailed analysis of how successful innovation systems evolve and what makes them tick. Unique to this book is the linking of analysis to concrete policy and management responses. The book ends with a discussion on six themes in the development of successful urban innovation systems: firm-capabilities and leader firms, higher education and research, attractive environment, place branding, institutional environment and entrepreneurship. Each theme is examined fully, drawing lessons from the case studies, and from recent insights and other cases discussed in the literature. This title will be of interest to students, researchers and policymakers involved in regional innovation systems, knowledge locations and cluster development.