De-industrialization not decline: a new meta-narrative for post-war British history

Much of the economic and other historiography of post-war Britain is shaped by the perceived failure of Britain to consistently match the growth rates of GDP experienced in other rich countries. These declinist narratives are commonly coupled to tendentious and ideologically driven analyses of economic, social and political developments. This article seeks to displace this declinist narrative by one focussing upon de-industrialization and its consequences. The argument is that de-industrialization, beginning in the 1950s, brought about such a range of profound changes, that it provides the best underpinning narrative for understanding late twentieth-century Britain. After suggesting why ‘growth’ and ‘decline’ are not the best terms for understanding this period, the article sets out the case for seeing the employment changes brought about by de-industrialization as crucial to many changes in economic welfare. De-industrialization not only increased wage inequalities and job insecurity, but also re-shaped the social security system and the pattern of public employment. In addition, de-industrialization has seriously compromised the aim of neo-liberalism to free the labour market from the influence of government

"An Alternative Perspective on Global Imbalances and International Reserve Currencies"

The stability of the international reserve currency’s purchasing power is less a question of what serves as that currency and more a question of the international adjustment mechanism, as well as the compatibility of export-led development strategies with international payment balances. According to Senior Scholar Jan Kregel, export-led growth and free capital flows are the real causes of sustained international imbalances. The only way out of this predicament is to shift to domestic demand–led development strategies—and capital flows will have to be part of the solution.

The Managed Service Paradox

This paper examines the contrasts in the provision of managed service in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. It highlights the polarization between infrastructure services that are growing in scale and increasingly becoming a commoditized, and customized or even one-of-a-kind service projects. The paper refers to the approaches taken by three highly innovative advanced service companies, IBM, Ericsson, and Cable & Wireless, to package and deliver ICT service on a more industrialized basis. The authors identify the six-stage process that describes these companies’ journeys to date from. They explore the challenges these companies faced on that journey as well those currently facing them as they move to a higher degree of industrialization. To address these challenges, the authors propose a model with three axes: offering development, service delivery, and go to market. The model demonstrates how the increasing industrialization of managed service requires an approach integrating all three of these dimensions. They also show that strong governance is required to address the impacts of technological evolution, marketplace dynamics, and corporate culture. The paper has formed the basis of the academic and executive education programs taught at both Imperial College and is the heart of the new service design masters program at the Royal College of Art. Because of its relevance to large industrial companies seeking to transition from an industrial offering to a service or solution led offering, the paper has been turned into a course that has been delivered to Arup, Vodafone, Finmeccanica, Telefonica, Samsung and Laing O’Rourke to date and this programme has been delivered by the authors in Korea, Taiwan, US and the UK

The periphery paradox in innovation policy: Latin America and Eastern Europe Compared

In this paper we are interested in analyzing the dynamics of the innovation policy in non-frontier countries, and their relationship with structural change and development.

Something of a Paradox: The Curious Neglect of Agriculture in Development

This paper argues that investment in agriculture has a large and continuing developmental importance in terms of both economic growth and poverty reduction. Moreover, targeted public resources have proven to be indispensable in achieving these results. Both arguments are supported with novel analyses which update and strengthen the traditional case for agriculture-led development with public-sector involvement. But despite the strong case for agriculture-led development strategies, the authors find that over the last three decades the financial resources allocated towards this sector have strongly declined. It is suggested that a shift towards new development paradigms since 1980 might be a significant explanation for this apparent Agricultural Paradox. This conjecture is tested with data on market reform impacts, PRSP contents and analyses of the intellectual resources devoted to the study of agriculture in development by both practitioners and researchers. The authors conclude with a critical discussion of these disturbing trends.

Street Vendors Hypergrowth: Consequence of Uncontrolled Urbanization In Semarang City

This paper aims to understand the role of urbanization to street vendors emerging. In the case of Semarang, more than 54% Semarang’s street vendors come from its hinterlands. These sectors turn to development dichotomy that have a positive and negative impact. Positively, this area becomes resilience economy people. In the negative side, more than 60% vendors make their stall in the public space. This research used a mix-method approach taking 271 samples, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and in deep interviews. From this study, it can be concluded that urbanization had led to the outbreak of street vendors through (1) rural-urban migration, and (2) the social change as a result of gentrification. Working as street vendors turned out to be an alternative way of life to adapt to global economic uncertainty. Also, there are 71.6% of street vendors open their stalls in 2003-2009, or about 6-7 years after the monetary crisis (1997). It shows that the financial crisis is not the primary trigger for the outbreak of street vendors. Another interesting finding is that there is a new phenomenon in the form of the intervention of the middle class who took part in this business

Knowledge-based industry and regional growth

One of the most important but less understood phenomena in the beginning of the 21st century has been a shift toward knowledge-based economic activity in the comparative advantage of modern industrialized countries. Two broad trends has been observed in the global economy. That is, the output from the world's science and technology system has been growing rapidly and the nature of investment has been changed (MILLER, 1996). The relative proportions of physical and intangible investment have changed considerably with the relative increase of intangible investments since the 1980s. In addition, there has been increased complementarity between physical and intangible investments and more important role of high technology in both kinds of investment (MILLER, 1996). Even in the newly industrialized countries, the growth of technology intensive industries, the increase of R&D activities and the growth of the knowledge intensive producer services have been common feature in recent years. In this change of the structure of productive assets, the role of knowledge is well recognized as the most fundamental resources in recent years (OECD, 1996; WORLD BANK, 1998). The development of information and communication technology (ICT) and globalisation trend have promoted this shift toward knowledge-based economy

Institutions and Economic Performance in Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Mauritius, Botswana and Uganda

developmental nationalism, economic performance, Africa