206 research outputs found
Uneven development and capitalist peripheralisation: the case of Ireland
Spatial unevenness has been a consistent feature of capitalist
development since its original rise to prominence in early modern
Britain. This is not to say that uneven development is an exclusively
capitalist phenomenon (nor, for that matter, that .it is a
necessary feature of capitalism - a question that will be discussed
in the conclusion to this paper). Clearly, differences in levels of
technology and geographical variation in natural resource endowments
can give rise to variable levels of development, regardless
of economic system - although geographers, and other social
scientists, may have been inclined to ·overstress these factors,
thereby providing an ideological smoi<escreen for more fundamental
processes of uneven development under capitalism
(Smith, 1984: 100). Certainly, nowadays, the distribution of
natural resources has, at best, only a minor influence on the
overall geography of capitalist investment and employment
creation
International Oil Companies: Some Considerations for the Development of Ireland's Hydrocarbon Resources
The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the implications of the
development of Irish hydrocarbon resources by international oil
companies. A number of introductory observations, however, are
necessary in order to set this examination in context.
Hydrocarbons, of which the most economically important are oil and
natural gas, are formed by the crushing of organic material under
masses of sediment carried onto continental shelves or inland seas by
rivers emanating from adjoining landmasses. We can infer, therefore,
that hydrocarbons will be found to some degree in any part of the
world where accumulations of sediment are present. Many such
accumulations now form dry land, it should be noted, due to move
ments in the earth's crust. The distribution of oil and gas production is
a function principally of the degree of accumulation of oil/gas into
pools or reservoirs, the size of these reservoirs, and the cost of
extraction. Cost here includes local taxation levels, risk factors, and
transport costs, as well as direct extraction costs. Offshore extraction
costs are of course much greater than those on dry land, so that off
shore production on a wide scale was not feasible until the major price
increases of 1973
Regional governance and regional development: Implications of the Action Programme for Effective Local Government
Since the 1980s, regional development policy in advanced economies has
emphasised the promotion of endogenous development potentials within
regions, with local/regional government playing a leading role in the creation
of effective governance structures for mobilising these potentials. A key
feature of this approach is the adoption of the city-region" as the organising
unit for pursuing local/regional development. Ireland has not followed this
lead, continuing to rely on external investment as the main engine of economic
growth and failing to devolve highly centralised functions which could give
local/regional government a more effective developmental role. This article
argues that the 2012 Action Programme for Effective Local Government
proposes a regional structure which is meaningless in terms of city-region
development and fails to address the governance weaknesses which inhibit
development at the regional and local levels. The action programme therefore
ignores international best practice regarding how effective regional
development should be pursued
The Services Sector
The term ‘services’ refers to a disparate group of occupations which, together,
comprise the so-called ‘tertiary’ sector of economic activity. What distinguishes
service activities from those in the primary (extraction of resource from the
natural environment) and secondary (transformation of natural resources into
usable products) sectors is that they are not directly involved in the production
of material goods. The European Union’s General Industrial Classifi cation
of Economic Activities (generally known as the NACE classifi cation), as
adapted by Ireland’s Central Statistics Offi ce, subdivides services into nine
broad categories: wholesale and retail trade; hotels and restaurants; transport,
storage and communications; banking and fi nancial services; real estate, renting
and business activities; education; health and social work; and a residual ‘other
services’ category. Other, more conceptual classifi cations distinguish, on the one
hand, between consumer services (provided to the general public) and producer
services (provided to businesses) and, on the other, between ‘physical’ services
(e.g., transport, retailing, restaurants) and ‘informational’ services (e.g., administration,
research, education, audiovisual entertainment). Indeed, so important
have information-related activities become in modern advanced economies that
it has been suggested that they should be allocated to a separate ‘quaternary’
sector of economic activity (Gottmann, 1961)
Spatial Trends in Employment in Foreign Firms in Ireland
In a country with a small domestic market such as Ireland’s, the development of exports
is the key to achieving high living standards. The Irish government has relied
principally on inward investment by foreign firms as the principal means of achieving
this since the late 1950s. Generous capital grants, tax incentives and the availability of
suitable labour have been the principal means employed to attract inward investment.
This policy met with increasing success through the 1960s followed by a surge of
investment following Ireland’s accession to what was then called the European
Economic Community (EEC) in 1973, as this meant that foreign firms could use Ireland
as a low-cost base for serving the large EEC market. This was followed by a slowdown
during most of the recessionary 1980s, during which many of the plants established in
the previous two decades contracted or closed.
However, things picked up again in the late 1980s and, following a brief dip in the early
1990s, a further surge of inward investment commenced in 1993 which underpinned the
“Celtic Tiger” phenomenon and saw employment in foreign firms increase by two
thirds (to 164,000) by 2000. The great bulk of this new investment came from the USA
which by 2000 accounted for two thirds of all employment in foreign firms operating in
Ireland.
In the period 2000-2010, while the reported exports of foreign firms based in Ireland
continued to grow strongly (by 56% in current prices), there was a sharp fall (of 22%) in
employment. Furthermore, the spin-off effects of foreign firms also contracted:
expenditure by foreign firms on wages/salaries, materials and services fell by 18% (in
current terms) over the period. This apparent conflict between trends in exports, on the
one hand, and employment and local expenditures, on the other, is an indication of the
extent to which the Irish output data for foreign firms are being distorted by transfer
price manipulation on the part of the firms in question in order to exploit Ireland’s tax
advantages.
Over the last thirty years the IDA became increasingly selective in the types of
investment it sought to attract to Ireland, focusing on sectors with long-term growth
prospects for which an Irish location was suitable. In manufacturing, the main
concentrations in the 1990s were in electronics (mainly office and computing
machinery) and chemicals/pharmaceuticals. However, a more significant development was the rapid rise in investment in services activities capable of using information
technology for conducting international transactions, especially software/computer
services, financial services (whose growth primarily emanated from the establishment
of the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin in 1987) and business services
(especially back-office activities). By 2000, employment in foreign-owned services
operations amounted to 46,000, 28% of all foreign-firm employment.
In the 2000s the electronics sector was heavily affected by, firstly, the dot.com crash in
the early part of the decade and, secondly, by the emergence of China as a major global
competitor in this sector. Foreign employment in the sector fell by one half between
2000-2010. Non-electronics manufacturing employment fell by 25%, but losses in
chemicals/pharmaceuticals were at a much lower level (8%) while the medical devices
sector did well over the decade. Employment in international services actually
increased marginally over the period, so that its share of total employment in foreign
firms rose to 36
Spatial Trends in Employment in Foreign Firms in Ireland
In a country with a small domestic market such as Ireland’s, the development of exports
is the key to achieving high living standards. The Irish government has relied
principally on inward investment by foreign firms as the principal means of achieving
this since the late 1950s. Generous capital grants, tax incentives and the availability of
suitable labour have been the principal means employed to attract inward investment.
This policy met with increasing success through the 1960s followed by a surge of
investment following Ireland’s accession to what was then called the European
Economic Community (EEC) in 1973, as this meant that foreign firms could use Ireland
as a low-cost base for serving the large EEC market. This was followed by a slowdown
during most of the recessionary 1980s, during which many of the plants established in
the previous two decades contracted or closed.
However, things picked up again in the late 1980s and, following a brief dip in the early
1990s, a further surge of inward investment commenced in 1993 which underpinned the
“Celtic Tiger” phenomenon and saw employment in foreign firms increase by two
thirds (to 164,000) by 2000. The great bulk of this new investment came from the USA
which by 2000 accounted for two thirds of all employment in foreign firms operating in
Ireland.
In the period 2000-2010, while the reported exports of foreign firms based in Ireland
continued to grow strongly (by 56% in current prices), there was a sharp fall (of 22%) in
employment. Furthermore, the spin-off effects of foreign firms also contracted:
expenditure by foreign firms on wages/salaries, materials and services fell by 18% (in
current terms) over the period. This apparent conflict between trends in exports, on the
one hand, and employment and local expenditures, on the other, is an indication of the
extent to which the Irish output data for foreign firms are being distorted by transfer
price manipulation on the part of the firms in question in order to exploit Ireland’s tax
advantages.
Over the last thirty years the IDA became increasingly selective in the types of
investment it sought to attract to Ireland, focusing on sectors with long-term growth
prospects for which an Irish location was suitable. In manufacturing, the main
concentrations in the 1990s were in electronics (mainly office and computing
machinery) and chemicals/pharmaceuticals. However, a more significant development was the rapid rise in investment in services activities capable of using information
technology for conducting international transactions, especially software/computer
services, financial services (whose growth primarily emanated from the establishment
of the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin in 1987) and business services
(especially back-office activities). By 2000, employment in foreign-owned services
operations amounted to 46,000, 28% of all foreign-firm employment.
In the 2000s the electronics sector was heavily affected by, firstly, the dot.com crash in
the early part of the decade and, secondly, by the emergence of China as a major global
competitor in this sector. Foreign employment in the sector fell by one half between
2000-2010. Non-electronics manufacturing employment fell by 25%, but losses in
chemicals/pharmaceuticals were at a much lower level (8%) while the medical devices
sector did well over the decade. Employment in international services actually
increased marginally over the period, so that its share of total employment in foreign
firms rose to 36
Globalisation, information technology and the emergence of niche transnational cities: the growth of the call centre sector in Dublin
The development of information and communications technologies (ICT) has facilitated the emergence of a complex global urban
system in which many formerly lower-order cities have been carving out 'niche' specialist functions serving urban fields of
transnational dimension. This is illustrated in the case of Dublin, which in recent years has been transcending its traditional role as
Ireland's national metropolis through the development of a range of functions servicing mainly European markets. One such
function comprises pan-European telephone call centre operations. The development and characteristics of this newly-emerging
sector are described. It is argued that the growth of the sector confirms Dublin's - and Ireland's - dependent position in the
international division of labour, and that its long-term sustainability is open to question
Information Technology, Gender Segmentation and the Relocation of Back Office Employment: The Growth of the Teleservices Sector in Ireland
The movement of routine back office activities from the central business districts
of metropolitan regions in advanced economies to remote locations is leading to
a distinctive global division of labour in office employment. While facilitated by
the development of information and communication technologies, this process
of relocation is primarily driven by the desire to reduce operating costs, mainly
by moving to sources of cheap female workers. This reflects a classic gender
segmentation process in patriarchal societies whereby back office work is mainly
done by women and, accordingly, involves relatively low levels of remuneration.
This provides direct parallels with the offshoring of routine manufacturing work
associated with the new international division of labour. Ireland has been to the
forefront in acting as a host for internationally-mobile routine office work, initially
involving mainly data processing and, more recently, teleservices. As elsewhere,
teleservices employment in Ireland is characterized by a combination of female
predominance, low pay, difficult working conditions and high turnover rates.
However, the Irish teleservices sector is unusual in its foreign language requirement,
the high education levels of workers and its concentration in a prosperous
metropolitan location. The resultant labour shortages, combined with growing
use of Internet-based business-to-consumer transactions, are likely to place the
sustainability of the sector under increasing pressure. Plans to upgrade the types
of back office functions being located in Ireland may pose further challenges for
women workers due to male dominance of the higher-level jobs involved
Women’s Employment and Peripheralisation: the Case of Ireland’s Branch Plant Economy
The mobilisation of reserves of unskilled women workers played a key role
in the new international division of labour which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s.
This is illustrated in the case of the branch plant economy which emerged in the
Republic of Ireland after 1960. There has been rapid growth in female employment
in the electrical engineering sector which is dominated by foreign firms. A case study
of the electronics industry reveals strong gender segmentation and a heavy reliance
on assembly work carried out mostly by women. High levels of trade union
membership have had little impact on the inferior status of women in this industry.
Dominance by foreign firms has created very limited employment opportunities for
women at local level. The automation of assembly work, allied to plans to upgrade
the status of branch plant activities in Ireland, will further restrict women’s employment
prospects
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