The urban and regional impacts of plant closures: new methods and perspectives

• Main Authors: Andrew Beer, Sally Weller, Tom Barnes, Ilke Onur, Julie Ratcliffe, David Bailey, Markku Sotarauta
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2019-01-01
• Series: Regional Studies, Regional Science
• Subjects: plant closures; mass redundancies; precariousness; structural adjustment programmes; place leadership
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21681376.2019.1622440
• ISSN: 2168-1376

Work on large-scale plant closures has provided a rich vein of scholarship and academic debate. This paper articulates a new set of methods and concepts for understanding how large-scale redundancies associated with the closure of manufacturing plants affects society and the economy at the local, regional and national scales. It posits the need for a more comprehensive exercise in data collection and experimentation with previously unused methods, including the application of discrete-choice experiments in order to understand better the choice and decision-making frameworks adopted by affected workers. The paper argues there is a need to integrate community-wide policy responses into the core of the analyses.