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De-industrialization: strengths and weaknesses as a key concept for understanding post-war British history

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2019

Jim Tomlinson
Jim Tomlinson*
Affiliation:
Economic and Social History, University of Glasgow, Lilybank House, Bute Gardens, Glasgow, G12 8RT, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: Jim.Tomlinson@glasgow.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article argues for a central role for the concept of de-industrialization in understanding the evolution of the economies of urban Britain in the years since 1945. Above all, it is suggested, this concept is crucial because it focuses attention on the consequences of the transition from an industrial to a service-dominated labour market. To make this argument requires a careful definition of the term, along with recognition of its potential weaknesses as well as strengths. Key issues are highlighted by drawing on three diverse urban areas, which help to show the ubiquity of the process, but also its diverse patterns, chronologies and impacts. These examples are a stereotypical ‘post-industrial city’ (Dundee); a major city where de-industrialization has played an under-regarded role in developments (London); and a medium-size town in the south of England (High Wycombe), where the decline of a core industry (furniture) was crucial to its recent history. The final sections analyse the relationship between de-industrialization and other key frameworks commonly deployed to shape understanding of the recent history of Britain: ‘decline’, ‘globalization’ and ‘the triumph of neo-liberalism’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 47 , Special Issue 2: The de-industrializing city in the UK and Germany: conceptual approaches and empirical findings in comparative perspective , May 2020 , pp. 199 - 219
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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Footnotes

†

I am grateful to my Glasgow colleagues, Jim Phillips and Valerie Wright, along with Jörg Arnold, Otto Saumarez Smith and Tobias Becker for very helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. I also thank Helena Chance of Bucks New University for help with references on the High Wycombe furniture industry.

References

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46 Ibid., 223, 107–8. In a too terrible symbol of de-industrialization, and the transition to a service economy, the demolished Molins factory (where the author's father was once employed) was the site of the set for Auschwitz concentration camp in the 2016 feature film Denial.

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