Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 21
.
2
Location of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Westmünsterland (Steinfurt
and Borken) in Germany
both in South Korea (see Figures 21.2 and 21.3 for locations). Data were collected by
studying literature and policy documents and by conducting in total 83 interviews over
a study period of three years with textile and shipbuilding company managers and their
suppliers, local, regional, national and supra-national policy-makers, academic experts,
consultants, trade unionists and oi cials of industry associations.
The shipbuilding region of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany
Shipbuilding dominates the regional production structure of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,
Germany (Eich-Born, 2005; Eich-Born and Hassink, 2005), one of the new Länder in
reunited Germany situated in the North East (Figure 21.2). Because of the transforma-
tion from central planning to market economy, de-industrialization (employment in
shipbuilding dropped from 55,000 in 1989 to around 5000 in 2003) led to dramatically
high unemployment rates of around 20 per cent. In order to save the industry from total
collapse, a political consensus was built between various interest groups on dif erent
geographical levels: yard managers, workers' councils, regional trade unions, mayors
of yard cities, regional policy-makers as well as the representatives of the German
