Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Regarding labour training and skills as a “resource”, or as “human capital”,
obviously makes it a more acceptable item for investment in schemes of
economic development. For example, this view is taken by the European Union's
Social Development Fund, one of the structural funds directed at speciflc areas
of the Community. Putting social development of this sort into policies means two
kinds of action, both of which have important geographic elements:
(a) identifying and aiding areas with declining economies, where substantial
skills have been built up, where a culture of organized and skilled work is in
place, and where retraining is possible;
(b) building new skills amongst people previously without training in modern
types of employment.
Taking the first of these, retraining is seen as a worthwhile investment in many
old industrial areas. From the point of view of the region and its inhabitants,
there is interest in training schemes, especially where there was previously an
excessively narrow economic base and the skills developed over generations are
not really transferable. Such is the case, for example, in European coalfields and
steelmaking regions, where the skills of the workers are so specialized as to be
almost useless in other skilled areas. Other cases include most of the industries
from the two earlier Kondratiev industrial waves: textile manufacture, heavy
engineering and shipbuilding, and basic chemical industries. In Britain, most of
the coalfield regions fall into this category, notably those with little
diversification such as the South Wales coalfield with its coal and steel, or the
Yorkshire coalfield with coal and textiles. There is no adequate statistical index
that shows this structure of industry, although the geography of the coalfields
itself, as this shows the basic resource, is a fair indicator.
On the other hand, from the point of view of incoming firms, or even of the
nation, these are not attractive regions. The industries in them, in most European
cases, have been owned by the state or by large monopolistic companies for
several generations. Because of this they have been operated as non-competitive
monopolies and in an inefficient manner, and their workforces have often
developed monolithic union structures, unwilling to accept change. They are
manifestly not success areas, and represent past industrial revolutions, not just in
technological terms but also in their industrial culture. They can also represent a
labour force geared to past situations, as Drucker (1985) shows. While their
education and aspirations remained little changed over the twentieth century,
what has changed is their relative wage rates, so that they have become used to
the high wages commanded by the power of their trade unions.
Regional development agencies in these regions need to work at changing the
public image of the area they represent, through city or region marketing, and
through defining areas of high quality of life. As for the workforce, they need to
concentrate on retraining the workers who have lost employment in the old
industries, and provide new education for the next generation of workers.
