Making a Living in Europe: Human Geographies of Economic Change

277 Pages·1997·4.75 MB·English

by  Alan Townsend

MAKING A LIVING IN EUROPE
The issue of jobs is among the most important facing the European Union, where
unemployment continues at near-record levels. This book focuses on changes in
the economy and society that most affect employment, which is not just a
specialist question: job change reshapes social inequality, lifestyles, where
people live, urban congestion and environmental conflict. At the centre of the
book is the shift towards flexible, part-time and temporary work for women in
services. Comparisons are made between the UK, other countries of the
European Union and the USA.
The central core (Part II) of the book integrates the central issue of the
replacement of industrial jobs for men by more flexible jobs in the service sector
for women, demonstrated by chapters on the three most relevant sectors:
business services, retailing and tourism. Part I sets the European employment
problem in its full global and regional context, while Part III reviews the
outcome of change in terms of the shift of people and jobs from urban to rural
areas and the need for stronger EU policies, not only in traditional problem
regions but also to reduce inequality at large in the face of EMU.
The book explores in a challenging way some of the longstanding assumptions
held about the relationships between employment change, unemployment and
economic restructuring and about the effects of the shift to services. Emphasising
the growth of women’s employment as one result of this shift, the author
questions the fashionable emphasis on ‘flexible production’ and uses up-to-date
statistics and case material to draw out crucial points in local and national
employment policies alike.
Alan R.Townsend is a Reader in Geography at the University of Durham.
MAKING A LIVING IN
EUROPE
Human geographies of economic
change
Alan R.Townsend
London and New York
First published 1997
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection
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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1997 Alan R.Townsend
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Townsend, Alan R.
Making a living in Europe: human geographies of economic change/Alan R.
Townsend.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Labor supply—European Union countries.
2. Unemployment—European Union countries.
3. Rural—urban migration—European Union countries.
4. Europe—Economic conditions—1945—Regional disparities.
I. Title.
HD5764.A6T68 1997
331.1′094–dc20 96–38677
ISBN 0-203-97588-X Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-415-14479-5 (Print Edition)
0-415-14480-9 (pbk)
CONTENTS
List of figures vi
List of tables viii
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xi
Conventions for the European Union (EU) xiii
Part I Restructuring, flexibility and unemployment
1 PRINCIPAL THEMES 2
2 THE NEW UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE GLOBAL 21
CONTEXT
3 THE CHANGING MAP OF THE EU ECONOMY 49
Part II The main sectors of change
4 FACTORY JOB LOSS—GLOBAL SHIFT OR 68
DEINDUSTRIALISATION?
5 SERVICES—THE ‘AMERICANISATION’ OF 84
EUROPEAN JOB STRUCTURES?
6 FLEXIBILITY THROUGH FEMINISATION? 103
7 ‘PRODUCER SERVICES’—IN THE LEAD FOR 128
GROWTH?
8 NEW FLEXIBILITY IN RETAILING 149
9 A TOURIST SOLUTION? 167
Part III Consequences across the map of the European Union
10 GEOGRAPHICAL TRENDS—TOWARDS RURAL 187
AREAS?
v
11 CONCLUSIONS, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR EU 206
POLICY
Bibliography 231
Index 252
FIGURES
1.1 Similarities in long-term sectoral trends, four regions of the EU: 10
percentage shares of total employment
1.2 World convergence towards the dominance of service employment: 11
change in sectoral distribution of labour force for selected countries,
1960/5 to 1986/9
1.3 Growth of full- and part-time jobs, percent, E15, 1988–94 15
1.4 The eight regions of the Italian ‘South’ 17
1.5 Sectoral changes in employment, per cent, E15, 1990–4 compared 20
with 1985–90
2.1 The relationship of production and employment, effected through the 24
growth of productivity, to 1994
2.2 Unemployment percentage rates for the four largest countries of the 26
EU, standardised and seasonally adjusted
2.3 Youth unemployment rates, compared with the total for respective 28
industrialised countries, 1995
2.4 The deteriorating employment trend of E15, 1972–94 32
2.6 The economic rise and decline of the ‘rich industrial countries’ in the 42
nineteenth and twentieth centuries
2.7 Leading countries for annual growth in production (GDP), 1980–93 43
2.8 The significance of cheap labour in low income countries; costs per 46
hour including non-wage costs in manufacturing
3.1 Regional variation in percentage unemployment rates, E15 (April, 51
1995; both sexes)
3.2 The range of regional variation in percentage unemployment rates by 52
member state (April 1994)
3.3 Regional variation in female percentage unemployment rates, E15 53
(April 1995)
3.4 Regional variation in the value of production at common purchasing 55
power standards, E15, 1993, E15=100
3.5 Regional and national disparities in the per capita value of 59
production, E12, 1980–93
3.6 Regional and national disparities in unemployment rates, E12, 1970– 60
94
3.7 Regional change in unemployment rates, E15, 1987–90 62
(improvement) (percentage points)
vii
3.8 Regional change in unemployment rates, E15, 1990–4 (deterioration) 63
(percentage points)
4.1 Mergers and acquisitions in the EU, 1982–91 70
4.2 Mergers and acquisitions by UK companies, 1989–94 73
4.3 Decline in the industrial share of total employment from its peak year 80
(named) to 1994
4.4 International correspondence between the decline of the industrial and 81
the male shares of total employment
5.1 Growth of United States’ service employment 85
5.2 The greater extremes in the US income distribution 89
5.3 The growth of part-time working (below thirty hours) in member 93
states, E15, 1987–94
5.4 International correspondence between the expansion of services and 99
female shares of total employment
6.1 Male unemployment and non-employment, 1974–93 107
6.2 Activity rates by age group, E12, 1994 114
6.3 Employment growth of women by occupation in E9, 1983–91 117
6.4 Hourly earnings of women as a percentage of men’s earnings, 119
manufacturing, EU
6.5 Female labour force participation in West Germany, 1991 119
7.1 Percentage change in financial and business services employment, 129
1986–94
7.2 Dependence on employment in producer services, 1994 130
7.3 Regional change in employment in financial and business services, 139
GB, 1971–94
7.4 An example of ‘Home Counties’ growth in GB; the East Surrey Study 140
Area
8.1 Dependence on employment in the distributive trades; retail, 157
wholesale and repairs, E12, 1984
8.2 Time series of employment in the distributive trades, thousands, GB, 161
June 1971–95
8.3 Regional change in retailing employment, GB, 1981–94 163
9.1 Growth of international tourism, 1980–92 169
9.2 Dependence on domestic tourists in western Europe, 1993 171
9.3 Dependence on hotels, restaurants and tourism employment, E12 173
10.1 Urban growth and urban decline in western Europe, 1970–85 193
10.2 Urban-rural shift of population in the Ile de France, 1968–90 194
10.3 Unemployment rates, employment/population ratios and activity rates 196
by degree of urbanisation, E12, 1992
10.4 The urban-rural range of experience in employment variables, GB 197
11.1 Eligibility for EU Structural Funds, 1994–9, E15 222
11.2 The EU inter-governmental conference; intended schedule at time of 225
writing
TABLES
1.1 Flexible forms of European work, 1992 16
2.1 Distribution of unemployment by age, sex and duration, E12, 1994 28
2.2 Twenty years of divergence between the industrialised continents 33
4.1 Europe’s leading employers, including world-wide operations, 1994 70
4.2 Transnational corporations in Brazil, ranking among all corporations 71
(excluding public sector), 1993
4.3 The downsizing of leading UK employers; world employment as 75
reported
5.1 Female employment growth and shares of total civilian employment 91
5.2 Service employment growth and shares of total civilian employment 97
6.1 GB economically inactive, including ‘discouraged’ workers, by 110
reason, winter 1995/6
6.2 GB employment rates by family type and age of youngest dependent 113
child, people of working age, winter 1993/4
6.3 Women’s share of total employment by sector, 1975–94 116
6.4 GB female economic activity rates, aged 16–59, by urban—rural 120
types of district, 1991
7.1 Distribution of sales from sampled firms in business services, 133
Edinburgh
7.2 Decentralisation of financial and business services in South-East 138
England
7.3 The North—South divide in financial and business services, GB 144
8.1 Employment trends in distributive trades and hotels, 1983–92 151
8.2 Employment characteristics in EU retailing, 1987–91 154
8.3 The leading EU retail groupings, E15, 1991–2 156
8.4 Trends in retail sectors, GB; employees by ‘activity heading’, 1981– 162
94
9.1 The incidence of women’s and part-time work in tourism-related 175
activities, GB, December 1995
11.1 Employment change by economic sector, 1987–94; eleven countries 212
(E12 less Germany)
11.2 The modest growth of recorded forms of flexible employment, 1985– 215
94, E15
11.3 Percentage change in total employment, E15, 1975–94 218
PREFACE
‘Making a living in Europe’: what will this mean in the twenty-first century? Can
we learn to produce and provide for all, by one means or another? Or will
‘making a living’ be only a dream for many who will be deprived and excluded?
As an experienced industrial geographer, I argue that we can only contribute by
a new understanding of services—the book is built on research and writing on the
new geographies of women’s jobs and several key services over the last five
years.
I ask these questions wearing different hats. I write as an academic with a life-
long interest in who makes a living, how and where. I am fascinated by the living
geography of work, particularly because of its central role in the human
geography, social inclusion and exclusion, and population growth of areas. My
own working life began as a regional civil servant in the struggle to attract
industrial jobs to areas of high unemployment. The world has changed since then,
but many economists and geographers still concentrate on activity and
‘flexibilisation’ in industry when most jobs in Europe now are in ‘services’. In this
book I shall particularly explore those sectors in which people at work
experience insecurity, or ‘flexibility’, and ask what this means for making a
living in Europe. What are the key sectors of change as seen through a broad
approach to work in the European Union?
But I have another hat. Although I make my living as an academic, I am
engaged in local politics. I live in an ex-mining community and have been
elected as District Councillor and Chair of the Planning Committee for a District
that lived and died from mining coal in the east and farming the Pennines in the
west. Now, we struggle with a desperate need for jobs. For many, this means a
crippling loss of identity. Fifteen years ago, the British government gave my
local Council half the money to build in my ex-mining village the first multi-
coloured artificial ski-slope in Europe, in an early recognition of the hope for
jobs in the leisure industry. The Council attempted to raise £25 million for a
leisure complex based on long ski slopes with artificial snow in the Pennines, but
failed.
The Common Agricultural Policy, European Union resources for the
rehabilitation of ex-coalfield communities and the new ‘precarious’ jobs are part
of our everyday lives. Global change has closed the deep pits and brought us