Pub Date : 2021-06-15DOI: 10.1177/10245294211020624
Gordon Kuo Siong Tan
Sustainability reporting has seen increased adoption as more businesses are recognizing wider societal and environmental obligations outside of traditional shareholder commitments. Several jurisdictions such as Malaysia and Hong Kong have passed regulations to encourage or mandate sustainability reporting. Likewise, Singapore has instituted mandatory sustainability reporting for all listed companies since 2016. The development of sustainability reporting in Singapore is explored using material from government agencies, company sustainability reports, conference speeches and newspaper articles. Viewing sustainability reporting as a socio-material assemblage of heterogeneous actors, discursive practices and other policy artefacts, local corporate sustainability initiatives are framed heavily in business logics such as the ‘triple bottom line’, while being anchored to broader national sustainability campaigns and commitments under international agreements. Such an economistic framing may limit the effectiveness of efforts to drive genuine changes in corporate sustainability, as companies may merely engage in a ‘checkbox ticking’ exercise to fulfil regulatory obligations. This paper highlights the multisited nature of policymaking and the tensions that may arise in a top-down approach to implementation.
{"title":"Assembling sustainability reporting in Singapore","authors":"Gordon Kuo Siong Tan","doi":"10.1177/10245294211020624","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211020624","url":null,"abstract":"Sustainability reporting has seen increased adoption as more businesses are recognizing wider societal and environmental obligations outside of traditional shareholder commitments. Several jurisdictions such as Malaysia and Hong Kong have passed regulations to encourage or mandate sustainability reporting. Likewise, Singapore has instituted mandatory sustainability reporting for all listed companies since 2016. The development of sustainability reporting in Singapore is explored using material from government agencies, company sustainability reports, conference speeches and newspaper articles. Viewing sustainability reporting as a socio-material assemblage of heterogeneous actors, discursive practices and other policy artefacts, local corporate sustainability initiatives are framed heavily in business logics such as the ‘triple bottom line’, while being anchored to broader national sustainability campaigns and commitments under international agreements. Such an economistic framing may limit the effectiveness of efforts to drive genuine changes in corporate sustainability, as companies may merely engage in a ‘checkbox ticking’ exercise to fulfil regulatory obligations. This paper highlights the multisited nature of policymaking and the tensions that may arise in a top-down approach to implementation.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":"26 1","pages":"629 - 649"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/10245294211020624","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41930503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-30DOI: 10.1177/10245294211015597
A. Nölke, Christian May, D. Mertens, Michael Schedelik
While growth in India stayed relatively stable over the last decade, Brazil fell into deep recession and a fundamental political and economic crisis. Why did these two countries, despite their similarities, diverge so massively within only 10 years? Through a paired comparison, this article probes two alternative approaches to capitalist diversity to explain the divergence among two rising economic powers and ‘state capitalisms’. It finds that through the lens of a firm-centred supply-side approach, one largely sees institutional stability in both economies, while a focus on the demand side and respective growth models makes visible fundamental destabilization in Brazil. The fragility of domestic demand, the vulnerability of global economic integration and the erosion of key social coalitions, we contend, are key to unpack the divergence between Brazil and India. This study thereby not only sheds a new light on emerging market capitalism but also discusses further possibilities for the analysis of state capitalism within comparative political economy.
{"title":"Elephant limps, but jaguar stumbles: Unpacking the divergence of state capitalism in Brazil and India through theories of capitalist diversity","authors":"A. Nölke, Christian May, D. Mertens, Michael Schedelik","doi":"10.1177/10245294211015597","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211015597","url":null,"abstract":"While growth in India stayed relatively stable over the last decade, Brazil fell into deep recession and a fundamental political and economic crisis. Why did these two countries, despite their similarities, diverge so massively within only 10 years? Through a paired comparison, this article probes two alternative approaches to capitalist diversity to explain the divergence among two rising economic powers and ‘state capitalisms’. It finds that through the lens of a firm-centred supply-side approach, one largely sees institutional stability in both economies, while a focus on the demand side and respective growth models makes visible fundamental destabilization in Brazil. The fragility of domestic demand, the vulnerability of global economic integration and the erosion of key social coalitions, we contend, are key to unpack the divergence between Brazil and India. This study thereby not only sheds a new light on emerging market capitalism but also discusses further possibilities for the analysis of state capitalism within comparative political economy.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":"26 1","pages":"311 - 333"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/10245294211015597","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42995273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-26DOI: 10.1177/10245294211018966
Lourdes Alonso Serna
The Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca is the first region in Mexico with a large-scale wind energy development. The region holds 60% of the country’s installed capacity, but the new infrastructure has faced opposition from sectors of the local population concerned about wind farms’ social and environmental impacts. The opposition and ensuing conflicts have been widely studied; some of these studies have framed wind energy as part of the recent cycle of land grabbing. Nevertheless, this literature has overlooked landholders’ acceptance of wind energy. This paper aims to address this gap and argues that the main driver of the land grabbing process is land rent. The paper draws on recent insights from political ecology that highlight that the commodification of nature is predicated on rent. The paper uses the notion of value grabbing to look at the social struggles over property rights in the Isthmus and the conflicts for the increase and distribution of rents from wind energy.
{"title":"Land grabbing or value grabbing? Land rent and wind energy in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca","authors":"Lourdes Alonso Serna","doi":"10.1177/10245294211018966","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211018966","url":null,"abstract":"The Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca is the first region in Mexico with a large-scale wind energy development. The region holds 60% of the country’s installed capacity, but the new infrastructure has faced opposition from sectors of the local population concerned about wind farms’ social and environmental impacts. The opposition and ensuing conflicts have been widely studied; some of these studies have framed wind energy as part of the recent cycle of land grabbing. Nevertheless, this literature has overlooked landholders’ acceptance of wind energy. This paper aims to address this gap and argues that the main driver of the land grabbing process is land rent. The paper draws on recent insights from political ecology that highlight that the commodification of nature is predicated on rent. The paper uses the notion of value grabbing to look at the social struggles over property rights in the Isthmus and the conflicts for the increase and distribution of rents from wind energy.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":"26 1","pages":"487 - 503"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/10245294211018966","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49409194","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-26DOI: 10.1177/10245294211017255
M. Abreu, R. Soares, R. Rocha, J. Boaventura
This paper evaluates the influence of multiple actors in both formal and informal governance systems on corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Drawing on institutional theory, a quantitative survey was developed and conducted of a sample of 140 firms in the electronics, food, textiles, toys and personal care sectors in Brazil. We examine how institutional pressures and firm-level agency influence the emergence of different patterns of CSR. We distinguish two clusters of companies: active companies identify business outcomes and actors that effectively exert an influence on their CSR practices, while passive companies consider institutional pressures to be of minor importance. Our contribution relates first, to institutional theory concerning the role of different actors in influencing the implementation of social and environmental practices; second, to the importance of collective coordination or its absence in shaping the specific characteristics of CSR; and third, to the agency of firms in responding to institutional pressures as being dependent on their perceptions of business outcomes. The theoretical insights drawn from this study should be applicable to similar countries, that is, to emerging but politically and economically unstable markets with marked social and economic inequalities.
{"title":"Salience of multiple actors involved in formal and informal governance systems encouraging corporate social responsibility in an emerging market","authors":"M. Abreu, R. Soares, R. Rocha, J. Boaventura","doi":"10.1177/10245294211017255","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211017255","url":null,"abstract":"This paper evaluates the influence of multiple actors in both formal and informal governance systems on corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Drawing on institutional theory, a quantitative survey was developed and conducted of a sample of 140 firms in the electronics, food, textiles, toys and personal care sectors in Brazil. We examine how institutional pressures and firm-level agency influence the emergence of different patterns of CSR. We distinguish two clusters of companies: active companies identify business outcomes and actors that effectively exert an influence on their CSR practices, while passive companies consider institutional pressures to be of minor importance. Our contribution relates first, to institutional theory concerning the role of different actors in influencing the implementation of social and environmental practices; second, to the importance of collective coordination or its absence in shaping the specific characteristics of CSR; and third, to the agency of firms in responding to institutional pressures as being dependent on their perceptions of business outcomes. The theoretical insights drawn from this study should be applicable to similar countries, that is, to emerging but politically and economically unstable markets with marked social and economic inequalities.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":"26 1","pages":"603 - 628"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/10245294211017255","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42789466","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-14DOI: 10.1177/10245294211011308
A. Lawrence
This article provides a conjunctural synopsis of both empirical trends and new approaches to analytically and normatively assessing energy markets. The preceding eras of coal and oil entailed not only differing technologies but also historically distinct political geographies, modes of production, and characteristic commodities and systems of value. They also coincided with and helped reinforce several misleading assumptions: of ‘pure’, ‘stateless’ energy markets; of scarcity as a defining feature of all economies; of unlimited growth and of market equilibrium. These assumptions tended to reinforce established approaches to energy markets that were insufficiently historically grounded, abstracted from social, political and ecological relations, and – with particular reference to oil – premised on zero-sum geostrategic calculations of interest. They are inadequate to, or misleading about, fossil fuel markets, and do not adequately address such recent phenomena as unprecedented levels of financialization of the global economy with an unprecedented intensity of ecological crisis entailing, most prominently, global warming. These factors undermine the prior assumptions in several respects: it is not scarcity, but rather abundance of greenhouse gas emissions that is of paramount concern; this in turn necessarily implies that unlimited growth is neither possible nor desirable; and furthermore, that ecological degradation has fundamentally displaced the analytical plausibility of market equilibrium, no less than its normative appeal. An exercise in reconceptualizing energy markets is therefore one that should explore not only what was misperceived and what has changed but also what needs to change in order to restore economic, political and ecological sustainability.
{"title":"Reconceptualizing contemporary energy markets","authors":"A. Lawrence","doi":"10.1177/10245294211011308","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211011308","url":null,"abstract":"This article provides a conjunctural synopsis of both empirical trends and new approaches to analytically and normatively assessing energy markets. The preceding eras of coal and oil entailed not only differing technologies but also historically distinct political geographies, modes of production, and characteristic commodities and systems of value. They also coincided with and helped reinforce several misleading assumptions: of ‘pure’, ‘stateless’ energy markets; of scarcity as a defining feature of all economies; of unlimited growth and of market equilibrium. These assumptions tended to reinforce established approaches to energy markets that were insufficiently historically grounded, abstracted from social, political and ecological relations, and – with particular reference to oil – premised on zero-sum geostrategic calculations of interest. They are inadequate to, or misleading about, fossil fuel markets, and do not adequately address such recent phenomena as unprecedented levels of financialization of the global economy with an unprecedented intensity of ecological crisis entailing, most prominently, global warming. These factors undermine the prior assumptions in several respects: it is not scarcity, but rather abundance of greenhouse gas emissions that is of paramount concern; this in turn necessarily implies that unlimited growth is neither possible nor desirable; and furthermore, that ecological degradation has fundamentally displaced the analytical plausibility of market equilibrium, no less than its normative appeal. An exercise in reconceptualizing energy markets is therefore one that should explore not only what was misperceived and what has changed but also what needs to change in order to restore economic, political and ecological sustainability.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":"25 1","pages":"631 - 650"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/10245294211011308","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41539084","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-12DOI: 10.1177/10245294211015479
Daniel Herrero
This paper explores the transformation of the German employment and industrial relations model from a political economy approach. Using the IAB Establishment Panel, the evolution of atypical employment and the coverage of the dual system of industrial relations is analysed in different groups of firms. Additionally, using a shift-share technique, we estimate the impact of the change in the employment structure on this process. The results reveal that once institutional constraints were relaxed, firms across the whole economy increased their use of flexible work and individualized the wage bargaining. Moreover, our findings suggest that structural change played a minor role in the process.
{"title":"Disentangling the transformation of the German model: The role of firms’ strategic decisions and structural change","authors":"Daniel Herrero","doi":"10.1177/10245294211015479","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211015479","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores the transformation of the German employment and industrial relations model from a political economy approach. Using the IAB Establishment Panel, the evolution of atypical employment and the coverage of the dual system of industrial relations is analysed in different groups of firms. Additionally, using a shift-share technique, we estimate the impact of the change in the employment structure on this process. The results reveal that once institutional constraints were relaxed, firms across the whole economy increased their use of flexible work and individualized the wage bargaining. Moreover, our findings suggest that structural change played a minor role in the process.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":"26 1","pages":"357 - 383"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/10245294211015479","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42973118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-08DOI: 10.1177/10245294211014446
Kristin Edquist
{"title":"Leo McCann, A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Globalization","authors":"Kristin Edquist","doi":"10.1177/10245294211014446","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211014446","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":"26 1","pages":"507 - 509"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/10245294211014446","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47872547","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-08DOI: 10.1177/10245294211015469
M. Tassinari
An industrial strategy emerges from possibilities for structural change, that depend on material constraints and opportunities afforded by economic structure, the distribution of power in society and the institutional arrangements organized at the political level. Building on a structural political economy perspective, this article develops a structure–power–institutions conceptual framework to describe how economic structure, the distribution of power, and institutions interact through a ‘circular process,’ which is useful for analysing the historical transformation of industrial strategy. In this framework, an industrial strategy refers to the institutional arrangements through which the government manages emerging conflicts or agreements between different powers and influences structural change. As an illustrative case study, the structure–power–institutions framework is applied to analyse the historical transformation of US industrial strategy from the era of Alexander Hamilton to that of Donald Trump.
{"title":"Economic structure, power and institutions: A conceptual framework for analysing the historical transformation of US industrial strategy","authors":"M. Tassinari","doi":"10.1177/10245294211015469","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211015469","url":null,"abstract":"An industrial strategy emerges from possibilities for structural change, that depend on material constraints and opportunities afforded by economic structure, the distribution of power in society and the institutional arrangements organized at the political level. Building on a structural political economy perspective, this article develops a structure–power–institutions conceptual framework to describe how economic structure, the distribution of power, and institutions interact through a ‘circular process,’ which is useful for analysing the historical transformation of industrial strategy. In this framework, an industrial strategy refers to the institutional arrangements through which the government manages emerging conflicts or agreements between different powers and influences structural change. As an illustrative case study, the structure–power–institutions framework is applied to analyse the historical transformation of US industrial strategy from the era of Alexander Hamilton to that of Donald Trump.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":"26 1","pages":"149 - 173"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/10245294211015469","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47431694","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-08DOI: 10.1177/10245294211011295
Andreas Kornelakis, P. Hublart
The comparative capitalism literature examined how institutions vary on a national or societal level and how these differences affect multinational companies’ strategies. Yet, little attention has been devoted to cross-national or regional differences in the governance of competition, especially in the context of digitalization of markets. The article seeks to fill this gap by looking at the case of Google. It traces the process of the stark US–EU disagreement over Google’s abuse of dominant position in digital markets, which resulted in one of the largest fines in the EU history. It is argued that the variation in the response to the company’s market and nonmarket strategies are traced back to differences between Ordoliberal and Chicago School ideas, which are embedded in the ‘competition regimes’ of European and US capitalist models. The article concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for varieties of capitalism frameworks.
{"title":"Digital markets, competition regimes and models of capitalism: A comparative institutional analysis of European and US responses to Google","authors":"Andreas Kornelakis, P. Hublart","doi":"10.1177/10245294211011295","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211011295","url":null,"abstract":"The comparative capitalism literature examined how institutions vary on a national or societal level and how these differences affect multinational companies’ strategies. Yet, little attention has been devoted to cross-national or regional differences in the governance of competition, especially in the context of digitalization of markets. The article seeks to fill this gap by looking at the case of Google. It traces the process of the stark US–EU disagreement over Google’s abuse of dominant position in digital markets, which resulted in one of the largest fines in the EU history. It is argued that the variation in the response to the company’s market and nonmarket strategies are traced back to differences between Ordoliberal and Chicago School ideas, which are embedded in the ‘competition regimes’ of European and US capitalist models. The article concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for varieties of capitalism frameworks.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":"26 1","pages":"334 - 356"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/10245294211011295","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47548668","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-28DOI: 10.1177/10245294211011300
L. Telford
Based on 52 qualitative interviews with working-class individuals, this paper explores the social and economic decline of a coastal locale referred to as High Town in Teesside in the North East of England. First, the paper outlines how the locality expanded as a popular seaside resort under capitalism’s post-war period. It then assesses how the seaside existed together with industrial work, offering stable employment opportunities, economic security and a sense of community. Next, the article documents the shift to neoliberalism in the 1980s, specifically the decline of High Town’s seaside resort, the deindustrialization process and therefore the 2015 closure of High Town’s steelworks. It explicates how this exacerbated the locale’s economic decline through the loss of industrial work’s ‘job for life’, its diminishing popularity as a coastal area and the further deterioration of the town centre. The paper concludes by suggesting that High Town has lost its raison d’être under neoliberalism and faces difficulties in revival.
{"title":"‘There is nothing there’: Deindustrialization and loss in a coastal town","authors":"L. Telford","doi":"10.1177/10245294211011300","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294211011300","url":null,"abstract":"Based on 52 qualitative interviews with working-class individuals, this paper explores the social and economic decline of a coastal locale referred to as High Town in Teesside in the North East of England. First, the paper outlines how the locality expanded as a popular seaside resort under capitalism’s post-war period. It then assesses how the seaside existed together with industrial work, offering stable employment opportunities, economic security and a sense of community. Next, the article documents the shift to neoliberalism in the 1980s, specifically the decline of High Town’s seaside resort, the deindustrialization process and therefore the 2015 closure of High Town’s steelworks. It explicates how this exacerbated the locale’s economic decline through the loss of industrial work’s ‘job for life’, its diminishing popularity as a coastal area and the further deterioration of the town centre. The paper concludes by suggesting that High Town has lost its raison d’être under neoliberalism and faces difficulties in revival.","PeriodicalId":46999,"journal":{"name":"Competition & Change","volume":"26 1","pages":"197 - 214"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2021-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/10245294211011300","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47432724","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}