Social aspects of reconstruction of Old Industrial Regions in Europe

Social Aspects
of Reconstruction
of Old Industrial Regions
in Europe
Kazimiera Wódz, editor
Social Aspects
of Reconstruction
of Old Industrial Regions
in Europe
Prace Naukowe
Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
w Katowicach
nr 1722
Social Aspects
of Reconstruction
of Old Industrial Regions
in Europe
Kazimiera Wódz, editor
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Katowice 1998
Editor of the Series: Sociology
Marek S. Szczepański
Reviewers
Krzysztof Frysztacki
Marian Malikowski
Contents
Editor’s Note ...............................................................................................................
7
Od R ed ak to ra...............................................................................................................
11
Vom H erau sg eb er.......................................................................................................
15
Old and New Industrial Regions in the Czech R e p u b lic ..............JiH M usil
19
Social Factors of Unemployment Growth in Industrialized
Regions in the Czech R e p u b lic .............................................. Tomäs Sirovätka
30
Old Industrial Areas in Reunified Germany - Processes
of Old and New Adjustments in Times
of Transformation and Globalization .................................. Wendelin Strubelt
56
Structural Change and Social Splitting
in the Ruhr A r e a .......................................................... Thomas Rommelspacher
80
Revitalization Strategies of Cities
in the Ruhr A r e a .................................... Jürgen Friedrichs and R o lf Küppers
86
Land versus People - The Urban Process
in the Reconstruction of Industrial Cities ................................... David Byrne
106
Social and Spatial Revitalization of Industrial
Areas in British and Polish Cities .......................................Sylwia Kaczmarek
120
Economic Change and Everyday Life: Informal Aspects
of Social Structural C h a n g e ...........................................................Lydia Morris
127
Problems of Coal-mining Industry Restructuring
in Primorye ..................................................... V. Mansourov and M. Chemysh
147
W orkers’ Communities of Upper Silesia
in the Face of Restructuring P ro c e ss.................................... Kazimiera Wódz
162
Entrepreneurship and the Modernization of an Old Industrial
Region: The Case of the Katowice Voivodship, P o la n d .....Adrian Cybula
205
Social Capital and the Adaptation to Systemic Changes:
The Case of the Katowice Voivodship. Poland .................... Adrian Cybula
and Marek S. Szczepański
Concentration of Poverty in Polish Large City:
The Example of Ł ó d ź ............................ Wielisława Warzywoda-Kruszyńska
and Jolanta Grotowska-Leder
Social Integration and the Reduction of Poverty:
New Dilemmas in the East-Central Europe .................................Julia Szalai
Slovak Society at the Threshold of the 5th Year of the Slovak
R epublic’s E x iste n c e .....:................................ Jan Buncäk and Eva Laiferovä
223
236
241
Streszczenie .........
Zusam m enfassung
249
Editor’s Note
In September 1997 the 10th Nationwide Congress of the Polish Sociological
Association, under the caption “Silesia - Poland - Europe. Society in Transition in
Local and Global Perspective” was held in Katowice. This volume contains texts of
the papers delivered within the framework of one of the symposia of which the
congress consisted, and which was devoted to the social aspects of the reconstruction
of old industrial areas in Europe. Inclusion of this topic to the programme of the
Congress appears fully justified if we bear in mind its location. The Province (Voivodship) of Katowice, or to be more precise: the Upper-Silesian Industrial Region
(GOP) is a typical example of an old industrial region, whose future looks bleak
indeed. The demands of the global market will, sooner or later, enforce substantial
structural changes in the region. The course of those changes will largely depend
upon the way in which their social costs will be distributed, but also upon whether
and in what range public and private sectors will be urged to cooperate in the search
for common solutions. That is the general conclusion that can be drawn from the
discussions held during the two days of debates in Katowice. Specialists representing
both parts of Europe undergoing unification, invited to take part in the symposium,
had the chance to share the results of their studies concerning the old industrial
regions; in case of representatives of Eastern Europe the presentations were, more
often than not, preceded with some general reflections about the system transfor­
mations going on in their respective countries.
The first paper included in the volume is by Jiri Musil, the text is devoted
to structural transformations of the traditional industrial regions in the Czech Re­
public. The author, on the basis of analysis of statistics as well as regional studies
concerning the influence of systemic transformations after 1989 upon the social
and spatial changes in the Czech Republic, draws a general conclusion that in his
country, slowly yet consequently, the processes of deindustrialization take place,
which coincide with reduction of employment and a prolonged crisis in some bran­
ches of industry. This is particularly true for Northern Bohemia, while down south,
and in the west yet to a lesser degree, regions of growth consolidate, based upon
the traditional and new branches of industry. The domination of small and me­
dium-sized towns in the settlement structure of the Czech Republic, as well as the
comparatively modest num ber of huge industrial complexes is, in the opinion of the
author, of substantial significance for absorbing the consequences of systemic chan­
ges which the Czech economy is subject to. A valuable and detail-providing supple­
ment to the deliberations of J. Musil is the penetrating analysis of the segmentation
of the labour market in the Czech Republic done by T. Sirovätka. The latter presents
it both as a whole and in regions of traditional industrial activities, considering also
the decisive factors accounting for marginalizing the low-skill labour force on the
local labour markets. A substantial portion of the analyses carried out by T. Sirovät­
ka finds its equivalents in the phenomena occurring in similar regions of Poland.
The next three papers, prepared by German researchers, depict the complex and
diverse process of structural transformations of the old industrial regions in both
the “old” and “new” Länder of the re-united Germany. W. Strubelt, when analysing
the differences in the level of economic development in comparable, in terms of
industrial structure, regions of W estern and Eastern Germany, observes that largely
those differences (disadvantageous for the eastern part of Germany) are reminiscent
of the state of affairs preceding W orld W ar II. Economic problems facing the old
industrial regions in the “new” Länder after the reunification are, to the mind of the
author, a late echo of similar problems that challenged the western Lands some thirty
to twenty years earlier. Looking at the current problems facing the old industrial
regions one cannot, in the author’s opinion, omit the historic dimension, along with
the fact that economic development should be measured in terms of long cycles of
growth and stagnation. This entails that it is impossible to foresee for sure today
whether the now-prosperous southern Lands of (West) Germany will be able to keep
up the existing tempo of development in the future. The author is of the opinion
that even today some worrying signs could be identified, which stem from the ever
steeper competition on the global labour market and the availability of cheap labour
force both within Europe and outside it.
Two mutually complementary studies, by T. Rom melspacher and J. Friedrichs
and R. Küppers, follow, both dealing with the Ruhr-Gebiet industrial region in which
structural transformations due to the decline of heavy industry had started some 40
years ago. The paper by the former author comprises a description of the social
consequences of those processes, while the two latter ones present the results of
their studies upon the efficiency of revitalization strategies implemented in over the
last twenty years in the towns of that region. Due to the structural similarities be­
tween the Upper-Silesian Industrial Region (GOP) and the Ruhr-Gebiet, the content
of those papers is of particular significance. It appears from them, among others,
that although in many cases serious doubts arise regarding the efficiency of revita­
lization activities undertaken by different towns (e.g. those meant to provide pos­
sibilities for creation new jobs for workers who are made redundant), relinquishing
such activities could lead to their total degradation and fall.
A critical outlook on the British experiences in the field of revitalizing program­
mes for old industrial regions has been contained in the papers by D. Byrne and
S. Kaczmarek. D. Byrne, on the basis of observation referring to the restructuring
of the regions of traditional industries: South Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear, points
out to the negative consequences of revitalization strategies which result in speeding
up the deindustrialization processes and transformation of the former industrial zones
and areas into centres of trade, commerce, services and luxury housing. The im­
plementation of such projects, Byrne claims, leads to making the processes of social
and spatial segregation more deep and acute, and to strengthening the marginalized
position of those social groups which are economically weakest and whose qualifi­
cations are the lowest. Critical remarks addressed to similar examples of social and
spatial revitalization of old industrial towns in Britain have been formulated in the
paper by S. Kaczmarek, finally expressing the conviction that an integrated approach
to that problem is necessary.
Another attitude to the social problems accompanying the economic restructuring
of old industrial regions has been presented in the paper by L. Morris. Hers is an
extensive report on the research done by her in the old shipyard centre of Hartlepool
(North-East England). L. Morris points out the importance of informal social rela­
tions (family, friends, colleagues) in shaping the individual and family strategies
for adjustment to structural changes at the labour market. The author states, among
other things, that those informal social relations have a significant influence upon
the efficiency of leaving unemployment, along with other, more objective factors,
such as qualifications, solutions provided in the sphere of social policy or the situa­
tion at the labour market.
The four papers that follow, then, bring back the problems of collapsing mining
regions. V. Mansourov and M. Chemysh depict the dramatic situation in the Workuta
and Primorye coal basins, where miners have not been receiving their wages for
months. The scale and concentration of problems connected with the collapsing
mining industry are so big that the local authorities, trade unions and government
agencies are unable to cope with. The authors believe that when restructuring is
limited merely to closing down mines, a social outbreak may be inevitable.
K. W ódz has presented the results of research carried out among miners em­
ployed in coal-mines of the Katowice Province (Voivodship), which concerned their
fears and anticipated reactions to changes brought about by the processes of eco­
nomic restructuring. The author paints a group mental portrait of the profession
studied, showing its internal differentiation due to cultural differences resulting from
the regional origin of the people interviewed. A. Cybula, on the basis of his own
and other people’s research conducted in recent years in the Province of Katowice,
has found out that entrepreneurship as an attitude predisposing for economic success
in the market economy conditions has been observed in a comparatively scarce group
of people, whereas further changes in this field would require a fundamental recon­
struction of the education system, where technical and professional education on
elementary level only still dominates. A specific commentary to the results of em­
pirical studies, presented in the papers of K. W ódz and A. Cybula, is the pondering
upon the importance of social capital in the adaptation processes to systemic changes
in the Province of Katowice, presented by A. Cybula and M. S. Szczepański.
Poverty as a result of deindustrialization processes and aftermath of the general
system ic changes in the countries of C entral and E astern Europe has been the
topic dealt with by W. W arzy w oda-K ruszyńska and J. G rotow ska-Leder, as well
as J. Szalai. The illustration of the former topic mentioned has been provided by
studies concerning the spatial concentration of poverty, conducted by the authors in
the second largest Polish industrial town of Łódź. As regards the latter subject
enumerated before, the empirical basis has been provided by observations of socio­
economic trends in the countries of the former Eastern block, as well as the - dom i­
nating in those countries and not always so accurate, in the opinion of J. Szalai
- explanations of the reasons for increasing poverty and the counteractive strategies
proposed.
The volume is concluded with the paper by E. Laiferovä and J. Bunćak who,
reaching somewhat outside the main topics of the symposium, deal with an analysis
of the differentiation processes in the Slovak society and their influence upon the
processes of social disintegration and reintegration in that country.
As an organizer of the symposium I am aware of the fact that the written m ate­
rials presented do no full justice to the actual atmosphere of the meeting, the level
and quality of discussion there, both during the proceedings and in the lobby. I would
like to thank the participants cordially for all that, hoping that this volume will be
another step on the road to exchange experiences in research, as well as reflections
upon the present day and future of the old industrial regions of united Europe.
Kazimiera Wódz
Od Redaktora
W e wrześniu 1997 roku w Katowicach pod hasłem „Śląsk - Polska - Europa.
Zmieniające się społeczeństwo w perspektywie lokalnej i globalnej” obradował
X Ogólnopolski Zjazd Polskiego Towarzystwa Socjologicznego. Niniejszy tom
zawiera teksty referatów wygłoszonych w ramach jednego z sympozjów zjazdowych,
poświęconego społecznym aspektom rekonstrukcji starych regionów przemysłowych
w Europie. W łączenie tej tematyki do programu Zjazdu ze względu na miejsce,
w którym się odbywał, wydaje się całkowicie zrozumiałe. W ojewództwo katowickie,
a ściślej biorąc, Górnośląski Okręg Przemysłowy, stanowi typowy przykład starego
regionu przemysłowego, którego przyszłość rysuje się w czarnych barwach. Prędzej
czy później wymagania globalnego rynku wym uszą tu zasadnicze przekształcenia
strukturalne. Ich przebieg w dużej mierze będzie zależeć od tego, w jaki sposób
zostaną rozłożone społeczne koszty tych przekształceń, ale także od tego, czy i w ja ­
kim zakresie uda się zachęcić do współpracy w poszukiwaniach wspólnych rozwią­
zań sektor publiczny i prywatny. Taki generalny wniosek wypływa z dyskusji toczo­
nej w trakcie dwudniowych obrad w Katowicach. Zaproszeni do udziału w sympoz­
jum specjaliści, reprezentujący obie części jednoczącej się Europy, mieli okazję
zaprezentować wyniki swoich badań dotyczących starych regionów przemysłowych,
poprzedzonych często, w wypadku przedstawicieli Europy Wschodniej, ogólną refle­
ksją na temat przekształceń ustrojowych, jakie dokonują się aktualnie w ich krajach.
Tom otwiera Jiri Musil tekstem poświęconym aktualnym przekształceniom stru­
kturalnym tradycyjnych regionów przemysłowych Republiki Czeskiej. Autor, opie­
rając się na analizie danych statystycznych oraz badań regionalnych nad wpływem
przeobrażeń ustrojowych po roku 1989 na przekształcenia społeczno-przestrzenne
w Republice Czeskiej, dochodzi do generalnego wniosku, że w tym kraju wolno,
acz konsekwentnie, dokonują się procesy deindustrializacji połączone z redukcją
zatrudnienia i przedłużającym się kryzysem niektórych branż przemysłowych. Do­
tyczy to zw łaszcza północnych Czech, gdy tym czasem na południu, a także
- w mniejszym stopniu - na zachodzie kraju formują się regiony wzrostu, oparte na
dawnych i nowych dziedzinach przem ysłu. D om inacja w strukturze osadniczej
Czech małych i średnich miast oraz stosunkowo niewielka liczba wielkich kom­
pleksów przemysłowych ma - zdaniem autora - istotne znaczenie dla absorbowania
skutków systemowych zmian czeskiej gospodarki. Cennym uzupełnieniem i uszcze­
gółowieniem rozważań J. Musila jest przedstawiona przez T. Sirovatkę wnikliwa
analiza segmentacji rynku pracy w Republice Czeskiej jako całości i w regionach
tradycyjnego przemysłu, a także czynników decydujących o marginalizacji nisko
wykwalifikowanej siły roboczej na lokalnych rynkach pracy. W iele z przedstawio­
nych przez T. Sirovatkę analiz ma swoje odpowiedniki w zjawiskach obserwowa­
nych w podobnych regionach w Polsce.
Trzy kolejne opracowania, przygotowane przez badaczy niemieckich, ukazują
złożony i niejednoznaczny w swej wymowie obraz przekształceń strukturalnych
starych regionów przemysłowych w dawnych i nowych landach zjednoczonych
Niemiec. W. Strubelt, analizując rozpiętości w poziomie rozwoju ekonomicznego
w porównyw alnych pod względem struktury przem ysłu regionach Zachodnich
i Wschodnich Niemiec, zauważa, że w znacznej mierze różnice te (na niekorzyść
tych ostatnich) przypominają stan istniejący przed II wojną światową. Problemy
ekonomiczne, przed którym stanęły stare regiony przemysłowe nowych landów
po zjednoczeniu, są - zdaniem autora - spóźnionym echem tych samych kwestii,
z którymi landy zachodnie musiały się zmierzyć trzydzieści lub dwadzieścia lat
temu. Patrząc na aktualne problemy, z którymi borykają się stare regiony prze­
mysłowe, nie można - zdaniem autora - zapominać o wymiarze historycznym,
0 tym, że rozwój ekonomiczny powinien być mierzony długimi cyklami wzrostu
1 stagnacji. Oznacza to, iż nie da się dzisiaj przewidzieć z całkow itą pewnością,
czy prosperujące dzisiaj południowe landy N iem iec (Zachodnich) utrzym ają
w przyszłości aktualne tempo rozwoju. Zdaniem autora, już można mówić o pe­
wnych niepokojących sygnałach, wynikających z rosnącej konkurencyjności glo­
balnych rynków pracy i dostępności zarówno w Europie, jak i poza nią, taniej
siły roboczej.
Dwa kom plem entarne wobec siebie opracow ania T. R om m elspachera oraz
J. Friedrichsa i R. Ktippersa dotyczą przemysłowego okręgu Ruhry, w którym pro­
cesy strukturalnych przekształceń, związanych z upadkiem przemysłu ciężkiego,
rozpoczęły się prawie czterdzieści lat temu. W tekście pierwszego z wymienionych
autorów znajdujemy opis społecznych skutków tych procesów, dwaj pozostali przed­
stawiają wyniki swoich badań nad skutecznością strategii rewitalizacyjnych, reali­
zowanych przez ostatnie dwadzieścia lat w miastach tego regionu. Ze względu na
strukturalne podobieństwo Górnośląskiego Okręgu Przemysłowego i Zagłębia Ruhry
refleksje przedstawione w tych tekstach m ają szczególną wymowę. W ynika z nich
m iędzy innymi, że choć w wielu wypadkach m ożna mieć poważne w ąt­
pliwości co do efektywności działań rewitalizacyjnych podejmowanych przez po­
szczególne miasta (na przykład w odniesieniu do możliwości tworzenia nowych
miejsc pracy dla zwalnianych z pracy robotników), to zaniechanie tych działań
mogłoby doprowadzić do ich całkowitej degradacji i upadku.
Krytyczne spojrzenie na doświadczenia brytyjskie w dziedzinie programów re­
witalizacji starych regionów przemysłowych przynoszą teksty D. Byrne’a i S. Kacz­
marek. D. Byrne, opierając się na obserwacjach dotyczących restrukturyzacji dwóch
regionów tradycyjnego przemysłu - South Yorkshire oraz Tyne and Wear, wskazuje
na negatywne - jego zdaniem - skutki strategii rewitalizacyjnych, prowadzących
do przyspieszenia procesów deindustrializacji i przekształcania dawnych przestrzeni
przemysłowych w centra handlowo-usługowe, rozrywkowe, kulturalne, strefy luk­
susowego mieszkalnictwa. Realizacja tego rodzaju projektów - twierdzi Byrne - pro­
wadzi do pogłębienia procesów segregacji społeczno-przestrzennej miast i utrwale­
nia marginalnej pozycji najsłabszych ekonomicznie, najniżej wykwalifikowanych
grup społecznych. Krytyczne uwagi pod adresem podobnych przykładów społecznej
i przestrzennej rewitalizacji starych miast przemysłowych w Wielkiej Brytanii for­
mułuje w swoim artykule S. Kaczmarek, wyrażając na koniec przekonanie o po­
trzebie zintegrowanego podejścia do tego problemu.
Inne spojrzenie na społeczne problemy towarzyszące procesom restrukturyzacji
ekonomicznej starych regionów przemysłowych przynosi artykuł L. Morris. Jest
to obszerny raport z badań przeprowadzonych przez autorkę w dawnym ośrodku
przemysłu okrętowego Hartlepool (Płn.-Wsch. Anglia). L. Morris zwraca uwagę
na znaczenie nieformalnych relacji społecznych (rodzinnych, przyjacielskich, ko­
leżeńskich) w kształtowaniu indywidualnych, rodzinnych strategii przystosowa­
wczych do strukturalnych zmian na rynku pracy. Autorka stwierdza między in­
nymi, że te właśnie nieform alne więzi społeczne m ają oprócz innych, bardziej
zobiektywizowanych czynników, takich jak: kwalifikacje, rozwiązania w zakresie
polityki społecznej, sytuacja na rynku pracy, istotny wpływ na skuteczność wy­
chodzenia z bezrobocia.
W kolejnych czterech artykułach powracają problemy upadających regionów
górniczych. V. Mansourov i M. Chemysh przedstawiają dramatyczny obraz sytuacji
w rejonie W orkuty i Przymorza, gdzie górnicy od wielu miesięcy nie otrzymują
wypłat za swoją pracę. Skala i natężenie problemów związanych z upadającym
przemysłem wydobywczym jest tak wielka, że nie radzą sobie z nimi władze lokal­
ne, związki zawodowe, agendy rządowe. Autorzy uważają, że restrukturyzacja ogra­
niczona do zamykania kopalń doprowadzi do społecznego wybuchu.
W opracowaniu K. W ódz przedstawiono wyniki badań wśród górników zatru­
dnionych w kopalniach województwa katowickiego, dotyczących ich obaw i prze­
widywanych reakcji na zmiany wywołane procesami restrukturyzacji ekonomicz­
nej. Autorka kreśli zbiorowy portret mentalny badanej grupy zawodowej, ukazując
jej wewnętrzne zróżnicowanie, które wynika z odmienności kulturowych, zwią­
zanych z pochodzeniem regionalnym respondentów. A. Cybula, opierając się na
wynikach własnych oraz cudzych badań socjologicznych, prowadzonych w osta­
tnich latach w województwie katowickim, stwierdza, że przedsiębiorczość jako
postawa predestynująca do sukcesu ekonomicznego w warunkach gospodarki ryn­
kowej występuje u stosunkowo niewielkiej grupy badanych, a dalsze zmiany w tej
dziedzinie wym agałyby gruntownej przebudowy systemu kształcenia, zdom ino­
wanego nadal przez szkolnictwo zawodowe. Swoistym kom entarzem do przed­
stawionych w tekstach K. W ódz i A. Cybuli wyników badań empirycznych są
refleksje nad znaczeniem kapitału społecznego w procesach adaptacji do zmian
systemowych w województwie katowickim, przedstawione przez A. Cybulę i M. S.
Szczepańskiego.
Ubóstwo, jako skutek procesów deindustrializacji oraz efekt ogólnych przeob­
rażeń systemowych w krajach Europy Centralnej i W schodniej, to temat podjęty
przez W. W arzywodę-Kruszyńską i J. Grotowską-Leder oraz J. Szalai. Ilustracją do
pierwszego z wymienionych wyżej tematów są wyniki badań nad przestrzenną kon­
centracją ubóstwa, przeprowadzonych przez autorki w drugim co do wielkości m ieś­
cie przemysłowym Polski - Łodzi. W wypadku drugiego tematu em piryczną pod­
stawą rozważań stały się obserwacje trendów społeczno-ekonomicznych występu­
jących w krajach byłego bloku wschodniego oraz dominujących w tych krajach,
nie do końca trafnych - zdaniem J. Szalai - sposobów wyjaśniania przyczyn ros­
nącego ubóstwa i proponowanych strategii zaradczych.
Tom zam yka wychodzący nieco poza obszar tem atyczny sym pozjum tekst
E. Laiferovej i J. Bunćaka, poświęcony analizie procesów różnicowania się społe­
czeństwa słowackiego i ich wpływu na procesy dezintegracji i reintegracji społecznej
w tym kraju.
Jako organizator sympozjum mam świadomość, że przedstawiony w formie
publikacji zapis, nie oddaje rzeczywistej atmosfery tego spotkania, poziomu i jakości
dyskusji toczącej się zarówno w czasie obrad, jak i kuluarach. Za to wszystko
składam wszystkim referentom i dyskutantom serdeczne podziękowania z nadzieją,
że niniejszy tom będzie kolejnym krokiem na drodze ku wymianie doświadczeń
badawczych i refleksji nad dniem dzisiejszym i przyszłością starych regionów prze­
mysłowych zjednoczonej Europy.
Kazimiera Wódz
Vom Herausgeber
Im September 1997 tagte in Katowice unter dem Motto „Schlesien - Polen
- Europa. Die sich verändernde Gesellschaft aus der lokalen und globalen Perspekti­
ve“ die 10. Polnische Konferenz der Polnischen Soziologischen Gesellschaft. Der
vorliegende Band beinhaltet die Texte der im Rahmen eines der Tagungssymposien
gehaltenen Referate, die die gesellschaftlichen Aspekte der Rekonstruktion der alten
Industriegebiete in Europa betreffen. Das Einbeziehen dieser Thematik in das Pro­
gramm der Konferenz ist in Bezug auf den Ort der Tagung selbstverständlich. Die
Wojewodschaft Katowice, und genauer genommen das Oberschlesische Industriege­
biet (GOP) ist Beispiel für ein typisches altes Industriegebiet, dessen Zukunft sich
nicht als optimistisch bezeichnen läßt. Früher oder später erzwingen die Erfordernisse
eines globalen Marktes grundsätzliche strukturelle Umwandlungen. Ihr Verlauf wird
im großen Maße davon abhängen, wie die gesellschaftlichen Kosten dieser Umwand­
lungen verteilt werden, und auch davon, ob und inwiefern es gelingt, die staatlichen
und die privaten Unternehmer zu bewegen, gemeinsame Lösungen zu finden. Das ist
die Schlußfolgerung der während der zwei Symposiumstage in Katowice geführten
Diskussion. Die zur Teilnahme an dem Symposium eingeladenen Fachleute aus
beiden Teilen des sich vereinigenden Europas hatten die Gelegenheit die Ergebnisse
ihrer Forschungen über die alten Industriegebiete darzustellen; den Referaten gingen
sehr oft - im Falle der Vertreter Osteuropas - allgemeine Überlegungen über die sich
gegenwärtig in ihren Ländern vollziehenden Systemumwandlungen voraus.
Den Band leitet der Text von J. M usil ein, über die aktuellen strukturellen
Umwandlungen der traditionellen Industriegebiete der Tschechischen Republik. Der
Verfasser stützt sich auf die Analyse der statistischen Daten und der regioneilen
Untersuchungen über den Einfluß der Sytemumwandlungen nach 1989 auf die gesell­
schaftlich - räumlichen Umwandlungen in der Tschechischen Republik, und kommt
zum Schluß, daß in diesem Land, langsam aber konsequent, der Prozeß der Deindust­
rialisierung in Verbindung mit der Kürzung der Arbeitsplätze und einer andauernden
Kriese einiger Industriezweige stattfindet. Es betrifft vor allem die nördlichen Gebiete
Tschechiens; im Süden dagegen und im beschränkten Maße im Westen des Landes
entstehen Regionen des Zuwachses, die auf den neuen und alten Industriezweigen
beasieren. Die Dominanz in der Ansiedlungsstruktur Tschechiens der kleinen und
mittelgroßen Städte und eine relativ kleine Zahl großer Industriekomplexe hat - der
M einung des Verfassers nach - wesentliche Bedeutung für die Absorption der Fol­
gen der Systemveränderungenen der tschechischen Wirtschaft. Eine wertvolle Er­
gänzung und Detaillierung der Erörterungen von J. Musil ist die von T. Sirovätka
dargestellte präzise Analyse der Segmentierung des Arbeitsmarktes in der Tschechis­
chen Republik und in den Regionen der traditionellen Industrie wie auch der Fakto­
ren. die über die M arginalisierung der nichtqualifizierten Arbeitskräfte auf dem
lokalen Arbeitsmarkt entscheiden. Viele der von Sirovätka dargestellten Analysen
finden ihre Entsprechungen in den in ähnlichen Regionen in Polen registrierten
Phänomenen.
Die drei nächsten Referate wurden von deutschen Forschem vorbereitet und
zeigen das komplizierte und in seiner Wirkung nicht eindeutige Bild der strukturellen
Um wandlungen der alten Industriegebiete in den neuen und alten Ländern des ve­
reinigten Deutschlands. W. Strubelt analysiert die Diskrepanzen der ökonomischen
Entwicklung in vergleichbaren (wenn es um die Industriestruktur geht) Gebieten
West- und Ostdeutschlands; dabei beobachtet er, daß diese Unterschiede im großen
Maße (zum Nachteil der letzteren) an den Stand vor dem zweiten Weltkrieg erinnern.
Die ökonomischen Probleme, vor die die alten Industriegebiete der neuen Länder
nach der Vereinigung gestellt wurden, sind - der M einung des Verfassers nach
- Echo der gleichen Problem, mit denen sich die westlichen Länder vor 20 oder 30
Jahren auseinandersetzen mußten. Regiestriert man die Probleme, die jetzt in den
alten Industriegebieten auftreten, darf man - der M einung des V erfassers nach
- nicht den historischen Aspekt und die Tatsache, daß die ökonomische Entwicklung
in langen Anwachs- und Stillstandzyklen gemessen werden sollte, vergessen. Es
bedeutet, daß man heute nicht mehr mit Sicherheit voraussehen kann, ob die heute
florierenden Südgebiete W estdeutschlands das heutige Entwicklungstempo auch in
der Zukunft einhalten werden. Der Meinung des Verfassers nach kann man schon
über einige beunruhigende Zeichen sprechen, die aus der wachsenden Konkurenzfähigkeit des globalen Arbeitsmarktes und der Zugänglichkeit, sowohl in Europa
als auch in anderen W eltteilen, biliger Arbeitskräfte resultieren.
Zwei sich ergänzende Bearbeitungen von T. Rommelspacher und J. Friedrichs
sowie von R. Küppers betreffen das Ruhrgebiet, in dem die Prozesse der mit dem
Untergang der Schwerindustrie verbundenen strukturellen Umwandlungen schon vor
vierzig Jahren begannen. Im Referat des ersten der genannten Verfasser findet man
die Beschreibung der gesellschaftlichen Folgen dieser Prozesse, und die anderen
Autoren zeigen die Ergebnisse ihrer Untersuchungen über die Effektivität der Revita­
lisierungsstrategien, die in den letzten 20 Jahren in den Städten dieser Region vollzo­
gen wurden. Wegen der strukturellen Ähnlichkeit des Oberschlesischen Industriege­
bietes und des Ruhrgebietes sind die in diesen Texten dargestellten Erörterungen von
besonderer Bedeutung. Aus ihnen resultiert, daß obwohl in vielen Fällen die Effekti­
vität der durch die einzelnen Städte unternommenen Revitalisierungsaktivitäten
starke Zweifel aufwerfen könnten (zum Beispiel in Bezug auf die M öglichkeit der
Bildung neuer Arbeitsplätze für die gekündigten Arbeiter), könnte das Aufgeben
dieser Aktivitäten zur vollen Degradierung und zum endgültigen Fall führen.
Eine kritische Erörterung der englischen Erfahrungen auf dem Gebiet der Revita­
lisierungsprogram me alter Industriegebiete sind die Texte von D. Byrne und
S. Kaczmarek. D. Byrne fußt auf den Beobachtungen der Restrukturalisierung zweier
Gebiete der traditionellen Industrie - South Yorkshire und Tyne & Wear, und zeigt
die negativen - seiner Meinung nach - Folgen der Revitalisierungsstrategien, die zur
Beschleunigung der Deindustrialisierungsprozesse und zur Umwandlung alter Indu­
striegebiete in Handels-Dienstleistungs-, Unterhaltungs-, und Kulturzentren wie auch
in Gebiete der Luxuswohnungen führen. Die Realisierung derartiger Projekte - meint
Byrne - führt zur Vertiefung der Prozesse der gesellschafts-räumlichen Teilung der
Städte und zugleich zur Festigung der Randstellung der ökonomisch schwächsten,
weniger qualifizierten Gesellschaftsgruppen. Kritische Bemerkungen über ähnliche
Beispiele der gesellschaftlichen und räumlichen Revitalisierung alter Industriestädte
in Großbritannien macht auch in seinem Aufsatz S. Kaczmarek, indem er zum Schluß
die Meinung über die Notwendigkeit der integrierten Lösung dieses Problems äußert.
Eine andere Sicht der gesellschaftlichen Probleme, die die ökonomische Restruk­
turalisierung der alten Industriegebiete begleiten, ist im Aufsatz von L. Morris zu
finden. Es ist ein umfangreicher Bericht über die von der Verfasserin im ehemaligen
Zentrum der Werftindustrie Hartlepool (Nord-West England) geführten Untersuchun­
gen. L. Morris weist auf die Bedeutung der informellen gesellschaftlichen Beziehun­
gen (Familie, Freunde, Bekannte) für die G estaltung individueller und familienbezo­
gener Anpassungsstrategien im Bereich der Änderungen auf dem Arbeitsmarkt hin.
Die Verfasserin stellt unter anderem Fest, daß gerade diese informellen Gesellschaft­
lichen Beziehungen außer anderen objektiveren Faktoren wie: Qualifikationen, Lö­
sungen im Bereich der Gesellschaftspolitik, die Lage auf dem Arbeitsmarkt, besonde­
ren Einfluß auf die Effektivität der Abschaffung der Arbeitslosigkeit haben.
In den folgenden vier Aufsätzen werden erneut die Probleme der sich dem Fall
neigenden Bergbaugebiete dargestellt. V. Mansourov und M. Chemysh zeigen die dra­
matische Lage auf dem Gebiet Workuta und dem Küstengebiet, wo die Bergleute seit
vielen Monaten keinen Lohn für ihre Arbeit bekommen. Das Ausmaß und die Intensität
der Probleme der sich dem Fall neigenden Kohlenindustrie sind so groß, daß sich die
Lokalregierungen, die Gewerkschaften und die Staatausschüsse damit keinen Rat mehr
wissen. Die Verfasser sind der Meinung, daß eine Restrukturalisierung, die sich auf die
Schließung der Gruben begrenzt, zu gesellschaftlichen Unruhen führt.
Im Aufsatz von K. W ódz wurden die Ergebnisse der Untersuchungen der in den
.Gruben der W ojewodschaft Katowice angestellten Bergleute über ihre Ängste und
die voraussichtlichen Reaktionen auf die Veränderungen, die durch die Prozesse der
ökonomischen Restrukturalisierung hervorgerufen werden, analysiert. Die Verfas­
serin zeigt ein mentales Bild der untersuchten Berufsgruppe und zeigt ihre inneren
2 Social Aspects..
Differenzierungen, die aus den kulturellen Unterschieden resultieren, die wiederum
mit der regioneilen Abstammung der Befragten verbunden ist. In Anlehnung an die
Ergebnisse der eigenen und fremden soziologischen Untersuchungen, die in den
letzten Jahren in der Wojewodschaft Katowice durchgeführt wurden, stellt A. Cybula
fest, daß die Untem ehm ungsbereitschaft - als Grundlage für den ökonomischen
Erfolg unter Bedingungen der M arktwirtschaft - bei einer relativ kleinen Gruppe
der Untersuchten auftritt; er meint auch, daß weitere Veränderungen auf diesem
Gebiet eine tiefgreifende Reform des Bildungssystems, das weiterhin durch die
Berufschulen beherrscht wird, erforden. Ein Kommentar zu den in den Texten von
K. W ódz und A. Cybula dargestellten Ergebnissen der empirischen Untersuchungen
sind die Überlegungen über die Bedeutung des gesellschaftlichen Kapitals in den
Prozessen der Anpassung an die Systemveränderungen in der W ojewodschaft Ka­
towice, die von A. Cybula und M. S. Szczepański dargestellt wurden.
Die Armut als Folge der Deindustrialisierungsprozesse und Ergebnis der allge­
meinen Systemveränderungen in den Ländern Mittel- und Osteuropas sind das The­
ma, das W. W arzywoda-Kruszyńska und J. Grotowska-Leder wie auch J. Szalai
erörtern. Das erste Them a illustrieren die Ergebnisse der Untersuchungen über die
räumliche Konzentration der Armut, die von der Verfasserin in der zweitgrößten
Industriestadt Polens - Łódź - durchgeführt wurden. Die empirische Grundlage für
das zweite Thema bildeten die Beobachtungen der gesellschafts - ökonomischen
Trends, die in den Ländern des ehemaligen Ostblocks auftreten und in diesen Län­
dern vorherrschen, und der Art und W eise - der M einung von J. Szalai nach nicht
immer korrekten - Erklärung der Ursachen der wachsenden Armut und der vorge­
schlagenen Vorbeugungsstrategien.
Den Band schließt der Text von E. Laiferovä und J. Buncäk, der den Rahmen
des Symposiums ein wenig sprengt und die Differenzierungsprozesse der slovakischen Gesellschaft und seinen Einfluß auf die gesellschaftliche Desintegrierung und
Reintegrierung in diesem Land analysiert.
Als Veranstalter dieses Symposiums bin ich mir dessen bewußt, daß die im Band
festgehaltenen Referate die Atmosphäre dieses Treffens, sein Niveau und die Qua­
lität der Diskussionen während der Tagung und am Rande nicht im geringesten
wiederspiegelt. Dafür möchte ich mich bei allen Referenten und Diskutanten herzlich
bedanken und ich hoffe, daß dieser Band ein nächster Schritt im Austausch der
Erfahrungen, Untersuchungen und Reflexionen über die Gegenwart und die Zukunft
der alten Industriegebiete im vereinigten Europa bilden wird.
Kazimiera Wódz
Old and New Industrial
Regions in the Czech
Republic
Jiri Musil
Central European University
and Charles University
Prague
The following study is a social macroregional analysis of industrial growth and
decline in the Czech Republic with stress on developments after 1989. It is based
on two main types of information: (1) on my own statistical analysis using data for
75 Czech districts and for the city of Prague, carried out especially for this study,
(2) on a summary of other relevant regional studies which tried to explain the
impacts of societal changes after the collapse of the communist regime in 1989 on
the socio-spatial structure of the Czech Republic. The aim of the study is to show
that the systemic transformations after 1989 gave an impulse to regional changes
which can, in long-term perspective, change the traditional division of the country
into the industrial north and non-industrial south.
To enable the reader to understand the wider context of the regional changes, and
especially of the regional changes in industrial developments, the first part of the paper
describes the relevant part of the systemic changes in the Czech Republic after 1989.
1. A short summary of the systemic
changes in the Czech Republic after 1989
For better understanding of the industrial growth and decline, some basic trans­
formation features of the political as well as of the economic systems and of the
effects of the splitting of former Czechoslovakia must be - even in a very condensed
form - mentioned.
The basic feature which should be stressed before describing more specific parts of
the last five years prevailing political regime, is the fact that all the systemic changes
were based on a mixture of neo-conservative and neo-liberal economic and political
philosophy. The main com ponents of this policy can be described in the
following way:
- neo-liberal conception of economic transformation, stressing the step by step
introduction of market mechanisms into the main parts of economy, stressing
privatization, deregulation, liberalization of prices, reduction of state subsidies in
many parts of the economy, internal and external convertibility of the Czech
crown and free foreign trade policies;
- stress on individual responsibility, on the diminishing role of the state and other
public bodies in economy in general, and especially in social, health services and
partly also in education with the aim to reduce public expenditures and to have
a balanced state budget;
- at the same time, however, the formation of a relatively strong, centralistically
oriented state administration, without influential intermediary regional and associational self-governing units; the model intends to support the so-called “so­
ciety of citizens” based on individual persons, municipalities and the state, but
not to support a civil society
- emphasis on social consensus and on balancing carefully the interests of the
emerging new upper and middle classes (enterpreneurs, top managers, bankers,
upper layers of state and municipal bureaucracy, parts of intelligentsia) with the
interests of other employees, manual workers and farmers;
- ideological neutrality, stress on the formal conception of democracy and on the
negative concept of freedom, e.g. on “freedom from” ;
- pragmatic political culture, readiness to make compromises, except in some sphe­
res of economic policy, as e.g. a balanced state budget;
- support of spontaneous market as well as political processes which should not be
regulated or planned.
There are four elements of the systemic changes which proved to be the most
relevant for understanding the changes in the regional structure of the Czech Repub­
lic as mentioned in most studies on the Czech transformation:
1) the marketization of economy in general,
2) the opening of the Czech economy to the foreign competition, inclusive the
opening of the borders,
3) the non-functioning of the housing market leading to the declining internal
migration of people, i.e. to the rather sub-optimal functioning of the labour market and,
4) the transformations in the sphere of territorial government and administration.
To these systemic changes another factor should be added, i.e. the division of Cze­
choslovakia into two independent states, into the Czech and Slovak Republic.
1
This view was expressed by the strongest o f the ruling coalition parties, namely by the “Civic
Dem ocratic Party”, not by the two other and smaller coalition parties.
2. Main trends in the sectorial structure
of Czech economy
Before starting to describe in concreto the main effects of the above mentioned
elements on the industrial regions, the main relevant trends in the structure of Czech
economy must be mentioned.
In the period 1990-1993 the GDP declined by 20%, the industrial production
by 30% and the agricultural production by 25%. After 1993 up to 1997 the overall
industrial production has been rising, with practically stagnating num ber of people
em ployed in industry, i.e. in 1994 - 1.62 m illion and in 1996 - 1.63 m illion.
The main reductions in industrial jobs were carried out in the first four years
of the transformation and the industrial labour market stabilized relatively after
1993. It should be, however, stressed that the number of industry employees de­
clined from 2.02 million in 1990 to 1.62 million in 1994. The rapidly growing
service sector was able to absorb probably the largest part of the former employees
of industry who lost their jobs. Similar processes can be observed in agriculture.
The number of agriculturalists dropped from 631 thousand in 1990 to 312 thousand
in 1996. That means that more than a half of agriculturalists left this sector of
economy in a short period. It seems, however, that only a part of them moved
into the service sector. Some of them, probably old people and women, simply
ceased their activities in the formal part of economy. Two sectors were growing:
construction and services. The m ost rapid growth can be observed in services.
In 1990 there were about 2.3 m illion people em ployed in this sector, in 1996
the number went up to approximately 2.7 million.
At the same time the unemployment oscillated in the mentioned years between
150,000 to 200,000 and the overall num ber of people in the formal economy
declined from 5.35 million in 1990 to 5.04 million in 1996.
Our calculations have shown that from approximately 720 thousand of employ­
ees in industry and agriculture who lost jobs in these two sectors, roughly 400
thousand moved into the services, 50 thousand moved into construction industry,
150-200 thousand remained unemployed and a relatively small num ber of formerly
active people, i.e. cca 50 to 70 thousand left the formal economy.
The restructuring of the Czech labour market proceeded in a situation of de­
clining housebuilding rate and growing housing shortage and in a situation of de­
clining internal migration of population. This is a rather important fact hinting to
an important systemic feature of Czech transformation of industry and agriculture.
The economic transformation after 1989, leading to rather extensive structural chan­
ges in the proportions of the main economic sectors and to quantitatively extensive
moves of labour force from one sector to another, proceeded without any substantial
changes of the regional and settlement system of the country. M ost of the systemic
changes in industry, agriculture and services were absorbed by the local and regional
labour and housing markets. Such a phenomenon hints to a specific character of the
settlement structure of the Czech Republic but also to some specific features of the
Czech social and cultural patterns. I shall return to this point in the part summarizing
the results of my paper.
3. The changes inside the sector
of industry
The marketization of economy, the opening of the Czech economy to foreign
competition and to some extent the split of the country into two independent states started
to change the structure of industry itself. Some industries began to decline, other stagnate
and some expand. According to the statistical data for the last seven years, i.e. 1990-1997,
to the declining industries belong manufacture of leather and leather products, textile
industry and manufacture of textile products, manufacture of footwear, manufacture of
furniture and manufacture of paper and paper products, and also metallurgy.
The second group is com posed of those branches which practically stagnate.
Here we find the manufacture of machinery, which forms the largest part of the
Czech industry. Inside this group stagnating as well as growing enterprises can be
found; it is a rather mixed group.
To the growing parts of industry belong glass industry, manufacture of other
non-metallic mineral products, manufacture of rubber and plastic products, food and
beverage industry, especially producion of beer, electronic industry, chemical in­
dustry including refineries of oil and mainly the car industry.
The available data thus prove that the Czech Republic is undergoing a deindus­
trialization process surprisingly with a considerable decline in traditionally strong
and competitive branches of Czech light industry, as e.g. footwear industry, ready­
made clothing industry, paper industry.
Table 1
Em ploym ent in the three basic subsectors of industry, 1990, 1994 (in %)
Subsector
1990
1994
Index 1994/1990
Coal, ore, etc. extraction
9.2
6.2
54.0
Processing industry
86.9
88.2
81.0
Energy, production and distribution
3.9
5.6
114.8
100.0
100.0
X
TOTAL
S o u r c e : C zech Statistical O ffice, 1996.
To the data on changes in the manufacturing industries information on the de­
cline in coal-mining industry should be added. According to the available statistics,
the hard coal-mining went down from 22.4 million tones in 1990 to 10.9 million
tones in 1994. The decline in both coal-mining was in the same period not so spec­
tacular, i.e. from 83.7 million tones to 66.0 million tones. This trend was accom­
panied of course by the declining number of people employed in the mining industry.
4. The impact of transformation on the
regional patterns of industry
The synergic effects of growth-decline processes in industry, of a relatively rapid
growth of the service sector, of the opening of Czech economy to foreign com­
petition, of the geographic reorientation of the foreign trade - from East to West
- and last but not least, the split of Czechoslovakia, are already reflected in the
changing regional patterns.
Regions where the declining industries are concentrated start to face economic
and social difficulties linked with growing unemployment, falling wages declining
social infrastructure and sometimes with social disorganization. The regions which
observe economic and industrial growth start to attract people, and there are many
sings of improvement in life conditions as, e.g., renewing and reconstruction of
housing, growing retail sector and, in general, rising living standard.
The unemployment level is one of the most frequently used indirect indicators of
the regional economic as well as social situation. To other indicators of regional
conditions and mainly of the attractiveness of individual regions belong the data on
migration and on growth or decline of population. These data must be, however,
rather carefully interpreted due to the differences in the age structure of individual
regions’ populations. As direct indicators of industrial development in regions the
data on industrial production are often used, e.g. the data on the output expressed in
current prices. Even if the time period we are analysing is short, according to the
above mentioned indicators, some trends in the regional industrial growth and de­
cline can be already identified. The following part of the paper tries to
summarize them.
The data on growth or decline of population indicate the following trends:
- m ining regions and regions with steel production and heavy engineering are
slowly loosing population. They form two geographical clusters, one is the nor­
thern Moravian and Silesian region (with core districts Karvinä and Ostrava), the
second the north Bohemian mining region (core districts Most, Teplice, Usti nad
Labem); this second region forms a continuous zone along the borders between
Bohemia and Saxonia;
Fig. 1. Unemployment rate in districts of the Czech Republic - April 1997
U nem ploym ent R ate, %
I
E 3
I
-0 .9 9
[m i]
2.00 - 2.99
H i
4 .0 0 -4 .9 9
1 .0 0 -1 .9 9
m il
3.00 - 3.99
W ä
5.00-5.99
■ ■
6.00 +
- decline of population was observed also in some other industrial districts, but
they do not form continuous zones;
- decline of population in large non-industrial regions separating M oravia and
Bohemia, and Prague metropolitan region from South Bohemia;
- there are, however, regions where at least a medium growth of population,2 based
most probably on the expansion of industry, can be found; to them belong Central
Bohemian region with such enterprises as Skoda, South Bohemian growth zone
stretching from Tabor to Ceske Budejovice and to Cesky Krumlov and the Central
M oravian region; the population growth in Northern M oravia is a result of a spe­
cific age structure, i.e. of relatively strong young age groups;
- growing are also the urban regions of main Czech cities, first of all Prague, but
also, in a lesser degree Brno, Pilsen, Karlovy Vary, Zlfn and Olomouc.
With population decline and outmigration are correlated data on unemployment. Fig.
1 shows quite clearly that there are two main large regions where the highest unemploy­
ment rates are concentrated: the North Bohemian and the North M oravian region.
Comparisons of data on unemployment in individual districts at the beginning of 90s
and in 1997 have proved that the differences between the regions of the country are
growing. A process of economic, social and spatial polarization has undoubtedly started.
2
The population o f the Czech Republic was stagnating in the period 1980 (10.3 m illion) to 1994
(10.3 m illion) and after 1994 declining. Thus regions with population growth are quite an exceptional
phenom enon signalizing their economic growth.
The macroregional effects of the transformation of Czech society, and especially
of the restructuring of Czech industry, caused by the introduction of market mecha­
nisms and of foreign industry competition, can be seen from the data in the following
table documenting the shifts in regional distribution of industrial output.
Table 2
The industrial production in the regions o f the Czech Republic in 1991 and 1995
Year
1991
1995
Index
1995/1991
Prague
15.8
13.4
85.0
Central Bohemia
13.1
14.2
108.4
Southern Bohemia
4.6
5.5
119.6
W estern Bohemia
6.0
6.6
110.0
Northern Bohemia
15.1
14.2
94.0
9.8
9.6
98.0
South Moravia
13.7
14.6
106.0
North Moravia
21.9
21.9
100.0
100.0
100.0
X
Regions
Eastern Bohemia
TOTAL
N o t e s : The output of industry in current prices; index o f grow th 1991 = 100.0.
S o u r c e : C zech Statistical Office, 1997.
The table indicates the following shifts in the macroregional patterns of Czech
industry: deindustrialization of Prague, decline in the relative proportion of industrial
production in the old industrial regions in the north and the relative growth of
industry in the new regions. These new regions are in the southern half of the country
and in Central Bohemia. The most considerable relative growth can be seen in the
two regions which are located along the German and Austrian borders, i.e. in Sou­
thern and Western Bohemia.
5. Changing shares of employees in
industry and services according to
regions
The last part of the analysis which tests the hypothesis that systemic changes
after 1989 started to modify the traditional regional distribution of Czech industry,
Fig. 2. Changes in the regional distribution of industry in the years 1980-1995
Districts w ith increasing shares o f em ployees in industry
M
L A R G E G A IN S
H+H
M E D IU M G A IN S
^^1
D istricts w ith decreasing shares o f em ployees in industry
SM A L L G A IN S
SM A L L L O SSES
llllll
I
I L A R G E L O SSES
M E D IU M LO SSES
Fig. 3. Changes in the regional distribution of the service sector in the years 1980-1995
Districts with increasing shares o f em ployees in th e service sector
D istricts with decreasing shares o f em ployees in th e service sector
■ i
L A R G E G A INS
ggg]
SM A L L LO SSES
H +H
M E D IU M G A INS
l ll l l l
M E D IU M LOSSES
SM ALL G A INS
□
L A R G E LOSSES
is based on the following procedure. For 75 districts and Prague were calculated for
1980 and 1995 the shares (in%) of the employees in industry, agriculture and ser­
vices from the total number of economically active population in the country. These
data show the changing “weights” of individual districts in the total industrial,
agricultural or service m anpower of the Czech Republic in two different
periods. The data for 1980 show the spatial distribution o f the three sectors,
as measured by the number of employees, in a period of “developed” socialism,
the data for 1995 registered already the impact of the system ic changes
which started in 1990.
Figs. 2 and 3 indicate the shifts in the regional distribution of industrial and
service jobs. They can be summarized in the following way: in general terms, the
northern parts of Bohemia and to a lesser degree of Moravia, started to loose in
relative terms the industrial jobs, on the contrary a large and compact region of
South Bohemia and South Moravia started to gain such jobs. Another looser seems
to be a zone in eastern Moravia, along the borders with Slovakia. Here the split of
Czechoslovakia can be one of the causes of such a decline. The developments in
the service sector followed to a large extent the same spatial pattern. Nevertheless,
in the area of services, still another trend has been registered, i.e. the rapid growth
of jobs in services in the largest cities (Prague, Brno, Ostrava, Pilsen, Ceske Budejovice, Hradec Krälove). The comparison of the two periods disclosed also some
other, less general trends: the formation of new small industrial growth poles based
on successful enterprises, like the growth of the M ladä Boleslav district where the
Skoda cars are produced and assembled, the continuing attractiveness of old indus­
trial centres like Pilsen, Ostrava, Brno or Zlfn.
6. Summary and discussion
In spite of the fact that some analysts refer to the relative rigidity of Czech
industry, to the barriers of its structural transformation and especially to the strong
stability of Czech heavy industry, the statistical data indicate a slowly proceeding
kind of deindustrialization and rationalization leading to the reduction of jobs in
industry and to a prolonged crisis of some industrial branches. The collapse of the
communist system and the opening of the country to the world, triggered, however,
some radical structural changes, which will be sooner or later reflected also in the
regional patterns of industry. There exist first signs of processes which will start to
restructure the spatial patterns formed in the past 150 years.
Our analysis at the same time hinted at some factors which - for better or worse
- cushioned some of the negative social effects of restructuration of the Czech
industry. Thanks to the existence of a specific settlement system, i.e. to the existence
of a dense network of small and medium-sized towns as well as to the existence of
a large number of industrial plants of a relative small size and, on the contrary, to
the non-existence of too many large industrial plants, the systemic changes in the
Czech economy after 1989, were absorbed by the existing social and settlement
system without large shocks and mainly without large regional migrations of people.
On the contrary: the transformation of Czech economy and industry proceeds under
a situation in which the migration of the population decreases. The growing inter­
sectoral and social mobility is thus not leading to a growing geographic mobility.
This hints at a phenomenon, which can be described as a strong absorption capacity
of the economic and settlement system of the Czech Republic. It seems that until
now low level of unemployment belongs to the causes of the fact that the migration
of population is first of all caused by the pull effects, i.e. by the attractiveness of
some regions and cities and not by the push effects, as e.g. high unemployment rate
in a region. To the main causes of the low mobility of the labour forces belongs
most probably the contemporary housing shortage, which is caused by a considerable
decline of housebuilding after 1989. There are, however, other factors which retard
the mobility of Czech population. They are of a “softer” nature, but their impact
can be quite considerable. They can be described as socio-cultural factors. They
form an important part of the lower middle class value system - which is so typical
for the Czechs - and to which belong: localism, attachment to a certain locality or
region, and in general a kind of secularized traditionalism. Most Czechs do not like
to move, to migrate.
In spite of all the mentioned factors which considerably slow down the regional
restructuration of the Czech industry, all the three analyses which have been carried
out by the author of this paper, and most of the other analogous studies, have shown
that in the Czech Republic some important long-term regional changes are already
going on. To the most relevant belong: the more rapid industrial growth in the
southern parts of the country, i.e. the share of these parts in the total industrial output
of the Czech Republic increased from 37.4% in 1991 to 40.9% in 1995; deindus­
trialization of Prague accompanied with a radical improvement of the economic and
political position of the city; a trend towards forming a growth region in South
Bohemia based on the expansion of old industries as well as on new industry bran­
ches, on growing tourism and on foreign investments and the interaction with nearby
industry in Germany and Austria. In a less pronounced way similar processes can
be observed in some parts of the western Bohemian region.
There is no doubt that the most difficult problems are facing some of the Socialist
mono-industrial regions in Northern Bohemia. Other and older Czech industrial
agglomerations are - compared with such regions like the Upper Silesian region, or
Lorraine, or Ruhr region - relatively small and their industry was traditionally rather
mixed. This heritage, this kind of industrial structure, stemming from the 19thcentury industrialization, paradoxically helps to manage the difficulties of restruc­
turing the Czech industry in the present time.
References
Hampl, M. et al., 1996. Geografickä organizace spolećnosti a transform aćm procesy v Ćeske republice
[Geographic Organization of Society and the Transformation of the Czech Republic]. Prague: Charles
University.
Illner, M., 1997. “Regional Structure and Post-Communist Transformation, the Case of the Czech Repub­
lic”, in Musil, J. and Strubelt, W. (eds.), op. cit., pp. 29—44.
KopaCka, L., 1994. “Industry in the Transition o f Czech Society and Econom y” , Geo-Journal, Vol. 32,
No. 3: 207-214.
Kopacka, L., 1996. “Structural Changes of Economy in Relation to Industry”, in Hampl, M. et al., op.
cit., pp. 219-237.
Musil, J., K otacka, L. and Rysavy, Zd., 1997. “Regional E ffects o f the T ransform ation Processes
in the Czech Republic after 1989”, in Becker, A. (ed.), Regionale Strukturen im Wandel. Opladen:
Leske, Budrich.
Musil, J. and Strubelt, W. (eds.), 1997. Räum liche A usw irkungen des Transform ationsprozesses in
Deutschland und bei den östlichen Nachbarn. Opladen: Leske, Budrich.
Social Factors
of Unemployment Growth
in Industrialized Regions
in the Czech Republic
Tomäs Sirovatka
Masaryk University
Brno
1. Introduction
A low unemployment rate, which unlike the other post-communist countries the
Czech Republic has maintained, is one of the conditions for the sustainability of
economic reform. Unemployment is putting little pressure on government budget,
and is not producing social unrest. The complex of economic and social factors that
contributed to the “Czech paradox” of low unemployment has more than once been
assessed (cf. e.g. with, Możny, 1994; OECD, 1995).
2. Economic transformation and
prospects for the labour market
2.1. Overall developments in the field of employment
The labour market in the Czech Republic reacted in quite an unexpected way
to the impact of market transformation. Firstly the decrease in employment sig­
nificantly lagged behind the drop in production. Even though the size of gross
domestic product is evidently underrated here, in particular because it does not
include the important contribution of the “grey economy” (according to some es­
timates this could make up as much as a quarter of gross domestic product); it
is evident that in the course of transformation the decline in gross domestic product
showed itself only partly in a decrease in employment and even less in the growth
of unemployment. In total, from 1989 to 1995, employment decreased by about
7.2 %. If we compare, aware of the simplifications involved, the m ovement of
GDP in the same period (not taking into account, e.g. changes in working
hours and structural changes in GDP), then we observe a process of “labour
hoarding” : a decline in gross dom estic product by about 15.5%. However,
if only half of the accum ulated “excess em ploym ent” becam e open unem p­
loyment, it would have lead to an unem ploym ent rate of about 8% in the
Czech Republic in 1994. The scale of job accum ulation reached its peak in
1992 (the decrease in GDP exceeded the decline in employment by 10 percentage
points), and since then it has started to decrease slowly with the renewal
of GDP dynamics.
Secondly: the rapid development of small and individual enterprises, starting
from the already well-functioning informal sector, was important for changes in
employment structure. The activities of small and individual enterprises managed
to absorb about 11% of the total num ber of those employed in a major job in 1996.
W e do not consider the overall changes in ownership structure to be too important
because they rather reflect the change of ownership of previously existing entities.
On the other hand, the change of structure by sector (Jackman, 1994:333) can be
considered to be more significant. In the transformation process the primary sector
lost most (about 51% of the previous level of employment) and the tertiary sector,
on the other hand, gained 13% relative to the previous level of employment. Em ­
ployment in the secondary sector, where by the way a number of service activities
were hidden prior to 1989, decreased by 17% in the period of these five years, but
in comparison with the European Union countries, the production sector here main­
tained a higher level of employment.
Thirdly: despite there being a drop of over 7% in the num ber of people in
employment, the decrease was to a large extent due to people leaving the legal labour
market. More than half was due to a drop in the employment of pensioners. Their
number dropped from 519 thousand at the end of 1990 to 294 thousand in 1991, i.e.
by 225 thousand and remains lower (307 thousand by the end 1995). The impact of
the employment drop was also cushioned by those taking early retirement (their
num ber increased up to 109 thousand people in December 1994) and the growth of
employment in the grey economy, including work abroad (according to minimum
estimates the informal sector swallowed a total of at least 150 thousand people).
At the beginning of 90s the population bulge bom in the 70s 1 entered their
productive period. Despite their increased participation in all levels of education,
this additional pressure on the labour market contributed to the decrease in economic
activity that had generally been expected at the beginning of the transformation.
The rate of economic activity of inhabitants of the Czech Republic of productive
age decreased from 66.6% in March 1991 to 61.1% in winter 1996 (with men the
1
The number of inhabitants of productive age increased from 1990 to the end of 1995 by 290
thousand as a result o f a population bulge at the end of the 70s. However, over 70 thousand out o f the
overall increase were absorbed by the education sector (CSÓ... : Ekonomickd... [Economic...], 1994;
P rojekte... [Projections...], 1992).
Table 1
Em ploym ent developm ent by sectors (in %)
Year
1990
1992
1995
EU average
1994
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
11.4
7.9
6.0
46.0
44.5
41.6
42.6
47.6
52.4
5.0
30.0
65.0
S o u r c e s : ĆSIJ. Vyvoj zam estnanosli [Em ploym ent Developm ent! (1997).
( N o te : T hese figures give those em ployed in the civil sector including foreigners and part-tim ers w ithout wom en on m aternity leave).
economic activity rate was 71.2% and with women 51.9%). W e continue to be
among the countries with the highest rates of economic activity, along with the
Scandinavian countries, Japan, the USA and Australia, while, e.g., the European
continental states have significantly lower rates of economic activity - Austria 56%,
Germany 58%, and France 55% (ĆSU: Ekonomicka... [Economic...], 1994).
The decisive factor is that due to the coincidence of several causes the big
production enterprises are more interested in survival rather than increased efficiency
and therefore their production has decreased to a greater extent than the number of
workers they employ (Holub, 1994). Staff mobility is considerable but mostly fluid.
During adaptation to market pressures, enterprises from the production sector have
taken advantage of the supply of cheap labour, supported by currency parity, and
have preserved the relatively high employment rate.
In the future pressures connected with technological change and modernization,
which are seen as inevitable, are expected to influence the labour market. Only these
will probably lead to large-scale redundancies in the production sector and will
thoroughly test the absorptive ability of the service sector, which in conditions of
growth accompanied by modernization usually gains from the improving potency
of the production branch, though mostly with a delay.
2.2. Current problems in the labour market
Registered unemployment reached a level of 3.5% at the end of 1996 while
unemployment rate according to survey data (and the ILO definition) was on a level
of 4.3% in winter 1996.
Segmentation of the labour market shows noticeably, especially in the growth
of regional disparities. The rate of registered unemployment rose over 5% in 19 of
the 77 Czech Republic’s districts in 1996. The districts were mostly industrialized
districts in northern Bohemia and northern Moravia, some in southern Moravia. In
the region of northern Moravia as a whole the labour force survey unemployment
rate was over 8%.
The distribution of the risk of unem ploym ent am ongst different groups is
also quite uneven and some groups are significantly affected despite the relative­
ly low rate of unem ploym ent. The rate of unem ploym ent of the disabled is
13.5%, of young people under 19 about 14%, that of the unqualified aboutl2% .
These groups differ significantly from the rest of the population whose unem ­
ploym ent rate does not exceed 5%. W hat the statistics do not say: the unem ­
ployment of the Romany ethnic minority (particularly long-term unemployment)
is extraordinary in Czech terms: the general rate of unemployment is estimated
to be at least 25% amidst Romany and long-term unemployment is prevalent.2
Generally, also there is a still acceptable, but nevertheless evident increase in
longer term unemployment, especially in the regions with a high unemployment
rate and in certain population groups. According to the data from the Ministry of
Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic, unemployment lasting longer than
6 months accounted for almost 36% of the overall number of unemployed and the
share of unemployment of those unemployed for more than a year 21% at the end
of 1996. Survey results (VSPS) also show that growth in the length of unemployment
and the overall share of long-term unemployment according to their findings is
higher than that of registered unemployment: in winter 1996 over 50% of unem ­
ployed were unem ployed longer than six m onths and 30% over a year. In
the regions with higher unem ploym ent, the unem ploym ent lasting longer than
6 months was relatively higher (77% in northern Bohemia and 60% in northern
M oravia) .3 In com parison with European standards, long-term unem ploym ent
is as yet relatively low and is growing only slowly. By way of com parison,
in the countries of the European Union, the share of long-term unem ployed
people (longer than 12 months) is m ostly between 40% and 60% of the total
unem ploym ent. W hile the situation in the Czech Republic does not at present
com pare with such countries, the trends are m oving in that direction. There
are many countries with a lower share of long-term unemployment, even where
the general level of unem ploym ent is higher than in the Czech Republic (e.g.
USA, Sweden).
The lower capacity of the market to absorb specific or long-term unemployment
is firstly a consequence of its selectivity and secondly of the low flexibility of certain
categories of the unemployed.
2 Cf. (Sirovätka and Reznicek, 1995). Estim ates by ROI [Romany Civic Initiative] representatives
speak of as m uch as a 50% rate of unemploym ent o f Rom anies at the beginning of 1995 (ROI meeting
on March 24, 1995 in Vsetin).
3 Data from Labour Force Survey (VŚPS), Czech Statistical Office, winter 1996.
3 Social Aspects..
2.3. Specific features of the Czech labour market: low
unemployment but high labour market selectivity
The following indicators of labour market selectivity are significant:
a)
huge differences in the specific unemployment rate when comparing different
groups - see Table 2.
Table 2
Specific unem ploym ent rates of selected categories
Selected categories
Spring 1993 W inter 1993 W inter 1994 W inter 1995 Autumn 1996
Total
Men
W omen
3.9
3.2
4.6
3.9
3.2
4.7
4.0
3.7
4.4
3.4
3.0
3.9
3.5
2.9
4.2
- 19
Men
Women
9.4
9.0
9.9
12.1
12.0
12.2
12.1
13.7
10.4
12.3
11.6
13.2
14.1
12.7
15.7
Unskilled
Men
W omen
8.8
9.7
8.3
8.3
9.2
7.8
10.2
13.1
8.3
10.4
12.1
9.3
10.0
12.2
8.6
Disabled
Men
Women
11.5
10.4
15.2
13.0
10.9
15.7
12.6
10.5
15.4
13.6
13.5
13.9
13.5
14.0
12.8
S o u r c e : Labour F orce Survey, own calculations.
b) huge regional differences in the general unemployment rate: the registered
unemployment rate varies from 0.4% in Prague to 9.4% in district Most, North
Bohemia (December 1996).
c) significant differences in the duration of unemployment and in the share of
long-term unemployment between different groups (see Table 3).
3. Labour market segmentation process
in the Czech Republic
In the transforming labour market of the post-communist countries, as well as in
the developed labour markets, there can be identified a tendency to differentiate two
or more segments (see Galäsi and Sziräcki, 1985). The basic segments of this market
are the internal labour markets that consist of both the firm and the professional
labour markets, and then the external fully competitive (and thus partially “margina­
lized”) labour market. The structure of economy and labour markets is supplemented
Table 3
Differences in the duration o f unem ploym ent and in the share o f long-term unem ploym ent
between different groups
Unem ployed by VSPS
autumn 95
unemployed category by the length o f job seeking
Groups
employed
total
up to 6
mths.
6-12
mths,
12 - 24
mths.
over 24
mths.
174002
%
79892
%
35569
%
29187
%
29354
%
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
Basic education
12.2
36.55
26.10
37.68
43.04
57.15
Apprenticeship
41.3
37.86
41.66
37.21
38.48
Total
Total %
H ighest education
Secondary school
5.9
4.96
5.85
4.23
4.62
3.75
Secondary with graduation
26.1
14.89
19.57
13.62
9.42
9.15
0.61
General secondary with graduation
4.1
3.21
4.28
3.68
2.31
University
10.4
2.33
2.54
3.59
1.40
1.13
W ithout education
0.1
0.22
-
-
0.73
0.55
Age groups
15-24
16.2
32.52
41.47
27.19
29.91
17.24
25-49
64.3
55.24
48.37
58.00
59.29
66.55
50-59
15.7
9.24
7.65
10.06
8.18
13.61
60 +
3.8
3.00
2.50
4.75
2.62
2.60
No
96.5
86.45
91.17
85.92
81.15
79.51
Yes, without serious damage
2.7
11.21
8.03
9.47
15.29
17.94
Yes, with serious damage
0.8
2.34
0.80
4.61
3.56
2.55
W ithout work enlistment
0.1
0.06
0.14
-
-
-
Legislators, bosses
5.8
2.23
3.04
1.45
0.75
2.45
Changed work ability
Professional category
Managers, professionals
9.5
2.06
2.59
2.09
1.81
0.84
Technicians, m edicians, teachers
18.1
7.02
8.12
7.98
3.64
6.21
Lower officers
7.6
5.79
6.14
5.46
7.35
3.70
Employment in services and stores
11.7
13.01
15.96
13.71
11.57
5.58
Qualificated workers in agriculture
2.5
1.29
0.87
1.17
1.59
2.26
Artificers, repairmen
21.8
13.95
12.65
19.59
11.03
13.53
M achine operators
13.3
9.22
9.94
10.78
10.29
4.26
Non-qualified workers
9.5
20.05
15.62
22.18
29.82
19.81
25.32
24.92
15.59
22.14
41.37
Single
38.68
48.35
29.84
32.68
29.01
Married
46.84
42.15
48.55
54.79
49.64
Divorced
11.98
7.77
19.15
7.47
19.24
W idowed
2.50
1.73
2.46
5.06
2.11
Not applicated
Family estate
with the heterogeneous and dynam ic informal labour market that is present at
each segment.
A “ secondary sector” of unskilled or occasional work was a part of
the former system. However, the difference between “prim ary” and “secondary”
positions was rem oved and a doubt was often cast on it as the secondary
jobs in legal and illegal sub-segm ent of the labour m arket were advantaged
by wages. In the processes of the starting market com petition, privatization
and restructuring of big com panies, the firm labour m arkets have decreased
and closed them selves to “external w orkers” even m ore than in past. In
difficult times, the com panies dism issed mostly secondary or “m arginal”
labour-force.
The way in which over-employment, that was not absorbed by the arising private
sector, used to be solved in the Czech economy was mainly based in the exclusion
of some specific categories of workers from the labour market and their inclusion
into the category of the economically inactive. In accordance with O ffe’s differen­
tiation of labour market policies (1985) this can be called “the policy of exclusion”.
Big companies restricted the numbers of workers and jobs most in casual professions
that are suitable for the marginal labour force. In order to keep their basic activities
in the process of transformation and protect their regular workers (mostly on the
basis of the seniority principle) these activities were often placed in new firms
outside the company.
This process has caused different regional rates of general unemployment. Un­
employment is higher in regions with the most extensive structural restrictions and
with an extensive shift of workers from the primary sector to secondary sector. This
process has not affected all industrialized regions but above all the regions which
have represented the “iron core” of the former socialist industry with high share of
mining, heavy industries (these are the districts of Northern Bohem ia and Northern
Moravia). These are the regions with the smallest number of jobs in both primary
and secondary sectors, and the competition in the secondary sector is high. The
primary segment of the labour market is shrinking there and the size of the secondary
segment of the labour market is growing. On the other hand, the cities with diver­
sified industrial structure, with higher share of engineering industry and with higher
proportion of skilled labour force have not been faced with rem arkable unem ­
ployment in spite of the decline of production.
By the end of 1996, e.g. according to the Labour Force Survey, the general
rate of unemployment in Northern Bohemia was 7.3%, in Northern M oravia it
was 6.6%, in other regions 3% -4% , in Prague 2%. When we look at data from
registers of em ploym ent offices we can see that the differences am ong the
districts are even bigger (in case of registered unemployment the range is from
0.5% to 10%).
In general, the position of the unskilled labour force - as could be expected in
the “achievement” system - has worsened in the external-competitive labour markets
both from the point of employment security and w ages.4 Furthermore, the labour
demands made by small private companies did not include formal qualification, experi­
ence and seniority so much as a loyalty that was often connected to a personal relations­
hip, ability to work with high intensity, flexibility and willingness to form non-standard
working relations and non-standard working methods and practices. In the secondary
market, there was not much demand for the labour force that lacked on the prerequisite to
meet such demands of high labour intensity: the disabled, women with small children,
youngsters or old people, as well as the Romany are the categories that are affected most.
The transforming economy and, especially, the starting private sector use the
secondary and marginal segment of the labour market effectively for their develop­
ment, too. The low wages together with the high intensity of labour are an important
competitive advantage in the period when economy as a whole and the starting
private sector do still not abound in capital. And compared to the developed market
economies of Europe they are still at a significantly lower level of technology.
Second, market economy brings a new uncertainty caused by the fluctuation of
demand and an extraordinary small chance to predict the size of demand in the
transforming economy. This uncertainty is partially transferred into “shadow eco­
nom y” that happens to be more successful in finding the mechanisms of facing the
insecurity: in the transformation period these are the strategies of tax evasion and
black employment. These strategies are aimed at the unstable labour force that is
dependent on secondary jobs and that accepts its role in shadow economy, or black
employment (in most cases temporary). Employing foreign workers or the Romany
workers for a short period is an example of this. The Romany are a group with the
highest specific rate of unemployment in the formal labour market.
Despite the low rate of unemployment and relatively low wages the labour market
becomes highly selective due to the fact that some groups of workers have no access to
the internal labour markets and because of the lack of competition in the secondary
labour markets. The differences in specific rates of unemployment are mainly caused
by the high share of long-term unemployment in the marginal segment in the labour
market. This kind of unemployment is concentrated mainly in the secondary segment
of labour force. The share of long-term unemployment (over 1 year) in the unemploy­
ment of the unskilled was about 45% in the Czech Republic in spring 1995, while it
was less than 30% with the trained workers. In EU countries, this share was between
40% and 50% for all workers (Employment Observatory, 1995: 8-20).
A shift to the secondary and marginal labour market affected especially groups
of workers with a low level of qualification. One type of dependency (on an em­
ployer) was thus in some cases substituted with another type of dependency: the
dependency on social assistance benefits that compensate the lost security of em­
ployment to the marginal labour force. Social assistance benefits fall to the concept
4
With respect to the average of all the categories the average income index for the unskilled workers
was 1.02 in 1984 and it fell down to 0.89 in 1992 (see Machonin and Tućek, 1996).
of “fairness” in rewards, which used to include rewards for work that had not been
done, and are viewed as “entitlement” that replaces the right to work and be paid
for that work. The Romany (Gypsies) seem to have quite a specific position in this
forming labour market - being the most vulnerable category.
4. Regional segmentation and
differences in unemployment
Higher share of long-term unemployment caused the growth of unemployment in
most affected areas while the inflow into unemployment is not higher than in other
areas. The share of long-term unemployed people (longer than 12 months) in total
unemployment at the end of 1995 varied from 6% to 33% (in one district of Prague
the figure was 53% - but in this district, the total num ber of unemployed people was
only 259, of whom 85% were women). Long-term unemployment - not only in terms
of absolute level, but also in terms of share of total unemployment - was generally
higher in districts with higher numbers of unemployed and higher unemployment
rates. The correlation of the share of long-term unemployment with the unem ploy­
ment rate, the num ber of unemployed in the district, and in the relationship between
the num ber of the unemployed and num ber of available job offers, and finally in the
share of unemployed without qualifications in the total num ber of unemployed,
shows a complex relationship between supply and demand in the labour market.
It is necessary to stress that long-term unemployment is objectively determined.
There are repeated discussions concerning the unwillingness to work (since unem ­
ployment is relatively low in this country). However, the data suggest the objective
situation of the labour market has been significantly influencing the extent of unem ­
ployment and of long-term unemployment.
However, the rate of general unemployment correlates very strongly with the
num ber of the unemployed per a job as well as with the num ber of the unqualified
unemployed per a job:
Number of applicants
per 1 job
Correlation
Rate of unemploym ent
PE
0.77
SP
0.89
Num ber o f unqualified
applicants per 1 un­
qualified job
PE
0.68
SP
0.79
The relatively worse ratio between the num ber of the unemployed without qua­
lification and available jobs for the unqualified ( the average coefficient 3.2 against
the skilled workers, 1.1), as well as the fact of rather significant differences among
individual districts in this respect.
Table 4
Correlation between long-term unem ploym ent and further characteristics o f labour market
(data for 77 districts, end of 1995, correlation coefficient Pearson and coefficient
o f order correlation Spearm an)
Share o f the unemployed
Variable
Number of the unemployed (abs)
Rate of unemployment
Number of the unemployed per
1 available job
Unqualified unemployed per
1 unqualified job
Share of the unqualified unemployed
longer than 6 mths
longer than 12 mths
PE
SP
PE
SP
0.28
0.54
0.38
0.47
0.59
0.47
0.25
0.47
0.33
0.46
0.58
0.45
0.32
0.50
0.27
0.47
0.32
0.35
0.32
0.42
P E - Pearson
SP - Spearm an
There are “objective” supply-demand factors which influence the unemployment
rate: lack of vacancies, higher proportion of unskilled unemployment (and of labour
force) together with lower demand for unskilled labour and higher proportion of
long-term unemployment.
5. Specific characteristics of the region
(with respect to the profile of marginalized
groups of unemployed)
It has become evident that the worst situation is - from the point of view of overall
unemployment and in most cases long-term unemployment as well - in the districts that
had undergone the post-war industrial development based on mining and heavy indus­
try and/or the migration of people who had moved to the vacated border regions. The
work-force that developed there was poorly qualified or trained, with low flexibility,
originally motivated by high wages, but gradually handicapped by deteriorating health.
A part of this population has been disintegrating socially as well (in some cases
by unstable family relations - connected with homelessness, alcoholism, work mo­
rale, criminal offences), living in an environment with a low level of social control
of natural social environment and traditions.
Romany populations were not originally present there, most of them having been
moved to the area later. The social control is traditionally based on institutions (the
labour offices put a stress on this component of their activities). The low level of
natural social control is com plemented by a low level of the support provided by
the network of relatives, friends and neighbours, thus reinforcing the tendency to
resignation and passivity.
In this area the need for the unqualified work has decreased most and the labour
market is becoming increasingly difficult for unqualified people - particularly, well
paid jobs are becoming increasingly difficult to find.
W e believe that the “typical” districts included in the analysis could be classified
in the following ways:
1. The type with “newly formed work-force” identical with industrialised dis­
tricts. 3 This is the most significant one from the point of view of long-term and
overall unemployment demanding the greatest attention. There are two basic sub­
categories to this type:
l.a. The first one appears in the districts of Northern Bohemia.
There is a high level of long-term unemployment with a high level of Romany
population (who are affected by long-term unemployment), and extremely high
population of unqualified long-term unemployed people. This structure is “younger”
in comparison with other districts and it is typical for the districts like Most, Teplice,
Dećin, Chomutov but also some districts in Central Bohemia (Kladno as well as to
a certain extent the district of Louny belongs here, in spite of its partially agricultural
character).
1.b. The second type is found in Northern Moravia.
Here long-term unemployment is high with the similar share of the unqualified
(however it is slightly lower than in Northern Bohemia), the share of Romany is
lower, with the exception of Ostrava, but the situation is worse for the unemployed
who are handicapped, middle aged and older. This type is relevant for the districts
like Karvinä, Novy Jicin, Prerov as well as Ostrava, where there is a relatively higher
concentration of long-term unemployed with handicaps, and Romany groups.
2. The second category has a significant share of “agriculture population”.
These districts are economically suffering now due to the decline of agriculture
and some industrial activities that had been moved to this region previously, as
well as to the decline of public-sector transport to work that a large part of working
population had depended on, resulting from the gradually diminishing government
financial support to the providers of this transport. Again two types can be di­
scerned here:
2.a. The first one is represented by the districts characterized by the
post-war migration (border regions) or by industrial development which provided
background to industrial regions. The seasonal character of work opportunities
is significant here. Unem ploym ent is relatively higher and there is extrem ely
5
The pattern o f “socialist” industrialization accom panied often by inward m obility o f labour force
and o f population after W orld W ar II (the case o f Sudeten).
high repeated unemployment which seems to be a specific form of marginal exis­
tence on the labour market there (repeated unemployment is typical for Romany,
unqualified and younger people). The share of long-term unemployment is lower
and its profile is more similar to the profile of overall unemployment. Handicapped
individuals are more significant than elsewhere. This type is found particularly in
the districts in Moravia as well as in Western and Southern Bohemia (districts:
Znojmo, Bruntäl, Frydek-Mistek and Tachov could be examples).
2.b. The second type is represented by the “inland” districts with traditional
settlements and a more stable economic structure. The agriculture areas are falling
behind but there have been better opportunities of work in more easily accessible
centres of industry and service. Repeated unemployment is slightly lower there,
long-term unemployment is average. The overall profile of long-term and repeated
unemployment is very similar to the profile of the overall unemployment. The share
of females is higher since they are demotivated by low wages and strong ties to the
area where they live, as well as by their traditional housekeeping role. The typical
example are partly “agricultural” districts in Moravian region “H anä” (Vyskov,
Prostejov and Olomouc) but we could find a lot of similar examples (it is probably
the most frequent type of district in the Czech Republic).
3.
The third category is represented by dynamically developing city centres such
as Brno, Plzen, Pardubice and others (Prague is very specific), with a diversified
economic structure and low unemployment. The share of long-term unemployment
is near to average (it is not the lowest however) with the Romany population forming
the most significant part and concentrating in bigger towns thus creating a base for
socially marginalized groups, similar to those in the areas with a “newly formed
work-force” . The share of unqualified people within the unemployed is significant,
partially as a result of the strong presence o f Romany groups. The share of the
handicapped is higher as well and a detailed analysis will show further groups in
this category (divorcees, females in one-parent families, etc.).
A comparative study from three districts allowed the formulation of a “profile”
of long-term and repeated unemployment in different types of areas - in a large
city with a vigorous labour market, in a countryside district without social problems,
but economically disadvantaged and in earlier industrialised area, which is now
going through total restructuring of mining and heavy industry (Sirovatka, Reznićek
and Premusova, 1995). To summarize, we can say:
- In large cities with lower unemployment rate and diversified economic structure
long-term and repeated unemployment particularly affects Gypsy families, phy­
sically handicapped and socially marginalized people.
- In the countryside long-term and repeated unemployment affects mainly married
women in distant villages, where “non-market” work is becoming more important
for many households than the “market economy” and also affects socially mar­
ginal people, which are, because of their isolation, less often supported by the
surrounding community or by a wider family.
- In the areas with restructuring of heavy industry the important affect is on those
not qualified and the physically handicapped work-force. At the same time there
are entering the labour market socially marginalized people without stable family
attachment and supporting networks. They partly overlap with the first group.
Because of the low level of unemployment in the Czech Republic the long-term
and repeated unemployment has affected namely marginal and especially handicap­
ped categories of people. It is the case even of the industrialized areas where the
size of primary labour market shrank remarkably. The handicap of the lack of qua­
lification is the basic (and so far not enough appreciated) one and there are some
more attached to it. The Czech experience shows as well that the process of restructuralization has not pushed out from the labour market those people who have
been leaving from the restructured companies. Most of them have found employment
elsewhere and fulfilled the vacancies of existing or newly established jobs that might
have been provided for people with health handicaps, Romany, non-qualified, for
women with children, for youth and namely for people with accumulated handicaps.
6. Factors affecting long-term
and repeated unemployment
in industrialized regions
6.1. Human capital
W e could use individual data from labour offices registers (end of 1995) to
evaluate the impact of individual characteristics for duration of unemployment and
for num ber of unemployment spells.
The important role of the cumulation of handicaps should be noted again though
a num ber of them are not statistically analysed (their com binations being rather
numerous) and further social factors as the discrimination of Romany, social isola­
tion, the communication between ÜP and the unemployed, etc.)
The level of education is again important for repeated unemployment, as well
as sex (men repeat unemployment more frequently). Other statistical signs do not
seem to be so important for the correlation analysis. The importance of the role of
education for the duration and repetition of unemployment is clearly evident. It is
not just the matter of the low level of human capital but there are further consequen­
ces: their small earning power, small flexibility, but first of all the low offer of
suitable jobs and low wages - usually well below the average wage (typically around
50% of the average wage), more often it is not given and practically it is near to the
minimum wage.
Table 5
Review of correlations of length of unem ploym ent and repeated unem ploym ent
in selected districts (length of unem ploym ent and other variables as categorized data)
coefficients of correlation SP, for sex contingence coef.
Dec in
Variables
Education
“Decisive income”
Age
Family st.
Sex
Health handicap
Repeated registration
M ost
Prerov
Karvinä
length repeated length repeated length repeated length repeated
length
length
length
length
-0.23
-0 .2 2
0.19
0.11
0.09
0.15
-0.11
-0 .1 4
-0 .0 8
-0.01
-0 .0 3
0.16
-0.05
-0 .2 4
-0 .1 8
0.14
0.14
0.12
0.1
-0 .0 6
-0 .1 3
-0.01
0.02
0
0.13
-0.01
-0 .2 8 no data
-0 .2 3
0.27
0.1
0.07
no data
no data
-0 .3 2
-0 .4 5
0.15
0.1
0.07
0.18
-0 .1 9
-0 .0 6
-0 .0 6
-0 .0 4
0.03
0.14
-0 .0 9
The data are valid for the industrial Bohem ian districts M ost, D e a n and industrial M oravian cities K arvinä and Prerov.
The number of the unemployed and available jobs in selected districts:
District
Number per 1 job
Number o f unqualified
per 1 job for unqualified
D ean
3.1
7.7
Prerov
3.6
9.6
Karvinä
Most
4.5
4.5
11.0
17.9
It is evident that unqualified workers have from two to four times less chance in
the labour market than the others and therefore it is not surprising that the specific
measure of their unemployment is three times higher than in other categories of the
unemployed.
People with health handicaps are in a similar situation since they have ten times
less chance of employment than other categories ( there is an average of 15 unem­
ployed people with a health handicap for each vacancy reserved for this category).
Employment offices have practically no vacancies for people with health handicaps.
As a result, vacancies and opportunities in the labour market for people registered
as handicapped for health reasons are even worse than the statistics have shown.
6.2. Social factors
W hile most discussions concerned with the objective and subjective conditioning
of long-term unemployment and repeated unemployment stress the subjective fac­
tors, the analyses implemented by some U P’s as well as our analyses show there is
an objective determination.
The questioning of the staff from Ü P ’s from the selected four industrial districts
with highest unemployment rate has deepened the assessment of the causes of long-
Table 6
Reasons o f long-term and repeated unem ploym ent - their im portance according to the staff of
Labour Offices
L a b o u r office in d is tric t
K in d o f reaso n s
Em ployers do not w ant certain types or groups o f people
The wages o f available jobs are seen by the unem ployed as low
Small children are obstacle for em ploym ent
Som e people do not need (and do not look for) jobs
Commuting in obstacle (unable to commute, transport not available)
Som e cannot adapt socially (basically unem ployable)
The unem ployed are not com m itted to seeking jobs
There are certain groups o f jobs m issing or vanishing in
neighbourhood
People do not want shift-work
The unem ployed do not have high enough qualification
(w hich is demanded)
Health reasons are obstacle
The unem ployed choose other ways (retirem ent, fam ily support)
Som e people cannot deal with the situation
The available jo b s are without prospects or “not good enough”
A vailable jo b s are difficult
O nly low qualified work is offered
D eem
K a rv in ä
M ost
P rero v
9.5
8
8
9
9
9
9
8
8
9
8
8
9
8
7
4
8
8
7.5
6.5
7
7
6
5
8
5
5
5.5
7
5
5
5
3.5
3.5
3
2
6
7
4
8
4
5
6
4
4
8
7.5
7
7
2
5
5
5
3
3.5
4.5
5
2.5
3
8
6
5.5
3
2
term and repeated unemployment (see Table 6). It has been based on structured
questionnaires specifying 16 possible causes of long-term and repeated unem ­
ployment. Individual influences are assessed according to their impact (from 0 to
10 points, 10 is a very strong impact). The questionnaire has been filled in most­
ly by mediators, as well as by councillors and staff for the active employment
policy from Ü P’s in Deem, Karvinä, M ost and Prerov. There was a total of 94
respondents.
This research has shown that long-term and repeated unemployment is caused
rather by an interplay of different influences than by a single barrier. Although the
staff of Ü P’s, on the basis of an unstructured interview, specify as the main cause
of long-term and repeated unemployment, a lack of interest of some job-seekers,
the structured questionnaire stresses other causes, which are outside the influence
of the unemployed people.
Discrimination against some individuals and groups is considered to be the most
important cause of long-term and repeated unemployment by the staff of all of the
four U P’s. Further employment barriers are low wages and small children. The staff
from U P ’s from M ost and Karvinä (offices with traditionally heavier workload with
long-term and repeated unemployment) considers a lack of interest in work as the
fourth cause, and weaker than the preceding ones. The respondents from U P ’s from
Prerov and D e an consider low wages and a lack of interest to have the same impact
on long-term and repeated unemployment. Further causes stressed in M ost are low
qualifications (3rd to 4th place) and a lack of relevant jobs for specific professions
in Karvinä and Prerov. Health factors are more important in Karvinä, while in Dećtn
and Karvinä commuting is an important factor as well.
The most significant factors influencing long-term and repeated unemployment
seem to be the following ones:
1. A lack of interest and discrimination by employers (the target groups of this
discrimination are Romany groups, mothers caring about small children, people with
health handicaps, young people under 18 and those who have committed criminal
offences).
2. A lack of interest in low-paid jobs.
3. A low level of skills, a lack of qualifications, a lack of work-related experien­
ce, low self-confidence (the unemployed are aware of their handicaps and become
demotivated).
4. Further objective reasons resulting from environmental and social factors
(commuting, dependence on home, as well as social stigmatisation and isolation).
6.3. Interactions between the unemployed
and institutions
The research in the three local labour markets proved that inefficiencies emerge
from misunderstandings between the strategies of the public employment services
and the marginalized people. The following reasons could be found on the side of
marginalized people:
- insufficient orientation and insufficient adaptability mainly due to lack of skills,
but also due to refusing the marginalized identity,
- low job search incentives of those who do not see any possibility to escape the
marginalized position,
- accumulation of the above mentioned individual as well as social handicaps (social
capital).
With respect to em ploym ent offices, I discovered that they tend to overes­
timate and to generalize the low willingness to work and low discipline of the
unemployed - not only of those who are resistant to job offers but also of others
affected by different kinds of handicaps who are difficult to distinguish from the
first category. The labour offices accept em ployer discrimination as well as the
concept of the marginalized labour force and approach them in general as secon­
dary low-cost labour. As described above, some of the m arginalized people
finally accept this concept and are vulnerable to the unem ploym ent trap when
not oriented to better perspectives. Others are not willing to see themselves as
a secondary work-force, and accept competitive market positions. Only a percen­
tage of the m arginalized people genuinely look for a job - not so much for
a market position - but for a legitimate position, or at least for perspectives in
finding it.
Table 7
Registered unem ploym ent and the participants entering the m easures of active labour market
policy in the period of the year 1995 (Czech Republic and selected districts)
CR and
selected
districts
CR
Pardubice
Brno town
Tachov
Olomouc
Vyskov
Frydek-M.
Kladno
Ostrava
Prerov
Decfn
Znojm o
Bruntäl
Karvinä
Louny
Most
Participants entering the m easures o f active LM policy A cco­
Total
m m oda­
Unempl. amount
tion
rate
)f unempl. “VPP” “ SUM P” Youth D ISAB­ TRAIN TO TAL
rate
LED
(in %)
2.9
1.5
1.6
3.5
3.8
3.8
4.1
4.6
4.8
5.4
5.7
5.8
5.8
6.6
7.1
7.3
153.011
1.326
3.217
974
4.323
1.641
4.455
3.414
7.810
3.578
1702
3.194
3.215
8.880
3.172
4.273
10.781
93
56
66
53
90
360
50
344
122
383
413
330
187
633
396
6.602
6
97
19
54
245
196
53
254
310
169
63
303
386
68
106
5.293
11
52
21
186
32
253
22
222
315
175
184
148
207
155
53
724
9
49
0
6
0
13
9
39
0
35
0
8
0
1
6
13.459
115
366
47
414
243
801
591
918
445
286
320
298
238
292
155
36.854
234
620
153
713
610
1.623
725
1.777
1.192
1.048
980
1.087
1.018
879
716
19.40
15.00
16.20
13.60
14.20
27.10
26.70
17.50
18.50
25.00
20.60
23.50
25.20
10.30
21.70
14.40
N o te : the data has been acquired in the tables issued by the M inistry o f Labour and Social Affairs on active policy by D ecem ber 12,
1995. The level o f adaptation is calculated with a m ethodological sim plification as a fraction, in the num erator there are participants
entering into the described m easures in the course o f the year (p) and in the denom inator the num ber o f participants and the num ber o f the
unem ployed by the end of the year. The activities financed from other sources than from the M inistry have not been included here.
Comparison of the range of active policy measures between districts shows two
interesting facts: the range of measures applied does not relate to the impact of
unemployment on the district, either in terms of total unemployment or long-term
unemployment and secondly, the differences with the republic average are not great.
The other significant finding was that the participation of long-term unemployed
groups in measures of active policy is low. In some districts there is quite a good
representation of those who have been unemployed over six months, though lower
than their share of unemployment: Kladno, Prerov, Tachov, Karvinä, Deem, Novy
Jicfn, Louny. It is a proof of these offices’ focus on the worst affected groups and
of the possibility to achieve something as well. The share of those who have been
unemployed over 12 months is 30% in the more affected districts, while in most
cases their participation in active measures is only around 10% or less, exceptionally
around 15% (Karvinä, Frydek-Mistek) and in one case only it is 25% (Tachov).
This has been roughly three or two times less than their share in unemployment.
This situation is the result of:
a)
the process of “self-classification” of the unemployed when entering the
programme (according to their motivation and interests). When bigger share of
Table 8
Share of long-term unemployed in total unem ploym ent and share
of LTU in active labour m arket policy program mes Decem ber 31, 1995
Program m es participants
Unemployment
%
%
District
unempl. rate
over 6 mths. over 12 mths. over 6 mths. over 12 mths.
MOST
LOUNY
KARVINÄ
N. JIĆIN
BRUNTAL
ZNOJMO
DEĆIN
PREROV
F-MISTEK
OSTRAVA
KLADNO
OLOM OUC
VYSKOV
TACHOV
BRNO
PARDUBIC
7.30
7.10
6.60
5.90
5.80
5.70
5.70
5.40
4.80
4.80
4.60
3.80
3.80
3.50
1.60
1.50
49.7
40.5
48.9
46.3
38.9
34.8
46.8
50.1
34.3
47.3
49.9
37.5
41.1
39.0
37.3
37.4
29.6
26.5
32.1
30.4
26.3
19.3
29.5
33.0
19.3
29.7
32.2
21.9
24.7
24.6
22.0
20.7
16
29
22
38
19
no data
32
29
30
21
41
17
23
43
20
4
6
10
14
16
5
9
10
14
5
11
4
6
25
7.5
1
long-term unemployed could be found in some programmes, it is mostly a result
of a generally low range of all programmes or a certain type of programme.
But in general the process of self-classification of the unemployed is not much
controlled and the active policy programmes do not counterbalance the selective
processes of the free market, but rather they reinforce them;
b)
the problem s when tools are applied towards the problem groups. Par­
ticularly it seems to be rare to support their training. The m ost frequent
tools for the long-term unem ployed are public works, and the encouragem ent
of small businesses (however for the latter the long-term unem ployed have
the least abilities and very often decide to establish their own business only
when there is no other job available for them). The very good share is
the result of rather small range of im plem entation of these tools and their
easy targeting.
Active policy is generally focused on the m ost qualified and m otivated
work-force:
First, most labour offices view the labour market policy as a “service for the
labour market” and therefore focus their activities towards the selective processes
of the labour market and concentrate on filling the job vacancies which are available,
trying to offer the employers the most acceptable work-force. This process, however,
increases the dead weight of the undertaken measures.
Second, there is anxiety that investment of resources and time to meet the needs
of the socially excluded and unemployed people whose m otivation is doubtful. The
motivation of such job-seekers is not a task specified for labour offices.
Third, the strategy for the long-term and repeatedly unemployed is based on an
assessment which views them as an unmotivated category which is not worthwhile
tackling as it is very demanding and the effect is only a marginal one. A more
efficient strategy from this perspective is to pressure the unemployed to accept the
jobs offered or to leave the register.
The staff of U P ’s often adopt the popular principle of “merit” connected with
“deservingness” on the basis of which the long-term and repeatedly unemployed are
differentiated. This group is punished by labour offices for small motivation to work,
which is interpreted as unwillingness to work. They are not punished by so much by
removal from the registry but rather by neglect, e.g. by not being included in the above
standard measures that go beyond the usual recommendations and mediation.
One of the objectives of labour offices is the ability to differentiate motivated
and unmotivated job-seekers would in fact be relevant for a pro-active labour market
strategy - ideally during the entry into the register - perhaps on the basis of a reliable
test that would specify those for whom the programmes of active policy is useful
and those who will respond only to pressure. The growing number of the long-term
unemployed, while overall unemployment remains low in the Czech Republic, may
be a partial result of this “merit” strategy.
The consequence of the concept of the marginalized work-force shared by all
labour market participants-actors is that in fact marginalized groups are heavily
underrepresented in the active labour market policy programmes (Cuhlovä, Edwards,
M ickovä and Sirovatka, 1996: 38). On the other hand, some of the unemployed use
counter-strategies against the labour offices, in order to avoid co-operation. This is
due to the fact that interaction with the labour office makes apparent their own
marginalized position and is therefore too stigmatising for some of them.
6.4. Self-concept and labour market position
Within the dynamics of the labour market “market logic” counteracts with “status
logic” or “social logic” (d’Hiribame, 1990). M arket logic accepts the principle of
competition ignoring all non-economic differences in gender, age, family status,
ethnicity, religion, etc... Everybody is subordinated to the coercion of competition,
in the sense that he or she is allowed to offer services for merely the market price
- the same goes for the labour force.
Social logic is based on differences between people. “Elle distingue, suivant des
criteres propres a chaque societe, I ’homme de la femme, le proche de l’etranger, le
jeune de 1’adulte, le retraite de l’actif, le brahmane de l’intouchable, le membre du
parti du citoyen ordinaire, le noir de blanc, etc.” (d’Hiribam e, 1990: 40). This kind
of logic is based on legitimacy and is contradictory to market logic. The labour
force is not only the factor of production and subject of exchange but is endowed
with social status and is socially embedded. Labour market segmentation is directly
connected with social logic.
The explanation for the strategies of marginalized people is therefore based on
their formerly acquired positions in society and the labour market, on their “social
roles” which are connected with “normative guidelines”, and with an interactive
world of moral concepts.
Within the job-search process, the basic problem is the convergence of aspira­
tions of the marginalized labour force and of the job offers which are available - the
convergence of “competitive positions” with “legitimate positions”.
Goffm an’s theory of the development of moral perceptions by stigmatized people
(1969) explains how a new identity and a new set of social relationships can be found. The
new identity must include the roles which have been internalized in the past, as well as the
new role internalized as a consequence of the lost status and the stigma. The compatibility
of those two elements makes up the fundamental problem of social identity.
When the gap between the market position and the legitimate position is too large,
the old pattern of life can not be refused completely, as the subjects are willing to hold
on to the hope that their marginal positions are only temporary interruptions in their
normal life. Therefore, they can not give up the norms which rule their lives, their
families or their occupations. Only in this way are they able to maintain a positive
self-image and a positive identity and come back to their legitimate - former positions.
This pattern of behaviour explains the strategies of people who lose their primary
positions in firm labour markets within the process of re-structuralization and pri­
vatization. This new type of marginalized worker is different from the traditionally
marginalized and excluded labour force. In the past, these people had high wages
and high social prestige. Miners and heavy industry workers concentrated in indus­
trialized areas are the best example. They typically fall into continual unemployment
and do not accept positions in the marginalized work-force and dislike being ap­
proached with such an offer.6
7. Typology of labour market strategies
of the marginal people
The most elaborate typology of the strategies of the marginal work-force was
presented by Engbersen, Schuyt, Timmer and van W aarden (1993), based on M er­
6
Following the results o f Labour Force Survey half o f the unem ployed who worked in mining
industry are unemployed longer than two years.
4 Social Aspects..
ton’s scheme of individual adaptation. Those strategies are influenced by structural
as well as by cultural social background of individuals. Jordan (1992) emphasized
the life-cycle hypothesis and the imperatives of family roles. Both typologies could
be combined, however at the same time I would prefer to emphasize the experience
from labour market interactions and the contradictions between the competitive and
the legitimate positions of marginalized people. The positions of marginalized people
in the labour market are defined by the specifications of the barriers or of the ports
of entry to the internal-firm labour markets. Labour market inclusion requires not
only the identification of new competitive positions, but also acceptance of it as
a legitimate position. The perception of the tension between these positions and the
complex of interactions with other labour market actors are decisive factors influen­
cing their strategy.
Qualitative analysis brought out six strategies in solving the above described
tensions:
STRATEGIES OF LABOUR M ARKET INCLUSION
1. Repeated effort to acquire “primary position” or secondary well-paid
position
This strategy is occasionally connected with “wait unemployment” but more
often with repeated change of job and repeated unemployment. It represents a pro­
cess of searching for a “legitimate labour market position”, and could be described
as a “market conforming” strategy. The offered competitive positions are perceived
as a way to acquire better legitimate positions.
It is typical for younger healthy people (particularly for men) and often linked
with the role of the breadwinner. The strategy is used whenever entry barriers to
primary jobs are not too strong, or when well-paid secondary jobs are available.
2. Acquisition of a secondary position in the formal labour market
This is connected with rotation of jobs and unemployment spells (often with
returning to former employers) as well as with lasting unemployment - but not,
however, with extremely long-term unemployment.
It indicates willingness to accept a “competitive position” when it is less than
ideal (mainly in financial terms) or the willingness to wait, if such a position is not
available immediately. It does not mean, however, withdrawal from job aspirations
or destruction of work moral and human capital. The competitive position is in those
cases very close to a legitimate position.
The emerging strategy is linked with an implicit calculation of the financial
advantage of employment (“market earning power”) compared with social benefits
and - respectively - with additional expenses on transport, nutrition, child care, lost
“non-earning power” and job insecurity.
This strategy is typical of women who have alternative domestic household roles
(particularly in the countryside), women with large families, single mothers, as well
as disabled men or men who live alone. These people need to be supported by their
community. The support as well as the control of the community is a decisive factor
influencing the good adaptability of the work-force in the acceptance of
market positions. The strategy of these people is “calculating” and at the
same time “conforming” which includes repeated as well as lasting unemployment
spells into the normal life-style. No social marginalization is connected with it.
It is often accepted when strong entry barriers to the internal labour market or
promotion in the internal labour market exist.
3. “Dual position strategy” combines the solution of accepting the insecure
marginalized position within the informal labour market with the security of social
assistance money. Both positions are perceived as more efficient than a competitive
formal labour market position, and partly perceived as legitimate.
This strategy is typical for the traditionally marginalized labour force, those who
are stigmatised on an individual or on a social basis. This means socially m argina­
lized people - people living alone in big cities, the homeless, ex-offenders, Romany,
as well as generally unskilled people who do not possess much human or social
capital and live in an anonymous social environment in big cities where social
control of the community is weak. It tends to be linked with the breadwinner role
more often than with the role o f the caregiver.
This strategy is found when strong entry barriers to formal labour markets exist.
Social and human capital as well as community support are lacking. Institutional
control and coercion to accept a competitive-disadvantaged position, on the very
margins of the formal labour market, influence the development of defence strategies
which are necessary to keep entitlements for social money.
STRATEGIES OF LABOUR M ARKET EXCLUSION
4. Refusal of competitive position in principal (and in secondary labour market
as well). Aspirations for legitimate positions in the internal labour markets persist,
but strong barriers of entry as well. “W ait unemployment” 7 is typical but long-term
unemployment emerges continually, in addition to social marginalization and de­
privation. The former miners are the best example as well as other unskilled men,
including Romany, who formerly occupied financially advantageous jobs. This
strategy is usually linked with the breadwinner’s role.
This is the most problematic group of the marginalized work-force. It overlaps
partially with category sub point 3, even though employers and institutions perceive
it as identical. Conflict between those people and social institutions often emerges
as a result of coercion to accept competitive positions which they have refused.
5. Total social money dependence means a withdrawal from the competitive
as well as from the legitimate position even in the informal labour market. It is
characteristic of the marginal work-force with very low or no human and social
capital assets, when very difficult barriers to entering labour markets exist. It is
typical for the disabled, Romany (women) and older people living alone who are
7
“Wait unemployment” means that the unemployed wait for well-paid jobs and refuse low-paid
job offers.
disabled and/or unskilled as well as for totally excluded individuals (solitary al­
coholics, etc.).
On the other hand, this strategy follows often the strategy sub 4 described above
as a consequence of long-lasting unemployment. The anonymous environment of
big cities support this strategy. This is the only strategy which could be considered
as totally “passive” and social marginalization and exclusion emerge.
6.
Refusal of any position in the labour market, preferring other types of
activities which are linked to the “non-market power” of labour force. This
strategy emerges typically in an environment which provides people with solid social
networks. This kind of environment provides individuals with m eaningful non-market activities (e.g. caring about other members of the family, sometimes ill or depen­
dent, domestic economy activities and “social economy” of mutual support, etc.).
The strategies of the marginalized work-force correspond to the regional econo­
mic characteristics of the labour markets and their segmentation (as structural con­
ditions) as well as to individual patterns of accumulation of individual handicaps
(individual as well as social handicaps). They are shaped by interactions of all the
labour market actors within the segmented labour markets. The marginalized people
mostly do not simply accept a passive strategy of an underclass characterized by
dependence culture but they are rather active, striving to overcome “economic de­
pendence” and social barriers of labour market marginalization. Anyway, in indus­
trialized areas we have identified quite often the strategies of labour market ex­
clusion (4 and 5) as the prevailing strategies of the unemployed. Thus their mar­
ginalised position is being fixed and long-term unemployment is prevailing as a main
source of unemployment growth.
Decisions about accepting the “market wage” and the m arginalized position
in the secondary labour market are determined, not so much by the level of wage
offers, but more by the job carrier prospects connected with the offered job - how
far it can be considered as a “port o f entry” to the firm labour m arket or to
the primary well-paid jobs. Unfortunately within industrialized area those prospects
are neglectable.
8. Sum m ary and conclusions
The paper analyses the process of labour market segmentation in the Czech
Republic and the impact of it in industrial areas, as well as the set of factors which
influence unemployment and labour market marginalization. Typology of the local
labour markets in the Czech Republic is presented in line with typology of the
strategies of marginal work-force. Finally the impact of active labour market policy
in deprived areas is in focus.
I argue that even the general unemployment rate in the Czech Republic has been
maintained (partly at the price of overemployment in industries) on the relatively
low level, the segmentation of labour market is remarkable as well as marginaliza­
tion of particular and clearly identifiable categories of work-force. Labour market
segmentation includes quite visible regional aspects as well.
The most important factors which determine marginalization in local labour
markets could be classified as:
- decline of heavy industries and the lack of vacancies in local labour markets,
particularly lack of vacancies for unskilled work-force
- low level of human capital and of flexibility of work-force, which has been formed
in industrial areas during the years of “socialist” industrialization in combination
with disincentive effect of declining wage offers
- the strategies of labour market actors and of marginal work-force confirm and
perpetuate the pattern of in-activity of particular groups of people.
Typical “marginal” strategies of work-force emerge from the tension between
form er legitim ate and privileged position in the labour market acquired by
low-skilled workers in form er regim e and com petitive position of marginal
worker created and offered to them within the process of labour m arket seg­
mentation now. Active labour m arket policies are not appropriately designed
to solve such a problem. Resignation in labour market and hostility in relation
to institutions represent a serious social consequence.
Within the industrialized regions not only lack of vacancies (particularly for
unskilled) due to structural changes in economy but also the interplay of several
specific social factors influences the unemployment growth which is a consequence
of duration of unemployment and of repeated unemployment:
- low level of human capital of the work-force,
- the concept of marginal work-force and discrimination shared by employers as
well as by public employment services,
- tension between the legitimate and competitive position perceived by former
primary workers in heavy industry and mining, low level of motivation and co­
operation to acquire new competitive position (“inflexibility”),
- inadequate targeting active labour market policy,
- emerging “passive” strategies of marginalized work-force.
The fall of real wages, after the liberalization of prices in 1990, contributed to
the excess in demand and overemployment in the firm labour markets in the Czech
Republic. At the same time, employers are quite selective as they are in need of
intensity of labour, above all. The existence of a marginalized work-force is a func­
tional element within a transition economy transferring economic insecurity into
the secondary or the shadow sector of the economy.
The labour market emerging in the Czech Republic includes firm labour markets
which are becoming more and more narrow and “internalized” as the market pres-
sures increase. It also includes external competitive labour markets. Those external
labour markets represent the largest segment of the labour market within the areas
industrialized during the “socialist past” .
A marginal work-force is mainly being conceptualised by employers. Public
employment institutions accept the concept as well, as do some of the marginalized
people. Most of them repeatedly try to find better jobs and move between secondary
or temporary employment, unemployment and economic inactivity. Other m argina­
lized people reject new positions in the marginal work-force or low wage offers
- no better solutions can be found for them. This position is typical for the work-force
in industrialized areas.
The traditional as well as new ly m arginalized labour force is unem ployed
voluntarily, in the sense that it is not willing to accept low wage jobs. At the
same time it is unem ployed “involuntarily” in the sense that the m arginalized
labour force can not acquire the jobs which are available for others who possess
similar skills (cf. Fallon and Verry, 1988; Layard, Nickell and Jackman, 1994).
Social channels and barriers are more important “ports of entry” to the firm la­
bour markets than a set of individual characteristics or economic incentives.
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Old Industrial A reas
in R eunified G erm any
- Processes of Old
and New A djustm ents
in Tim es of Transform ation
and G lobalization'
W endelin Strubelt
Bundesforschungsanstalt für Landeskunde
und Raumordnung
Bonn
1. Introduction
As sociologists we are accustomed, if not even forced, to speak about social
change in the context of the social units or societies we are all studying. W e all
assume that the social processes of the objects under study are subject to change
- this might even be considered as a characteristic of m odem or postm odern
societies - possibly - in contrast to traditional or premodem societies. Thus, social
change is right in the heart of social analysis, it is the centre of analysis like
learning for psychologists - many other examples for other sciences could be cited.
In the last decade two new terms have shown up on the agenda of social analysts
of present societies, namely transformation and globalization, which bring differen­
ces into the meaning of social change modifying it or just adding new dimensions
to the new abstract definitions o f social change. These tw o term s m ay also be
understood as some sort of intensified social change less fundamental or radical
than revolution, but also highly relevant and omnipresent for everybody.
By transformation we understand the process by which a complete society,
a national political system underlies a fundamental change of the fram ework and the
inner condition of its functioning as the macro-condition of society has changed, e. g.
1
Thul.
For technical assistance I thank very much Friedhelm Bertelsmeier, Helmut Janich and Beatrix
from a centrally directed and also planned system toward a market-oriented open
democratic society. W e all know that this definition is highly abstract (an extreme
ideal W eberian type), while reality is rather more complex and varies highly
within main types according to historical, social and physical determinants (Wollmann, 1995).
By globalization we mean the opening up of national markets and the creation
of a world-wide interconnected market and allocation system which overrules the
former stable barriers of national systems. It leaves them with the responsibilities
and duties of societal and political cultures but overarches them by a system of
world-wide movement of capital and information made even easier by the more or
less symbolic acts of national, regional and local competition. By the way, this
process of globalization does not touch all people and all regions of the world but
no area of the world is out of its sphere of influence. O f course, the power and
process of globalization mostly has its impact on the developed industrial states or
on the so-called developing nations but also on those parts of the world which are
not directly participating or backward or influenced by the world-wide ecological
interdependences. Thus, it is a really world-wide process (Friedrichs, 1997: 3-11).
W ithin the context of the reunified Germany we can now observe a double
impact of these two processes. On the one hand, Germany is highly influenced by the
transformation processes in the former GDR from a former centrally planned system
of authoritarian character toward an integral part of open societies characterized by
market orientation and democratic structures with more than a touch of corporati­
vism in a sort of welfare state. This process of adjustment or transformation is
accompanied by an almost complete breakdown of the main industrial structures of
the former GDR, an almost complete reconstruction (also in the agricultural sector)
(Strubelt et al., 1996). It is, however, backed or buffered by a social compensation
policy which offers nearly all people to participate in the consumer society in former
West Germany, not at the same level but on a comparatively high level compared
especially with the other former states of the COMECON (Musil and Strubelt, 1997).
On the other hand, Germany is highly influenced by the process of globalization
of industrial production and of world-wide investments and productive structures;
it is also involved in the world-wide competition concerning the use of scientific
and technological progress as the basis for future production. Within the international
global competition Germany has reached a comparatively high level but the discus­
sion of the future of Germany as an industrial country, its chances and its possible
drawbacks are discussed nationally and internationally (Ottnad, 1995).
The examples of old industrial areas as relics of past times and as heavy loads
for the future are a good example to discuss the past and the future development
and the double impact of transformation and globalization. In this context I first
would like to discuss the chances of Germany as an industrial country, secondly
I would present some facts and figures about old industrial areas and finally (thirdly),
I would end with some reasoning comments.
2. G erm any - An old industrial
area/country?
1. In the context of the discussion about the perspective and future of old indus­
trial areas in Eastern and W estern Europe it might be paradoxical to state this as
a question or even as a possible perspective for a whole country, especially for
Germany. Germany is assumed to be the strongest economic power in Europe and
in comparison to other countries, especially with regard to the East but also to the
South of Europe, this question seems to be almost abstruse. But if we look closer to
the problem we can observe some points or even facts at least hinting toward a con­
stellation in which Germany might become a problematic country with regard to
the future development of its industrial basis and its competitive location in a world­
wide comparison, namely an economically strong country, however with a perspec­
tive of declining importance in future.
Some may consider this perspective as a result of astrology, but on the other hand
the desire to look into future and the discussion of a potential rise or decline is of
special importance for many - for those who might profit from it like national or
regional newcomers and for those who want to wake up a national audience by
pointing at a possible menace they expect to come, possibly as part of a shock therapy.
2. At first, it might be helpful to look at the problem of defining old-industrialized areas. In general we can observe a tendency to think in one-dimensional
terms in regard to structural or historical industrial developments, structures being
concentrated in some regions. So to speak, the arguments about old industrial struc­
tures are concerned with the concentration, e.g., of coal and iron-oriented industries,
their flourishing and their decline. This assumes that this process develops hom o­
genously over time and in exactly defined regions ignoring the common effect that
beyond an assumed homogeneity the structure of regions is not as homogenous as
supposed and the development over time is characterized by great fluctuations.
Nevertheless, we have to face the fact that some overconcentrations of peculiar
industrial structures have a dominant influence over time and in the regions concer­
ned. In the context of the W estern European development this is especially the case
in regard to the new disparities in regional development which developed after
a phase of reconstruction after W orld W ar II in those regions dominated by heavy
industry on account of the world-wide competition - a sort of early globalization.
This was quite new because in the context of the Northern and W estern European
development the regional disparities under discussion and in perspective for regional
policies were normal disparities or even dichotomies between urban and rural regions
(.Bundesforchungsanstalt. . 1986). For the first time urban regions with heavy industry
were considered to be declining because their industrial structure did not respond to
changing demands and could not compete with cheaper imports on account of the high
labour costs. They were aging analogous with the human life cycle and with the
result that owing to international competition industrial plants or coal-pits had to be
closed. This was often counteracted with little success by state subventions. The
results were an enormous increase of unemployment and the falling of regions into
crisis because new jobs or new industrial plants with new jobs were created in other
regions so that the demand for a new trained work-force could not be covered in
the crisis regions. This process of declining industry connected with the development
in the secondary sector has continued until now so that we can now observe dein­
dustrializing regions. Within the context of the European Community these regions
are characterized by coal and iron industries and often also by shipbuilding yards.
They are classified as regions with declining development if they fulfill the following
“requirements”:
- an above-average unemployment rate during the last three years,
- a share of employed persons in industry equal or higher than the European average
in comparison with the total work-force,
- a decline of persons working in industry (A m tsblatt..., 1988: 65).
These new regional disparities are not only caused by declining traditional struc­
tures, they are also accompanied by increasing “industrial structures” in the so-called
tertiary sector in other regions. From the US we know the disparities between the
sun belt and the frost belt, in W est Germany the cleavage between the old industrial
structures in the North and West and the booming industries in the South. In the
context of this discussion about the phenomenon of “declining industrial areas”, of
the producing factors and of the perspectives in a sort of redevelopment we have to
face the fact that these regions are characterized by a very inconvenient combination
of risky factors which have concentrated with the development over time or were
formed by the impacts of W orld W ar II or by the East-W est confrontation after
World W ar II (Wienert, 1990: 363-390). In this respect, the theory of long waves
of industrial development should be mentioned based on the observation that special
technological breakthroughs combined with managerial innovations have led to
a concentration of modem industries in some regions while others with former, i. e.
old structures stagnate or remain in an underdeveloped state because they are still
waiting for the “kiss” of the new wave. It is still an empirically very tricky question,
why the results of such developments are touching some regions or areas while
others manage to survive or to adjust to new waves. This empirical problem is
strongly connected with a political or policy-oriented one because we can observe
that these developments are following longitudinal waves over a long time while
the political demand for solutions in declining areas is temporary as the demand for
immediate political decisions and solutions is urgent. This results in immediate
actions in order to overcome the crisis but without overarching or lasting goals.
Long-wave developments are treated by piecemeal engineering, a risky endeavour.
Nobody can wait, and the argument that in the long term the current problems will
decrease, that some kind of revitalization will happen and that other booming regions
will also face severe problems in future - this is naturally no help for the moment.
Action is required, but politics requires immediate action in the perspective of
long-term developments, because the impacts are always more enduring than the
action itself. In regard to the discussion of the north-south divide in Germany in the
80s we could see that the factors for regional decline on the one hand and for regional
new booming areas on the other hand are manifold. These factors reflect historical
developments and the international competitiveness in regard to labour costs. They do
not only reflect technical aspects but also those of manpower and its training. They
have to do with real facts, e.g. in the area of ecology, but they also deal with factors
rather based on images and their perception than based on hard facts just to name the
factors of growing importance in the fields of culture, historical heritage, climatic
advantages having special attraction regarding the beauty of a landscape.
To make a long story short, the rise of the old industrial structure, that means
the decline of former prospering industrial regions accompanied by a rise of former
underdeveloped regions or regions of industrial unimportance is determined by some
obvious factors, although in reality it is a very complex process which, in general,
is not irreversible (Hamm and Wienert, 1990). In other words, the perspective of
the revitalization of declining areas is possible as well as the chance that prospering
regions will decline in future. The dialectics of dynamism form these structures of
rise and decline. But there exists one main truth: All these processes have developed
over a long time and they are not subject to sudden changes but are rather the object
of many endeavours. They are nowadays confronted with political necessities to act
immediately forced by the democratic structures. But very often this activism leads
to actions which seem to help immediately but not in the long term. The desire for
sustainable development, to borrow this term for a moment, is frequently denied by
such activism and has unintended, rather negative than positive consequences in
future. This constellation is not helped by short-sighted activism but only by con­
cepts based on lasting developments.
3.
In regard to Germany as an industrial location of world-wide importance we
can observe two trends or streams of discussion to be m entioned in order to under­
stand what is going on and in order to describe the tendencies of regional develop­
ment. In the beginning the process of German reunification was politically and
economically considered as a menace to the power balance of Europe, by adding
demographic facts and figures, economic potentials and former outcomes. But it
was never considered realistically that the economic output of the former GDR
depended totally on the trade with the COM ECON countries of Eastern Europe
without any connection to the world market, which after reunification was almost
interrupted on account of the integration of the former GDR territory into the Ger­
man mark zone and its opening to the world market. This resulted in a process of
deindustrialization followed by high unemployment in the industrial and agricultural
sector. Especially in the case of agriculture and fishery the East German territores
were forced to adjust to the international competition which the W est German side
has faced since long and which lead to a continuous process of adjustment over
time. Old disparities, which existed before W orld W ar II and which the former GDR
tried to reduce, were uncovered in a way that the Eastern territories were put back
to a position their W estern counterparts had managed to overcome and to adjust to
over time. Besides the old south-west divide of the old Federal Republic, there is
now an east-west divide, but in the East new regional inequalities appear. These are
new regional disparities which are recognizable now because within the context of
the former GDR the economic differences of the regions did not result in differences
in the personal quality of life, that means nobody was forced to leave a region in
order to reach a better standard of living if they had not to leave their regions for
other reasons, e.g. regarding political freedom, ecological standards or the attrac­
tiveness of the capital Berlin for personal advancement or in relation to its cultural
attractiveness (Strubelt, 1996: 11-110). After reunification the new Germany and
especially the inhabitants of the former GDR, i. e. of the new Länder of the Federal
Republic of Germany, were confronted with a deep structural change in regard to
their jobs and especially in regard to their comparative needs, that means their
comparison with the standard and quality of life between East and West. This struc­
tural change did not result in poverty; the differences in the standard of living were
not leveled up or down but were compensated very slowly over time. Thus we now
have to face the fact that within the reunified Germany new regional disparities exist
which are comparable with the disparities within the European Community in total.
Within the European Community this means that Germany now embraces the whole
span of regional disparities while some East German regions even stay on the same
level as other European latecomers, e.g. Portugal or Greece. This rather radical
change is all the more radical as before reunification; the regional disparities in West
Germany in relation to Europe were rather balanced because the regions with the
lowest turnover were on a high level compared with the European average. This
has completely changed. One is tempted to remark that this means at least for now
and the near future the “return” of Germany to European normality as it was before
W orld W ar II (Europäische Kommission (ed.), 1995).
But we have to mention another trend as very important for the future develop­
ment of the reunfied Germany, namely its international competitiveness known from
the debate about the location Germany (“Standort Deutschland”). W hat is meant and
what is touched by this discussion? This debate has rather to do with the general
economic situation of Germany than with regional aspects, but both aspects together
form a picture in regard to the question I raised at the beginning. Just to give a short
summary, the discussion about “Standort Deutschland” is concerned with the posi­
tion of Germ any within the international com petition of nations or regions on
a world-wide scale in regard to its attractiveness for international investments or even
for investments of German firms. The inner-German discussion about the perspecti­
ves of regional disparities is just an internal reflection of this macro-discussion
(Mayer, 1996: 3 - 13).
The general discussion is concerned with the competitive background of German
industries (industrial production) including the aspects of its service orientation and
its scientific and technological basis for future innovation. The discussion deals with
problems like the productivity of the work-force, labour costs including additional
payments for social security, the legal prerequisites for scientific innovations in
promising new technologies, especially in the area of biotechnology and the positive
orientation toward innovations in the area of media technology (that means especial­
ly telecommunication). It is also concerned about the ability to use fundamental
research results as a basis for new technologies and not forgetting it deals with
problems of ecology, of natural preservation or the use of nature as a resource for
human development and not as a self-preserving natural system. W ithin this context
the inner German discussion is concentrating on the possible future loss of contact
with international developments which might result into a loss of competitiveness for
Germany and into a loss of its excellent position as a technological country. This
excellency has developed from now aged technologies which at present still may be
important but not anymore in future. It is hard to analyse and to verify this by hard
empirical factors. Besides the investment p e r capita in fundamental research or the
approval of patents, etc. do not reflect future aspects because the normal national
statistical figures are oriented to the past. All these impressions show, however, that
the position of Germany as an important economic power cannot be denied at pres­
ent, but in the future there will be some obstacles which might create future proble­
matic developments. Another aspect has to be mentioned, namely the impact of
globalization and its possible impact on the future regional structure of Germany. In
general it can be said that Germany is subject to two parallel processes, the transfor­
mation process of the East and the globalization impacts both on East and West. The
international competition for investments and for the cheapest and most effective
ways of production has reduced the use of work-force on the one hand, on the other
hand this has reduced the possibility for industrial production as a source of new
employments. Better technologies and the world-wide division of labour enables the
industry to produce more products with less labour while the return of this produc­
tion is going to the shareholder, not to the unemployed - or only via some state
redistribution through a possible monthly support on a low level.
Considering these developments on a national level and especially for regions
in development or in crisis, we can observe that the development concepts of these
regions are by now more or less concerned with strategies of keeping and culturing
the existing industrial production structures while competition for investments is
more oriented toward the creation of jobs in the diverse tertiary sector. For this
orientation many programmes and incentives were developed and practised. General­
ly, we can see that the success of such strategies depends largely on local and
regional strategies, less on global or national ones. However, these steps are required
for guaranteeing a secure framework or stable national environment. This mixture
of stable frames of reference on a national level and of innovative and flexible
strategies on the regional and local level can by now be seen as a recipe for success.
W e should now look closer to the development and the reality in Germany with
regard to the problems of old industrial areas - some facts and figures from a com­
parative view. As mentioned above there are different ways of defining old industrial
areas. For this paper I have chosen examples of old industrialization in East and
W est Germany which can be classified into the following categories:
West
Old industrial area/coal and iron industry
Region: Aachen, Ruhr area, Saarland
Old industrial area/maritime character (ship yards/fishery)
Region: Bremerhaven, Kiel
East
Old industrial areas with regard to:
- chemical industries: Bitterfeld,
- textile and equipment industry: Chemnitz, Zwickau.
Besides the comparison within old industrial areas, I have selected prospering
areas in Germany with regard to:
- industrial production: Stuttgart,
- tertiary sector/modem industries: Rhein-Main, München.
In addition, there is also the possibility of comparing regional figures with those
of Germany in toto and divided into East and West.
In regard to the discussion concerning the inner-regional development of Ger­
many, we can observe that following the short boom after the German reunification
the present situation is characterized by a depressive stagnation, and this is not only
the case in old industrial regions but also in regions known up to now as economical­
ly strong areas - that means a moderate growth in GNP but a growing amount of
unemployment at least stagnating on a high level.
3. Facts and figures2
One first observation is a considerable difference in size between the areas,
especially the Ruhr area, is very large in comparison with the small old industrial
areas, while the areas of excellence qualitatively stay on the same level.
Beyond all the endeavours to develop indicators of excellence or attractiveness
there remains one overall factor which reflects the attractiveness of a region by
its people, i.e. by its dem ographic developm ent. If we regard this indicator in
a long-term perspective, we clearly see the relative weak position of the old in2 Cf. the data overview and the other diagrams for different indicators.
dustrial areas, while the regions of excellence show a growth by more than the
double size. W e can also see that regions, which started their reconstruction earlier,
especially Aachen and Kiel, have considerably better results.
The most important indicator for the economic development of a region after
regional GNP is the level of unemployment. Again, there is a clear-cut difference,
absolutely and relatively, which indicates the most difficult situation of the old
industrial areas of the East, but those of the W est are also in a considerable
worse situation than the more prosperous urban regions. In addition, we can see
that a region which is quite densely populated having a relatively high degree
of unemployment naturally has more problems on account of the accumulation
of problematic cases.
The different character of the very regions analyzed is also highlighted if we
look at the share of employees in relation to the total population. This rough in­
dicator, rough because it excludes self-employed professionals and some, civil ser­
vants, gives a good picture of the difference between the old industrial areas and
those areas dominated by the tertiary sector. The latter one have a higher percentage
of employment, which is due to the many females employees in the tertiary sector,
while the former offer less jobs in this regard, consequently the share of working
people is lower. Quite interestingly we can notice that the old industrial areas of
East Germany also show a higher percentage of employed people. This is due to
the fact that in the former GDR the share of the female work-force was considered
to be higher because owing to the shortage in the total working force the women
were more forced and engaged in employments. Within this context the share of
unemployed people (women) in the old industrial areas of the W est would have
been considerably higher, if there had been a higher share of women working in
industrial jobs.
If we now look closer to the figures of people working in the secondary sector,
we can recognize a clear-cut difference between the old industrial areas and the
areas where the tertiary sector dominates, but it is also interesting to notice that
the highest share of people working in the secondary sector lies in Stuttgart region.
It reflects two facets of the current situation, namely that people working in the
secondary sector do not indicate alone econom ic prosperity or non-prosperity
because this depends on the quality and the status of the firms engaged in the
secondary sector on the one hand. On the other hand, it could also indicate that
these regions, which have been flourishing by now, could be a candidate of a co­
ming decay/decline, if on account of the global com petition this type of work
is not profitable anymore. As a m atter of fact, there is some discussion in the
Stuttgart region about its possible fate as second Ruhr area, taking it as a menace
that this area might be in future a declining one. In addition, this is reflected
by the fact that the m odernisation processes in restructuring the R uhr area for
instance, aim at the attraction of new jobs in the tertiary sector, especially in
the sectors of telecommunication, services like insurances, delivery systems and
culturally dominated jobs in addition to an overall attempt to combine new trends
in the area of research (R and D) with the creation of new jobs. The university
is a core for new and modem industries. Naturally, if we now look at the figures
for the share of people working in the tertiary sector, we can easily recognize
a responding picture indicating the new problematic situation of the old industrial
areas which, however, cannot be solved by strategies which just imitate the de­
velopment of those regions concentrating in the tertiary sector as they “inherited”
this share and will keep it. These existing considerable differences are also re­
flected by the share of people working in research and development because we
can see that the share of the old industrial areas is very much below the national
average, while areas like Stuttgart or M ünchen and even Frankfurt have a con­
siderable higher share.
But the more interesting figures are those reflecting the development of em­
ployees in the sector of R and D. This indicator shows the development of those
employees only in the industrial sector excluding those working in universities, etc.
Astonishingly all regions considered have more losses in the sector of people em­
ployed in the industrial field of R and D than the national average (W est Germany
only). This fact can be interpreted in two ways. On the one hand, there is an overall
reduction of those people working in R and D which reflects the general world-wide
competition and the trend of globalization in this sector of industrial production.
This might be a sign for a future reduction of competitiveness in this regard, because
its a national, not a regional development. On the other hand, it also shows that in
comparison to the national average the agglomeration areas loose their dynamics in
favour to the suburban or rural areas. The majority of jobs in these fields is, however,
in urban areas and a considerable reduction could represent a potential danger for
the future development because the only condition for future jobs is a steady in­
vestment in new products via R and D. In this regard we can say that the problems
of old industrial areas are more severe in times of globalization than they used to be.
4. Conclusions
Coming to the end of this paper, we have to face the fact that the national and
regional economic development of Germany is characterized by the current high
status but its future development might become difficult. In relation to the old
industrial areas, we can observe signs of redevelopment, but not in other regions of
excellence. But it seems to be absolutely wrong to hope that the former one will
reach the status of the latter one. They have to develop their own niches for the
future. In addition, the impact of the transformation process in East Germany and
the impact of globalization on Germany in toto is considerably high and not subject
to sudden positive changes. Some stories of success, but also stories of problematic
development influenced by a complex mixture of local-regional conditions or de5 Social Aspects..
velopm ents and national-global factors of high im portance can be noted. The
structural change of such regions will take a very long time, like the long waves
of economic development. They are not subject to immediate action or wishful
thinking and acting, but without acting in the very present they will develop
worse in the future.
W hat is the answ er to the question raised in the title of this paper? If we
just look to the German figures, we can recognize that in some regard the oldindustrialized areas of Germany have been subject to considerable change, but
they are still worse structured than the regions of success, especially in the South
of the Republic. W e can, however, see signs on the wall indicating menetekels
even for these prospering regions, less for the enterprises there which m anage
to adjust but rather for the workers and the employed people because they will
be subject to international competition for cheap labour. They might be the future
loosers, if they are not already. This leads to the second aspect that the future
of Germany as an industrial country is very much connected with its ability to
keep its status as an innovative technological country where people work and
think in a way com petitive with the world m arket/developm ents. It is curious
in this regard that the level of com petitiveness rather seems to depend on in­
ternational (global) and regional (local) developments than on national ones. This
level is too big for the “small” decisions and planning procedures of the region,
and it is too small for the real “big” games on the global level. Thus, we rather
might have to care for the regional level as a basis of spatial development, while
the level of decision-making for national development is gliding into superstru­
ctures like the European Union. Germany has problematic and flourishing regions,
as a nation in toto it has a declining level of development on average. The reasons
can be found in the combined powers of the factors of globalization processes
and of transform ation problem s caused by German reunification. This means,
the question, whether this country is old-industrialized or not, cannot be answered
in a clear-cut way. But there are signs on the wall, and they are not positive
at all - at least for the m ajority of the working people, the working class or
the blue-collar workers. However, this possible constellation rather reflects the
end of the industrial society in general and it raises the question about the future
of the so-called A rbeitsgesellschaft (working society), that means the future of
the society in terms of regular and continuous work in secure job relations. Con­
sidering this, we might conclude that the fate and the development of old industrial
areas are signs on the wall for the future of the industrial society in general,
and all efforts in restoring or keeping these structures might be strange efforts
of restoring a lost past taking place in different regions and nations on different
time levels.
References
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zur Raumentwicklung. Nr. 11-12. Bonn 1986.
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5. periodischer Bericht über die sozioökonomische Lage und Entwicklung der Regionen der Gemein­
schaft. Brüssel.
Friedrichs, J., 1997. “Globaliesierung - Begriff und grundlegende Annahmen”, Aus Politik und Zeitge­
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Vergleich. Schriftenreihe des RWI, Neue Folge, Heft 48. Berlin.
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Parlament).
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Strubelt, W., 1996. “Regionale Dispartäten zwischen Wandel und Persistenz”, in Strubelt, W. et
al., op. cit.
Strubelt, W. et. al., 1996. Städte und Regionen - räumliche Folgen des Transformationsprozesses. Berich­
te zum sozialen und politischen Wandel in Ostdeutschland. Vol. 5. Opladen.
Wienert, H., 1990. “Was macht Industrieregionen ‘alt’? - Ausgewählte sektorale und regionale Ansätze
zur theoretischen Erklärung regionaler Niedergangsprozesse”, RWI-Mitteilungen, 41, Ihrg.
Wollmann, H. et al. (eds.), 1995. Transformation sozialistischer Gesellschaften: Am Ende des Anfangs.
Sonderheft 15 der Zeitschrift Leviathan.
Appendix
Table 1
Indicators of spatial monitoring for the description of disparities in old industrialized
regions and comparison areas
“Old industrialized” regions
Indicators
1
Kiel
2
Population in 1,000’s December 31, 19% 713
Development of population in
3.1
1980-1996 (in%)
Development o f population in
2.7
1990-1996 (in %)
-23.2
Balance of internal migration 1995
206
Population density 1996
iremer- Aachen Ruhr
haven
Area
Saar­ Bitter- Chem­ Zwickau
land
feld
nitz
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
423
1,236
6,180
1,084
570
1,005
678
-0 .4
8.2
1.6
1.7
2.4
4.3
142
5.6
3.0
352
1.2
-5 .6
S66
1.0
-1 .3
422
-2 .3
133
-3 .5
284
-1 .5
265
Table 1 cont.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Unemployment rate in June 1997 (in%)
Development o f unemployment rate
in percentage points June
1990-1997
Employees (liable to pay social
insurance contribiutions) per 100
inhabitants 1996
Share o f employees in the primary
sector in 1996 (in %)
Share o f employees in the
secondary sector in 1996 (in %)
Share of employees in trade and
transportation in 1996 (in %)
Share o f employees in banking and
other services in 1996 (in %)
Share o f employees in private
households, public administration
and social insurance in 1996 (in %)
Share of employees in research
and development per 10,000
employees 1993
Development o f employees in
1980-1995 (in %)
Development o f employees in
1990-1995 (in %)
Development o f employees in the
secondary sector in 1980-1995 (in %)
Development o f employees in the
secondary sector in 1990-1995 (in %)
Development of employees in
research and development in
1991-1993 (in %)
12.2
14.4
12.1
14.2
13.2
22.3
18.1
18.3
2.9
4.0
3.1
3.1
3.9
46.2
40.0
40.4
43.9
46.7
47.7
52.4
50.5
1.5
2.0
0.8
0.7
0.4
4.0
2.5
2.4
30.5
35.7
41.0
42.5
44.5
39.8
39.6
42.5
20.4
21.3
18.0
19.9
18.1
16.2
17.0
17.0
33.0
28.6
31.1
28.2
28.1
23.8
27.4
26.9
14.6
12.4
9.0
8.7
8.9
16.2
13.5
11.1
56
20
78
60
23
43
67
37
4.8
-2 .3
7.5
-6 .2
-2 .3
0.8
-1 .7
-0 .3
-3 .9
-1.1
-1 8 .0
-1 1 .9
-1 6 .0
-27.1
-2 2 .2
-8 .2
-4 .9
-1 2 .5 - 15.8 -11.9
-19.9
1.4
-3 .2
-1 3 .6
21.9
S o u r c e : C ontinuous Spatial M onitoring o f the Federal Research Institute fo r Regional Geography and Regional Planning.
Table 2
Indicators of spatial monitoring for the description of desparities in old industrialized
regions and comparison areas
Comparison regions
Indicators
Rhine- Stuttgart Munich
Main
Population in 1,000’s December 31, 1996
2,669
Development o f population in
1980-1996 (in%)
7.0
Development o f population in
1990-1996 (in %)
3.8
Balance of internal migration 1995
0.3
Population density 1996
548
Unemployment rate in June 1997 (in %)
9.3
Development o f unemployment rate in
percentage points June 1990-1997
4.7
Employees (liable to pay social insurance
contributions) per 100 inhabitants 1996
58.3
Share of employees in the primary sector
in 1996 (in %)
0.5
Share o f employees in the secondary
sector in 1996 (in %)
30.1
Share o f employees in trade and
transportation in 1996 (in %)
23.5
Share o f employees in banking and other
services in % 1996
36.2
Share o f employees in private households,
public administration and social insurance
in 1996 (in %)
9.7
Share of employees in research and
development per 10,000 employees 1993
168
Development of employees in
1980-1995 (in %)
6.4
Development of employees in
1990-1995 (in %)
-1 .9
Development o f employees in the secondary
sector in 1980-1995 (in %)
-2 1 .6
Development o f employees in the secondary
sector in 1990-1995 (in %)
-1 5 .0
Development o f employees in research
and development in 1991-1993 (in %)
-1 3 .9
Alle
Länder
Neue
Länder
Bundes­
gebiet
17,591
82,012
-1 .8
162
18.4
0.0
230
12.2
2,578
2,400
64,421
8.8
4.3
7.8
3.8
-0 .5
706
8.1
3.5
-0 .5
436
6.8
4.6
0.5
259
10.4
5.0
3.3
3.5
57.6
58.0
49.4
50.8
49.7
0.7
0.6
0.9
2.9
1.3
47.1
29.7
41.5
34.5
39.9
17.4
20.7
19.3
17.8
18.9
26.6
40.0
29.4
29.8
29.5
8.2
8.9
8.9
15.2
10.3
338
392
129
5.3
11.0
7.6
-5 .2
-0 .2
0.8
-1 3 .4
-1 9 .5
-1 2 .2
-1 6 .9
-1 5 .2
-9 .2
6.6
-6.1
-6 .0
61
115
S o u r c e : C ontinuous Spatial M onitoring o f the Federal Research Institute for Regional G eography and Regional Planning.
Fig. 1. Observation regions
I
old industrialized regions
I
com parison regions
S o u r c e : Continuous spatial m onitoring o f the BfLR.
Aachen
Ruhr-Area
Saarland
Rhine-Main
Stuttgart
Munich
Alte Länder
u—
-1
1
3
5
Fig. 2. Development of population in 1980-1996 (in % )
7
9
Kiel
Bremerhaven
Aachen
Ruhr-Area
Saarland
Rhine-Main
Stuttgart
Munich
Alte Länder
0
1
2
3
Fig. 3. Development of population in 1990-1996 (in %)
4
5
6
Kiel
Bremerhaven
Aachen
Ruhr-Area
Saarland
Bitterfeld
Chemnitz
Zwickau
Rhine-Main
Stuttgart
Munich
Alte Länder
Neue Länder
Bundesgebiet
0
5
10
Fig. 4. Unemployment rate in June 1997 (in %)
15
20
25
Kie!
Bremerhaven
Aachen
Ruhr-Area
Saarland
Rhine-Main
Stuttgart
Munich
Alte Länder
0
1
2
3
4
5
Kiel
Bremerhaven
Aachen
Ruhr-Area
Saarland
Bitterfeld
Chemnitz
Zwickau
Rhine-Main
Stuttgart
Munich
Alte Länder
Neue Länder
Bundesgebiet
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Fig. 6. Employees (liable to pay social insurance contribution) in 1996 (per 100 inhabitants)
Bremerhaven
Aachen
Ruhr-Area
Saarland
Bitterfeld
Chemnitz
Zwickau
Rhine-Main
Stuttgart
Munich
Alte Länder
Neue Länder
Bundesgebiet
0
10
20
30
40
Kiel
Bremerhaven
Aachen
Ruhr-Area
Saarland
Bitterfeld
Chemnitz
Zwickau
Rhine-Main
Stuttgart
Munich
Alte Länder
Neue Länder
Bundesgebiet
0
10
20
30
40
Fig. 8. Share of employees in banking and other services in 1996 (in %)
50
Kiel
Bremerhaven
Aachen
Ruhr-Area
Saarland
Bitterfeld
Chemnitz
Zwickau
Rhine-Main
Stuttgart
Munich
Alte Länder
Neue Länder
Bundesgebiet
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
Fig. 9. Share of employees in research and development in 1993 (per 10,000 employees)
Kiel
Bremerhaven
Aachen
Ruhr-Area
Saarland
Rhine-Main
Stuttgart
Munich
Alte Länder
■10
10
20
Structural C hange
and Social Splitting
in the Ruhr Area
Thom as R om m elspacher
Gerhard-M ercator Universität
Duisburg
1. Ideas
During the structural change of the old industrial Ruhrgebiet, we can observe
a double social splitting. On the one hand, the splitting of society, described in the
sociological literature, is easily to make out. It is caused by the fact that a society
based on a welfare state with highly inclusive structures, changes by the way of
social change to very exclusive traits. In the cities, we observe the spatial effects of
the splitting of society in core, periphery, and a differentiated grey zone between
both the poles, created by processes of social segregation. This process ist reprodu­
ced and aggravated on a regional level, when a previously economicaly integrated
region like the Ruhr area breaks in parts, characterized as losers and winners. The
loss of regional identity, being expressed in the more and more splitting futures of
parts of the region, leads to a loss of the capacitiy of regional self-management. In
times when the capacity of government to influence social economic development
widely decreases, this may create high tensions within the Ruhr area.
2. Structural change in the Ruhr area
The Ruhrgebiet is one of the largest conurbations in western Europe (5.4 million
inhabitants in 1995).1 About 100 years it was the most important industrial centre
of Germany. The crisis of the coal and iron industries of this area began already in
1957 with the first canceled shifts in the coal-mines, first was to be made out in
1 The definition o f the Ruhr area is the area o f the Kommunalverband Ruhrgebiet
1965/66 in the iron and steel industry and still is going on in important parts of the
region. Trigger was the fact that the demand for central products (i.e. hard coal,
steel and coal industry) has permanently decreased.
M ost striking is the loss of importance in the coal and steel industries. From
1961 to 1995 they lost 470,000 jobs. The losses will continue, though cushioned by
governmental help. The weak increase in the service industries could not compensate
these losses, and not the losses of the other producing trades either. Caused by this
development the Ruhr area permanently loses economic importance and dynamic.
During the period 1978 -1994 the num ber of jobs decreased by 5.4%, whereas the
country North Rhine-W estphalia had an increase of 12%, and the Federal Republic
(West) of 13.3%. (Bleck et al., 1995: 125-143), (Brickau et al„ 1996: 238-252).
In spite of the decrease of jobs during approximately the past 40 years, the share
of the occupied persons within the producing sector - 1994 still 43% - is significant­
ly higher than in North Rhine-W estphalia or the Federal Republic (West). Deficits
are especially to be seen in the service industries. They increase less than in the
average of the country and the Federal Republic (West). Nevertheless they remain
one of the few growth areas. During the past 30 years there was no significant
success in the settlement of new industries, in spite of the huge efforts of the au­
thorities. National and international business enterprises preferred the adjoining area
Köln/Düsseldorf.
Even after a structural change of 40 years the economy of the Ruhr area is still
dominated by big enterprises. The number of small and m edium-sized businesses is
not high, despite of intensive promotion. So the growing diversification of the econo­
my often emerges from former coal and steel companies, that became active in other
lines of business. Thus the economic change slowly takes place, step by step and with
the guidance of the coal and steel companies. In spite of substantial efforts the region
is behind the other m odem industrial regions in Western und Northern Europe.
2.1. U nem ploym ent and poverty
Because of the decrease of jobs lasting for decades, high figures o f unem ­
ployment and poverty put pressure on the region. They are always significantly
higher than in North Rhine-Westphalia or the Federal Republic (West). In July 1997,
the unemployment rate (14.6%) was by 3 points higher than in the country, and by
4 points higher than in West-Germany. Some cities, i.e. Gelsenkirchen, H em e and
Duisburg were even more burdened with figures of 18-20% . Similar figures of
poverty are known. In 1966 about 9% of all people depended on social welfare, and
in the country North Rhine-W estphalia about 7.5%.
In the context of unemployment and poverty, and caused by social segregation,
poverty districts emerged in all the cities in the Ruhr area since the 1980s. In these
areas factors such as a high proportion of economically and socially weak inhabi6 Social Aspects..
tants, decay of dwellings and infrastructure, as well as the decrease of social
welfare influence one another to a highly negative degree.
The effects of this situation are also seen in the income, i.e. in the city of Gel­
senkirchen (Emscher zone), the available income per inhabitant was in 1991 about
21,000 DM/year. The average of the Ruhr area was 2,000 DM higher, and in the
country North Rhine-W estphalia 3,500 DM. The comparison with wealthier cities
is more significant: in the capital of the country, Düsseldorf, being about 80 km
away, the available income was about 43,000 DM. Thus it is not astonishing that in
1994 Gelsenkirchen, Recklinghausen, Oberhausen, Duisburg and Dortmund were
the five “poorest” cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants of the Federal Republic
(West) (Heilemann et al., 1994; Globus Bilderdienst, 1995). A survey by the city of
Essen (1992) shows a spatial differentiation. In 1991 the monthly average net income
of the households of the “poorer” areas (VI, Katemberg/Stoppenberg, Emscher zone)
was by 30% less than the 3,995 DM, the “richest” areas (IX, Bredeney/W erden/Kettwig, Ruhr zone) had at their disposal.
3. W inners and losers of the structural
change
The figures referred to above show that the spatial effects of the structural change
are highly different. W hereas the southern outskirts and the south of the Ruhr conur­
bation are significantly less burdened, the problems in the north accumulate. This
distribution follows a scheme already based on the historic development of the
region. Following the economical and partly also the social structure, the Ruhr area
might be roughly divided into three parts. They may be seen as streamlines from
west to east (cf. map). In the south, where the industrialization began in the 1850s,
the R uh r- and H ellw egzone are situated. The Emscherzone, adjacent north of it,
was industrialized at the end of the 19th century. The northern outskirts (Lippezone )
have a partly industrial, and a partly rural structure.
3.1. W inners and losers
A closer look on the region shows substantial social-economic differentiations:
evidently the Ruhr conurbation more and more splits up in areas of “losers” and
“winners”. W hereas the first mentioned reach the standards of average conurbations
of the Federal Republic (West), the situation of the losers gets worse and worse.
The structural change is almost finished in the R u h r- and Hellwegzone, where
most of the coal and steel structures already broke down in the 70s. Especially in
the south of Essen, Dortmund and partly of Bochum, regionally important central
functions were established - a diversified educational system, differentiated struc­
tures of politics, mass media and administration and sophisticated cultural offers.
The service economy grows rapidly. Thus, with 72% or 68% people occupied in
the tertiary sector, the growing poles Essen and Dortmund have emancipated from
their former industrial basis. One evidence for this is that they became a “normal
address” for institutional investors in real estate, competing with locations near the
Rhine. The successful structural change does not mean that those cities had solved
their problems on the job market: the rates of unemployment remain high.
The development is dramatic so far as quite different processes are going on
in the northern adjacing Emscher-Lippe region. It is much more influenced by
big companies, and the growth of services is weak. The economy is still domina­
ted by coal and steel structures. Thus this region remains dependent on the de­
crease of the coal-m ining, the economic situation of the steel industry and the
effects of it on the sectors around it. Here the grey everyday situation of the
decrease is prevalent, as well as the expensive reactivation of devastated indus­
trial areas, and the tough competition with the many similar structured regions in
Eastern, Middle and Northern Europe. A wrongly used ecological substance as
well as an only moderate development of the territory characterize this region. In
addition, there are only sim ple private and public services, a high degree of
people not well qualified and trained, m issing universities and a high rate of
unemployed.
4. A new identity for a disintegrating
region?
Obviously, the Ruhr area has no homogeneous future. The former dominant coal
and steel sector dissolves, and a new leading sector is not to make out. Thus, there
will be no homogeneous structural change, and the region between Ruhr, Emscher
and Lippe falls into parts. That means that concepts based on the historical unity of
the Ruhr area, and looking for a homogeneous future will fail.
If these processes go on, they might end in a hardly to reverse splitting of the
Ruhr area. The decreasing capacity of the State to react, makes the problem more
serious. Because of the crisis of the public finances, the factor of “limitation of the
damage” in the policy of the country and the local authorities is rapidly decreasing.
In the future, only a few local authorities in the south will be able to react to the
decay of the northern quarters of their cities. On the other hand, the weakened cities
in the Emscher-Lippe area can not more rely on governmental help to compensate
the decay of their industrial basis.
As a result, there is a controversial picture. If the R uhr area is not to be
splitted for a long time, the relevant societal actors must find a new regional
identity, a new way to see the region. The base of the new image of the region
will not any m ore be the unity, but the diversity of the econom ic, social and
cultural perspectives of its parts. As a m atter of fact the conditions necessary
to perform process are not given.
Basically, the local authorities in the south of the region are interested in the
Em scher zone not being degraded as the backyard of the industrial society burdened
with many problems. Such a permanent splitted development might lead to social
and economic tensions, having a negative effect on them. Yet the remaining bundle
of points in common - the history with its problems, and the normal demand in
coordination of conurbations (traffic, regional dispose of waste, free spaces in com ­
mon, etc.) - is only a small basis for further cooperation. Thus it is rather dubious
that the need for a cooperative regional development will m obilize enough power
for regional solidarity. In contrast, short time profits could be gained from the stress
of an independent development in the south.
The south has developed the self-definition of a modem service centre, whereas
com parable processes in the north are not visible. The development of a new self­
definition within the Emscher-Lippe area will be much more complicated, if it is
possible at all. This part of the Ruhr conurbation has to terminate the traditional
ideas characterized by big business, but nevertheless should connect with the ex­
perience and wishes of the people to gain a perspective, i.e. more than the part of
the hinterland for the south.
This perspective is not yet achieved. This is fatal because only on this base an
understanding among the parted areas of the Ruhr, concerning their contribution to
a newly to be defined conurbation, might be initiated. This would make it possible
to prove new forms of cooperation and solidarity, and thus act in a more self-asser­
tive way in the country of North Rhine-W estphalia. A regional self-definition, de­
veloping in the long run to be a new identity, does not emerge in an intellectual
show of strength. It is based on an understanding among the groups of a region, and
reflects economic, social and cultural development. Thinking of the prerequisites
of such a process in the Emscher zone, it will be clear that its deficits are not only
based on an economic or ecological foundation or on the spatial structure of the
area. The little potential of creativity is also fatal. The high quality training places
are in the south, and mass media being able to accompany a new economic, social
and cultural development, are missing. The fact that new social constellations, e.g.
the scene of initiatives and projects in the social cultural field, or on the political
field the Green party, were up to now kept away from the local and regional group­
ing of powers, has also a negative effect.
References
Bleck, S., Brickau, K. et al., 1995. “Nach dem drohenden Infarkt hat das Ruhrgebiet sich wieder stabili­
siert”, in Bourree, M. and Claaßen, L. (eds.), Standorte. Jahrbuch Ruhrgebiet, 94/95.
Brickau, K., Kampherm, R. and Lessing, P., 1996. “Das Ruhrgebiet bekommt den Abschwung be­
sonders drastisch zu spüren”, in Bourree, M. and Claaßen, L. (eds.), Standorte. Jahrbuch
Ruhrgebiet, 95/96. Essen.
Globus-Bilderdienst 1995.
Hellemann, U., Loeffelholz, D., Schrumpf, H. and Rappen, H., 1994. Arbeitsmarkt und finanzpolitische
Perspektiven und Optionen der Emscher-Lippe-Region in m ittlerer Frist. MS.
Stadt Essen, 1992. Wohnsituation in Essen. Erste Ergebnisse der Umfrage 1991 (Beiträge zur Stadtfor­
schung, 7/1).
R evitalization S trategies of Cities
in the R uhr A rea 1
Jürgen Friedrichs and Rolf Küppers
University of Cologne
Köln
Like in all highly industrialized countries, cities in Germany were severely hit
by deindustrialization. Indications of this process were first apparent in some regions
in the mid-60s, however they were interpreted as a temporary and not structural
crisis, as specific for old-industrialized regions and industries, but not as the advent
of a severe trajectory of the economic base from goods processing to services and
information industries affecting all cities. It took almost twenty years more to recog­
nize the full extent of this fundamental transition, which is still going on. By the
end of the 1970s, cities - at differing degrees - started to rethink their policies, and
those most hardly hit to invent programmes to stop urban decline by setting up
revitalization programmes. It is the latter process the article addresses.
W e will first briefly present data on the process of urban decline. Since the Ruhr
region as one of the major old-industrialized areas in Europe was most severely hit
by urban decline, cities from this region will serve as examples of the problems
associated with the trajectory from decline to recovery or revitalization. Thus, for
the following analysis three Ruhr cities were selected: Essen, Bochum and Duisburg.
They stand for different courses of change; the period covered is 1970 to 1995. The
location of these cities and some others mentioned in the text can be seen in Fig. 1.
1. Decline
The impact of what has later been termed as “deindustrialization” and “glo­
balization” initially affected only to the mining-steel complex in the Ruhr area
and the Saar region in the 1960s. These early indications were, however, not vie­
wed as a structural but temporary crisis. Ten years later - the exact period varying
from city to city - it was obvious that cities were facing a structural and long-term
1 Part of this paper was drawn from Friedrichs (1997).
trajectory. What followed, was a sequence well described by Thompson (1965) in
his analysis of the crises in Pittsburgh: it takes six years to recognize the crisis, six
years for planning to adjust to the new situation and further six years to have the
first results of counterbalancing measures implemented.
By the end of the 1980s, it became obvious that all cities in old-industrialized
regions were hit by deindustrialization, such as the two already mentioned regions, in
addition the textile industry in North-Rhine-Westphalia (e.g., Bielefeld, Krefeld, Mönchengladbach), and the shipbuilding industry in Bremen and Hamburg. This trajectory
- or even decline - is documented by data in Table 1 for the three cities and the FRG.
At the national census of 1970 Essen, followed by Dortmund, Duisburg and
Bochum have been the largest cities in the Ruhr Area. All cities were hit by the
crisis of the steel industry during the late 1960s, but the symptoms of the crisis
become visible only very slightly. The unemployment quota, which is now one of
the most serious problems, was very low and only 0.1% above the national average.
Therefore the costs and the rates of public assistance were relatively moderate.
Furthermore, the fiscal situation was not really bad, because of the relatively high
gross value added, founded on the secondary sector. For example, in Duisburg 64.4%
of the gross value added was obtained in the secondary sector.
In Bochum and Duisburg the process of population decline continued until 1990,
followed population growth due to the influx of refugees from East Germany (the
former GDR). In Essen the process of population decline is still going on. All cities
Table 1
Selected indicators of socio-economic change in three Ruhr area cities
and the old FRG, 1970, 1980, 1990 and 1995
Indicator
Essen
Bochum
Duisburg
FRG
Population
1970
1980
1990
1995
Pet. Change 1970-1995
713,235
647,643
624,445
614,861
-13.8%
424,966
400,757
393,053
400,395
-5.8%
620,561
558,089
532,152
535,250
-13.7%
60,651,000
61,538,000
63,254,000
67,643,100
+11.5%
Employed
1970
1980
1990
1995
Pet. Change 1970-1995
303,707
277,852
247,997
241,176
-20.6%
179,080
168,506
171,376
166,869
-6.8%
260,420
257,088
214,504
193,540
-25.7%
26,560,000
26,980,000
28,479,000
28,458,000
+7.1%
Secondary sector
1970
1980
1990
1995
Pet. Change 1970-1995
149,577
103,397
71,824
61,394
-59.0%
101,708
78,254
67,423
56,788
-44.1%
152,350
133,123
93,181
70,792
-53.5%
12,987,000
11,721,000
11,309,000
10,172,000
-21.7%
Pet. Employed in
Secondary sector
1970
1980
1990
1995
49.2%
37.2%
29.0%
25.5%
56.9%
46.4%
39.3%
34.0%
58.5%
51.8%
43.7%
36.6%
48.9%
43.4%
39.7%
35.7%
Unemployment quota
1970
1980
1990
1995
0.6%
5.6%
12.8%
13.1%
0.6%
5.6%
11.7%
12.8%
0.6%
6.6%
12.2%
15.6%
0.5%
3.8%
7.2%
8.9%
S o u r c e s : Amtliche Nachrichten der Bundesanstalt ju r Arbeit, N ürnberg, data for Septem ber o f respective years; Statistisches Jahrbuch
der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Vols. 1971, 1981, 1991, 19% ; Statistisches Jahrbuch Deutscher Gemeinden, Vols. 1971, 1981, 1991,
1996; Landesamt fü r Datenverarbeitung und Statistik NRW: Erwerbstätigenrechnung in den Gemeinden NRWs.
lost population between 1970 and 1995, Essen and Duisburg nearly 14%, Bochum
only 5.8%. In contrast the old FRG gained population, in particular since 1990 as
a result of the reunification of the FRG and GDR.
Very similar to the population decline, there was an overall loss of employment
in the Ruhr cities, again in contrast to the FRG. This development could be inter­
preted as a result of the dramatic loss of employment in the secondary sector. The
Table 2
Selected fiscal indicators for three Ruhr area cities and the old FRG, 1970, 1980, 1990 and 1995
Indicator
Essen
Bochum
Duisburg
FRG
23
36
85
92
15
24
59
58
18
37
64
66
12
21
45
49
Public assistance*
Recipients/1,000 inhab.
1970
1980
1990
1993
DM per inhab.
1970
1980
1990
1993
Total tax revenues
(DM/inhab.)
1970
1980
1990
1995
Pet. Change 1970— 1995
35
125
465
473
23
95
285
273
30
129
319
352
19
70
163
222
375
923
1,442
1,776
+374%
364
816
1,471
1,313
+261%
426
930
1,140
1,178
+177%
2,515
5,929
8,690
9,952
+296%
Debt (DM/inhab.)
1970
1980
1990
1995
Pet. Change 1970— 1995
909
1,736
2,643
3,200
+252%
1,146
2,241
2,941
3,192
+179%
635
2,364
3,193
3,824
+502%
788
3,737
8,571
24,272
+184.6%
Gross value added
(in DM/employed)
1970
1980
1990
1994
Pet. Change 1970— 1994
31,929
58,945
96,457
114,959
+260%
31,766
55,962
89,196
99,586
+214%
37,083
58,319
92,357
102,206
+176%
23,643
50,482
78,867
95,129
+302%
* Continuous aid only; recipients in and not in institutes.
S o u r c e s : Statistisches Jahrbuch der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Vols. 1971, 1981, 1991, 19% ; Statistisches Jahrbuch Deutscher
Gemeinden, Vols. 1971, 1981, 1991, 1996; Landesamt fü r Datenverarbeitung und Statistik NRW: Statistische Berichte 1970, 1980, 1990,
1993.
cities have lost between 59% and 44% employed in this sector. On the national level
the loss of 21.7% of employed in the secondary sector was well compensated by
new jobs in the tertiary sector. Unemployment quotas and both the num ber and
percentage of persons receiving public assistance grew above the national level. In
addition, the debt per inhabitant increased dramatically. (For detailed studies of
urban decline in the Ruhr area, see, Aring et al., 1989; Bade and Kunzmann, 1991;
Friedrichs, 1996; Gewos, 1989; Hamm and Wienert, 1990.)
Essen is the Ruhr city which experienced the transformation process most con­
sequently. In 1995 the percentage of employed in the secondary sector was about
10% lower than in Bochum, Duisburg and the FRG. From 1970 to 1995, 88.183
employed in secondary sector lost their jobs. The high rates of unemployment and
persons under public assistance indicate that this development was to the disadvan­
tage of the former miners and steel workers. On the other hand, the new created
jobs in the tertiary sector were to the advantage of financial situation of the city.
Between 1970 and 1994 the gross value added increased from 31,929 DM per
em ployed to 114,959, which is the highest of the three cities. In 1995, Essen was
the city with the highest tax revenues per inhabitant. Furthermore, it is remarkable
that the headquarters from nine of the 100 largest German companies are located in
Essen. This is the main explanation for the high level of employed in tertiary sector
in Essen because management and administration are also located in Essen. Fur­
thermore, these companies have established private research institutes.
Duisburg is a good example for a different development. In 1970 it was the city
with the highest gross value added, the highest tax revenues and the lowest debts
founded on the strong secondary sector, with 58.5% employed in that sector. 25
years later Duisburg is still the city with the highest percentage of employed in the
secondary sector but also with the highest unemployment quota, the highest debts
and the lowest tax revenues. Therefore the people under public assistance are a larger
burden for the bad fiscal situation in Duisburg.
If we take a closer look at the cities, it is also the domination of grand com ­
panies and their economic development that have influenced the entire develo­
pm ent of the cities. In Bochum , more than 50% of the em ployed are engaged
by only nine companies. M ost of these companies are only branches or belong
to declining business lines (Rom m elspacher, 1992). In spite of this the effects
of Opel for Bochum are an advantage for the city because of the relatively good
economical development of the automobile industry as a part of the secondary
sector. The reduction of employed in secondary sector was relatively small and
in 1995 the unem ploym ent quota, the people under public assistance, and the
depth were the lowest of the three Ruhr cities.
The causes and sequence of decline of German cities followed almost precisely
the sequence specified in the several decline models (Rust, 1975; Richardson, 1978;
Friedrichs, 1993). Due to lower labour cost in other parts in the world and technical
innovation production plants closed or were reduced in capacity. The results were
rising unemployment, a demographic-employment mismatch, selective outmigration
from the cities and declining tax revenues. Furthermore, the num ber of households
under public assistance increased - and these payments come from the city’s budget.
This, in turn restricted the urban budgets and dramatically reduced their means for
investment.
2. Revitalization strategies
The process of deindustrialization, once recognized as a structural and irreversible
change, led to different reactions from urban officials, regional and national govern­
mental bodies. Several elements in this process of rethinking the urban condition can
be detected. The basic problem underlying all strategies was the lack of any sound
theoretical underpinning for the different strategies of revitalization. Urban officials
had to react, but the measures suggested and implemented were not based on scienti­
fic knowledge. The communes faced a situation which alm ost inevitably led them to
apply a strategy Lindblom termed “muddling through” . The traditional theories of
urban growth are based on industrial growth and use the 19th-century industrializa­
tion process as a model, as described e.g. by Thompson (1965) for the growth of
Chicago. Moreover, neither theories of growth poles or the basic-nonbasic approach
lend themselves to derive hypotheses for growth mechanism in the late 20th century
under the conditions of a tertiary sector-led change of the urban economic base.
In the following, we will analyse the efforts cities in Germany have made to
counterbalance the loss of jobs and local tax revenues. W e will first discuss the
major revitalization strategies and assess several public-private partnership projects.
The changing urban condition was addressed by the mayor of the Free and
Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Klaus von Dohnanyi, in a speech delivered on Novem­
ber 23, 1983, at the prestigious “Übersee-Club” [Overseas Club] pertaining to the
economic, social and administrative problems of the city. His major conclusion was
to view the “city as an enterprise”, and urban officials and governments were reques­
ted to act accordingly: to implement urban marketing, and to use an economic
instead of a bureaucratic approach to deal with external enterprises seeking a location
in Hamburg. Although the idea was not new (five years earlier the League of Ame­
rican Mayors had made a similar statement), it received great attention among
mayors of German cities.
Many cities invented programmes to attract new industries. The major instrument
- besides cheap land and tax exemptions or reduction - was the creation of a new
institution: Wirtschaftsförderung (Economic Promotion). This new body was created
to deal with companies seeking a location in the city. It was entirely financed by
the city, the main task was to combine responsibilities formerly distributed over
several departments of the urban administration: economic promotion, planning and
urban land registration. Thus, an Investor was supposed to bargain with only one
instead of three different urban departments. This new body was supposed to act as
a private agency and not as a traditional part of the urban administration. The first
city to introduce this institution was Duisburg in 1988.
Cities began to compete with each other like companies on a market. They
commissioned the task to develop such campaigns to marketing companies, in ad­
dition created a corporate identity by introducing a city logo and a slogan both in
their stationary and their campaigns. Among the campaigns launched were as well
regional ones, such as “The Ruhr area is becoming greener” to get rid of the smoke­
stack image the Ruhr area had for more than hundred years.
One of the consequences of the above mentioned lack of theory was speculation
about the location factors of the “new industries” (Fielding, 1994). The discussion
turned to “soft location factors”, and culture was singled out as one of the most
important elements to attract the - better educated, more cosmopolitan - employees
of the new industries (cf. Behr, Gnad and Kunzmann, 1989; Kunzmann, 1988; Whitt,
1987; Wynne, 1992). This conclusion is corroborated by a finding from a survey of
German managers: 30% of the managers from companies of the secondary sector
as opposed to 50% of companies in the service sector view “culture” as an important
location factor (Skrodzki, 1989: 87).
Many cities began to invest in cultural facilities, be it by constructing new
museums or theaters, like Frankfurt/M ain, or by investing in their existing cultural
facilities or by creating new musical theatres and festivals. The latter efforts were
criticized as “festivalization of urban policy” in a collection of essays (Haussermann
and Siebel, 1993). Support for investment in cultural facilities came from several
studies on the multiplicative economic effects such as public expenditures. The
methodology of these studies was based upon the New York Study (The Port Au­
thority of New York and New Jersey, 1983). Several cities, e.g., Bremen (Taubmann
and Behrens, 1988), Neuss (Gerwien and Holzhäuser, 1988), commissioned studies
on the impact of their cultural facilities on the local economy; in addition a study
on the national level was published (Hummel and Berger, 1988). All studies in­
dicated a positive effect of investment in cultural facilities: for each mark invested
returns were between 1.20 to 1.60 DM - the m ultiplicator depending on the city
and institution analysed.
These examples document how cities tried to cope with often dramatic change
of their economic base. Although most cities applied several strategies and im­
plemented diverse programmes, closer inspection reveals three basic types of stra­
tegies: external diversification, internal diversification and the “engine” strategy
(Friedrichs, 1993).
1.
The strategy of external diversification aims at attracting companies from
“new” industries, such as electronics, communication, research. A good example
is the competition among German cities for an IBM branch in the early 1970s.
This strategy is based on the assumption, a large branch of a major electronics
com pany would serve a grow pole and attract other, sm aller enterprises to the
city. It is nonetheless the 19th-century growth model, with manufacturing replaced
by electronics.
This strategy turned out shortsighted, since only a few cities could attract a major
electronics company, the growth effects being moderate, and the num ber of jobs
created being below expectations. M ore generally, this strategy has a m ethodolo­
gical flaw: the underlying assumption to find again one industry that will guarantee
long-term growth impulses. As we know, there is no such industry on which
long-term hopes can be based; instead, many large com puter hardware companies
went bankrupt, furtherm ore, even their production has been transferred to Asian
countries.
2. The “engine” strategy is based on the assumption, a single measure could
both alter the image of the city and create new jobs. There is a variety of such
“engines”: In the case of Hannover it is to major world Fairs: the “Industriemesse”
and the computer fair “CeBit”. Other cities implemented cultural programmes:
constructing a new theatre for a musical, e.g., in Hamburg for the musicals “Cats”
and “Phantom of the Opera”, for “Starlight Express” in Bochum, or for “Les M ise­
rables” in Duisburg. Further examples are the renowned exhibition of modem art
“documenta” in Kassel, or to become the “Culture Capital of Europe”, like Glasgow
(for an account, see Booth and Boyle, 1993) Antwerpen and Thessaloniki in 1997.
This strategy has been successful with respect to the positive effects of the
measure itself. All cities hosting a new (preferably Andrew Lloyd Webber) musical
have successfully attracted visitors, the theatre itself has created many direct and
indirect jobs. It may as well positively influence the city’s image. However, expected
the spin-off effects, the aim to attract new enterprises and more jobs, can hardly be
validated - the engine tows few wagons. Thus, this strategy can only be an additional
element in a broader concept.
3. The strategy of internal diversification aims at expanding the diversity by
promoting (and subsidizing) existing potentials in order to reach a critical mass
inducing further growth. This may be done by establishing technology centers,
expanding university facilities devoted to applied research, or, as in the case of
Duisburg, expanding the harbour and turning it into a free enterprise zone. This
strategy highly depends on the mobilization of internal resource, the cooperation of
many corporate actors, like larger companies, banks, the chamber of commerce.
Most cities combined these strategies, although one is dominating. But these
strategies are an incomplete account of the cities activities, since the economic
decline results in shrinking tax revenues and rising expenditures for public assist­
ance. The major effort is directed towards acquiring subsidies from regional, state,
national or European Union funds. This race for external funds has increased the
competition among cities, most obviously among cities in the Ruhr area. In this
respect, cities indeed act as entrepreneurs.
In the R uhr area, an array of program m es were available to the cities,
amongst them:
- the North-Rhine-W estphalia/European Commission programmes RESIDER for
steel regions,
- the North-Rhine-W estphalia/European Commission programmes RECHAR for
mining areas,
- the North-Rhine-W estphalia/European Commission programmes for Target-2-Areas promoting change in old-industrialized regions,
- the Future-Initiative Programme for the Mining/iron/steel-area (“Zukunftsinitiative
M ontanregionen”, ZIM),
- the Future Initiative Programme for Regions in North-Rhine-W estphalia (“Zu­
kunftsinitiative für die Regionen Nordrhein-W estfalen”, ZIN),
- IBA (“Internationale Bauaustellung Emscherpark”).
The initiatives ZIM and ZIN required a cooperation of cities forming a common
region and “Regional Conferences”, in order to improve their position in interna­
tional competition for the location of new industries. In 1990, the region “Middle
Ruhr Area” was created (Bochum, Hattingen, Heme, Witten), followed in 1991 by
the region “Lower Rhine” (Duisburg, Kleve, W esel), and in 1992 the “W estphalian
Ruhr Area” (Dortmund, Hamm, Unna). This cooperation is shared by the Chambers
of Commerce and representatives from the urban governments and administrations.
The long-run aim was regional planning, the immediate purpose to act as corporate
applicants for external funds serving economic change in the region.
3. Public-private-partnerships
Since urban administrations did not have theories on which strategies or single
measures were to be grounded, they looked for examples of successful revitalization.
Evidently, neither cities in Germany, nor from France or Great Britain could serve
this purpose. Thus attention was directed to cities in the U.S., in particular Pittsburgh.
This case was documented and analysed by several German scholars (e.g., Hamm
and Wienert, 1990; Kunzmann, 1988a, 1988b; Kunzmann, Lang and Theisen, 1994;
Muller, 1988); the reason for its prominent role was the analogy to the cities of the
Ruhr area: They exhibited a similar economic basis, coal and steel, low industrial
diversification, had strong unions, high wages, large traditional enterprises run by
“steel aristocrats” (Ingham, 1989), and they share the decline of this industrial base.
The major lesson to be learned from Pittsburgh was the crucial role public-private-partnerships had throughout the Renaissance I and Renaissance II (Berry
et al., 1987; Coleman, 1988), basically the Allegheny Conference on Community
Development (1943, 1980s) and the Regional Industrial Development Corporation
(1955). Their activities shaped the city’s trajectory from steel to technology.
Public-private-partnerships were a new element in German urban planning, in­
troduced by Konukiew itz and K rautzberger (1988), Kruzewicz and Schuchardt
(1989), and Lutze and Heuer (1988). The main elements of such partnerships are:
- The city cannot finance the redevelopment of the land, it has to turn to private
financial sources. Via its majority in the GmbH, the city exerts control over the
planning, land uses, sales prices and rents. In addition, the city profits from the
know-how of companies in dealing with complex planning problems and gains
access to market information. Finally, cities expect these partnerships to force the
involved departments of the urban administration to better cooperate, restructure,
and work as efficient as private companies (Heinz, 1993b: 492, 501; Heinz and
Scholz, 1996: 221; Heinz and Steinfort, 1995: 240).
- The Land subsidizes the redevelopment for two reasons. First, to improve the
competitive position of the respective city which can offer developed land to
attract (new) companies to locate in the city. Second, to preserve land, since
funding is an incentive to redevelop land instead of developing agricultural land
or green spaces for commercial use.
The main instrument of the Land North-Rhine Westphalia is the “Landesentwicklungs-gesellschaft mbH, LEG” (State Development Corporation), founded in
1970 and itself a public-private partnership. The major associates are the Land
(68.2 %), insurances and banks (19.3 %), building companies (10.4 %), manufac­
turing companies (0.2 %) and the cities and counties (0.2 %). The balance sheet
total was 3.7 billion DM, assets 3.3 billion DM, sales proceeds of 600 million
DM, and owned 65,000 dwellings; it has 800 employees. (All data refer to 1996.)
Fields of activities are urban development, modernization, real estate, construction,
administration of residential buildings and marketing of developed commercial
land. It operates in the Rhine-Ruhr area, and holds shares in numerous urban
development projects in this area, e.g. the “AEG-Kanis” project in Essen.
- The (private) ow ner will not take the risk of redeveloping the area, amongst others
because the costs are difficult to calculate if part of the ground is contaminated
from prior uses (cf. Heinz and Scholz, 1996: 210). However, not entering a public-private-partnership bears the risk of dead capital. With the public-private-partnership, the private owner (in most cases m ining/steel subsidiary real estate
company) gets his risk covered by public funds. Moreover, he can either buy or
rent from the GmbH parcels of land and erect office buildings, which he then
may rent profitably. There are three constraints: he cannot alter the previewed
land uses, he has to buy from the GmbH at market prices, and he has to rent the
offices at price fixed by the GmbH. Being restricted in his action by the GmbH
factually means to accept the 51% control the city has in the GmbH. The restric­
tions normally hold for 15 years, in case of funds from the European Community
for 25 years. An additional reason for such partnerships was the growing political
pressure exerted upon Ruhr mining and steel companies not to retain the sites
they own. As a consequence of this pressure, in the late 1980s and early 1990s
m ajor companies like Ruhrkohle AG, Thyssen, Haniel and Krupp-Hoesch founded
own real estate enterprises to market their waste properties.
All strategies require financial means from the urban budget. Given the men­
tioned constraints, cities were forced to seek external funds and subsidies, for ex­
ample from the ZIN or ZIM programmes mentioned in the preceding section. But
they had as well to use internal funds. It is this condition that led to the adoption of
the instrument of private-public-partnerships (cf. Kruzewicz, 1993: 7).
4. Revitalization projects in Essen,
Bochum and Duisburg
Like all cities in the Ruhr region, Essen, Bochum, and Duisburg have made
tremendous efforts to restructure their economic base and to compensate for the
jobs lost in mining, steel and manufacturing by attracting new enterprises in elect­
ronics and the services, such as research, consulting or education. Revitalization
measures cover a wide range; to document the common and different elements in
their strategies, we list m ajor examples of revitalization measures in each of the
three cities.
4.1. Essen
A common strategy in all Ruhr cities was to recycle fallow land from former
mines or steel plants. Between 1965 and 1986 the last 14 mines in Essen were
closed. Recycling included cleaning the contaminated ground, running a planning
process (often a competition), redevelop the land, to sell it. The m ajor part of the
programmes in Essen belong to the “external diversification”, the city offered recyc­
led land in order to attract new industries.
In Essen, among the projects since 1970 are the following:
- site of the former mine “Katharina”, 200,000 sq. m., 28 new companies create
1.000 new jobs since 1973;
- site of the former mine “Emil Em scher”, 470,000 sq. m. recycled for manufac­
turing use;
- Technology Center “ETEC - Essener Technologie - und Entwicklungszentrum ”,
22.000 sq. m. space for offices, laboratories and m anufacturing, the ETEC
was founded in a cooperation of the city, the cham ber of com m erce and
a banking company;
- “Science Park” of 100,000 sq. m., adjacent to the university;
- Office Park “Ruhrallee”, three sites sold to private developers in 1990, 22.000
sq. m. office space;
- site “A EG -K anis”, former site of the AEG, 108,000 sq. m. for manufacturing
use, a part of the site is developed as a public private partnership of the EW G
(Essener W irtschaftsförderungs-gesellschaft, founded in 1991), the LEG and the
STELLA Musical Company;
- site “Krupp M l”, since 1995 145,000 hectares of developed land available; pro­
spective uses: manufacturing, offices and services;
- “M anufacturing Park Levin”, until 1960 a mine, 8.8 hectares;
- “Craftsmen Park” in Katemberg, former area of the mine “Zollverein”, total area
size: 7.2 hectares; will be developed for 15 small crafts enterprises.
4.2. Bochum
One major project in Bochum was an “engine” type venture: the musical “Star­
light Express” which opened in 1989. The city constructed and financed a new opera
house and let it to the Stella Company, which holds the German rights for Webber
musicals, with special opera houses constructed for them in Hamburg, Bochum,
Stuttgart and Duisburg and Essen (in this case a modernized building). The Duisburg
project (“Les M iserables”) opened in 1996, the opera house is located in a former
working-class district close to the Autobahn. The spin-off effects of these musicals
are estimated to be manifold: the city’s image is improved and thousands of visitors
are attracted, spending additional money for restaurants, taxis and hotels. Unfortuna­
tely, there is no study available showing these effects in quantitative and monetary
terms. (There is one small Austrian study on the effects of “C ats” for Vienna,
calculating a positive job and overall positive effect in monetary terms; see Frühstück
and Wagner, 1988.)
The other projects belong to the “external diversification” strategy, most of them
are public-private-partnerships. Bochum has utilized this model to establish a techno­
logy center at the University of Bochum. For several years, two buildings intended
for the expansion of the university were not completed. In 1988/89 it was decided to
complete one of these buildings and turn it into a technology center. To achieve this,
the CHIP GmbH was founded, half of the members were the cities Bochum, Hattin­
gen, Hem e and Witten, 25% were the Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of
Crafts, 24% an association of regional enterprises and smaller banks. The uncomple­
ted building was transferred from the Land to the city, the Land gave a lost subsidy
of 56 million DM. The building was completed by the end of 1993; at present all
16,000 sq. m. of office space are rented to 45 smaller innovative enterprises with
more than 300 highly qualified jobs (personal information from the Mayors Office).
Earlier projects include:
- Development Center at the Ruhr-University Bochum, opened in August 1991,
7,000 sq. m.; hosting 23 enterprises with 225 employees. Since spring 1992 second
construction phase, 9,000 sq. m.; total cost: 56 million DM.
- Since 1986: Counseling of existing and new small and m edium-sized enterprises.
In the 1986-1992 period a total of 3,150 counselings, the majority to assist new
enterprises. Resulting jobs: 1,432, of these 44% new.
- Recycling of fallow land, mostly former mines, e.g.: Commercial Park “PrinzRegent” (1.2 hectare) for office and services uses; Commercial Park “Holland”
(7 hectare), for smaller and medium-sized crafts oriented enterprises; Service-Park
“M önninghoffgelände”: offices and light manufacturing; intended to host 1,000
(new) jobs; Technology Park “Ruhr University East” (16 hectare), hosting tech­
nology enterprises cooperating with the university;
These major projects (and several not listed ones) comprise a total of 106.7
hectares (263.7 acres) the city provides to attract and locate new establishments.
7 Social Aspects..
A more recent project is the “Trimonte Park”. The area is two kilometers south of
the Bochum downtown, it belonged to a machine company which went bankrupt in
1984. It took several years to find a concept for the site, since the ground was contam i­
nated and no private Investor was willing to risk the investment. The area was sold to
a bank, then to a private developer, Bilfinger and Berger, in 1992. In cooperation with
this company the city developed a new planning concept for the area by 1993. The
concept consisted of a high quality commercial and office center, intended to attract
“high quality services” to Bochum and to keep up with the efforts of neighbouring
cities. To this end, parts of the ground were sealed, parts removed and used for three
hills, further, the city bought additional green space adjacent to the area. The size of the
entire area is 54,000 sq. m., and 40,000 sq. m. are scheduled for commercial use. The
first office building was erected in 1995. Total costs of the project amount to more than
100 million DM, almost entirely privately financed. In this case, the public-private-partnership did not include establishing a new body (GmbH), but consisted in coope­
rative planning of land uses and the addition of green space to the privately owned site.
“Innovation Park Springorum” is another project implying a public-private part­
nership. The total area has 25 hectare, of which 10 hectare are built-up area; part of
it was until 1985 a heating plant. The owner of the latter area is the VEBA Kraft­
werke Ruhr AG. Cooperating with this private company, the city of Bochum agreed
upon a planning concept which was directed towards developing a park-like location
for services, education and applied research of significance even beyond the region.
Building sites in the area can be sold, rented or leased. The usable space will be
80.000 sq. m., allowing for 2,000 jobs.
The cooperation includes a GmbH, with the VEBA being responsible for all
ground clearance and development measures. The city receives funds from the
programme “Regional Economic Prom otion”, which are transferred to the VEBA,
who in turn is liable to the city in land use, land prices and sales. At present, build­
ings on one third of the area are completed, amongst them an office building with
4.000 sq. m., all rented by the end of 1996. The site for this building was kept by
the VEBA. Further, a vocational training center for technical personnel and engineers
is under construction, the “Technische Akademie W uppertal” (Technical Academy
W uppertal), a branch of an institution in the city of Wuppertal. This project was
subsidized by the Land with the amount of 19 million DM, construction started in
summer 1997 and is supposed to terminate by the end of 1998.
4.3. D uisburg
In 1988, the mayors office published the programme “Duisburg 2000” . Its main
objectives was to mobilize the endogenous potential of the city by “setting the
conditions for economic renewal” and gaining “access to the trend towards the service
sector” (Stadt Duisburg, 1991: 13). The following projects served these purposes:
- Expansion of the 275-year old Rhein-Ruhr-harbour, the largest inland harbour in
Europe, part of this project was a duty-free port area (opened 1990), a railway
station for combined bulk goods (construction started in 1990), and a Euro-Logistic-Center (first phase completed in 1991).
- “Technology Park N eudorf’, intended to foster microelectronics and technology,
with Technology centers I, II and III (completed 1987, 1988 and 1993), and the
“House of Economic Promotion”, a combined effort by the Duisburg University,
the renowned research institute “Fraunhofer Gesellschaft” and the three techno­
logy centres.
- Landscape Park “Duisburg N orth” (200 hectares), aim ed at the economic
and ecological renewal of the city, financed by ZIM funds with 39.7
million DM.
- “Businesspark Rheinhausen” (40 hectares), bought from the former owner Krupp
company in 1989 by the State Development Company of North-Rhine-Westphalia;
the city invested 15.3 million DM and expects 750 million DM private companies
to invest 750 million DM (Stadt Duisburg, 1191: 79), counseling and financing
by a consortium of Deutsche Bank and ECE Project M anagement, Hamburg.
Start in 1991.
- Qualification center in Rheinhausen (a district troubled by the closure of a major
steel factory), devoted to the training and (re-)qualification of mainly blue-collar
workers.
Reviewing the projects in the three cities yields several conclusions. First, all
aim at technology and commercial parks to attract new enterprises and com pa­
nies. Second, this offer may not always be matched by an equivalent demand; by
the end of 1992, Bochum offered 265.1 hectares of commercial land, but only
100.9 hectares were occupied. Third, all cities started to integrate the universities,
predominantly applied sciences and engineering, into their efforts to attract new
enterprises and new jobs for their alumni. Compared to the U.S., this link between
universities and the local economy was recognized relatively late, the U.S. C on­
ference of M ayors already in May 1984 concluded that urban revitalization was
im possible without taking the universities into the boat. Fourth, all cities have
profited from their com petition and advanced in diversifying their econom ic
base and im proved the overall living conditions in these cities. Fifth, the m ea­
sures im plem ented required external funding and in some cases public-private-partnerships.
Finally, an example from Duisburg. As the data in Table 1 indicated, of the
three cities under study (and even all eleven Ruhr cities), Duisburg had the most
problems in coping with the decline of its economic base. A major example is the
urban district “Ruhrort”. It is a formerly self-contained urban area adjacent to the
inner harbour, which gained its significance in the 19th century due to coal transport
from rail to ships. M ajor Ruhr companies had branches in this area, the most im­
portant one being Haniel. With the decline of mining in the Ruhr area and in Duis­
burg (only one from initially nine mines in Duisburg still being active) the neigh­
bourhood declined as well: it lost population above city average and while the
better-off moved out, poorer and foreign-born households moved in. In 1993 it had
6,400 residents.
Due to the specific interest of the Haniel com pany, and more specifically
their real estate division, in 1986 a cooperation between the com pany and the
city em erged. Interestingly, this cooperation did not lead to a formal or even
legal body, like in the cases mentioned above, but a “Coordination Group” con­
sisting of several departm ents of the city’s adm inistration and representatives
from the Haniel real estate company. As by 1995, this group had 75 meetings.
Their task was to discuss urban renewal in the area, in which both parties were
interested for the sake of the residents and an improvement of an environment
Haniel as the largest company viewed inappropriate for an international enterprise.
The choice was either a committment to renewal or giving up the - traditional
- location (cf. Heinz and Scholz, 1996).
Since 1986 Haniel has invested in m odernization of buildings, new streets, new
buildings, buying landmark buildings and activities such as caring for new street
lighting. It has even given loans to property owners to finance modernization of
their buildings. Two major projects were the modernization of the “Thousand W in­
dows House” built in 1925, now called “Haus Ruhrort”; this alone was an investment
of 22 million DM, including subsidies from the Land to preserve the landmark. The
other was a 45 million DM investment in a new “Haniel Academy”, a training center
for the company, erected at the price of tearing down old buildings which might
have qualified as landmarks. In addition, Ruhrort became part of the International
Building Exhibition programme (IBA).
This private-public-partnership is unusual in alm ost all elem ents. The “Co­
ordination Group” is no legal body, but a strategic alliance. It exhibits a high
continuity in their m em bership, there are no form al (legal) contracts, and the
high committment of the Haniel Company and the Haniel real estate company
in particular, rests in large part on the specific persons involved in the group.
Given this construction, data on investments are not to obtain, furthermore, there
are no studies on the impact the modernization activities had on other real estate
owners and on the residents in the area.
The projects have to be put into the perspective of restructuring the entire inner
harbour. Since 1980, the harbour has added new functions, although iron ore is still
the major good handled (15 million tons in 1995), e.g., general cargo, an entirely
new logistic allowing for using containers on lorry, train and ships (combined freight
traffic), and a ten hectare free port (cf. Blotevogel, Deilmann and W ood, 1966).
Thus, we may assume Haniel to gain from the growing importance of the harbour.
5. Conclusions
Our conclusions pertain to the three cities under study and the revitalization
process in general. Starting with the specific conclusions, we find that the dominant
strategy applied by the cities was external diversification.
Further, we may assume that Duisburg was hit latest by the deindustrialization
process. This may lead us to the more general assumption: The later a city is hit by
deindustrialization, the more severe are the consequences, e.g. of loss of jobs and
tax revenues - and the more difficult it becomes to implement recovery strategies.
In line with this argument, we assume the comparatively good economic conditions
in Bochum to be in good part attributed to the fact that since 1961 Opel (General
Motors) has opened a production plant in Bochum, where by now one third of the
gainfully employed work. The Essen is somewhat in the middle of these two trajec­
tories: The employment structure changed from secondary to tertiary employment
comparatively earlier than in the other cities, but resulted in a qualification-em ploym ent mismatch, as indiacated by the high unemployment rates and expenditures
for public assistance.
Turning to the more general conclusions, we try to disentangle the complex
picture by several assumptions to account for the countervailing forces of urban
economic recovery attempts and the negative impact of a national economic recession.
Revitalization measures, as documented for three German cities, are directed
towards several goals: to improve the image of the city - a positive signaling - sup­
ply land ready for development for commercial and office use, attract new industries
and enterprises, thus create jobs, and alter the competitive position of the city in
a national or even European context. One of the results of these strategies is a surplus
of supply: By the end of 1996, the LEG offered 2,072,000 sq. m. of “immediately
available land for industrial and com m ercial use” dispersed over 18 cities in
North-Rhine-W estphalia (LEG, Press Office, 1996).
However, it is difficult to evaluate the final outcome of these efforts. We lack
statistical data allowing us to differentiate between new jobs in a strict sense, old
jobs only transferred to new sites, and even more complicated, the impact of these
measures on local companies decisions not to leave the city for a more favourable
location in a different city. One conclusion can safely be drawn: The new jobs
required a higher qualification, they were thus nor available to most of the (bluecollar) workers set free by plant closures or transfer of production to third world
countries. A clear indication of the resulting mismatch is the rising unemployment
quota and the rising quota of long-term unemployed in particular (for detailed analy­
ses, see Friedrichs, 1985; Kasarda and Friedrichs, 1985).
The main problem of evaluating the success is that we do not know how these cities
had fared without their revitalizing efforts. Instead, we may ask whether the alternative
policy of “graceful decline”, as some German scholars advocated, would be realistic.
This is highly improbable as both the theoretical models (e.g., Richardson, 1978) and the
historical evidence (e.g., from Leiden, The Netherlands, and Brugge, Belgium) suggest.
The spiral of decline: less jobs - selective outmigration - shrinking tax revenues does
not tend to reach a new equilibrium; it may take more than a century until the process is
stopped. Thus, the tremendous efforts made by declining cities to regenerate and
diversify their economic base seem to be the only feasible policy to improve the
economic and social conditions. Although Ruhr cities now compete on a higher level,
this competition has spurred innovation and mobilized endogenous potentials.
Public-private-partnerships play a significant role in the revitalizing programmes.
They came late, like the perception of the severe structural crisis itself, but they
seem be the only solution to invest even under constrained urban budgets. It is too
early to evaluate whether these projects will be successful, it as well may depend
on the specific project. Yet, according to the survey by Kruzewicz (1993: 65),
already several goals of such cooperations have been accomplished, am ongst them
a restructuring of urban admistrations, an orientation towards the common goal of
local revitalization, and an integration of action strategies.
The unplanned consequences o f the revitalization efforts are manifold, though
not all of them have bom out. Let me resume these in several propositions. 1. The
major consequence is a change in the population composition: The new jobs attract
better-educated and highly qualified persons, above the educational level of the
traditional residents. A larger share of them does not come from the city itself. 2. Thus,
economic revitalization does not reduce unemployment nor the growing number of
households living under public assistance. This gap holds true as well for cities
experiencing a higher rate of economic growth, like Frankfurt, Hamburg or München.
This observation is corroborated by the findings from Frieden and Sagalyn (1989),
who found public-private-partnerships to have little impact on the reduction of
unemployment rates in several northamerican cities. 3. Traditional blue-collar milieus,
like those in the Ruhr cities (Blotevogel, Butzin and Danielzyk, 1988), fade away and
no longer dominate the city. 4. Given these changes, traditional party cleavages
(predominantly Social Democrats) dissolve, and in particular the Greens gain votes
(Friedrichs, 1996: 161-164). 5. The influence of the trade unions weakens as well,
since the strong miners and metal workers unions loose members as mines and steel
factories are closed. Further, their strength was as well based upon the fact that these
two unions represented the majority of the workers, while the differentiation of the
employment base results in membership - if at all - in several trade unions. 6. The
composition of the political elites in the cities will undergo a change towards stronger
representation of the new better-educated and new residents; mayors will no longer
come from the traditional working class milieu. 7. Income differentiation and even
polarization will increase, eventually resulting in higher residential segregation.
Nonetheless, there seems to be no other way to stop decline, let alone to re­
vitalize cities. The Ruhr cities represent only the most marked examples of such
trajectories, cities with less old-industrialized regions are following this pattern,
as deindustrialization reaches chemical and automobile companies. The long-term
results of these changes are difficult to evaluate, since in the middle of these efforts
the national economic problems have hampered many programmes, making it al­
most impossible to separate problems arising from the programme from those due
to the national economic problems. The burden thereby put on the cities lies in the
fact documented by the examples given that all revitalization efforts heavily de­
pend upon external funds.
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Land versus People
- The Urban Process
in the Reconstruction
of Industrial Cities
David Byrne
University of Durham
1. Introduction
The stimulus for this paper was my reading of two recent reports dealing with
the future of the Katowice Industrial District (UNDP, 1996 and Błasiak et al., 1994),
both of which recognize that the district is at a crisis point in that its present situation
is not sustainable and that it must undergo some sort of transformation involving
a change of its basic character over a relatively brief period of time. At roughly the
same time I was reading Fitch’s recent book on The Assassination o f N ew York
(1996) and was particularly struck by a comment he quotes made by a senior m em­
ber of the FIRE (Finance, Insurance and Real Estate) elite about the basis of the
transformation of that city during the 1970s and 80s. This individual asserted that
the function of cities had changed in a fundamental way. Throughout the 19th and
first half of the 20th century, cities had functioned as systems through which peasants
were transformed into industrial workers. Now, in their postindustrial phase, cities
were no longer about labour and its products but were instead to be understood as
locales in which value was realised through the processing of inform ation and
through the management of elite consumption. Since as Fitch points out the assas­
sination of New York is another way of describing the way in which policies re­
inforced a global tendency towards deindustrialization and the social changes con­
sequent on that transformation, this seems a crucial point for grasping one logic of
possible development - the logic of speculation. Bond puts it like this:
A m ong the m ost powerful and dam aging forces buffeting the inner city o f the 1980s
and 1990s is the new found capacity o f financial markets and leading financial institutions
to im pose upon policy makers severe constraints, not particularly related to the logic o f
capitalist developm ent but rather tied to the viccissitudes o f global financial speculation.
(1991: 141)
Obviously FIRE style speculative development was always going to be im­
portant in somewhere like New York, one of the three key global cities in which
the virtual world of finance capital actually comes to ground in real space. How­
ever, there is now a general view in ‘Urban and Regional Studies’ that all cities
/city-regions have to be understood as world cities in the sense that they are
located within a world system of global accummulation and that their future tra­
jectories are likely to be within the range of possibilities offered by the character
of that world system - all cities/city-regions are global nowadays.
The force of this argument is reinforced in practice, if not necessarily in
principle, by two empirical observations. The first, which is systemic, is that two
of the w orld’s three unequivocally global cities, New York and London, have
been in the recent past key industrial locations and that their present situation is
to be understood in large part as a consequence of them having ceased to be so
(see Fainstein et al., 1992). The second, which is about action rather than about
systemic structures, is that local policy elites in cities/city-regions have actively
promoted a particular style of socio-spatial transformation m odelled in large part
on the supposed outcomes of the postindustrial strategies of governing elites in
the true global cities.
This paper is about how the combination of global tendency and elite driven
strategy has worked out in some purely industrial cities, cities which were essentially
products of the first wave of 19th century (and indeed late 18th century) indus­
trialization based on carboniferous capitalism. I must emphasize that I present these
examples not as illustrations of the inevitable trajectory of other cities/city-regions
of the same kind (and particularly of course of the Katowice Industrial District) but
rather as terrible examples (in the original and literal meaning of the English word:
terrible) of what might happen if particular policy trajectories are actively pursued
in the period of postindustrial transition.
In order to establish some sort of theoretical framework for the subsequent
account, let me draw on Durand’s (1992) proposed modification of the regulation
theory school’s account which is particularly relevant to the period under review
here - that since 1980. Her arguments are most easily summarized by a series of
quotations:
In “Fordist” growth expanded reproduction takes place in such a way that all the
elem ents o f incom e and o f dem and grow proportionally so that enlarged reproduction
im plies no structural deformation in the division o f incom e and its allocation. In “PostFordist” growth things happen differently. To put it sim ply, in com es rise but w ages are
blocked - hence the sam e for the consum ption o f w age earners (p. 83)
If w e want to clarify the current forms o f capital reproduction w e must focu s on its
tendency to divided into two large sectors: the first is the modern industrial and computer
service sector characterized essentially by high gains in productivity and the creation o f
rather small numbers o f jobs. The second sector is that o f services, with low productivity,
more sheltered by its nature from international com petition. This is the privileged place
for the creation o f jobs. (pp. 8 3 -8 4 )
This brief exam ination o f this theoretical m odel o f growth leads to tw o predictions:
the creation o f job s in the service sector must be accom panied by lower w ages and the
allocation o f incom e must be m odified in favour o f non-w age demand, (p. 85) (all 1992)
Durand illustrates her analysis by reference to “the Great American Job M a­
chine”. Between 1980 and 1986 ten million jobs were created in the USA whilst in the
four major European countries (which have roughly the same total population as the US)
two million were lost. The US jobs created were in low waged service employment. The
product of this sector is differentially purchased from “non-wage” incomes which have
increased dramatically in real terms whilst US wage incomes have remained stagnant. It
is worth noting that this account provides a “political economy” based explanation for
the developments with regard to income distribution in the UK described by Piachaud in
a series of articles and summarized in his piece in The Guardian of 30th September 1992
(p. 21). Piachaud’s material also provides a useful corrective to D urand’s emphasis on
non-wage incomes as a source for consumption of services, because he shows that higher
wages incomes did rise in real terms. However this is actually compatible with Durand’s
general account of developments in production in privileged high technology sectors.
All available evidence on “social exclusion” suggests that these processes have
continued and that the social division generated by them is ever deepening (see
Byrne, 1997 for a summary of UK income dynamics research and its implications).
A recent OECD study (1997) has concluded that the relatively low levels by inter­
national standards of unemployment in the US economy reflect “hidden unem ­
ployment” in the form of very low waged labour which has difficulty in achieving
its own social reproduction. In the core of this paper I want to explore how planning
policies of urban restructuring operate in this kind of policy context, but first I want
to establish the actual scale of deindustrialization as it has happened for two in­
teresting conurbations in the UK.
2. You would never have believed it
- The deindustrialization of Tyne
and Wear and South Yorkshire
I have selected these two conurbations as illustrative exam ples of the dynamic
trajectory of what I am going to call “facilitated deindustrialization” because they
had original industrial structures which were rather close to that of the Katowice
Industrial D istrict in the early 1990s. This was particularly the case for South
Yorkshire but there are also strong similiarities with Tyne and Wear, and I include
the latter conurbation because I have better information on the detailed content of
planning policies within it over the relevant time period.
Table I
The changing industrial structure of two UK industrial conurbations
South
Yorks 1971
Total Em ployed
539,100
Industrial
323,500
Sector1
(61% )
Coal
58,285
M ining etc.2
Full Time
(11% )
343,000
Tyne and Katowice
Wear 1971
1992
South
Yorks 1993
Tyne and
Wear 1993
503,600
254,200
1,242,500
4 26,664
420,702
783,900
122,140
98,173
(51% )
20,860
(63.1% )
354,900
(29% )
(23% )
4,022
1,240
(4.1% )
(29%)
304,800
NA
(1%)
195,693
(0%)
191,650
(46% )
(46% )
NA
109,858
113,917
NA
(26% )
102,394
96,405
(24% )
(23% )
(64% )
(61% )
Full Tim e
W om en
119,500
129,600
(22% )
(26% )
Part Time
65,700
60,100
W om en
(12% )
(12% )
Men
(27% )
1 Includes m ining, m anufacturing and construction.
2 T he rundown o f the U K deep coal-m ining industry began in the early 1960s. T otal m ining em ploym ent in T yne and W ear had been
reduced by tw o thirds by 1971 and reduced by about a third in South Yorkshire.
I included the expression “You would never have believed it” in the title of this
section of the paper because it seems to me that any observer in these UK conur­
bations in the early 1970s would never have believed that within twenty years the
degree of deindustrialization would be so advanced. I say this with some confidence
because at that time I was criticized as a prophet of doom for arguing that there
was a serious risk of the Tyne and W ear conurbation seeing a reduction of about
30% in the volume of industrial employment by the year 2000. In fact the reduction
has been more than double that (although I will say that I think it has now bottomed
out and will go no lower). My argument is that the current situation of that conur­
bation represents the most extreme possibility for deindustrialization and the worst
possible scenario for other later deindustrializing cities like Katowice. However,
I am also arguing that this worst scenario does not represent an extreme on a con­
tinuum, but rather a particular attractor state in a non-linear transformation of the
social situation (see Byrne, 1997 and forthcoming for a development of this ap­
proach). In other words it is not really possible to stop somewhat short of this
situation. It is pretty much a matter of all the way or very much less with nothing
possible in between.
Let me rub in the scale of the changes in the British industrial conurbations.
Not only have both seen a massive loss (roughly 60%) of industrial jobs, but the
number of full time male jobs has declined by 40%, the num ber of full time female
jobs has declined by 10% and the only growth in employment has been for part-time
women in the service sectors. The implications of this for the polarization of house­
holds into those which are job rich (more than one full time earner, usually one full
time male and one full or part time female) on the one hand and job poor (no earners
at all) on the other, are very considerable. However, what I want to focus on here is
the trajectory of the city/city-region as a socio-spatial system, rather than the out­
comes for households. In other words what happens to cities when they are no longer
to be understood primarily as agglomerations of workers drawn together for indus­
trial production, with the organization of space determined by the needs of that
production, including the need to reproduce the labour of the work-force required
for that production?1
3. Planning as active deindustrialization
... industry within the river com d ors is characterized by heavy marine-based manufac­
turing. D u e to world market conditions causing d ecline in these sectors, there are also
a growing number o f derelict factories, w arehouses, shipyards, slipw ays and dry docks
along both rivers with river or rail access primarily, many o f which are unlikely ever again
to be used for their present purpose. (Evidence o f C h ief Executive o f Tyne Wear D evelop ­
ment Corporation to H ouse o f C om m ons S elect Com m ittee on Em ploym ent 1988: 309)
The British Urban Development Corporations were established by the Local
Government Planning and Land Act 1982. This was a very important measure in that it
effectively ended the Keynesian / corporatist forms of land use planning which had
characterized the UK planning system up to this time, and which had placed great
emphasis on the role of the land use planning as a mechanism through which full
employment could be maintained. The rhetoric, although not the reality, of the
justification for this measure was constructed around the assertion that planning was an
unnecessary and harmful intervention in the detemination of land uses in that it
interfered with the rational allocations which would be the result of the operation of an
unfettered free market. In reality the mechanisms created by the legislation were not
about the opening of a market but rather involved the removal from democratic control
of planning as a process. At the same time very large amounts of land were transferred
to the ownership of new the UDCs which were centrally nominated QUANGOS.2
The Tyne and W ear UDC was a second wave development corporation established
1 It hardly need to be said that, that is what industrial cities were. The history o f the developm ent o f
K atow ice given in Błasiak et al. (1994) illustrates this perfectly for the developm ent o f that city-region
under “real socialism ” . I w ill sim ply add that the description holds equally w ell for K atow ice’s d evelop ­
m ent under first German and then Polish capitalism and for the developm ent o f South Yorkshire and
Tyne and W ear under both free market capitalism before 1939 and the social dem ocratic social market
capitalism o f the post-war years up to 1975.
2 This stands for “quasi-autonom ous non-governm ental organizations” but the expansion d oes not
indicate the real nature o f these bodies. They are in fact nominated boards operating locally but appointed
without dem ocratic control by central governm ent m inisters. They represent a necessary local elem ent
in governance w ithout the awkwardness engendered by local dem ocratic control.
in 1987 with the remit of redeveloping land around the industrial rivers of the Tyne
and Wear. This land had been used for a range of maritime uses including port
facilities, but the most important use was for shipbuilding and ship-repair. In Sun­
derland the large and very modem Wearmouth Colliery was located within the UÜC
territory. The UDCs task in general was specifically not concerned with the regene­
ration of employment. Instead these bodies were directed to bring land back into
use for profitable activities, regardless of the employment implications of the con­
sequent developments.
The vision of the TWDC is well indicated by the statement of its Chief Executive
quoted above. The traditional high skill based (including high levels of technical
skill) maritime industries were not to be revived. They were obsolescent. Subsequent­
ly in A Vision f o r the Future (1990) TWDC asserted not only that the marine ma­
nufacturing sites were derelict and redundant, but that the industrial culture charac­
terizing traditional production was itself a barrier to new development:
The econom y o f the North East has, until recently, depended on three industries:
heavy engineering, coal m ining and shipbuilding ... For too long the need for a more
diversified regional econom y was not seen as important or necessary ... Indeed the senior
management o f these three industries w as so small relative to the numbers em ployed that
the opportunities for aspiring talent were severely lim ited, so for the m ost part they left
the region. The opportunities for local entrepreneurial activity, given the dom inance o f
engineering, shipbuilding and coal in the market, were limited. W ith the decline o f these
three sectors, the banks o f the Tyne and Wear, essential to the functioning o f those indus­
tries, lapsed into dereliction. (1990: 4)
An important part of this statement was rubbish. Ever since the 1930s the North
East of England had had a regional planning system whose primary objective was
the diversification of the traditional industrial base. This system had in fact been
highly successful in facilitating the creation of much light industrial employment
through the development of “Industrial Estates”. A particular consequence of this
strategy had been the creation of much reasonably paid industrial employment for
women in light engineering and clothing plants, in a region where traditionally
households had depended on the high wages of men in heavy industrial work. How­
ever, the development agencies had been (and still are) essentially corporatist bodies
in which regional capital, trade unions, local government (mainly but not entirely
controlled by the Labour Party) and higher educational institutions had collaborated
in a programme which prioritized job creation. The postindustrial future was to have
different objectives.
The planning strategy adopted by the TWDC was that of “catalytic planning”.
I first encountered this term in the brief of evidence prepared by TWDC for the
public enquiry into its compulsory purchase of a number of properties on the East
Quayside site in Newcastle (TWDC, 1989 a). There it was defined thus by TW D C’s
expert planning witness, P.W. Jones, a director of Debenham, Tewson and Chinnocks, project advisors:
There is, in m y opinion, a distinction to be drawn betw een “regeneration” and “rede­
velopm ent” . R edevelopm ent o f a site w ill succeed in bringing land and buildings into
w hatever use the market determ ines as the m ost appropriate for that site at that time.
Regeneration on the other hand, aim s to create new markets by increasing confidence and
attracting inward investm ent. A regeneration project is needed to rekindle econ om ic and
cultural vitality o f the site itself and also creates sim ilar betterment to its im m ediate
environs. W hen com bined with other such schem es, it w ill also be a catalyst for sustained
im provem ent and growth in the w h ole city and indeed the region. (1989: 12 para 3.1.4)
In other words the task of the UDCs was to use public resources get the market
going, as TWDC put it (Jones, 1989: 16 para 3.2.2.4) to act as “A Catalyst for
Regeneration” - the catalytic image implies that the potential existed. It was only
necessary to inject some energy into the system to initiate a self-sustaining reaction
which would proceed without further intervention. This is not particularly good
physical chemistry but it was clearly the sense in which the term was being em­
ployed. The use of the term “flagship” by UDCs to describe particular developments
is significant here. The “flagships” are the physical representation of the catalytic
process - the late 20th century equivalent of Gray Street around the development
of which the mid-19th century urban renewal of Newcastle was hinged. The concept
is quite well founded in the history of urban development and renewal but has only
proceeded without any subsidy in urban centres and, very briefly, (W elfare Island
where Olympia and York did succeed) on non-central sites in world cities. This
was the process which was to be applied to “derelict”3 sites in clapped out North
Eastern industrial towns.
In order to understand the supposed logic of these developments we need to
return to a consideration of the im plications for the social order of massive dein­
dustrialization. The consequence is not the wholesale emmiseration of former in­
dustrial populations and locales. Instead, as Durand has indicated (see above), what
we find is a process of social polarization and division in which some become much
more prosperous and others become relatively, and in the case of the UK at least,
absolutely worse off. The poor are not by any means a surplus population. Rather
they become the ill paid service workers who staff the new service enterprises.
Contrary to D urand’s account there is also very good evidence that they continue
as industrial proletarians but are likely to receive much lower wages than before.
W e have seen the re-emergence of absolute surplus value expropriation through
a process of under-development.
This paper is concerned with way in which the redesignation of land uses is
intended to facilitate the development of a service centred economy. First, let us
establish that the methods through which this was achieved in no way represented
3
In fact many o f the sites were not derelict at all but contained important facilities which were
temporarily out o f use. This applied particularly in Sunderland where the m ost modern covered shipyard
in the world at Southw ick w as d em olished by the U D C despite attempts by private capital to purchase
the yard as going concern.
a reliance on simple market systems. Instead large subsidy resources were poured
into the activity, particularly but not only through land reclamations schemes in
which industrial sites were converted into “brown field”4 development sites. Healey,
the Professor of Town Planning at the University of Newcastle, and bizarrely a mem­
ber of the TWDC Board, has described the process thus:
The net result in the conurbation w as a considerable flow o f subsidy to particular kinds
o f activity, in a situation where local authority and regional assistance was being reduced.
Public subsidy had thus sw itched from providing support for the dem and for land and
property in various w ays to encouraging property supply. M uch o f the subsidy w as spatially
targeted, to inner city areas, but also to zon es away from established centres for office and
service activity. T hese locations thus looked set to alter established spatial patterns in the
conurbation. The subsidy w as accom panied by agencies urged to be helfpul to the private
sector, and encouraged to engage in energetic prom otional activity. ... Urban policy was
thus directed at transforming the spatial structure and institutional relations o f the conurba­
tion to reflect post-industrial conceptions o f urban structure and lifestyle. (1992: 8)
In her interesting review of “post-modern” planning in Newcastle, Wilkinson
remarked that
The T. Dan Smith5 era was concerned primarily with civic pride and a utopian version
o f the city as an urban m achine fit for living in. It w as essentially a m odernist vision with
a strong social welfare com ponent, m anaged by the public sector on K eynesian functional
principles. (1992: 178)
She contrasts this with:
... the post-modern city ... characterized by a shift away from com prehensive rede­
velopm ent projects, characteristic o f the 1960s and 1970s, towards the planning o f urban
fragments, evidenced in the m osaic effect created by the developm ent o f the new urban
villages, flag-ship schem es, self-contained waterfront developm ents and cultural quarters.
These islands o f renewal also act as highly visible sym bols o f urban regeneration and, as
such, they are regarded by public and private-sector agen cies as vital ingredients in the
place-marketing process. (1992: 177)
The intention was to create a set of new postindustrial spaces from former in­
dustrial spaces which would provide locations for services utilized by the affluent.
The constant use of the term “exclusive” to describe developments here is interest­
ing. “Exclusive” developm ents exclude - they keep the riff-raff out, usually
through pricing strategies. The poor can enter as servants but not otherwise. The
developments encouraged by the TWDC which have taken this form have involved
housing, shopping centres and leisure locations. Actually none of them have really
4 This term is an analogy with ’’greef field ”. Land developm ent is easiest on former agricultural
land where there has been no prior developm ent. Land reclam ation restores industrial land to this con ­
dition but without the grass - hence, brown field.
5 T. Dan Smith w as the notoriously corrupt but also stylish and innovative former Trotskyist leader
o f N ew castle City Council in the 60s.
8 Social Aspects..
succeeded. The culture of success in the industrial North East has always been, in
a characteristically English way, anti-urban. Those who make good or even decent
money seek to live outside the conurbation in the urban fringe or countryside and
the TWDC has been wholly unsuccessful in its efforts to reverse this tendency.
Instead there are a range of m iddle m arket leisure and shopping facilities and
a good deal of social housing for the very poor on these sites. The actual outcomes
have involved any development possible rather than the coherent postindustrial
development intended. Even the new campus of the University of Sunderland on
a former shipyard site is the property of one of the least prestigious of UK univer­
sities which has developed a “business school” in a city whose core industries have
largely been eliminated. In practice this is a technical school for lower to middle
level clerical employment in Information Technology using office jobs. The whole
situation is perhaps well illustrated by the present use of the site o f the high
technology W earmouth Colliery. This is now the new stadium of Sunderland
Football Club, recently relegated from the English Prem ier League.
It would be wrong to say that there have been no successes of the new strategies
for the move towards a postindustrial future. On the contrary in overall terms the Tyne
and W ear conurbation is now a functioning postindustrial system with a good many
prosperous people living in it and with new consumption processes providing the base
for a new wave of capital accummulation. For example, it is now often asserted that
there are more people employed in “night industry jobs”, i.e. in work in leisure facili­
ties in the late evening and through the night, than are actually employed in traditional
industrial work.6 However, the consequences are evident in terms of the socio-spatial
implications of the social polarization which underpins these developments.
4. Ghettoes of the Poor - The reality
of exclusion in the postindustrial city
The processes described here have not taken the form of “gentrification”, the
term given to the consequence of former working class residential areas in cities
becoming fashionable and moving up market, exemplified by the history of Islington
in North London. The spaces which have been reformed are not those of working
class residence, not the spaces of reproduction in the industrial city. Instead there
has been a reformation of the industrial spaces, of the spaces of production. Some
of this has involved the development of new forms of production based around
tele-sales and employing moderately paid white-collar employees with good educa­
tional backgrounds. Much has involved change of use from industrial to consumption
6
Many o f these w ill actually be doing a day job as w ell. M ultiple and “portfolio” em ploym ent are
characteristic o f a postindustrial flexible labour market.
/ “affluent” residential. The issue being considered in this section is what has hap­
pened to the residents of the working class residential spaces which were associated
with the former industrial production.
In Tyne and W ear the residential districts concerned take two forms. One form is
that of workers flats and small terraced cottages built before 1914 for the aristocracy
of labour. The element of this stock which remains was originally of high construc­
tion standard and much has been improved with grant aid under a series of schemes
dating from the early 1960s. The poorer pre 1914 workers’ housing has been elimina­
ted through slum clearance schemes. The residential districts composed of this type of
housing have had three trajectories. One is that of relative stability in that the stock is
owned by its occupiers who are mostly low and moderately paid workers or retired
people. One is a sort of gentrification in that the stock is now occupied by whitecollar workers, although of a grade which is not particularly highly paid. In one
important part of the conurbation, Benwell and surrounding areas in West Newcastle,
the areas composed of this stock have suffered a literally catastrophic transformation
associated with the contingent effects of high levels of property crime, and the area is
now the poorest and most dangerous in the whole conurbation.
However, the bulk of the original industrial working class population was by the
early 1970s housed in “social housing”, i.e. m odem rented housing owned by the
municipalities or housing associations. This was of varied quality. That from the
1920s, 40s, and early 50s was of a very high standard and typically took the form of
cottage housing on garden city style estates. This was the bulk of the stock. That
from the 1930s and late 50s to 70s was less good having been built not for the
aristocracy of labour but for the poorer residents of slum dwellings which were being
demolished under slum clearance procedures. What is interesting and important is
that formerly extremely important social differentiations within this social housing
stock have now been rendered much less significant in comparison with the differen­
tiation which has emerged between it and the new norm o f modem owner occupied
areas. This process has been widely identified as the “residualization of social hou­
sing”. It is not that all the residents of social housing are unemployed. Many are
pensioners who have always lived in it, although simple demography is removing
this group. M ost of those of working age are employed, although in irregular, inse­
cure and poorly paid “poor work”. What matters is that these groups have almost no
access to the better employment opportunities of the postindustrial structure but are
confined to the poorly paid service and “under-developed” industrial sectors.
The overall consequence of these developments has been the generation of
a “divided postindustrial city” (see Byrne, 1997) in which not only is there a residen­
tial segregation of relatively poor and relatively affluent which involves discon­
tinuity instead of the stepped inequalities of the industrial city, but there are also
in place a series of positive feedback mechanisms which reinforce the perpetuation
of lower positions for those originating in them. The most important of these in
a social order where formal qualifications are ever more important is the way in
which the system of state secondary education has become polarized and divided
with good schools in good residential areas and schools with very poor qualifica­
tion achievement records in poor areas. This is not new but what matters is that in
the industrial city there were roots to relatively prosperous employment situations
which were not dependent on high level qualifications. In the postindustrial city
access to even moderately remunerated work requires high levels of formal quali­
fication.
Planning under the Keynesian regime of social regulation sought to use the
control of land use change and the ownership of public land as a mechanism which
m aximized general employment. The effects of this were not only that for most of
the postwar period there was virtually full employment in UK industrial conur­
bations. The negotiating power given to workers by full employment meant that
semi-skilled industrial employment was relatively highly remunerated. During the
period from 1945 to 1975 the wages of the lowest quintile of UK workers increased
relative to other wages. Since then they have declined both relatively and to some
extent absolutely.
The usual explanation given for this is one which emphasizes the effects of
globalization and the extent to which national labour markets must respond to the
wage pressures of a system in which capital can produce anywhere and labour must
facilitate its local, regional and national capitals by keeping wage costs as low as
possible. This is as much an ideological argument as a reflection of the reality of
global markets, even for manufactured goods. It is simple rubbish for service employ­
ment, most of which must be locally sited, although it is true that some service
employment can now be globally located given the possibilities offered by global
telematics.
W hat is interesting about the UK situation is the extent to which deindustriali­
zation has been a consequence of active policy as much as of any tendencies in
global markets. The extreme example is provided by the energy policy of the former
Conservative government who encouraged a “dash for gas” in electricity generation
although that route is much less energy efficient and results in higher fuel prices.
The effect was to eliminate deep coal m ining’s only serious domestic market and
the virtually complete closure of the UK coal industry - the revenge o f the Tories
for their industrial and political defeat at the hands of the miners in 1974.
The shipbuilding industry was not one of traditional political militancy, although
it had a long record of localized industrial militancy. However, by the 1980s this had
virtually disappeared under what were in this case wholly genuine global competitive
pressures. W hat is interesting is the way in which planning policies were used by
a centrally appointed quango to actually damage this sort of industrialism whilst
enormous subsidies were given to service orientated property development.
Let me conclude this presentation with a brief case study of how these develop­
ments have worked out in one particular industrial production and residential zone - the
case of the Whitehill Point industrial area and the Meadowell Estate in the port town of
North Shields. The Meadowell is a large social housing area which in the 1970s
had a population of some 15,000. It was built as slum clearance housing in the 1930s
and was not of high status, although in the 1970s it was by no means the lowest
status social housing area in the municipality of North Tyneside within which it
was located. In the 1970s the employed male residents of the area (85% of adult
males of working age were employed) worked in the shipyards and engineering
factories with some miners working in the South Northumberland collieries (the local
collieries had closed in the 1950s). Employed women worked in both service em ­
ployment and in light engineering and clothing factories. The area was a poor wor­
king class one with relatively bad housing conditions - it was composed of low rise
flats as opposed to self-contained houses - but it was reasonable place with a strong
sense of community identity.
Immediately adjacent to this area is a very large site of river fronting land (some 400
hectares) originally known as Whitehill point. This site had been used for the export of
coal and the import of pit wood for pit props. It contained a large dock - the Albert
Edward Dock, and the Tyne Commissioners Quay which is the base for ferry services
from the Tyne to Scandinavia and the Baltic. Under the planning proposals arrived at by
the elected County Council in agreement with the Port of Tyne Authority (another
QUANGO) this land was designated as a strategic industrial site and reserved for a large
scale job generating development which would require river fronting land. This was by
no means an unreasonable designation. Although ship building was in decline the Tyne
was doing well on ship repair and had developed a very large and high tech based
offshore specialism in the construction and fitting of accommodation and production
modules for oil rigs. There was also the prospect of a very considerable increase in port
traffic with the opening up of Baltic ports after the collapse of communism.
When the TWDC was established it immediately designated this land for prim a­
rily non-industrial uses, although part was reserved for non-contentious small and
medium-sized factories. The site was “vested”, i.e. ownership was transferred from
the Port Authority to the TWDC and renamed “Royal Quays” . The original planning
proposals for this “flagship developmpent” were for a self contained exclusive
marina centred village which would even have its own primary school. These propos­
als have not succeeded for two reasons. One is that the Tyne banks are extremely
cold in Winter and the North Sea is extremely dangerous with a lee shore. It is not an
ideal place to live or to sail. Much more importantly there was a major urban riot on
the adjacent Meadowell Estate in 1992. By this time male unemployment on the
estate was more than 70% and the overall population had dropped to some 9,000
although there was a powerful community system based on the actions of middle
aged women.
Actual development on the “Royal Quays” has taken the form of a lot of social
housing, some private housing, and a lot of retail provision. It is middle market rather
than exclusive but offers little in the way of services or employment to Meadowell
residents although many older residents have moved into the new social housing. The
issue is not what the area has become. It is by no means the exclusive citadel of the rich
which was originally envisaged. Rather it is the opportunity cost represented by the
development strategy adopted. Only the small element of light industry (and even for this
the largest factory simply moved about 1 kilometre for an existing plant) offers any real
employment opportunities. Jobs are not the issue. The original plan was for expensive
development. When that did not materialize it became a matter of any development that
could be obtained, although this development has severely damaged existing shopping
centres and offers little new employment and virtually none for those without high level
qualifications. Almost any other development strategy, including the one asserted by the
present author of mothballing the site for many years if necessary, would have been of
more benefit for the M eadowell residents. Postindustrialism was pursued as an active
anti-industrial strategy. The consequences of this are now fixed for decades.
5. Conclusion
Plainly the UK examples quoted show that formerly industrial cities are likely to
undergo a profound transformation in their employment base with the transition to
postindustrialism. W hat this paper has tried to show is that the form of that transition is
by no means simply a matter of the local impact of global economic tendencies. On the
contrary local policies about the form of the city as expressed through land use planning
strategies have a determinant effect on the actual kind of city / city-region which
emerges, if we think of that system as essentially one involving the social organization
of space. In Tyne and W ear much of the damage has been done and a great deal of effort
will be required to undo it. In other cities / city-regions which are just beginning their
transition to postindustrialism, other trajectories remain possible. Best of Luck!
References
Błasiak, W ., Nawrocki, T. and Szczepański, M .S., 1994. Upper Silesia 2005: The Restructuring Scenario.
Krakow, K atowice: AM P.
Bond, P., 1991. “Alternative P olitics in the Inner City”, in Keith, M. and Rogers, A. (eds.), Hollow
Promises: Rhetoric and Reality in the Inner City. London: M ansell.
Byrne, D .S ., 1997. “Chaotic Places or Com plex Places: C ities in a Post-industrial Era”, in W estw ood,
S. and W illiam s, J. (eds.), Imagining Cities. London: Routledge, pp. 5 0 -7 2 .
Durand, P., 1992. Paper given at the 1991 C onference o f S ocialist E conom ists, Sheffield.
Fainstein, S., Gordon, I. and Harloe, M ., 1992. Divided Cities. Oxford: B lackw ell.
Fitch, R ., 1993. The Assassination o f New York. London: Verso.
H ealey, P., 1992. “Urban Policy and Property D evelopm ent.” A ESO P Conference Stockholm .
O ECD , 1997. Societal Cohesion and the Globalizing Economy. W ashington DC: OECD.
TW DC , 1990. A Vision fo r the Future. New castle: TW DC.
TW DC , 1989. “Proof o f Evidence o f P.W. Jones”. East Quayside Com pulsory Purchase Order Inquiry
DO E reference N /5038/12P /9.
U N D P , 1996. Katowice Human Development Report. Katowice: UNDP.
W ilkinson, S., 1992. “Towards a N ew City”, in H ealey, P., Davoudi, S., O ’T oole, M ., Tavsanoglu, S.
and Usher, D ., Rebuilding the City. London: E. and F.N. Spon.
Social and Spatial Revitalization
of Industrial Areas in British
and Polish Cities
Sylwia Kaczmarek
University of Łódź
1. Introductory remarks
After World W ar II we could observe in Europe the wave of gradual inner city
urban renewal intended to introduce qualitative transformation. The phenomenon was
rather intense in industrial cities in particular when a dominant sector was in crisis.
The process was especially visible in large British cities: first of all in London but also
in Glasgow or M anchester (Keating, 1988; Kidd, 1993; Ogden, 1991). A breakdown
and further elimination of traditional but no more profitable sectors (such as shipbuild­
ing, textile or the liquidation of cargo terminals in ports) resulted in significantly
increased unemployment, poverty and criminality among the urban communities.
Numerous degraded parts of the city both in material (housing estates and social
infrastructure) and social terms were a direct consequence of this situation. A con­
siderable outflow of population noted in these areas due to the lack of jobs, lack of
initiatives to stimulate entrepreneurial attitudes which together with scarce invest­
ment projects made a complete picture of urban areas falling into decay. Many cities
in the United Kingdom faced these problems, however, the crisis was deeper in some
of them than in the others.
For the reasons connected with the scale of the process London Docklands, Salford
Quays in Manchester and Glasgow are typical examples to demonstrate it in full length.
Spatial arrangement and social questions which emerged in these three cities as
a result of deep economic crisis in industry were serious enough for the government to
intervene and to adopt appropriate strategic solutions simultaneously at the level of the
State, regions and the local authorities. The changes started at the end of 1970s and were
continued mostly throughout 1980s (Ravetz, 1988). The activities encompassed State
programmes implemented via the Urban Development Corporations (the body establis­
hed especially for that purpose), local plans and initiatives and, of course, private
investment projects. Nowadays, at the end of 1990s we can observe and evaluate
initially the effects as well as analyse the problems encountered during the realization.
The paper attempts to assess the results of urban space renewal and revitalization
in two former port districts in London where we shall concentrate on the London
Docklands and in M anchester where Salfors Quays shall be our main interest. The
Author deliberately does not present the mechanisms and ways of dealing with
problems which brought about the achieved results. Such an approach allows us to
focus on the description of the spatial revitalization itself and to indicate the ways
in which it can serve as a model to be replicated and applied for the needs of the
Polish cities.
2. London Docklands and Salford Quays
London Docklands, the area of 2,226 hectares extend along the river Thames
east to the Tower Bridge. The district includes the following units: W apping, Surrey
Docks, Isle of Dogs and three huge Royal Docks, 1 mile length each in the eastern
part. London Docklands district was practically redeveloped in 1980s. The former
London Port constituting a part of East London and traditionally perceived as a de­
relict workers' district, neglected, uninteresting and even dangerous and commonly
called the “backyard of London” was transformed within 10 years into a modem
subdistrict the City of London. A completely new functional-spatial structure has
been developed rather consistently and thanks to enormous financial support initially
provided mainly by the state budget.
M odem architecture in London Docklands represents various forms, from m o­
numental, multi-storey buildings housing offices and designed in post-modernism
style (Canary W harf tower) to smaller spatially integrated groups of buildings like
South Quay in the Isle of Dogs.
A separate class of interesting and original architecture can be observed in
housing estates and residential areas covered with multi-storey blocks of flats and
traditional English terraced and semidetached houses. Surrey Docks region repre­
sents a particularly interesting urban landscape shaped by new housing estates as it
harmoniously links modem architecture with green areas and the remains of the old
port (docks and canals). There is also another category of residential areas which
are characteristic for London Docklands, i.e. former industrial buildings, warehouses
and wholesale sites adapted for housing purposes. Many of them have gained a new,
interesting spatial expression although the traditional division between the elevation
and raw walls in red brick so characteristic for industrial architecture, has been
preserved. Nowadays they house high standard apartments designed and developed
for people with high social status and good income.
The change of the image of London Docklands and associations they evoked
was a very important and time-consuming task included in the project. In particular,
it refers to the need to overcome existing stereotypes which required effective promo­
tion of the new image of this part of the city. The fact that many London newspapers
and printing houses moved their headquarters to London Docklands was crucial for
the district as it “nobilitated” the Docklands and encouraged other investors to come.
The final stage of revitalization (the end of 1980s) witnessed even a kind of
“fashion” to locate companies and offices in new structures in the Docklands. That
was the reflection of the status and prestige of a company. As a natural consequence
the population of new permanent inhabitants increased. They were mostly yuppies
who could afford buying expensive luxury apartments there.
These types of buildings were accompanied by the provision of high standard
services, such as fabulous shopping centres and a city airport. London Docklands
represent a new socio-spatial value in East London characterized with completely
different features which distinguish the district and identify it. A new term was
introduced the “London Gate” which expressed the importance of the area for the
city. Thus we could state that the revitalization process of the industrial area which
lost its primary functions was successful and new economic operations encouraged
the “newcom ers” to choose this particular district of the city as a place to live in.
However, the real range of the revitalization process went beyond that point and,
sadly, was not free from problems. The operations of Docklands’ Development
Corporation encountered fierce opposition in the local community against anything
that was supposed to be done (Rose, 1992). The incumbent inhabitants of the district
organized themselves in various lobbies and pressure groups to suggest alterations
in the revitalization process implemented by the Corporation. They wanted to make
the process more oriented to the needs of the “local people” , i.e. these who lived
there, were unemployed, with low skills and income, who could not afford living in
new, elegant and expensive apartments. M oreover, also the job offer in the Dock­
lands was not addressed to them. Thus these people suffered from the feeling of
rejection. Isolated they had the impression of being unnecessary and felt they should
have vanished together with the old function of London Docklands, i.e. as a port
and unloading place (Rose, 1992). The problem of relationship between the new
arrangement and the local community became so severe that it resulted in a per­
manent conflict between the old inhabitants of the area and the Corporation as a body
supervising the new investment project (Foster, 1992).
The revitalization of London Docklands is clearly unique due to the scale of the
undertaking as this is the largest urban industrial area in Europe with that kind of
development. However, the approach adopted in this case was also applied in other
British cities to revitalize smaller industrial districts. The area of the old M anchester
port located in Salford serves a perfect example. The district called Salford Quays
was transformed in a very similar way. New developments in terms of apartments
and the new functions (mostly services from sector III and IV) were not directly
related to the situation of the local community which lost jobs as a result of port
liquidation. The analogy to London Docklands is clear.
It is even more clear in the space in Salford than in London. New architecture
in Salford Quays is full o f interesting spatial forms, ornaments so far away from
“everyday reality”, i.e. from the housing estate for the form er dockers and their
families (several thousand people). Trafford Road separates these two worlds which
is well manifested in the arrangement of its extreme ends; one is full of elegant
details of small architecture as a part of the urban composition of Salford Quays
while the other one is just a concrete pavement for pedestrians who live mainly in
apartments provided by the city. The road is a neutral, transition zone.
3. Values of revitalization
The above examples lead to two interesting questions:
- What is the value of such a revitalization process?
- How should we evaluate it in the light of its effects?
Clearly, the answers are neither easy nor uniform. The evaluation of the develop­
ments should be conducted from various points of view. The considerations in the
context of the quality of space and new values added to the urban landscape in the
districts allow us to assess the transformations positively. An external observer or
a “newcomer” moving to these districts wants to learn about the new space which
he treats friendly as something already chosen and accepted. W hile the local com­
munity, in particular these people who lost not only their jobs but also a well-known
spatial context they were used to and which was a part of “their place on earth”
(Tuan, 1987), treat the new urban substance as a strange structure which they per­
ceive negatively being aware that it was not shaped and adjusted to their needs.
Such a dual evaluation of the transformation process in the urban tissue based
on the British experience is to some extent the consequence of the revitalization
method itself. In this case we are dealing with the model which could be defined as
an implant revitalization.
The heart of the method consists in the introduction of new functions and spatial
forms to a selected and identified urban area where the former function was degraded.
Usually it is adopted in areas important for the city where the former function caused
intense use of the district, with high density of buildings and population. The activi­
ties in the model result from decisions taken outside of the area, at higher levels of
spatial management (at the regional or national level). These higher levels also
interpret the notion of “quality improvement” of a degraded area and define its scope.
The assumption that the users of the new, upgraded space will be new people while
the local community will benefit only indirectly is an important feature of the model.
Indirect benefits are: the availability of new services or the existence of an upgraded
and more interesting element in terms of the aesthetics of the urban landscape.
The above examples showed that this approach has numerous disadvantages and
the revitalization does not include the local community, i.e. the group for which it
is needed the most. Still the only solution they have is to move out which is exactly
the same situation as before the revitalization. Under the new conditions they cannot
find a place for themselves as they do not have the required skills and knowledge
that would enable them to take advantage of the job offer of the new companies
coming to the area. Their income and savings do not allow them to move into new
apartments - the new spatial structure and sophisticated leisure time activities de­
veloped in the area are not addressed to them either. This type of revitalization
creates a new part of the city which is an implant introduced to an existing structure
with clearly defined both spatial and social borders.
4. Revitalization in Polish cities
British experience in the field of transformation of urban industrial areas is
significant. The achievements should be analysed in detail to make the best use of
it especially at present when there is a need for such processes in some Polish cities.
To illustrate it we shall present the example of developments started in Łódź, the
second largest Polish city in terms of population.
Dynamic development of Łódź in the second half of the 19th century was due
to the development of the textile industry which has left visible traces in the modem
structure of the city. The most important of them is a unique urban structure of the
central part of the present Śródmieście (City Centre) district located along Piotr­
kowska St. and its neighbourhood. The second valuable advantage of the city is its
architecture, mainly the eclectic style of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It
is reflected in industrial-residential areas, housing estates for workers, palaces,
tenement houses, factories and other buildings of public utility.
The transition from a centrally planned to market economy in 1989 and the loss
of traditional eastern markets for the textiles manufactured in Łódź drove the in­
dustry in Łódź into a deep crisis. Several huge textile factories were closed down
and the unemployment rate was among the highest in Poland in the first half of
1990s. Economic transformations focused economic efforts of the city on other
directions. The material heritage of the crisis in textile industry is the space, empty
production halls, factories built in the second half of the 19th century in the form of
integrated residential-industrial enclaves which should be revitalized at the moment.
The complex of Israel Poznanski’s factory situated in the northern part of the city
centre serves a typical example. It consists of numerous industrial buildings, the
palace of the form er owner and an old district of workers’ family houses occupied
mostly by former employees of the factory.
The palace of the owner has been the location of the City Museum since 1975
while industrial buildings are not used at all since 1991 when the production was
finally stopped. There were various proposals for revitalization which usually sug­
gested the introduction of new functions, mainly services to the area.
The second characteristic example of revitalization developments in the in­
dustrial complexes in Łódź is the concept of spatial arrangement of the housing
estate Księży Młyn. The estate is located south to the city centre and covers
the 19th-century water-mill area. It encompasses the largest industrial-residential
complex with the workers’ family houses previously owned by Karol Scheibler
- the most powerful industrial tycoon of Łódź in the second half of the 19th
century. The complex in Księży Mlyn includes industrial buildings in Tymienie­
ckiego St. (form er St. Em ily St.) with the first real industrial spinning mill in
Łódź with 70,000 spindles built between 1870-1873, the villa of the Director
General of the factory who was also Scheibler’s son in law - Edw ard Herbst
(constructed between 1875-1877) which houses the Museum of Interiors, workers’
fam ily houses (1875), the building of the fire brigade and stores (1883) with
well developed green areas. W orkers’ estate constitutes a simple and clear example
of town planning. The appropriate identification of functional zones, well devel­
oped green areas, clear urban concept allow us to classify this complex as one
of the important achievements in the field of industrial-residential areas in Poland
(Kaczmarek, 1987). Księży Mlyn is also one of the most attractive and popular
tourism destinations in Łódź and a perfectly preserved example of the 19th-century
system of an urban composition which remained untouched until the m odem times
in its original form. The continuity of functions has lasted in this case for more
than 150 years. The form er Karol Scheibler’s factory is still the place where
textiles are manufactured and the workers’ family houses are occupied by people
who for generations have been the employees of the factory.
In 1996 a new concept was presented according to which Księży Mlyn is sup­
posed to be transformed into a tourism centre with completely new functions. The
project foresees the redevelopment consisting in the replacement of workers’ flats
with coffee shops, pubs, apartments for artists introduced to the workers’ houses. It
is assumed that the present inhabitants of the family houses will be moved to new
flats. At present the concept is a purely theoretical one, nevertheless, the approach
of the authors is worth paying attention to. The revitalization or renewal question
defined in this particular proposal is again imposed by higher levels and remains
totally irrelevant to the needs of the local community. The local community is
subordinated to the new concept. Here again we deal with the implant revitalization
approach implemented in the British cities.
5. Conclusions
If we assume that the process of functional and spatial transformations of derelict
industrial areas realized following the implant revitalization model is not an optimum
solution, a question arises what should it be like?
It seems that an integration revitalization approach is a valid solution to this
problem. The model should be based on the involvement of the local community
into the functional and spatial transformation via projects aimed at the improvement
of the quality of their lives. New functions and new investment projects should create
new jobs also for the present inhabitants or give them chances to upgrade their skills
and then find a job. From the spatial point of view new structures should create the
so called spatial-architectural continuity and eliminate the borders which identify
the “old” and “new” areas. In this sense the revitalization is more a social process
than an economic one and as such is much more complicated.
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n iczego” [W ater-m ills Area o f L odz as an Exam ple o f 19th-century Textile Industry], Turyzm,
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Keating, M ., 1988. The City That Refused to Die. Glasgow: The Policy o f Urban Regeneration. Aberdeen
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Economic Change
and Everyday Life:
Informal Aspects
of Social Structural Change'
Lydia Morris
University of Essex
This paper reports upon research in Hartlepool, a town located on the North
East coast of England, which stands as a case study of the impact of heavy munufacturing decline affecting Britain throughout the 1980s. Hartlepool had become es­
tablished as a port for the export of coal by the mid-19th century, and soon develo­
ped a thriving shipyard and associated metal industry. Decline began with the run­
down of shipbuilding in the late 1950s, followed by the restructuring and gradual
elimination of steel production, which by the early 60s had resulted in an unemp­
loyment rate of 15%. The subsequent recession in the late 70s - brought a 19%
reduction in job numbers and an overall restructuring of employment.
“Jobs for life” in heavy industry became prone to redundancy, and the hitherto
constant flow of short-term contract jobs was undermined as employment in con­
struction, maintenance and haulage waned with the towns industrial decline. A num­
ber of processes lay behind the changing structure of employment; large and long
established companies were seeking increased flexibility in working practice among
core workers, and cutting back their use of contractors, whilst conversely certain
areas of work, notably haulage and maintenance, were increasingly contracted out
as a means of holding the core work-force to a minimum. Contract work was thus
becoming more competitive and less secure, at a time when previously stable em­
ployment was under increasing threat from redundancy.
The data to follow compares three contrasting groups with reference to house­
hold circumstances, employment histories, and informal networks of association and
support. Its central argument is that conventional approaches to social inequality,
by the occupational ranking of either individuals or even by some com posite
household indicator, can provide only partial representations of social structure.
1
This research w as funded by the ESRC, w hose support is gratefully acknow ledged. The present
paper first appeared as “Informal A spects o f Social D ivision ” in the International Journal o f Urban and
Regional Research, V ol. 18, 1994.
Informal patterns of association and networks of exchange can add an important
dimension of understanding which has direct bearing on material well being and
future employment prospects. This happens by virtue of the influnce social net­
works exert on both informal support and job search. Our understanding of the
social ramifications of formal economic structures can thus be complemented by
the study of the informal processes in which thery are embedded.
The concept of the “household strategy” has commonly been adopted as a tool
for analysing the experience of economic change at the level of the household. It is
argued here, however, that any approach to “household strategies” must be set not
only in the context of local labour market change, but must also take account of the
mediating role of informal processes. Readers unfamiliar with the British welfare
system should further note the role of state provisions, still extensive despite recent
erosion. For example, the long-term unemployed have access to means tested Income
Support, as of right, for the duration of their unemployment, and the public housing
sector, though much depleted, still accounts for about one third o f accommodation.
In addition, we find elaborate systems of informal support and exchange, and a sig­
nificant role for social networks in job search. All of these factors affect the shaping
of domestic life, though a full understanding of the internal dynamics of the house­
hold must also incorporate the informal work upon which domestic organisation
depends, and its relation to labour market activity. The first part of this paper will
deal with the social location of the household, and the second with aspects of its
internal organization.
1. Research design
The data considered in this paper were gathered by a formal survey in Hartlepo­
ol, which in November 1989 was experiencing male unemployment rates of 18%.
Interviewing was completed from October to December 1989. The unit of investiga­
tion was the married or cohabiting couple, though data was collected on all house­
hold members and on the extended family. Household selection was based on male
employment status, and one requirement was that all male respondents should be
active in the labour market. Accordingly an age range of 20 to 55 inclusive was
specified. The survey objective was to achieve an initial random sample of 600 with
reference to these criteria, and through house by house screening of an additional
random sample to build to a total of 200 couples in each of the following categories:
Group A: couples where the man has been unemployed continuously for at
least one year,
Group C: couples where the man has been recruited to em ploym ent within the
last 12 months, though he may be currently either employed or unemployed.
C om parison could then be drawn with a third group (Group B) achieved
within the first random sam ple; couples in which the man has been in
continuous em ploym ent with the sam e firm for at least the last 12 m onths.
This sam pling procedure also yielded a fourth group (Group D) m ade up
of couples m eeting the age criteria but not included in the other three
groups, i.e., the sick, disabled, early retired, etc. B ecause of the nature
of the local econom y the sam ple consists overw helm ingly (80% ) of manual
working class respondents.
For inclusion in the sample both spouses were required to complete identical
interview schedules of 1-1^ hours in length, and given this demanding require­
ment the overall response rate of 61% is good. W hen broken down by sample
group we find group C, the recent job finders, to have the best response rate, at
72%, whilst unsurprisingly the long-term unem ployed were som ewhat less co­
operative with a response rate of 56%, as were the securely employed with a rate
of 58%. The residual group, group D, gave a response rate of 65%. Qualitative
interviewing in the same area (Morris, 1987) suggests that those among the une­
mployed who would be least likely to co-operate would be the most withdrawn
and cut off, whilst the employed least likely to co-operate were those most secu­
rely placed who could see no relevance in the research for them selves. These
two low response categories represent the two extrem es of the sam ple popula­
tion. As a result our findings will if anything underestim ate contrasts between
the em ployed and unem ployed, having lost from the sample those at each ex­
treme. The num erical outcom e in terms of com pleted pairs of interviews was:
Group A, 159; Group B, 325; G roup C, 214; Group D, 94. The random dis­
tribution of these groups in the married population aged 20-55 was respectively
13%, 61.3%, 17.2% and 7.5% for groups A, B, C, D (adjusted for different re­
sponse rates).
The point of defining group C with reference to recent job acquisition was to
maximise the chances of detecting the existence of a group of male workers who
typically experienced frequent and involuntary job changes. If such a group exists
a recent job start would probably have been preceded by frequent entrances to and
exits from employment such as to constitute a “chequered” job history (cf. Harris,
1987). A scrutiny of the employment histories of the men in this sample group
confirms the existence of a section of the male population who experience a distinc­
tive broken employment history interspersed with periods of unemployment. The
data show a sharp contrast with the more securely employed (group B) of whom
only about 20% have four or m ore em ploym ent spells in their 11 year history
(1979-89), in contrast with 70% of group C.
9 Social Aspects..
2. Concentrations of unemployment
One obvious initial question concerns the possibility that the different groupings
making up the sample are spatially concentrated, and here some understanding of
housing provision is helpful. British housing patterns contrast sharply with, e.g.,
those of the U.S., where public sector housing is extremely limited. In Britain state
provision of housing has been much more important, and despite the recent sale of
houses in this sector, public rented accommodation still accounts for about one third
of all accommodation. There is a tendency towards a concentration of the least
secure section of the population, who are clustered together on large estates. One
such estate in Hartlepool houses a large proportion of people nearing the end of
their working life, rehoused from the slum clearance of the 50s. Other more recent
public housing has catered for young couples whose prospects have been badly
affected by local economic decline, while owner occupation is more typical of
a slightly older group who came of age in the more favourable conditions of the
50s and 60s, and took advantage of their position to purchase property. Even con­
trolling for age, however, we find that employment status correlates strongly with
housing tenure.
It is thus unsurprising that the three principle sample groups show markedly
different residence patterns. Among the long-term unemployed we find that 72%
are in local authority accommodation, 19% in owner occupied housing, and 8% in
private rented housing. The corresponding figures for the securely em ployed group
are 10%, 87% and 2%, and for the insecure group 26%, 67% and 6%. Because of
the arrangement of the housing stock in the town these figures translate into a dis­
tinctive spatial pattern, with high concentrations of unemployment in particular areas
within the town. One of Pahl’s early conclusions in research on the Isle of Sheppey
(1984: 309) was that neighbouring households with broadly similar qualifications
in terms of skill and experience could find themselves in contrasting positions. The
data from Hartlepool, however, reveals a spatial dimension to social polarization.
The survey material was collected from the 15 administrative wards which con­
stitute the built up area of Hartlepool. Just five of these wards account for 60% of the
total long-term unemployed in the sample, different four wards account for 42% of
the securely employed, and five wards account for 48% of the insecure group. Of
these five wards three coincide with the ward concentrations of securely employed
workers, and one with the long-tem unemployed. Any casual patterns of social
contact are thus disproportionately likely to be with others in similar circumstances,
and we are likely to find concentrations of unemployment within social networks.
The other readily apparent dimension of concentration has been noted in a num ­
ber of other studies (e.g. Pahl, 1984; Harris, 1987; GHS, 1987) and that is the
tendency for the employment status of spouses to coincide. The structuring of the
present sample, and specifically the separate identification of the long-term unem ­
ployed permits a more sensitive analysis than has been present in other studies,
however, and unsurprisingly shows rather more m arked contrasts. Thus, of the
long-term unemployed men (group A) only 13% have a partner in employment, in
contrast with 71% of the securely employed, group B. Between these two polar
positions we find the recently recruited group (C) of whom 55% have employed
partners, and the residual “out of the market” group (D), 38% of whom have em­
ployed partners.
W e noted at the start that one distinctive feature of the British welfare system is
the provision of income maintenance for the unemployed. Although this has been
substantially eroded in recent years there is still a stark contrast with the U.S. where
there is no automatic right to benefit by virtue of unemployment. In Britain, provided
conditions about availability for work are met, there is a universal right to means
tested benefit for those aged over 17. The association of unemployment for husband
and wife has sometimes been linked to this provision, in that additional income
triggers deductions from benefit. There is clearly some disincentive effect built into
the operation of the welfare system, and the findings on this issue will be more
fully discussed later in this paper. However, a wom an’s experience is not directly
determined by that of her spouse, but is also intricately linked to lifecourse develop­
ment. Those women with the lowest occupational standing are more likely to embark
on motherhood early, and subsequently to suffer additional and related labour market
disadvantage. The first section of this paper, however, asks is this household con­
centration of unemployment compounded by patterns of informal association as
suggested above?
3. The composition of social networks
The tendency for unemployment to be concentrated in particular nuclear families
has been long established (see Payne, 1987). The possibility that this concentration
is also to be found within extended families has not, however, been investigated.
The present research collected data on the “close kin” of both members of each
couple in the sample, close kin being defined as parents, siblings and independent
adult children resident in Hartlepool. Among the long-term unemployed men in the
sample we find evidence of considerable concentrations of unemployment among
close male kin, at 35% as compared with 16% for the securely employed and 19%
for the insecurely employed. Similar contrasts, though not so marked, are found
when we look at the levels of employment for close male kin resident in Hartlepool.
The male kin of the long-term unemployed group had an employment level of 45%,
in contrast to 57% for the securely employed group and 62% for the insecurely
employed group.
The differences were repeated in data on “three closest friends”, though signifi­
cantly a greater proportion of the long-term unemployed were unable to name any
close friends (24%) than were the securely employed (16%). O f those friends who
were named by the former group 32% were unemployed, in contrast to 5% for friends
of the securely employed, and 10% for friends of the insecurely employed. The
percentages of employed friends were respectively 32%, 75% and 69%. Contrasts of
a similar kind are found among the kinship and friendship networks of the women in
the three sample groups, although the proportions of employed and unemployed are
generally reduced by the more common designation “housewife”. One further point
of interest is that wom en’s friendship patterns seem to vary with their husband’s
status as well as their own. For women with husbands in employment the percentages
with most friends employed varied according to the w ife’s status as follows: wife
employed, 74%; wife unemployed, 48%; wife economically inactive, 30%. For
women with unemployed husbands the percentages with most friends employed were
lower, but still varied by the w ife’s status; respectively 46%, 22% and 19%.
In summary then the long-tem unemployed tend to live on public sector housing
estates with high levels of unemployment, tend to have partners who are also unem ­
ployed, to show concentrations of unemployment in their extended family networks,
and to name close friends who are also unemployed. These patterns are not to the
total exclusion of the employed population but there is certainly a strong tendency
towards mutual association. It remains to spell out the possible implications of these
concentrations and two main areas will be considered: the potential for informal
aid, and the significance for informal job search.
4. Informal activity
Early expectations that the decline in formal employment would be offset by
informal activity (Pahl, 1980) have not been substantiated, and the informal sector
of the British economy is much less extensive than in third world economies, and
even the U.S. W hilst there are some instances of unreported income, and periods of
undeclared employment, these are the exception rather than the rule. There are
a num ber of reasons for this, which are discussed more fully below. Briefly, the
general features of informal sector work, which are captured by the notion of “un­
deremployment” and which serve to keep employer costs low, have been achieved
by the restructuring of formal employment. Furthermore, informal (i.e. undeclared)
earnings carry the threat of disqualification from eligibility for benefit. There are
those who take this risk, but rarely for more than the odd day or week’s work.
A rather different aspect of informal activity was investigated by Pahl’s work in
Sheppey, which raised the question of informal exchanges between households. The
possibility that informal sources of work were used more by the poor than the rich
was not, however, confirmed. In general the use of informal labour was low, and
unemployed men particularly did not use such sources of labour. Finch (1989) in
a review of literature on family obligations, has commented on weakening kin ties
among the unemployed such that:
being unem ployed reduces the capacity o f both m en and w om en to participate in the
on-going patterns o f activities on which such ties are based. At the sharp end, being
unem ployed reduces p eop le’s capacity to provide support in return for support received.
Finch’s review of research on the general issue of informal support poses the
difficult question of how far support will be given between kin when the element of
mutuality is absent (p. 75) and she argues that there is no evidence of an automatic
assumption of responsibility for kin unable to maintain themselves. Findings from
my own qualitative research in Hartlepool (Morris, 1987) suggested that concen­
trations of unemployment in kinship and friendship patterns could affect the potential
for informal support, and this seemed a possible direction for further research (Mor­
ris, 1988). Such ideas were taken up in the Social Change and Economic Life Ini­
tiative (Gallie et al., 1990) which investigated support networks by asking whether
there was anyone whom respondents felt they could rely on for help in a variety of
ways. A majority of employed friends was found to produce a stronger support
network than a majority of unemployed friends, and as in the present research, the
unemployed were less likely than the employed to have such a network.
5. The nature of exchanges
Unlike the Gallie et al. data the present research has endeavoured to collect
information about actual flows of aid rather than potential support. This has been
achieved by identifying three different broad categories of aid - aid in services, in
kind and financial aid, and compiling figures on the instances and distribution of
types of exchange.
Receipt of aid in services did not vary to a significant degree between sample
groups, hovering at around 70% for all groupings. The services vary from babysitting
to household and car maintenance, gardening, etc. Couples most commonly iden­
tified an employed source of this aid, though this source figured lowest for the
long-term unemployed. Conversely an unemployed source was much more likely
at 37% as compared with 16% for the securely employed group, though with em ­
ployed givers still strongly represented (49% among the unemployed as compared
with 76% among the securely employed). An important point to note is the high
incidence of services from a “housewife” source among women (37%), and here
the differences between sample groups were not statistically significant. This sug­
gests a pattern of mutual support among women which is independent of the cir­
cumstances of the man, and it is a finding repeated for other types of aid.
Unlike the case of aid in services, aid in kind shows a statistically significant
difference between sample groups according to whether or not aid is received at all.
Contrasts are repeatedly found to be greatest between the securely employed and the
long-term unemployed households, with the other two groups always located some­
where between the two extreme positions. Thous more of the long-term unemployed are
in receipt of aid in kind than any of the other groups, usually in the form of gifts of food
or clothes. Differences between the sample groups persist when we look at employed
and unemployed sources, with fewer of the long-term unemployed naming an employed
source than any other group, and more naming an unemployed source. As with other
findings the main contrasts were between the long-tem unemployed and securely
employed, with the other two groups falling somewhere between. Again, however, there
was a distinctive pattern of exchange between women, with “housewives” as the source,
and showing a much less marked difference between the sample groupings.
Turning to the receipt of financial aid, we find that the difference by sample
groups as to whether or not aid is received is much higher than in the other two
types of assistance. The unemployed show much the highest level of receipt (71%)
and the securely employed much the lowest (39%), though we should note that there
is a distinctive pattern of mutual loans passing between unemployed people to
accommodate the timing of benefit payments. The other, less regular, type of finan­
cial aid, usually from employed kin, takes the form of larger “loans” to meet an
unexpected cost, such as a fuel bill. Thus, when we consider sources of aid, we find
the familiar difference between the securely employed and the long-term unem ­
ployed with regard to employed sources, but references by the unemployed to an
unemployed source are much higher than for aid in kind (31%), and almost equal
references to an employed source (38%). For each type of aid there is a small but
significant proportion of the long-term unemployed group who receive aid only from
other unemployed. For the men, looking respectively at services, aid in kind and
financial aid, the percentages are: 20.7%, 14.9% and 16.5%. For women the corres­
ponding figures are 18.4%, 10% and 19.1%. When we combine husbands’ and
wives’ responses, however, the percentages fall to 15.9%, 7.0% and 12.4%, i.e. one
spouse may have an employed source of aid where the other does not.
6. Kinship or friendship?
It remains to ask the more general question of sources of aid with regard to
kinship and friendship links. Overall which is the more important source and under
what circumstances does this vary? Across all three types of aid the long-term
unemployed are less likely than the securely employed to register a friend as the
source of aid. This is particularly the case for financial aid, and especially among
men. The contrasts between sample groups may be because friends are more wary
than relatives of maintaining close connections with the unemployed. This would
support Finch’s suggestion (1987) that the unemployed will tend to show a reduction
in social contacts and the data do suggest a weakening of friendship ties for the
unemployed. W e should note that within sample groupings women show a higher
dependence on kinship than friendship as compared with men, and for them there is
less of a difference by types of aid. For financial aid among unemployed couples
women were slightly more likely than men to name neighbours and friends as a source.
This suggests the use of neighbours for small but immediate pressing need, linked
to wom en’s role as budget managers where income is low.
A few other points of variation should be noted. Pahl (1984), e.g., suggests the
importance of the domestic cycle for the analysis of informal exchanges. The present
research showed the presence of children to independently affect the propensity to
receive aid, though the differences between the sample groups remained even where
there were no children present. Those men whose fathers are living also showed
a greater likelihood of receiving aid than those whose fathers had died. It was also
the case that having at least one member of the kin network in employment improved
the prospects of receiving aid for the long-term unemployed.
The data on repayment or return of aid is also quite interesting. Couples in the
long-term unemployed group are most likely to give nothing in return for services,
whilst the securely employed are most likely to provide some kind of help in return.
The source of such aid for the securely employed is overwhelmingly other employed
people, and so there is no strong indication of the employed purchasing services
from the unemployed. Differences are sharper in the pattern of return for aid in kind,
with the long-term unemployed very much more likely than other groups to give
nothing. In contrast reports of repaying financial aid were fairly high, albeit highest
for the securely employed and lowest for the long-term unemployed.
7. Implications
The fact that informal exchange is generally fairly common throughout this
overwhelmingly working class sample (80% manual working class) militates against
any argument that we might be detecting the development of a distinctive culture
of the “underclass” based on social exclusion and/or collective awareness. This is
especially the case given the varied sources of aid to the unemployed. There is
however, evidence to suggest that the density of informal support is highest among
the long-term unemployed, and that they are to a considerable degree mutually
supportive. Much of this support, however, is based on kinship rather than friendship
links, and there are signs that friendship, and hence the potential for “collective”
awareness, attenuates rather than strengthens with long-term unemployment.
The data so far presented show a tendency towards mutual association by em­
ployment status, but stop short at any clear segregation of the long-term unemployed,
except perhaps in the case of the small proportion receiving aid only from other
unemployed people. It is nevertheless the case that the concentration o f unem ­
ploym ent in kinship and friendship networks will produce a propensity for patterns
of support to show a density of exchange between people whose circumstances are
similar. W hilst there is considerable support which flows from the employed to the
unemployed, that which comes from other unemployed people is disproportionately
high. Thus the unemployed depend to a considerable degree on those who are least
able to offer support, and their social contacts also include a majority of other
unemployed or non-employed people. This fact alone may have im plications for
their future employment prospects, a point which has been argued by Wilson (1991)
with reference to the ghettoization process in American cities.
8. Job search
One somewhat unsatisfactory aspect of the polarization thesis in the British
literature is that it offers no means of explaining why some workers are more adept
than others at finding employment. W ork related contacts and informal methods of
contact could provide one key to the difference. Data on job search from the labour
force survey (Em ploym ent G azette, March, 1988, Table 21) show that informal
methods of jobs search, i.e. asking friends and relatives, and making direct applica­
tion to employers, each account for less than 10% of reported methods. The GHS,
however, (1984, Table 6.41) showed information from friends and relatives to be
by far the most successful means of search, accounting for about halt of the jobs
started in the 12 months prior to the research.
There are a number of reasons why such methods may suit employers (see
Grieco, 1989; Jenkins et al., 1983), notably to enhance feelings of loyalty from
existing workers by favouring their network, to avoid trouble makers by relying on
existing workers to vouch for new recruits, to enhance discipline, to identify workers
with a particular relevant skill, and to save the time and money involved in formal
recruitment. The importance of informal access to employment is apparent in data
from the job histories of respondents in the Hartlepool survey, which collected
information both on the job search methods of the unemployed, and on the means of
access to all jobs enumerated in respondents’ histories. The main means of access to
first job for both men and women was the careers service, accounting for about one
third, and friends and relatives accounting for about one quarter. By the second job
this relationship had reversed, with friends and relatives accounting for one third of
jobs found. By totalling all jobs in the employment histories then we get some
indication of the overall importance of informal contacts in job search; accounting
for roughly one third of jobs among both men and women, with informal approach to
an employer accounting for 18% and the job centre only 13%.
Looking at currently held jobs only, we find that wom en’s access relied more
heavily on friends etc. than m en’s (39 as compared with 31%) and was much higher
than unemployed women’s reporting of sources of job information. Generally speak­
ing women successfully gaining access to employment relied to a much higher
degree on informal contacts than unemployed women currently seeking work. The
contrast was much more marked than for men. One possible explanation could be
related to the tendency for women not to define themselves as unemployed, and
possibly therefore to be less involved in active job search, but inclined to take a job
should it become available through informal means. The findings may also reflect
a tendency for employers to favour particularly informal methods of recruiting
women workers.
The most important sources of informal information for both men and women
are old friends, close relatives, and friends and acquaintances; roughly equal in their
significance. This seems to contradict Granovetter’s argument (1982) that it is weak
ties which are more important because they spread the net of job search more widely.
This may be because in circumstances where competition for jobs is high then
a preferential channelling of information may assert itself. The outcome of the search
is, however, strongly affected by the employment status of the contact, such that
information from someone themselves in employment is much more likely to pro­
duce success.
The reason for this seems to be that the most effective source of information is
someone already employed where the vacancy is available. This was the case for 70%
of the informal sources which yeilded employment, and only 50% of those informal
sources which did not. The pattern is repeated when we ask whether the informant put
in a good word for the candidate, and the application was more likely to be successful
where they did. It is fairly clear then that the concentration of unemployment in the
kinship and friendship networks of the unemployed is likely to reduce their chances of
finding work in relation to those with stronger contacts in the world of employment.
Accepting the influence of informal factors, however, does not over-rule the
other long familiar association between long-term unemployment and lack of a form­
al skill. This association is confirmed in the present study with unskilled workers
making up 44% of the long-term unemployed, as compared with 5% of the securely
employed, and 11% of the insecurely employed. W e also find that the “skilled”
workers included among the long-term unemployed were less far likely than those
in the other two groups to have served an apprenticeship. Lack of a skill, combined
with reduced contact with the world of work may explain the position of the long­
term unemployed, but what of those men with broken employment histories?
9. Type of employment
One of the research questions which informed the design of this research was
whether there is evidence of a distinctive job history made up of broken employment
and short-term unemployment. This appears to be confirmed by the profiles of
workers in group C, 70% of whom had four or more jobs in the previous ten years,
as compared with 22% for those in group B. This pattern of broken employment is
explained in part by vulnerability to redundancy, as a result of generalized economic
decline, together with the apparently increasing incidence of temporary work, as
a result of empoloyment restructuring. These jobs show characteristic features of
what would, in third world economies, be termed the informal sector.
O f the total jobs covered by the employment histories about one third were stated
at the outset to be temporary. These jobs showed a somewhat higher incidence of
recruitment by informal methods than did other jobs (58 as compared with 42%).
Although informal recruitment is generally high, especially in traditionally working
class labour markets, it is particularly so for short-term employment. One of the
potential reasons for an em ployer seeking to recruit through informal means is the
reduction in time and money in comparison with formal recruitment. This is of
particular importance when the job is temporary. Does this offer some possible
explanation of the sample groups with a distinctive broken employment history?
Further progress was made in analysis by focussing on the nature of job loss,
and the fragmented pattern was revealed to be a result of a combination of redun­
dancy with the experience of temporary work. There was also a tendency for this
association to be sequential, i.e. for redundancy to be more often followed by tem ­
porary work than vice versa. Once out of work a person is likely to become prone
to redundancy in firms which operate on a “first in, last out” basis, and also to
become likely candidates for temporary employment for which the competition is
lower than for secure jobs. There are also some signs of an age related pattern;
a result of the greater vulnerability to redundancy of those who entered the labour
market close to the onset of recession.
There was also a difference between the sample groupings in terms of access to
employment. The men who had started employment within the last 12 months had
both had a history of broken employment, and showed a higher reliance on informal
means of access to their current job than the securely employed (50 as compared
with 39%). This could be explained either by a recent increase in informal methods
of recruitment, or by the fact that this particular group had a history of broken
employment. The most marked finding, however, was the association for group
C between informal access to employment and its temporary nature. It should be
stressed that it was not simply means of access p e r se which explains the charac­
teristics pattern of group C ’s work history, but the nature of the jobs which informal
methods yield for them in particular. There was, after all a high reliance of informal
access to employment among the secure workers. In this case we are left with an
explanation of the broken employment pattern which shows an age and skill related
influence, but seems most strongly linked to the types of jobs which are available
through the respondents’ own particular social networks of information. In other
words, the world of social contact which grows up around insecure employment
does much to reproduce the pattern.
10. Household strategies
The notion of household strategies, though first developed in the context poverty
and underdevelopment (e.g. Lomnitz, 1977), was taken up in the U.K. in the early
80s as a vehicle for addressing questions about the impact of economic change at
the level of the household. The appropriation of this term at a time of economic
restructuring in the context of overall decline was partly prompted by the assumption
that there could be innovative responses at the level of the household (Pahl, 1980).
It was also thought that the informal sector of the economy - whether in the form
of domestic labour, self-provisioning, or undeclared earning - could play a central
role in these responses (Gershuny and Pahl, 1979). Household arrangements were
to be viewed in terms of the harnessing of resources for labour, which would be
dictated by the relative advantages and disadvantages of different household mem­
bers with regard to different types of labour (Pahl, 1980, 1984).
The findings of these endeavours have been summarized and evaluated else­
where (Morris, 1990), but one of the major criticisms has direct relevance to the
data presented so far in this paper. The idea of strategy implies a degree of volun­
tarism which is not supported by empirical results. In fact, household arrangements
with respect to labour and resources fall into a fairly limited, albeit contrasting, range
of possibilities. The most notable distinction is clearly the two-eam er/no-eam er
division, or the distinction between long-term unemployment, insecure, and secure
employment outlined above. The strategies approach offers no means of explaining
why it is that particular households fall into one category and while others do not.
11. Strategies in context
Part of the contextualising work necessary to remedy this defect will be the
documentation of the types of economic change which households are facing, and the
identification of the more vulnerable groups of workers. In the present study the
obvious example is the disproportionate vulnerability of the unskilled worker (both
male and female) to long-term unemployment. Other elements in explanation, how­
ever, draw upon informal aspects of economic life, which in the present study
do not so much offer the potential for innovative household change, but rather
reinforce established patterns of disadvantage. The im portance of contact with
the world of work in securing access to employment was one example of this,
though it was also the case that informal access to employment could in itself
be disadvantaging; a particular network m ight tend to carry inform ation about
a particular kind of work, as seemed to be the case for the insecurely employment
group in the data discussed above.
Spatial concentrations can play a part in this picture where the relationship
between the housing market and the labour market produce concentrations in par­
ticular kinds of housing, though the most extreme example of this is the emergence
of black inner city ghettoes of the “underclass” in the U.S. W e also saw informal
networks play a role in the provision of support in cash or kind, though noted that
to some extent the composition of a network replicated the labour market disadvan­
tage of the respondent. One interesting aspect of this data was the particular pattern
of mutual support between women, little affected by the employment status of the
husband, but seemingly revolving around specifically female domestic obligations.
In fact, the internal organization of the household is another aspect of the context
in which “strategies” must be placed, for they are certainly constrained by different
- gendered - sets of assumptions or requirements. These it seems have not been too
amenable to renegotiation. The clearest example from the present study emerges
from the analysis of female employment histories, and the attempt to arrive at a fuller
explanation of the two-eam er/no-eam er pattern.
12. Women’s employment histories2
The explanation for such a pattern has normally assumed the benefit disincentive
to be a powerful influence, albeit in association with other factors (Cooke, 1987;
2
The argument in this section ow es much to the work o f Sarah Irwin, Senior Research O fficer on
the project (see Irwin and Morris, 1993).
Joshi, 1984; Morris, 1990), and there is a related tendency to treat male employment
status as the independent variable in explaining household patterns. If a substantial
proportion of a wom an’s earnings are offset against the benefit claim this would
logically seem to act as a disincentive to her employment. The data from the present
study challenge an overly simple account of this process, revealing a complex inter­
action between male employment status, household composition and female oc­
cupational standing. Life course and domestic circumstances are typically controlled
for in comparisons of working and non-working women (e.g. Davies, 1990), but
this standardization sacrifices important information about their interaction with
economic structure. Only 12% of the present sample of non-working women married
to unemployed men said that they were not available for work because their spouse’s
benefit would be cut. Whilst the benefit regulations may have a more powerful latent
influence than this result indicates, some further exploration of wom en’s non-em­
ployment seems warranted.
In an examination of all jobs held since 1979 wom en’s most common reason
for leaving jobs were pregnancy, family or health reasons, and redundancy. For
groups A, B and C respectively pregnancy accounted for 21%, 15% and 13% of
jobs left, family and health for 17%, 13% and 12% and redundancy for 15%, 18%
and 18%. These results suggest two possibilities; that life course position and child
rearing responsibilities are a factor in differential non-employment, and that wo­
m en’s own labour market disadvantage also plays a part. These two dynamics may
of course be inter-related. 45% of women married to long-term unemployed men
were aged under 30, in contrast with 22% of women married to securely employed
men. Correspondingly, the percentages of homes with children under five for groups
A, B and C respectively are 52%, 28% and 35.5%. Thus women in the most disad­
vantaged households are more likely to be negotiating difficult domestic circums­
tances than the women in other groupings.
Vulnerability to unem ploym ent for men is concentrated in the lower age
ranges, because of the harsh im pact of econom ic decline on younger workers.
One result is that the wives of the long-term unemployed are more likely to have
young children to contend with, but they are also likely to cite child care as
a reason for not working. Other women, with children at equivalent ages, are
far more likely to be paid em ploym ent. W e therefore need to indentify some
additional factor, which may operate in interaction with the presence and age
of children, to account for the differences between women in the sample. One
possibility is their overall labour market strength or weakness. The distribution
of female occupational class is strongly related to male employment status. 70%
of women married to long-term unemployed men entered semi- or unskilled oc­
cupations, or were without employment on leaving school, in contrast with only
30% of women married to securely employed men.
Considering current or recent occupations, we also find a concentration of such
women in the five lowest ranked occupations; 48% of women whose husband is
currently employed and 82% of women whose husband is currently unemployed.
Furthermore, women married to securely employed men were consistently more likely
than those married to long-term unemployed men to either maintain or improve upon
their starting position, whilst the latter group not only started in lower status and lower
paying occupations but are also more vulnerable to losing their occupational position.
This, of course is also linked to child bearing patterns, though there is a possibility that
a positive view of motherhood is linked to a negative experience in employment.
Whilst evidence indicates that the presence of young children is strongly as­
sociated with weak male labour force status, so too is the concentration of women
in low paying occupations. It is this combination of factors, rather than male em ­
ployment status p e r se, or the direct and unitary effect of the benefit regulations,
which offers the fullest explanation of the concentration of male and female unem ­
ployment within households. Employment demand, occupational status and the
presence of young children are not simply the context of household level relation­
ships and decision-making, or “strategies”; they are part of their substance. The
internal organisation of domestic life is in constant interaction with the labour market
behaviour and experience of household members.
13. Domestic organization
One of the consistent findings to emerge from the flurry of household related
research in the 80s was the apparently non-negotiable nature of basic domestic
divisions. Although predictions of change were part of early thinking on “strategies”
the general consensus to emerge from research is that of resistance - particularly
among unemployed men - to any fundamental reorganization of gendered tasks in
the home. There have been slight shifts (see Wheelock, 1991; Gershuny et al., 1986)
which involve a greater degree of domestic involvement by men but no fundamental
change. This has highlighted another problem with the “strategies” approach; if basic
economic logic, i.e. labour market change, does not prompt domestic re-organization
this must be because of constraints at the level of a culture or ideology concerning
acceptable gender behaviour.
To investigate this question in the present study a classification of domestic
orientation was devised based on the two most firmly “female” tasks; cooking and
cleaning. This decision was to avoid the possibility that contrasting scores on dif­
ferent tasks would offset each other. The choice made was therefore one which
would be most readily indicative of flexible or rigid responses on the part of the
man. Combinations of never and occasionally were termed rigid; occasionally and
often, traditional; often and always, flexible; with a fourth, “joint” category. The
resulting classification was then validated against the wom en’s responses.
Although almost one quarter of employed men in the sample fall into the rigid
category, this is lower than for the other sample groups of the securely and insecurely
employed, and considerably lower than those out of the market (health may be an
issue here). The majority response in all groupings was “traditional”, but was 10%
higher in the working as opposed to non-working population (50% as compared
with 40%). Flexible responses on the part of the man, though generally rather low,
are more common among the unemployed, followed by those out of the labour force.
For unemployed men the flexible response is nevertheless outweighed by the rigid
response (18 as compared with 23%) and this finding suggests the possibility of
contrasting reactions to unemployment.
One obvious possible source of variation in male responses is the situation of
the woman. The rigid response among men is particularly high (40%) with male
unemployment whilst female part time work. This seems likely to be a defensive
response on the part of the man, particularly if the arrangement is deemed temporary,
and part time work is often undertaken with a view to accommodating the wom an’s
domestic obligations. One might expect that resistance would be harder to sustain
when the woman is employed full time, and this is certainly so for most couples.
Flexible responses by the man are by far the highest in cases of male unemployment
and wom en’s full time employment (39%), though numbers here are small (only 28
cases), for reasons discussed earlier. The rigid response is lowest for this category,
closely followed by couples in which both are employed full time. One perhaps
predictable circumstance which seems conducive to a rigid response on the part of
the man is the male sole or main earner pattern (i.e. employed men with non-employed or part time employed spouse), in which about one third of the men fall into
the “rigid” category. It would seem then that it is women’s employment circum­
stances rather than the m an’s which are most likely to influence the organization of
domestic labour, albeit to a limited degree.
14. Household finance
It could be argued that particular arrangements for financial decision making
are part of a strategy for coping, though the household strategies literature has not
generally engaged with this issue. Thus one neglected aspect of “informal work”
has been the work which goes into the management of household resources, and
the nature of the relationship between both power over financial arrangements, and
position in the labour market. These issues have been one aspect of the research
reported in the present paper. The models used will be familiar to anyone with an
interest in this area, and may be briefly characterised as follows (see Jan Pahl, 1983;
see Morris, 1990 for review): female managed whole wage - in which the woman
is solely responsible for all household income; allowance system - in which the
woman receives a regular allowance from the man; male managed whole wage - in
which the man is solely responsible for all household income; joint management;
independent management; other.
It was possible from the data to construct a random sample for the labour
market categories outlined, which showed the female whole wage and joint m an­
agement system to be almost equal at 35% and 40% respectively, followed by
the allowance system at 16%. The next most frequent was the independent man­
agement at just under 5%. Analysed by sample groupings the female whole wage
occurred in a majority of couples experiencing long-term male unemployment,
and a sm aller m ajority of couples outside the labour m arket, findings roughly
consistent with qualitative work suggesting that this m anagem ent type occurs
with male unemployment, benefit dependence, and/or low overall income. Ana­
lysis of finance type by level of income shows the whole wage type to fall and
the shared management type to rise as income rises.
W hen we consider finance management alongside employment status for both
members of the couple the common argument that male unemployment is a deter­
minant of the female controlled whole wage system is slightly weakened by the
finding that it is most likely, at 70%, where both members of the couple are unem­
ployed, and falls to 54%, when the woman works part time. In the admittedly few
cases where the woman works full time with male unemployment the shared man­
agement system takes over as the majority pattern. In general the results suggest
a tendency towards the shared system when there are two incomes, whatever the
source. This system is at its highest incidence, at 50%, among couples where both
members are employed, with no significant difference between part time and full
time work for the woman. The allowance system shows no clear pattern except in
being particularly low in cases of both male and female unemployment.
There was relatively high agreement (80%) between couples as to who had the
final say in financial decisions, with the highest incidence of w om en’s final say
occurs in cases of male unemployment, where either the woman is also unemployed
or works part time. In such cases the wom an’s final authority outnumbers both joint
and male final authority. The next highest incidence of wom en’s final say is where
both members of the couple are employed, though here joint final authority is the
most common. Male final authority is highest where the man is employed and the
woman is not, but again the incidence is lower than joint authority. Joint final
authority is also, surprisingly, highest for couples with an unemployed man and full
time employed woman. W om en’s authority within the home would appear to be
greatest in cases which require close monitoring of low income. Their position is
also enhanced, albeit to a lesser extent, by dual employment, though here joint
authority is the majority outcome.
With regard to personal spending money, overall we find a difference of about
10% between men and women, to m en’s advantage. The difference between men
and women with regard to whether they have any access to personal spending is
when the man is employed and the woman is not. The percentages are respectively
82% and 62%. The gap generally widens if we asked about a fixed and regular
amount. The most marked contrast is in cases of long-term male unemployment
where only 8% of women have specified spending money, in contrast with 25% of
men. Other data from the survey seem to undermine any suggestion that the principal
motivation for women’s labour force participation is the desire for personal spending,
for the common use of the wife’s wage, regardless of the husband’s circumstances,
is for the collective benefit of the whole household. Housekeeping and the payment
of bills together accounted for 75% of responses about the main use to which the
wom an’s wage is put.
Despite the clearly limited claims by women to a fund for personal spending it
would seem from the above findings that economic change in recent years has been
such as to enhance wom en’s financial influence in the households. Admittedly,
a good part of this influence is a result of their budgeting responsibilities in cases of
male unemployment, a situation from which they rarely derive any personal advan­
tage. The other, more positive, influence however has been the increased presence of
married women in the labour market. It is the traditional and declining situation of
a sole male earner in which female authority over final decisions is least likely.
15. Conclusion
This paper has presented an argument for the examination of “household strate­
gies” and structured inequality not simply in the context of labour market change,
but also through the investigation of the households location in a web of social
contacts. There is strong evidence of informal support, and some suggestion that
this is gender specific, whilst the informal flow of information is an important
dimension of job search in which the long-term unemployed are disadvantaged.
Another aspect of the household strategy must be its internal organisation, and here,
the direction of influence will be two-way, with domestic constraints affecting labour
market activity, but with employment structures and status also acting back upon
the internal dynamic of the household. Whilst there are some signs of adjustment as
a result of married wom en’s continuing presence in the labour market, there has by
no means been a revolution of gender roles within the home.
Economic decline and the restructuring of employment in Hartlepool has been
shown in this paper to be mediated by a number of factors, principally informal
structures of association and support, social class as defined by skill, state provisions
in both housing and welfare, and established practices in both domestic labour and
the management of household finance.Whilst the interaction between these different
10 Social Aspects..
influences is complex and varied, there is clear evidence of structural constraints
which limit the potential range of “strategies” available. Whilst much of the literature
on this topic stresses variety and innovation, such a view should perhaps be offset
by a consideration of the constraints derived both from the gendered practices of
everyday life and the institutional arrangements of the state and the labour market.
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Problems of Coal-mining
Industry Restructuring
in Primorye
V. Mansourov and M. Chernysh
Russian Academy o f Sciences
Moscow
1. Introduction
In accordance with the programme of research of the social processes related
to the restructuring of coal industries the Research centre SOCIOEXPRESS has
conducted a complex study of the situation in some coal-mining regions. At this
stage the study set out to research in depth the consequences of restructuring for
the local population. The study consisted o f two inter-related parts - informal
interviews with the industry’s top management and leaders of various social or­
ganizations (10 - in Vorkuta and 17 - in Primorye) and a mass survey which was
based on a randomized quota sample of 200 in each region. The quotas set the
proportions of those employed in mining and employed in other industries. The
division proved to be conditional since the m ajority of the population in these
regions was found to be related to m ining industries either through their own
employment, or through relatives.
It is obvious that the study, detailed as it was, could not cover all vital issues of
concern for the local population. Therefore, the main emphasis was laid on the
problems of utmost importance for the process of restructuring and social life in
each region. In particular, these were the problems of income and well-being, em­
ployment and housing conditions. The study left beyond the scope of its interest
such important issues as the state of local schools, the state of the population’s health
and many others.
The research was ordered by the Russian Foundation for the Promotion of Re­
structuring the Coal Industry (Reform Ugol) under the guidance of Olga Golodets
- the Social Problems Department.
2. Primorye
In the context of the study the coal-mining regions Primorye was singled out as
a separate object of study. This is not accidental. The situation in Primorye has a number
of characteristics, which aggravate the consequences of an acute crisis, which embraced
the industry. Unlike the crisis in Vorkuta, the situation in Primorye develops in the
conditions of a better climate, proximity of foreign states, that have on many occasions
displayed an unambiguous interest in the imports of natural resources from Russia, and
a good position of coal-mining towns having numerous outlets to various waterways. In
the words of a local manager, coal and other natural resources can be found under the feet
of those who tread this ground. However, despite those great advantages that coal-mining
in the area might bring, the industry made little progress on the way of restructuring.
Of the cities and towns situated in the region, the city of Artem was chosen as a typical
settlement in the area. It is situated 49 kilometers away from Vladivostok between the
Sikhote-A line mountain range and the Sea of Japan. As the city of Vorkuta, Artem
consists of the center, which grew around the oldest mine of “D alnevostochnaya” and
small mining towns. The city ’s housing consists of pre-fabs, barracks and private housing.
The city is well connected with the outside world. It runs the only airport in the
area, a railway station and a highway. Its population is 114 thousand. Since 1993
the population has diminished by about 6 thousand owing to rising migration, in­
creased death rate and low birth rate. Young men quit the city and get employment
in the fishing fleet of the Far East and on gold mines.
In the past the city m aintained a number of enterprises apart from mines. It ran
a furniture factory, a textile plant, a wagon repair plant and processing factories.
Today the industrial potential of the city is reduced by 75%. Unemploym ent has
risen and now stands at 1,638 of those officially registered. Unemployment is having
a dramatic impact on the living standards. Notably, food in Artem is more expensive
than in Moscow. A liter of milk costs 7 thousand rubles, a liter of kefir, another
popular milk product, 6 thousand. Bread and other staples are no less expensive
than in Moscow, the most expensive city in Russia. The critical situation is a stimu­
lus for many to engage in illegal business such as poaching in the close-by seas.
W ater is another big problem of Artem. The water purifying equipment is ob­
solete and requires overhauling. However, the city does not have money for the
improvement of water supplies. The local budget is low because of tax evasion
practiced by most enterprises. The city collects only 30% of due taxes. Lack of
funding leads to the deterioration of local social infrastructure. Schools and kinder­
gartens have now to rely on funds obtained from sponsors to purchase coal for the
winter, repair roofs or stage a holiday for children.
The burial of a miner is a problem now because the mine is closed and cannot
provide funds. The family is usually living on a shoestring.
The managers of local industries claim that all projects of restructuring are yet
only on paper. The mines are closed today but the workplaces for miners are far
from being ready for the unemployed.
At present the demographic situation in the city is characterized by lower birth
rate and higher death rate. W hile in the past the city’s population was equal to 120
thousand, today it came down by about six thousand.
The tow n’s enterprises came to a standstill one by one as if in an avalanche.
The textile factory which employed three thousand, is currently manned by only 20
workers. The carpet factory is now rented by a Korean textile factory. A food
factory, the only one in the Far East was closed down. The construction material
factory is now auctioned off. The concrete block factory came now to a full halt.
The animal breeding factory, situated on the town’s territory exists now only as an
affiliation of the “Dalpushnina” conglomerate. O f all industrial plants only the
furniture factory remains in action. In sum, the town’s industrial output is now
dramatically reduced. As a result the budget revenues are now down by 10 billion
rubles in comparison with the last year.
2.1. State of the budget
This year the town budget collected 46.9 billion rubles. O f them 21.4 billion
came as mutual accounting. W ithout them the revenues came to 25.5 billion rubles.
In 1996 the budget received 43 billion rubles and only 7.8 billion as mutual ac­
counting. In other words, in 1997 the budget gets mainly non-liquid money. Without
them the income constituted 35.2 billion rubles. It implies that the five month reve­
nue by mutual accounting rose by 2.7 times. Compared with the first five months
of the last year, liquid revenues came down by 9.7 billion and constituted 72% of
last month’s level. Lower revenues are related to a reduction of production and
virtual bankruptcy of the enterprises.
2.2. Main problems caused by restructuring
The main problems are housing for miners, new jobs on the basis of closed mines,
telephonization. The social sphere units are transferred under the tow n’s municipal
authorities without financing. The housing fund of the mining towns is now tanta­
mount to 756 housing units. O f them 303 are found in a state of dilapidation. Former
mine workers are briefed on the privileges stipulated by the law either in the Employ­
ment centre, or by the local administration. For the pensioners of the mining industry
a Center for Social Support has been created on the basis of the “Dalnevostochnaya”
mine. Its main objective will consist in providing pensioners with free coal.
The Head of the Administration holds regular meetings with local entrepreneurs.
The m eetings’ agenda is made up by the problems existing for small and medium
business. The town has declared a competition of business plans to create and main­
tain jobs. The projects will be directed to the regional labour department. The best
of them will be financed.
2.2.1. D ynam ics of public se cto r e n terp rises in th e last years
None of the medical care enterprises was closed. One more clinical department
was opened specializing in cardiology. The tuberculosis clinic moved to a new
building. Currently a new drug and alcohol addiction center is being created. A new
Center for Social Service was opened consisting of five social at home service depart­
ments and an emergency social assistance service. A new House for the Elderly
was opened providing permanent residence for lonely old people on the premises
of the former kindergarten. The living conditions there are fairly decent. A new
department for the daily care of handicapped children was opened providing 20
openings. The place is well situated and there is an agreement with the local collec­
tive farm to provide fresh agricultural produce and milk. Apart from handicapped
children the place provides harbour for children running family abuse.
A new kindergarten was opened. A new Harmony Center was opened for the
rehabilitation of children from distressed families. A new asylum for children was
opened near the settlement of Uglovoy.
2.3. Main labour market indicators
In 1995, 3,400 local residents claimed assistance from the Employment agency. O f
them 1,000 were school-leavers. There were 1,781 truly unemployed. In 1996 a small
increase was observed: 2,500 were registered as unemployed. The first five months of
1997 saw a 50% increase of the unemployed number - 1,595 claimants. In 1997 there
will be more of those who are registered as unemployed. By the end of 1995 there were
1,242 such people, by the end of 1 9 9 6 - 1266. This May there were 1,659 such persons.
By the end of 1996 the level of unemployment in the region was 2.4—2.9%. In 1997, it is
already 3.7% of the working age population. In the coal industry the level of unemploy­
ment was always low: miners made up 2-3% of all unemployed. In 1997 this number
rose by 25%. There are now 393 unemployed made redundant by the coal industry.
2.4. Demographic cross-section of the labour market
In 1995, women made up 77% of all unemployed. In 1996 - 81.6%. The year
of 1997 sees a dramatic increase of men out of work. Now women make 63.8% of
the unemployed and men - 37%. These are men in the most active age - from 30 to
48. The number of young people out of work is also on the rise. Young people have
always constituted 30% of all unemployed on the average. However, if in the past
these 30% were a smaller number than now.
2.5. General situation of the labour market
The Head of the Employment Agency evaluates the situation of the labour mar­
ket as critical. There are now new openings. The functioning enterprises continue
to make workers redundant. For example, the furniture factory plans to reduce its
personnel by 400. The linen factory will cut its work-force by 115. The number of
openings and the number of unemployed are wide apart - 50 openings for 1,659
unemployed.
2.6. Training and retraining
There is no money to maintain the retraining service. Mainly the Employment
Agency send people for retraining as a mutual accounting operation. However, there
are no places where the unemployed can be sent to get retraining since the Em ­
ployment Agency retrains a person only if there is a guaranteed workplace. In fact
there are no prospects of retraining for the former personnel of the coal industry.
The only thing that can be done by the Agency is to hold occupational testing of
the claimant.
The program of self-employment is also hard to implement since there are no
means to subsidize it.
The Employment Agency holds prior-to-dismissal counseling on the mines to
be closed. Such counseling proved to be fairly effective. There are special features
for mass media. Twice a month the representatives of the Employment Agency
address the population through local television. On a monthly basis the agency
publishes an article holding up-to-date information.
2.7. Re-employment of miners and workers from other
industries
It is a little bit easier to find employment for workers from other industries since,
firstly, their num ber is smaller, and, secondly, they have possessed various skills.
Redundant miners are usually highly skilled workers with a high income. Therefore,
it is close to the impossible to find employment for them. In other words they are
now the most vulnerable category of workers on the labour market. The situation is
made more dramatic by the fact that now the industry releases miners aged from 40
to 50 with a long duration of work in the industry possessing high skills. They do
not have any desire to be retrained. Some of them do not even want to look for
a new job because, as they believe, the state insulted them.
2.8. Local and regional employment agency
The coal industry debt is now very large - billions of rubles. At present it gets
only 300 million a month, 400 million at best. The payment of March benefits
requires 700 million. Therefore the benefits are paid irregularly. Now we are paying
off February benefits. The employment agency is trying to pay by mutual accounting.
The main problem related to the closure of mines consists in the re-employment
of former miners. There are no other jobs in the region.
At present three mines have been closed - “Ozernaya”, “Podgorodenko”, “Prim orskaya” . The “Dalnevostochnaya” mine stopped working. It is getting ready for
closure. All personnel of the mines is briefed on the privileges and benefits stipulated
by the Law.
At present the “Am urskaya” mine is regarded as a bankrupt. Its debt is now
tantamount to 50 billion rubles. Since 1996 the personnel of the mine has been cut down
by 300. In terms of quality, the personnel of the mine has deteriorated. As a result of the
non-payment of the salary most specialists found other jobs. The age structure of workers
is also changed - older people on the verge of retirement are first to be dismissed.
The administration of the “Amurskaya” mine does not have any information on
the re-employment of its former workers. The enterprise does nothing to help their
employment. There are no openings on the mine. The mine is regarded as an un­
promising site. The mine has the right to independently hire workers.
Cutter is the main occupation on the mine. Their wages are tantamount to about
2 million rubles. The average salary on the mine is slightly over a million. At present
the payment of salary and regression claims is delayed by five months. The main
reason for the delay is the absence of funds. There is a high differentiation of
payment by the category of workers: the cutters get more than other mine employees.
In the last years the salary did not rise. There is no m echanism of indexation.
In the last 2 -3 years labour conditions did not change. They are hard as in the
past. However, there are few work-related health damages. The disease incidence
stays the same.
The benefit coal remains an acute problem. To solve this problem centralized
subsidies are needed. In the town only one mine remains which is incapable to
supply coal to the whole population. All the more so, because there is a substantial
category of residents in town who have the right to receive free coal.
From the point of view of the chairman of the Trade Union Committee of the
“Am urskaya” M ine Trade Union Committee, the main problems of mine closure
are as follows.
First and foremost this is the problem of creating adequate workplaces for
redundant miners. The second problem is connected to the payment of benefits
stipulated for the situation of mine closure. In accordance with the law the mine
is obliged to pay their former employees their average salary in the next 6 months
after dismissal. The payment is delayed all the time despite the fact that, as we
know from the press, the subsidies are allocated in full. The third problem is that
in the town of Artem there are no jobs for former miners. Even if a miner masters
new skills, he would find it hard to find a new workplace since other enterprises
are at a standstill too.
The fourth problem is that in the case of closure retired miners have the right to
move from dilapidated to new, better housing. However, the state has not built any
housing in the two since 1995. There is no investment.
Currently in the town of Artem 4 mines have been closed. Only one mine re­
mains functioning. So far it has not planned any closure. It is not in the liquidation
lists. It means that it will face the problem of supplying both the working population
and the retired with free coal. In Artem there are about 458 barracks built approxi­
mately in 1953-1954. In most cases they are populated by retired pensioners. By
the existing norms, each of them should get 9.6 tons of coal annually. However, to
provide supplies to its own workers the “Amurskaya” must work almost a month
free of charge.
The composition of mine workers is now changed. Those who have the right to
retire, do it. At the same time there is an influx of young people who were made
redundant by the closer of the “Podgorodenko” and “Ozem aya” mine.
All pensioners older than 60 were dismissed. O f 1,140 mine personnel 309 are
dismissed. All categories of workers are now the same.
Labor conditions on the mine are now much worse than 5 -9 years ago. The
deterioration is caused by the absence of new equipment supplies. The plans of coal
extraction are now lowered. For example, now according to the plan, the mine yields
560-600 tons of coal, twice less than 30 years ago. This is despite the fact that
there is a lot of coal in the mine and this is a good coal, the best in Artem.
The mine pays its regression claims, but the payment is irregular. Sometimes
the payment is delayed by two months. Regression claims are covered in accordance
with the Law.
3. Living standards
3.1. Salary
In Primorye, in M arch the average family income was equal to 1,325 thousand
rubles. If we eliminate the influence on the mean of both the wealthiest and the
poorest 5%, the value of average income would go down, though insignificantly
- to 1,285 thousand. Expectedly, the family income in March varies within con­
siderable limits - from zero to more than 3 million. For instance, the average salary
on the “Amurskaya” mine is now equal to slightly over one million a month. The
cutters, a privileged category, get the highest salary - about 2 million. A janitor has
the lowest salary - 400 thousand. Earnings on the furniture factory are much lower
- 500-700 thousand rubles. The salary in a local hospital is also low ranging from
686 thousand (Surgeon-in-C hief) to 262 thousand (service personnel). Hospital
assistants earn less than the unemployed registered by the Employment agency.
Fig. 1. Average family income in March 1998
The income level of the top and lowest percentile correspond to the ratio 1:7.
The degree of differentiation is considerably smaller than in Vorkuta. Last month
a working person in the town of Artem received a little less income than in M arch
- 764 thousand rubles. The value of standard deviation equal to 600 thousand points
to a differentiation of payment - from zero to 3.5 million. Let us note, the sum of
payment and correspondingly the degree of differentiation is smaller than in Vorkuta.
The data emphasize once more an obvious anomaly of the coal industry - the volume
of payment and its timing depends to a large degree on the ability of local worker
leaders to draw the attention of federal and local authorities to the situation in
the region.
As the study showed, in Primorye the nonpayment of salary is one of the most
acute social problems. Only 15.5% of respondents got their last month’s salary,
72.1% did not get their salary at all. M oreover, of those em ployed in the coal
industry only 12.2% got any salary in the year of 1997. It is obvious that all current
payments are a coverage of the 1996 debt. For instance, the salary for the workers
of the “Amurskaya” mine is delayed by five months. The same situation is observed
at a local hospital where the last salary was paid in January. At the furniture factory
the salary is delayed by four months.
The critical salary situation is conducive to such a phenomenon as barter. Usually
the enterprise tries to pay workers using various products instead of money, coal
more often than others. On the average, m iners’ families estimated their demand
for coal at the level of 6 tons. In reality they received from their enterprise 5.74
tons. In addition, they acquired in the form of barter 4 tons. O f course, the barter
coal is not an adequate substitute for money. Such a practice does not solve any
problems which m iners’ families encounter.
In the local hospital the personnel is urged to get the salary in the form of soft
or hard coal, home equipment, electric goods. The workers of the furniture factory
get their salary in the form of food.
On the whole, survey results indicate that the salary payment situation is more
acute in Primorye than in Vorkuta. The situation when the majority of workers did
not get any salary this year cannot be characterized in any other way but as an
emergency requiring a quick reaction of both federal and local authorities.
3.2. Conditions of employment
Important as the problem of salary payment is, it is obviously less significant
than the long-term problem of the existence of the industry. It is now clear that
when restructuring is im plem ented a num ber of enterprises in the area will be
closed. For many miners it will mean forced loss of em ploym ent. About 38%
of respondents claim that they regard the possibility of losing a job in the coming
year as an inevitable turn of events, 22.1% view this prospect as quite real, but
bear a hope that the outcome will be a happy one. For only 23.7% such an oc­
currence is im probable and only 4% are firm ly convinced that the prospect of
losing a job is not their concern.
The Employment Agency data testify that in 1997 unemployment reached 3.7%
of the economically active population. In the first five months of 1997 the Agency
saw a sharp increase of applicants: 1,595 claimed the unemployment status, twice
as many as in the last year. In 1995 women were 77% of the unemployed, in 1996
- 81.6%. In 1997 there was a sharp increase of male unemployment. Now women
constitute 63.8% of the unemployed and men - 37%. Notable these are men of the
most active age - between 30 and 48.
In this situation the Primorye coal miners, as their Vorkuta colleagues, face
a grave problem of finding new em ploym ent. The labour market in Prim orye
poses even more problems than the market in Vorkuta. Most enterprises in the
city came to a halt. The enterprises that keep working continue to cut down on
personnel. For example, the furniture factory plans to reduce the num ber of work­
ers by 400, the linen factory - by 115. Form er miners are the hardest to find
jobs for. According to the union chairman of the “Amurskaya” mine, “there are
no jobs for miners in this town” .
Only 3.1% of respondents employed in the coal industry claim that they will
have no problems in finding a new job. Over half of those questioned (53.4%) are
less positive, stating that the problem is grave but ultimately solvable and in the
long run they will cope with it. Close to one fifth of the respondents is doubtful
about their job prospects and 16.8% are pessimistic about life after the closure of
mines. In these conditions the demands of miners for a new workplace are not overly
high: only 16% insist on working in accordance with their old specialty, 55.7% are
ready for any job or occupation and 28.2% have not yet pondered the problem.
The process of creating jobs for former miners is just begun. On the “Khasan”
mine works are being done to create a shop for the production of railway sleepers.
The “Primorskaya” mine deploys a shop to produce carving wood. The former
“Podgorodenko” mine is setting up a big trade center. However, the problem of
employment remains since the new jobs have nothing to do with mining.
The situation of unemployed miners is one more point of anguish in Primorye.
Unlike in Vorkuta, in Primorye miners usually lose their jobs as a result of m an­
power layoffs (53.8%) rather than as a result of closure (25%). It is notable that
only 7.7% of dismissed miners quit their jobs because they found a better one. An
even lesser part retired because of ill health. Unlike Vorkuta miners their Primorye
colleagues are more confident that all benefits are calculated with due account for
law (82.7%). Only 11.3% expressed doubts about the justice of all relevant pay­
ments. Upon having received formal confirmation of all payments, the majority of
dismissed have not yet seen any money: in 80.8% of cases the enterprise did not
settle all problems with the dismissed miner. It is not surprising that three out of
four miners had grave problems trying to get all the money they are entitled to in
accordance with the law.
Meanwhile, as in Vorkuta, the unemployment benefits are an important means of
sustenance for many miners (52.8%). For 43.9% they are a means of adaptation for
a new way of life and only for 3.9% they are not significant for the family budget.
In Primorye dismissed miners were strictly divided into two categories - one
found a job and works as an employee (44.5%) and the other had to come to terms
with the status of the unemployed (35.8%). Out of all miners dism issed from their
jobs only 3.5% could start their own business.
On the average the duration of a period without a job is tantamount to 6.5%.
However, in this case the mean does not suffice to characterize the dispersion of
the variable. For 75% the duration of unemployment does not exceed 5 months
(mainly two months), for the rest it lasts for more than a year.
Almost all unemployed miners would like to find a new job (98%). In most
cases, during the last month prior to the interview they called for assistance. In most
cases they rely on the assistance from friends and relatives (55.1%), employment
agencies (42.9%). Miners do not place any great demands for their new job. Only
16.3% look for a job in line with their former occupation. A more common situation
is that unemployed miners are willing either to change their occupation (10.2%), or
they are ready for any alternative. The unemployed have no desire to stick to their
former industry. In the majority of cases this factor plays no role.
Unlike in Vorkuta, the unemployed in Primorye, registered by the employment
agencies, are in a minority (38.8%). One reason for the lack of attention for the
agency is its ineffectiveness. Only 18.4% of registered miners get their unem ­
ployment benefits. The rest face long delays. Those who are entitled to a benefit,
have so far received payments only for February.
These facts brought up by the study allow to state that the unemployment agency
of the region is too weak to handle the problems of restructuring. It is evidently
weaker than the Vorkuta agency, which was effective in at least one aspect - regis­
tering the unemployed.
3.3. Living standards, housing and social infrastructure
Almost three out of four respondents are married people, 4% live together
but not registered and 13.4% are single. The proportion of divorced in the pop­
ulation of the region is not great - 5.9%. The widowed make up 2.5% of all
residents. The average family size in Primorye is smaller than that of Vorkuta
(three persons). The proportion of families consisting of two persons is the biggest
- 36.1%. Fam ilies with three persons make up 22.8%, four persons - 25.8%.
As a rule, whenever it is possible all family members work. On the average the
number of working family members is equal to 1.5. Nevertheless, in the population
of the region there are quite a num ber of families where there are no working
members (11.9%).
As in Vorkuta, the spouse of the respondent is more often than not working as
an employee (63.4%). In addition one in ten spouses is not working but is looking
for a job. The same proportion of spouses is retired. The group of spouses includes
those who run a private business (5.6%).
On the average a spouse received last month the salary or income of 838 thou­
sand rubles. The standard deviation, characterizing the variable, is not great and
indicates an insignificant degree of income differentiation. Unlike the respondent,
the spouse gets his or her salary more regularly. In 44.1% he or she received last
m onth’s salary fully and on time. In 18.6% a part of the salary was paid and only in
20% the salary was delayed. The overall majority of spouses do not have a second
job (96.9%). The impact of pensions on the family budget is also negligible (3%).
About one fifth of all respondents belong to the group of the retired. O f them
only 43.6% are retired because of age, 53.6% are miners who took advantage of
a privileged retirement age and 2.6% came to be retired because of a disability. In
the majority of cases (92.1%) the retirement pension is paid on time. There is only
one respondent who pointed to a delay of payment dating back to January.
In the light of salary delays it is easy to understand the lifestyle of respondents.
The proportion of those who claim that they are starving is small - 2.5%. The
proportion of those who can hardly make both ends meet is also small (14.4%),
smaller than in Vorkuta. Most respondents referred themselves to a social group
that spends all of its income on food and has no means to cover all other expenses.
In Primorye the proportion of these who manage to cope with daily problems is
also greater than in Vorkuta (31.2%). At the same time, the Primorye population
contains fewer of the rich. At least none of them came up in the file.
The majority of the Primorye population lives in their own apartments, situated
in pre-fab housing blocs. Close to one in ten respondents (12.9%) live in their own
houses in the private sector. The proportion of those who live in barracks or dilapi­
dated housing makes up 15.5%.
M ost housing in Primorye is equipped with the standard array of communal
conveniences - electricity (89.8%), running water (84.8%), central heating (80.7%),
sewage (77.7%). However, there are few families who enjoy centralized hot water
supply (8.1%) or have a water heating device installed (15.2%). There are few
families who make use of a telephone (15.7%).
Unlike families in Vorkuta, Primorye families have the right to get a free supply
of coal. However, for obvious reasons, 64.4% of those questioned have no need for
coal to heat their housing. Thus only 35.6% owe the heating of their housing to
coal. The overall majority of respondents get their free coal fully and on time.
The survey showed that in Primorye there is one important factor that alleviates
the hardships of restructuring - a land plot (73.8%). In addition every tenth respon­
dent (usually living in his or her own house) sustain livestock. In the opinion of
respondents land plots are an important condition of survival in existing circums­
tances. Only 13.5% believe that they are not important and only 0.7% characterize
them as having no impact on the family budget. The closure of mines exacerbates
the problem of free coal delivery. Only one functioning mine remains incapable to
ensure full supplies to the town. To provide only its own workers the mine should
work a whole month without any payment.
One more factor with a potential of softening the impact of restructuring is the
number of durable goods in a household. All respondents have a refrigerator, 95.5%
have a washing machine, 93.9% - a colour TV set, 71.7% - a vacuum cleaner,
64.1% - a tape recorder, 51.9% - an electric drill, 35.9% - a VCR. It is notable that
about one third of all families have a car (30%), 15.2% owe a motorcycle.
The study indicates that there are few respondents in Primorye who make use
of kindergartens (11.9%). At the same time only 7.9% use kindergartens on a regular
basis. On the whole the respondents are satisfied with the service provided by these
institutions (58.3%). The proportion of partially satisfied is equal to 16.7% and fully
dissatisfied - 25%.
Local infirmaries are another matter. They are more useful to the majority of
the population: 98% attend them in search of medical assistance. At the same time
6.4% visit them on a regular basis, 51.9% - from time to time and 39.6% - rarely.
Only 12.4% are fully satisfied with these institutions, 49.5% are satisfied partially
and 38.2% - fully dissatisfied. In the opinion of 61.9% of respondents, the service
provided by the clinics deteriorated in the last twelve months. The opposite tendency
was observed by only 2.5% of all respondents. The Deputy S urgeon-in-C hief con­
firms the data. The tow n’s health care is in a critical condition. There is a shortage
of drugs, bandage material. Clinical equipment is rundown. Some residents do not
have the money to go to the hospital and get treatment.
The survey data provides consistent proof of the fact that the state of health
care in both areas is causing serious concern of the local population. In our view,
the restructuring process should not lead to the degradation of the social infrastruc­
ture regarded by most local residents as an important social guarantee.
4. Protest behaviour
On the whole miners are only partially aware of their rights. Some privileges,
to which they are entitled, are known better than others.
Table 1
Awareness of the rights related to dismissal (%)
Rights
Aware
Unaware
The m aintenance o f salary up to 3 m onths after dism issal
Early retirement at the expense o f the mine
15% benefit for each year in coal industry
89.7
77.6
72.4
10.3
22.4
The add-up to unem ploym ent benefits in proportion to the rise
o f the minim um salary
Free coal provision
Com pensation o f dam age to health from the m ine reserves
65.5
62.1
58.6
34.5
37.9
41.4
27.6
Unlike in Vorkuta, where in most cases information about m iners’ rights is disse­
minated by colleagues and relatives, in Primorye miners usually rely on the administra­
tion of the mine (54.4%). Friends and relatives are also important and serve as
a source of important information in 41.8% of all cases. The Primorye trade union
is more active in providing information about rights and privileges than the union
in Vorkuta (38.2%). Quite often a miner learns about his or her rights through
mass media (21.3%)
Important as these sources are, they can hardly help when a miner faces problems
getting his or her salary or coping with the consequences of dismissal. In most cases
miners believe that they can only count on themselves (65.5%). Only one in five
respondents believe that he would be able to get help from the trade union, 5.2%
could rely on the administration of the mine.
In view of these attitudes, it is hardly surprising that strikes are regarded by the
population as a bitten track of fighting for one’s rights. According to the survey,
28.2% of respondents took part in strikes, 26% preferred to abstain from answering.
M ore than a third of all respondents confirmed the fact of strikes at the enterprises
where they are employed. A quarter of respondents refused to release information
on this issue.
The majority of respondents voice approval of the protest action taken on March
27. Only 7.4% are negative about it and 13.9% claim indifference. At the same time,
while having approved these protest actions, the majority of the population (58.9%)
did not take part in it. Only 21.3% participated in strikes, 10.4% marched in dem on­
strations and took part in rallies. Notably, one in ten respondents refused to talk
about his participation in the M arch protest action.
On the whole, the survey points to a high degree of mobilization of the popula­
tion of both Primorye and Vorkuta on the basis of accumulated experience of protest
action. This tendency should be taken into account in the elaboration of the restruc­
turing strategy for the areas in question.
5. Executive summary
The project devoted to the study of mining areas in Vorkuta and Primorye came
up with a number of general characteristics of the social situation. These charac­
teristics might have a dramatic impact upon the process of restructuring in the
Russian coal-mining industry.
Firstly, in both areas the delay of salary payments is the most acute problem. In
Primorye land plots owned by miners or their families mitigate the effect of non-payment. In the Vorkuta area there are fewer factors that can mollify the effect of delays.
Secondly, according to the study, it is not only local industries that are in deep
crisis, but also the whole of local infrastructure. The signs of disintegration are most
visible in health care where the quality of service is rapidly deteriotrating.
Thirdly, an important conclusion is that the local employment agencies are
totally unprepared for the process of restructuring. The system of retraining is vir­
tually non-existent. The payments of unemployment benefits are no more regular
than the payments of salaries. The available data indicate that while in Vorkuta upon
losing employment miners call for help from the local employment agencies, in
Primorye they ignore it calling instead for help from their friends and relatives.
Fourthly, the deterioration of the social situation is conducive to a profound value
crisis taking the form of utter distrust for all local institutions including mine au­
thorities, independent trade unions and state agencies.
The impact of the crisis might be even greater if there had not been a number
of importants factors, which assuage its effect in the case of individual families.
Firstly, the situation is not so grave where family ties are strong. An employed
spouse can make a dramatic difference for the family budget and make the si­
tuation more hopeful. Secondly, there is a degree of resilience resulting from
an array of durable goods found in most local families. Thirdly, in some regions,
e.g. in Primorye, a garden plot, a summer house or a small farm can have a positive
effect upon the well-being of local families particularly in the way of improving
the nutrition of family members.
Summing up the results of the study, an important conclusion can be made: the
process of restructuring should not be reduced to the closure of the mines. It would
cause less social tension if it follows a complex programme of industry transfor­
mation - a programme that would account for the interests of all key participants in
the process.
11 Social Aspects..
Workers’ Communities
of Upper Silesia in the Face
of Restructuring Process
Kazimiera Wódz
University o f Silesia
Katowice
1. Introduction
The political and socio-economic transformation occurring in Poland from 1989
brought inevitable structural changes in national and regional economy. Katowice
Voivodship with the large Upper Silesian Industrial Basin located in the centre is
an area of extreme concentration of traditional especially coal-mining, iron and steel
industry with their history coming back to the beginning of the 19th century. The
transition from the state-owned enterprises to the private ones going rather quickly
in commerce, banking, services is extremely difficult in the heavy industry where
still prevail the big state enterprises.
In 1996 64% of the active work-force in the region were employed in the public
sector. (Statistical Yearbook o f the K atow ice Voivodship, 1997.) The industrial
character of the region could be illustrated by the fact that in 1996 51.1% of the
working population were employed in the industry, in this group 44.4% were those
employed in the coal-mining industry and 12.4% in steel industry (after the Statis­
tical Yearbook o f the K atow ice Voivodship, 1997). The ongoing changes in regional
economy - growing importance of private investments in automobile industry (FIAT
in Tychy, General M otors in Gliwice, Isuzu - also in Tychy) machinery, chemistry,
alimentation although being an important factor of restructuring process have had
until now limited impact on the local labour market and did not change radically
the industrial shape of this region.
This is an area which is particular in many respects, namely due to its urbaniza­
tion indicators (86.6%) which are the highest in Poland, with unparalleled concen­
tration of traditional branches of heavy industry, burdensome for the environment,
mainly mining industry (97% of pit-coal is dug here, along with 100% of zinc and
lead), metallurgy (53% of the total production of steel), power engineering (23% of
the total production of electricity in Poland), chemical industry. The Katowice
Province (Voivodship), which constitutes but 2.1% of the total territory of Poland,
is inhabited by 4 million people (10.5% of the total number of inhabitants of Poland)
of which more than half (2.3 million) inhabit the Katowice agglomeration, which is
the biggest concentration of towns in Poland, constituting of 15 independent cities
and towns. Those towns have been established and developed mainly thanks to the
industrial growth of the region, in particular the raw materials present in the region,
which have been exploited since mid-19th century. This industrial heritage left its
characteristic impress not only on the appearance of the towns making up the ag­
glomeration, which any naked eye can see, but also on the social structure of that
area, in which the percentage of university graduates is below the Polish average
(7% to 9%), and where the percentage of industry workers, until 1989, exceeded
53% of all such workers in Poland, while a few years later - in 1995 - that number
was reduced to 43% ( W ojewództwo katowickie ’96:52). The clear domination of
traditional branches of industry also determined the specific requirements of the local
labour market which mainly demanded physical labour for which no qualifications
or low qualifications were sufficient. After 1989 there have been some changes in
this respect, yet people of low education still prevail among the active labour force
(cf. Table 1).
The structural transformations connected with the political transformation in
Poland proved particularly difficult in case of the Katowice Province, both due to
Table 1
The level of education in active labour force in the province (1995)
Level of education
University education
% of employed people
9.9%
C ollege professional education
Secondary education
29.0%
7.0%
Elementary technical education
43.8%
Elementary education
10.5%
S o u r c e : Katowice Voivodship '96. Report on Social Development, 19% : 56.
the industry present here, and due to the strong resistance of trade unions, which
were supported by employees of big coal-mines and steel works. The attempts of
m aking the mining sector enter free m arket economy, undertaken in the years
1990-1991, resulted in a catastrophic indebtedness of mines. 1992 saw the first
serious attempts of reforming that branch, in which several mines were planned to
be closed down, the output was to be gradually reduced, mines were to be grouped
into syndicates/holdings, and privatization was planned for the enterprises supporting
mining and providing services for it, including also the well-developed social ser­
vices (programme prepared by the State Agency for Pit-Coal). All those plans met
with radically negative response from trade unions, expressed in protests, industrial
actions, pickets and occupation of government buildings. Despite the strong resis-
tance from miners, some 141 thousand employees in the pit-coal mining industry,
were made redundant in the years 1989-1995 (data after: G órnictw o w ęgla kamien­
nego [P it-C oal Mining], 1996: 17 and Mitręga, 1996: 77). For the sake of com pari­
son, it is worth pointing out that until the year 1992, the coal-mines of the Katowice
Province employed some 318 thousand people (Nowak, Sobula and Tausz, 1994:
13). Various scenarios for the restructuring of employment in the coal-mining in­
dustry estimate the necessary reduction of some further 80 thousand or more jobs
by the year 2000. The assumptions had it that the cutting of jobs was to take place
in a controlled way, mainly through the so-called natural dismissals (retirements,
disability pensions) and paid holidays for miners or early retirement programmes,
or - for mines to be closed down (in the Katowice Province that applies to four
mines at present, plus several others within the next ten years) - moving employees
to other mines or other industries.1 As a matter of fact, the possibilities of employing
outside the mining industry the surplus labour force laid off by mines are not suf­
ficient, no wonder then that miners are so afraid of further restructuring in the sector.
Sim ilar phenomena, although on an incomparably smaller scale, can be observed in
metallurgy, where the planned cuts of jobs may embrace some several thousand or
even tens of thousands (Bartoszek and Gruszczyński, 1997: 190). The additional
element that unfavourably influences the labour market is the fact that people with
lowest qualifications, having small chances for finding another job, are made redun­
dant first (cf. Table 2).
The level of unemployment in the Katowice Province is fairly below the Polish
average, in 1995 it amounted to 9.1% (national average - 14.9%), while in 1996 it
Table 2
The unemployed in the Katowice Province by the level of education,
in % of the total number of unemployed
Level of education
University education
C o llege professional education
Secondary education
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
2.9
23.7
2.5
22.4
1.7
21.3
1.5
21.0
1.4
22.5
8.2
8.2
7.6
7.9
8.8
Elem entary technical education
35.6
36.9
38.2
38.3
38.1
Elem entary education
29.6
30.0
31.2
31.3
29.2
S o u r c e : The Katowice Province '96. Report on Social Development, 1996: 59.
dropped to 8.4% (national average - 11.5%), whereas in figures one deales with
enormous amounts of people (at the end of 1996 the regional labour offices had
138,658 people in their registers). W omen clearly prevail among the unemployed
in the Katowice Province (in 1995 - 68.9% of all unemployed, in 1996 - 71.6%).
1
In 1998 new governm ent presented a m odified programme o f the restructuring o f the coal-m ine
sector, introducing different new solutions (for exam ple an allow ance equal to 20 m edium -incom es for
those w ho decide to leave out voluntarily their jobs). There is still too early to evaluate the efficien cy o f
these regulations.
Table 3
The clients of welfare centres located in the Katowice Province, years 1993-1994, by sex
1994
1993
Sex
total
%
total
%
Female
1 8 -6 0 years
97,659
over 6 0 years
23,711
Total
121,370
91,398
22,750
65
114,148
67
Male
44,818
1 8 -6 0 years
55,198
over 6 0 years
10,755
Total
65,953
35
55,181
33
Gross total
18,7323
100
169,329
100
10,363
S o u r c e : Data from W ZPS [Regional W elfare Office] in Katowice, annual report.
This apparently striking fact becomes comprehensible when we make it clear that
the consequences of restructuring in the mining industry first influenced the non­
productive superstructure of mines, including social services, where most of the
employees were women. Also the statistical data illustrating the distribution of
clients of welfare centres situated in the Katowice Province between the sexes (Table
3) reveal that the situation of women gets worse.
That women are overrepresented in the population of the unemployed surely testifies
to their difficult situation, which is due to the specificity of the local labour market,
unfavourable for women. Women who lose their jobs, regardless the qualifications they
possess, have it harder to find a new one (for men the difficulty is faced mainly by those
who have no qualifications), that is why after they lose the privilege of obtaining
unemployment benefit they become clients of welfare more often. The situation of single
mothers proves particularly dramatic, as they get no support from the family and have
limited access to protective and educational institutions. Besides them, the female clients
of welfare in the Katowice Province are mothers of numerous families, in which the
income generated by the husband is not sufficient to maintain the family. More often than
not, they are also families of the unemployed, who lost their unemployment benefit. The
scale of pauperisation among the inhabitants of the Katowice Province, who still come
out positively in comparisons regarding the average salary (in 1995 the average salary in
the Katowice Province amounted to PLN 707.73, while the national average was PLN
547.44), can be illustrated by the following comparison: in 1995 8% of the total number
of welfare clients in Poland were from the Katowice Province, while the inhabitants of
the province amount to nearly 10% of the total population of Poland (Katowice Province
’96: 103). It is highly probable that further restructuring of heavy industry will result in
the increase in the num ber of families that use various forms of aid. One should
remember at the same time that restructuring of coal-mining will directly or indirectly
concern over half the population of the province, both miners and their families, often for
generations having that professional tradition, as well as people employed in enterprises
and institutions working for the mining industry. In some municipalities (Polish: gmina )
the level of employment in coal-mines amounts to between 30% and over 50% of the total
employment in national economy (e.g. Jastrzębie Zdrój, Piekary Śląskie, Tychy, Wodzi­
sław Śląski, Ruda Śląska, Czeladź, Zabrze) (Nowak et al., 1994:4-6). This determines
the scale of social problems with which particular local communities will have to cope.
An additional source of tensions and social conflicts in the Katowice Province
(and, more broadly, in Upper Silesia) are the complicated nationality and population
relations in that region. Those problems were discussed more widely elsewhere (cf.
e.g. W ódz (ed.), 19 9 3 ,1995a, 1995b). Here we will restrict ourselves to indicating the
most basic determinants of the complex situation. They mainly derive from the big
migrations of large groups of people from the territories that before W orld W ar II
belonged to Eastern Poland, to the so-called Regained Territories [Ziemie Odzyskane]
which until 1939 (except for a small portion of the territory of the Katowice Province,
adjudged to Poland in 1922) (Davies, 1986: 116) had been an integral part of Germany.
After World W ar II, which Nazi Germany lost, as a result of the so-called verification
of nationalities, hundreds of thousands of Silesians of German origin left, in dramatic
circumstances, Upper Silesia. Many of them, suspected of pro-Nazi attitudes, ended up
in labour camps in the Soviet Union. Many Silesian families that had connections with
the Germans, were humiliated and had to suffer in transition camps, were persecuted
and expropriated. The Silesians who constitute a specific ethnic group with its own
distinctly specific culture that reconciled elements of Polish ethnicity with strong
influences of German as well as Czech and M oravian culture, found themselves in
Upper Silesia after W orld W ar II as second class citizens, who could not be trusted by
the “new” authorities. All those events branded the relations between the natives and
the newcomers from other regions of Poland, including also the neighbouring Dąbrow­
skie Basin [Zagłębie Dąbrowskie] which together with the industrial part of Upper
Silesia constituted the Katowice Province, and which by traditionally conservative
Silesians was perceived as the bulwark of leftism and source of personnel for the
communist authorities. The antagonism between Silesia and Zagłębie were also rooted
elsewhere, a vital role was played here by the experiences under Nazi occupation,
which were particularly dramatic in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie, with a high percentage of
Jewish population that was brutally exterminated by the Nazis. Silesians were treated
by the occupants en m asse as Germans, whose nationality awareness was not fully
formed (in Upper Silesia during W orld W ar II Volksliste was obligatory (Davies, 1986:
69) enjoyed an E rsatz of normality which was unattainable for others, while many
Poles and Jews remembered them as opportunists and traitors. This simplified and
unfair picture of Silesians-renegades was strengthened by the fact that Silesians were
drafted to German army (Wehrmacht) and worked in lower administration. Those facts
negatively influenced the situation of Silesians after the war, for sure.
Throughout the post-war period, yet intermittently, Silesians took advantage of
the German legal regulations, which concerned the issue of citizenship of people
bom in the territories of former Deutsches Reich, emigrating to Germany. In the
1950s, 1970s and 1980s, a few hundred thousand inhabitants of the Katowice Provin­
ce left for Germany, under the auspices of the “reunification of families” ( W ieder­
vereinigung ) campaign. Those who remained were gradually pushed to the margin
of social life, locked in their closed family-neighbourhood circles, with no possibility
of wider participation in public life. Children brought up in traditional Silesian
families, using the Silesian dialect on everyday basis, often felt discriminated at
school, where the norm was the literary Polish, lost heart for further education due
to failures at school, contenting themselves with elementary professional/technical
education. As a result, among the youngsters from Silesian families in the Katowice
Province, the processes of simple reproduction of professional and social position
clearly prevailed over the processes of social rise. The industrial part of Upper
Silesia, as well as Zagłębie Dąbrowskie [Dąbrowskie Basin], starting from the 1950s,
were the place of intense migration of people from villages and small towns almost
all over Poland; those people were recruited to work in industry, and were promised
good pay, flats and social rise. The model of extensive industrialization, imposed
by the communist regime, and based mainly on heavy industry, reduced the Kato­
wice Province and the Upper-Silesian Industrial Region (GOP) to performing the
role of providing raw materials and energy for the entire country, thus strengthening
the specific requirements of the regional labour market for many years, with the
dominating demand for physical labour requiring low qualifications. The regional
education system, falling into line with the above, got dominated by profession­
al/technical training and education, where the focus was to educate specialists for
very specific branches of industry only. It would not be hard to guess that in the
new situation that emerged, those schools were doomed to produce juvenile unem­
ployed, able to find employment only in coal-mines or steel works. The situation
remained like that until 1990, when first steps were undertaken to change the struc­
ture of regional education. In the years 1990-1995, the num ber of pupils attending
elementary technical schools diminished by as much as 20%, whereas the total
num ber of students in schools increased in the same time (from 47.6% to 63.0%
quoted after the K atow ice P rovince 9 6 ’, op. cit.: 107).
2. Miners in the presence of the
restructuring. Note of the assumptions
and methodology of the research
W ithout any doubts the restructuring of Katowice region is unavoidable but due
to its monocultural industrial character the restructuring of this region will be of
particular difficulty. First of all because restructuring has already brought
and will bring for thousands of workers the m enace of unem ploym ent, the
necessity of professional requalifications caused by the decrease of the workplaces
in heavy industry, increasing spatial m obility, changing everyday habits and
customs. The industrial restructuring understood as a social process can not,
of course be reduced to purely “ ...technical changes, production reorganisation,
social relocation and product transform ation...” (Bagguley et al., 1990: 212).
The workers - participants in the economic restructuring “are conscious agents,
located indeterm inate social positions and institutions, and with biographies,
who, consequently - contrary to the means by which managem ent calculate
their worth - do not arrive in the workplace as the pure labour power.
Labour brings with it a baggage of attributes acquired as an outcom e of
the general process of social reproduction - m em ories of struggle, skills
and expertise, aspirations for autonomy, gendered identities, social obligations...
political ideologies and organisational capacities” (Bagguley et al. 1990).
In other words - from sociological point of view - either the econom ic
restructuring could be beneficial or generating social problem s depend in
large extent on the adaptational capacity of the concerned populations to
the professional and intellectual requirem ent im posed by the transform ations
and of course on the extent of the protective policy of the state, regional,
local level, dim inishing the negative effects o f the structural changes. Until
now such a complex policy programmes does not exist, however the Programme
of R estructuring of the Coal-M ine Sector accepted by the Polish cabinet
in 1998 contains an important social dimension.
The question of crucial importance for the future of Upper Silesian Industrial
Area is how the traditional workers communities of this region will react to this
situation. M ore precisely - this question is about if the cultural and social capital
(Coleman, 1990: 300-321) of these communities, accumulated by the generations
will facilitate or not the new form of productive and social activity, the creation of
new types of personalities, more rational and independent, ready to undertake new
types of carrier let it be educational or professional. Taking into consideration that
the cultural and social identity Katowice Province was determined by the industrial
heritage of more than a century, it seems to be quite justified to ask how the specific
cultural traditions of Upper Silesian workers communities, demonstrated in cul­
tivating the traditions of profession, strong and expanded family and neighbour ties,
attachment to the traditional customs, limited social and spatial mobility will affect
the ways to confront the challenges of restructuring process. Will these traditions
and attitudes be an obstacle in the process of economic modernization of this region
or - an advantage?
Looking for the answer to these questions, the group of researches directed
by the author undertook in 1994 a research project, sponsored by the Committee
of Scientific Research (Grant No. IP 109 036 06) entitled: “The Process of
Marginalisation of the Traditional Workers Communities of Upper Silesia”. 2 The
aim of this study was to diagnose the state of mind of this segment of the coal-mine
workers - the ground workers who are doing the less qualified, physically exhaus­
tive and dangerous work in the coal-mines. There were many reasons for choosing
this group as a subject of the study. The most important was that as numerous
examples from Western Europe and the USA show - the global economic restruc­
turing and the transition from industrial to post-industrial economy implied the
decrease of the number of working places in traditional industries like mining,
metallurgy, textile and forced the structural downward mobility of many traditional
workers communities into the “new lower classes (underclass)” (Lash, 1994: 157).
It is more than sure that the less qualified segments of working class will be the
most vulnerable to the negative consequences of the restructuring process, resulting
in growing unemployment or structural changes in labour market.
As we stated above the presented study was aimed at the description and ex­
planation of the effects of the specific cultural traditions of workers communities
of Upper Silesia will have on their adaptation capacities. There is no enough space
here for the detailed presentation of the theoretical and methodological assumption
of the project. Let us just state that we described these capacities using some psycho­
social characteristics from Alex Inkeles’ theoretical model if “individual modernity”
(Inkeles, 1983 - achievement motivation, educational and occupational aspirations,
openness to the new information and new experiences, dignity, universalism, plan­
ning/time orientation, optimism (Inkeles, 1983: 35). W e have also examined the
structure of value-system of the surveyed group (with special emphasis of the wor­
kers’ group ethos), political attitudes, evaluation of the different dimensions of the
political and economic transformation in Poland, the sense of regional and local
identifications, and selectively chosen items from the scales of ethnocentrism, au­
thoritarianism and helplessness.
Discussing the issue of the influence of the traditional culture of the workers’
communities of Upper Silesia, we can not neglect the essential cultural heterogeneity
of the regional population. Generally, it can be divided between autochtons and
immigrants, however the group of autochtons is also internally diversified between
the Silesians and Zagłębie Dąbrowskie people, living from at least three generations
in their communities. We decided to include in our studies those three culturally
different groups - the native Silesians, the Zagłębians and the after II World War
immigrants to the area.
The participation of these three groups allowed to identify the relationship be­
tween cultural features linked to the regional affiliation with the social-cultural
features of the industrial working class as such. The research was carried out in
2
The complete report from this research has been prepared by: Krystyna Faliszek, Iwona Gliniecka,
Krzysztof Łęcki, Krzysztof Stadler and Kazimiera Wódz. The shortened version o f report, prepared by K.
Faliszek, K. Łęcki, K. Stadler, K. Wódz has been published in 1997 by UN D P (“Programme o f Sustainable
Development o f Katowice Voivodship”). The following part o f this paper is based in large extent on this material.
1995 in five cities of the Katowice District - three in Upper Silesian part (Katowice,
Mysłowice, Siemianowice), two - in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie. 600 ground workers
from seven coal-mines have been interviewed by large questionnaire. Finally 450
cases have been analysed, 150 form each group described above (Silesians, Za­
głębiam , Immigrants).
The socio-demographic characteristic of the examined group is presented in Figs.
1 -8 .3 Nearly half of the respondents were between their forty or thirty years old,
nearly one third - between thirty or twenty years old (Fig. 1). Majority finished
their education at the level of vocational school (Fig. 2) working actually as the
skilled miners, more precisely speaking - very narrowly skilled ground workers (Fig.
3). Greatest majority of respondents were married (Fig. 4). M ore then one third of
their wives have the full-time job, however one third have never worked outside
home (Fig. 5). The typical respondent’s household is composed by the parents and
two children or one child but the families with three children are not an exception
(Fig. 6). According to the respondents’ declarations, their family monthly income
in 1995 was above the average salary in the region (Fig. 7) and largely above the
average salary for the whole country but we should keep in mind that this money
must be divided into at least four numbers of the workers’ households. However,
the m iners’ are rather well equipped with the household goods, TV and VCR sets,
cars and PC ’s (Fig. 8) - this is a remainder of the passed prosperous years of the
end of real socialism when the coal-miners salaries were really very high and this
group was beneficent of special regulations (the so-called m iners’ booklets) giving
them right to buy attractive goods in the co-called miners shops (it was at the period
of general shortage of the consum er goods in Poland!). This kind of privileges, like
many other forms of direct and undirect supplementary benefits for coal-m ine work­
ers, have been suppressed after 1989.
3. Psychosocial portrait of the workers
Results of the survey
The sense of regional identity is one of the most important features taken into
consideration in our study. As we described above, the respondents represented three
m ajor groups differentiated by their regional origins (Silesians, Zagłębians and
Immigrants). It is interesting to see how this regional background is reflected in the
respondents self definitions. More than half of them define themselves first of all as
“Polish”, it is the case of the greater majority of the immigrants, then Zagłębians
and the less for the Silesians. The region as a frame of reference seems to be of
3 Figs. 1 -2 9 are inserted in an appendix at the end o f this article.
greatest importance for the Silesians and far less for Zagłębians, the immigrants
more frequently than the others perceive themselves as “workers” (Fig. 9) (statistical
value of those and others differences was measured by chi-square, p<0.05). We
can conclude that the sense of social identity defined regionally is characteristic
mainly for the respondents coming from Silesia. This strong regional identification
of Silesians is associated with a relatively higher than in the case of Zagłębians
evaluation of Silesia in comparison with other regions of Poland. The immigrants’
regional identification feeling is almost non-existent (Figs. 10 and 11). Despite these
differences there is a consensus among the respondents that the inhabitants of the
Katowice District (Voivodship) have equal life opportunities indifferently from their
origin (Fig. 12). Looking at the group importance of the different community, we
must note that region comes at the third position after nation and the state (Table
4). More than one third of the respondents (also a small part of non-Silesians) know
and use in everyday life the regional Silesian dialect (Fig. 13).
Table 4
The importance of belonging to particular community
Community
Nation
A country state
Rank
1.58
1.66
Region
1.95
Global com munity
1.97
2.04
Town
Professional group
Europe
2.10
2.22
Central Europe
2.33
F ellow religionists
2.82
State which o f the listed below com m unities is im portant to you as a group of belonging?
1 - the m ost important
5 - the least important
The ethnic or national differentiation of the regional community is not treated
by the majority of respondents as a significant source of potential conflicts (Fig.
14). However, quite big proportion of the examined express the feeling of insecurity,
this is especially true for the Zagłębians (Fig. 15).
The identification with region and regional culture implies in the consciousness
of many inhabitants of Upper Silesia the identification with the ethos of the hard
work. A majority of the respondents are convinced that the hard, exhaustive and
endangering work should be better paid than other job (Fig. 16) but at the same
time they are aware that their profession gets very low respect in the Polish society
(Table 5). People’s respect is among the most important values, after family hap­
piness, quiet life, welfare, before the peace in the country and interesting job in­
dicated by the workers (Fig. 17). In their work they appreciate first of all the human
relations and their personal professional status than the respect associated still in
Table 5
The respect earned by specific professions in Poland
Profession
A physician
Rank
2.71
A manager o f state-ow ned com pany
3.55
An ow ner o f a private business
4.23
A teacher
4.67
A university professor
4.71
A clerk
5.42
A policem an
5.95
A miner
7.24
A builder
7.81
A shop assistant
8.60
W hich profession gets highest and low est respect in the Polish society?
1 - the highest respect
10 - the low est respect
their families and communities with the profession of coal-miner. The wages as
a source of jo b satisfaction was m entioned by a m inority, very few of the re­
spondents believe that their profession offers them a good prospect for the future
(Fig. 18). The workers’ attitudes towards the ongoing social and economic chan­
ges are clearly expressed in the answers to question concerning the transform a­
tion of the regional industry profile and the role of the state in providing the
social assistance for the unemployed people. H alf of the respondents believe that
there is a possibility to reshape the existing industry, or agree that only the out
of date plants should go under liquidation but others should be reformed. The
conviction that regional industrial structure should be com pletely changed is an
exception (Fig. 19). At the same time the majority of respondents agree with the
statement that it is a duty of the state to take care on the poor and unemployed
people (Fig. 20). The dominant feature of the psychosocial profile of the respon­
dents is the strive for stability and quiet, peaceful life, which is more important
than earning money (Fig. 21). The feeling of helplessness is very high, once
again especially among the Zagłębians (Fig. 22), this could be explained partly
as the reaction to the fact that the first closures of the coal-m ines after 1989
started in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie. The later group m anifests relatively stronger
authoritarianism (Fig. 23) and is more than two other groups eager to describe
their political views as “leftists” (Fig. 24) which m eans first of all the accep­
tation of the state intervention in economy and extended system of social protec­
tion. The political convictions of the examined workers have no direct connec­
tion with the political activity - they are not affiliated with any political party,
however the majority of them (67.3%) declare the membership in trade unions
and participation in strikes (82.6%). W eak participation in the last local elections
(54.2% did not vote) confirm their general political passivity. More than half of
the surveyed (60.9%) accept the statement that it is very hard nowadays to rely
upon anybody and that the m atters in the Katowice District are going in bad
directions (52.8%).
The orientation to reproduction of the status quo is clearly manifested in the
declarations of the coal-miners concerning their plans for the future 10 years. One
third of them have definitely no idea of what will happen with them in ten years
(30.9%), the expectations of many are limited to the simple fact of going to retire­
ment (43.6%), important group (17.6%) believe to be able to continue the profes­
sional activity as coal-workers. More than half (55.6%) agree with the opinion that
it is not good to do something in different way than the former generations and
believe that the changes are worse than the continuation (63%) and that people who
do not accept the usual way of doing are most often the trouble-makers (69.8%).
Although for majority of the examined workers the possibility of losing the job
seems to be still rather an abstraction more than one third of them are eager to launch
their own business and almost one fifth would do it with a support of their family
and friends (Fig. 25). The workers are rather tolerant with regards to the possibility
to start a professional career by the woman, however, only one third of the respon­
dents accept the view that she is absolutely free to do it as she wishes (Fig. 26).
The predominant attitude to the children could be described as the readiness to
sacrifice the parents’ life for the best of their children (Fig. 27). The workers under­
stand that the future of their children depends mainly on their education and they
declare their willingness to spend great amount of money for this (Fig. 28). If asked
more precisely about the kind of investments in the education of their children (e.g.
the additional activities like foreign languages courses) they are not so positive
- 44.9 state that they do not spend the money for such kind of things. At the same
time they give to the children the right to make the choice of their profession accord­
ing to their own interests (Fig. 29). For the majority of workers (73.3%) life ex­
perience is more important than knowledge learned from the books.
4. Discussion
The results presented above have been chosen as an illustration from a large
empirical material gathered by the deepened interviews with 450 ground coal-workers of Upper Silesian Industrial Region, a part of Katowice District. The analytical
procedures made by the use of SPSS gave us the possibility to draw some general
conclusions concerning the relationship between the social and cultural characteris­
tics of the respondents, like level of education, family and professional traditions,
values systems, social and regional identities, political preferences with the personal
characteristics of examined workers, including the feeling of economic and social
degradation, uncertainty and anxiety, helplessness, lack of prospective thinking,
educational and occupational aspirations, tolerance, unwillingness to any changes,
authoritarianism, ethnocentrism. Briefly speaking, the results of the survey presented
above show that the majority of examined workers are not prepared to the ongoing
and future changes in regional economy. The miners practically ignore the real
dimension of the economic restructuring and have very poor knowledge about the
social policy measures already undertaken by the state.
The respondents reveal more or less similar form of attachment to the traditional
values associated with family, religion, work (particularly physical work) and the
tendency to continue their style of life especially as far as their professional career
is concerned. The examined workers generally accept those political and economic
consequences of transformation which do not require from them the active par­
ticipation. It means that they either reject the social costs of economic transformation
or do not want to bear those costs.
The strong attachment to the local community is quite evident in the whole
examined population but the symbolic aspect of that attachment is particularly valued
by the Silesians. The Silesians not only differ from others in their regional affiliation but
also in the importance they assign to their kins’ and neighbours’ relationship. The
predominant attitudes we could observe in the Silesian’s respondents were: orientation
to the reproduction rather than changes, weaker than in other groups achievement
motivation, low level of educational aspirations, unwillingness to long-run planning.
Those factors could support the hypothesis of the negative impact of the strong
attachment to the local community for the formation of the individualistic entrepreneu­
rial attitudes and consequently impede the adaptation to the structural changes of the
regional economy. As the immigrant respondents are most socially mobile, we may
conclude that the orientation to the local community and rooteness in the neigh­
bour/family relationship could have a clustering effect, and consequently facilitate in
general (either of Silesians as of Zagłębians) the transmission of the basic element of the
social and cultural capital to the younger generations. Strong family ties, norms of
reciprocity, mutual trust and solidarity between the members of professional communi­
ty all these could be considered as the elements of social capital which could be a source
of social support for the communities facing the shock of the transformation. In fact, the
Silesian workers who are the most integrated to the local culture do not reveal so much
as the others the menace of degradation and helplessness, they feel more secure and
optimistic about their future, they also more easily accept the ongoing changes. At the
same time they are among those less prepared for the transformation due to their
attitudes towards education and professional career-oriented rather to reproduction than
to change, even if they realise that this is not a solution for their children.
The two other groups of workers, Zagłębians and Immigrants are not so much
attached to the regional or local values. Their main groups of reference are besides
their families, friends and their co-workers and they are very strongly oriented
towards the problems and interests of the whole professional community. However,
there are some similarities between the Zagłębians and Immigrants, there are also
important differences - the Zagłębians are more attached to the leftist ideology, express
strong feeling of degradation and menace and are the most claiming for the state/public
institutions interventions to the solutions of their social problems. At the same time they
are objectively in a better situation as they are more educated and qualified.
The Immigrants are in the most difficult situation. They are very weakly integra­
ted in their local communities, reveal authoritarian tendencies and are the most
determined not to accept any changes at all. They have the lowest level of education
and qualifications and get no support from their larger family and neighbours.
If we try to draw a general conclusion from the empirical results discussed above, we
should stress first of all that the core element of the social capital of the three examined
groups of workers is strong familiaristic orientation, but in every group this familiarism
appears in different configurations with other elements - in the case of Silesians, with
strong attachment to the local/regional culture, with its rather self-preserving character
and law educational aspirations, in the case of Zagłębians - with the presence of the
radical social ideology and positive attitudes to the education and in the case of
Immigrants, with a strong ethno-centric attitudes and generalized feeling of helplessness.
O f course, these are only some of the most significant components of the state of mind of
the respondents, coming from different cultural background. However, the presented
data not only explain the domination of the defensive strategies of dealing with restructu­
rization in the miner’s communities but also give some arguments to predict the failure of
the model of reorientation of the regional economy based mainly on individual entrepre­
neurship (e.g. small business) and specialized services. For the first - the workers’
communities are not enough “individualistic”, for the second - not enough ambitious.
This is the reality that will be hardly accepted by economists or politicians who believe
that the ordinary people share with them the same kind of rationality, and are ready to
sacrifice their present life for the enigmatic future betterment.
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Województwo katowickie ’96. Raport o rozwoju społecznym. [K atow ice V oivodship ’96. Report on Social
D evelopm ent]. K atowice: T ow arzystw o Zachęty Kultury.
W ód z, K. (ed .), 1993. Swoi i obcy na Górnym Śląsku [Ours and Strangers in U pper S ilesia].
K atowice: “Śląsk”.
W ódz, K. (ed.). Górnicy wobec wyzwań restrukturyzacji [Miners in the Presence o f Restructurisation].
Katowice: Tow arzystw o Zachęty Kultury.
W ódz, K. (ed.), 1995. Regional Identity. Regional Consciousness. K atowice: University o f Silesia.
Appendix
Fig. 1. R esp o n d en ts’ age
1. 1920-1940 3%
4. 1961-1970 28%
2. 1941-1950 15%
5. 1971 and later 6%
3. 1951-1960 48%
Percent
Respondents’ education
1. Incom plete prim ary school 1.6%
5. Vocational secondary school 2.4%
2. Prim ary school 10%
6.
3. V ocational school 67%
7.
4. G eneral secondary school 0.2%
8. O thers
12 Social Aspects
80 n
Percent
751
1
2
3
4
Fig. 3. Respondents’ profession
1. U nskilled m iner/w orker
4. W orker (not miner)
2. Skilled m iner/w orker
5. Others
3. L ow er technical staff
5
P e rc e n
Fig. 4. Marital status
1. Single 9%
2. D ivorced (also w ithout form al statem ent
of divorce) 1.6%
3. M arried (including living with a concubine) 89%
4. W idow er 0.4%
Percent
Missing
1
Fig. 5. The wife’s occupation
1. Full tim e job (including one-m an business) 36%
5. A pensioner o r receives annuity (annuitee) 5%
2. Part-tim e jo b 5%
6. At school or at the university 0.2%
3. Tem porary absence (unpaid leave, m aternity leave) 4%
7. Not em ployed, takes care o f the household 33%
4. U nem ployed, looking fo r w ork 6%
8. O ther situations 2%
50
Percent
45
Missing
1
2
3
4
Fig. 6. The number of children in a household
1. One child 28%
4. Four 1%
2. Tw o children 40%
5. Five 0.5%
3. Three 10%
5
50
Percent
45
Missing
1
2
3
4
5
6
Fig. 7. Monthly family income
W hat is your fam ily total incom e per m onth?
1. U p to 300 zł 1%
5. 1001-1500 zł 28%
2. 3 0 1 -5 0 0 zł 5%
6. 1501-2000 zł 5%
3. 5 0 1 -7 0 0 zł 14%
7. 2001 and m ore zł 0.9%
4. 7 0 1-1000 zł 41%
7
120 |
no;
Fig. 8. Household equipment
1. C olour T V 99%
6. C om puter 41%
2. W ashing m achine 92%
7. Telephone 30%
3. Refrigerator 99%
4. VC R 86%
5. V ideo cam era 5%
8. C ar 48%
9. A llotm ent 19%
10. Recreational plot 6%
Percent
Fig. 9. Local self-identification
W hen you read political statem ents do you m ostly define yourself as:
1. “W e Silesians” (“we Zagłębie people")
2. “W e Polish”
3. “W e w orkers”
HI Silesians
Percent
I i :: :| Zagłębie
I
:l respondents
3 Immigrants
Fig. 10. The evaluation of Silesia region
1. Better and m ore valuable than other regions in Poland?
2. W orse and less valuable than other Polish regions?
3. Indifferent from other Polish regions?
1 00 q
90-
Percent
80 h
Fig. 11. The evaluation of Zagłębie region
1. Better and m ore valuable than other regions in Poland?
2. W orse and less valuable than other Polish regions?
3. Indifferent from other Polish regions?
Percent
Missing
1
2
Fig. 12. The equilibrum of life opportunities in Silesia region
Do you think Silesian inhabitants have equal life chances indifferently from their origin?
1. Yes, they have equal chances 71%
2. N o 14%
3. Difficult to say 14%
3
Percent
Fig. 13. Use of a regional dialect
1. Yes
2. No
3. Difficult to say
Percent
Fig. 14. Do you think differences associated with various nationalities in Upper Silesia may be
a problem?
1. Yes, definitely 6%
4. Rather not 43%
2. Rather yes 11%
5. D efinitely not 11%
3. Only som etim es with regards to som e m atters 23%
6. I d o n 't know 6%
Silesians
Percent
Zagłębie
respondents
Immigrants
Fig. 15. Nowadays it is not easy to feel secure in Silesia area and Zagłębie Region
1. I agree with no objections
4. I rather d o not agree
2. I rather agree
5. I do not agree at all
3. I partially agree and do not agree
Percent
Missing
Fig. 16. Do you think hard, exhaustive, healh endangering work should be better paid than
other jobs?
1. Yes, definitely 68%
4. No
2. Y es 28%
5. D efinitely not 0.4%
3. Difficult to say 3%
Percent
Fig. 17. The most important values in one’s life
1. W elfare 56%
10. R eligion 15%
2. Fam e 1.8%
11. Friends 18%
3. Pow er 2.0%
12. The sense o f being needed by other people 27%
4. Quiet life 75%
13. C o u n try ’s prosperity 15%
5. Pleasures 10%
14. Peace in a country 42%
6. Strong will 16%
15. Reciprocal love 15%
7. Fam ily happiness 87%
16. H elping other people 12%
8. Interesting jo b 32%
17. Education 16%
9. P e o p le's respect 45%
18. O ther 0.7%
Percent
Fig. 18. Satisfaction from work in terms of:
1. Salary 23%
4. W ork steadiness 34%
2. Respect associated w ith it 41%
5. Future prospects 19%
3. Post you held 66%
6. H um an relations 68%
13 Social Aspects..
Percent
»w
K vK v
Ä W Ä V .V
Missing
Fig. 19. Acceptance of changes of regional industry profile
1. It should be com pletely changed 4%
2. O ut of date plants should go under liquidation, other
bussinesses should be reform ed 45%
3. O ne should only help restructuring the existing industry 50%
Percent
Missing
Fig. 20. The expectance of assistance for poor and unemployed from the state
1. Yes, this is a state’s duty 46%
4. Rather not 5%
2. R ather yes 36%
5. N ot at all, the state should no t get involved in social
3. Difficult to say 12%
n*
assistance 1%
40
35
Percent
30
Fig. 21. Earning money is more important than a peaceful life
1. I agree w ith no objections
4. I rather d o not agree
2. I rath er agree
5. I do not agree at all
3. I partially agree and do not agree
Percent
Fig. 22. I feel helpless towards what is happening in the world nowadays
1. I agree w ith no objections
4. I rather do not agree
2. I rather agree
5. I do not agree at all
3. I partially agree and do not agree
Silesians
Percent
Zagłębie
respondents
Immigrants
Fig. 23. Democracy is good in theory but it is troublesome in practice
1. I totally agree
4. I rather disagree
2. I agree
5. I neglect the statem ent
3. I partly agree
Percent
60 :
Fig. 24. Many people use words “leftish” and “rightist” for describing political views
W here w ould you place y our political preferences'?
left-w ing— 1— 2— 3 — 4— 5 — 6— 7 — right-w ing
Percent
Missing
Fig. 25. Readiness to start own business
1. I w ould surely do it 37%
2. 1 w ould do it w ith a support o f fam ily and friends 18%
3. I don’t know , I have not thought about it 23%
4. Rather not unless som eone
h elps me a lot to do it 13%
5. D efinitely not 9%
Percent
0
Missing
1
2
3
4
Fig. 26. A woman may begin professional career:
1. Only if her m aterial situation requires it 12%
4. As any o ther person 3%
2. T o im prove fam ily 's standing 24%
5. In other circum stances
3. W hen she only wishes 34%
5
Percent
50
Missing
1
2
3
Fig. 27. Which of the following statements describes your opinion on parents’ duties towards
children the best?
1. The duty of parents is to provide their children with
everything, even at an expense o f them selves 44%
2. Parents live their own life and one should no t dem and
a lot from them 34%
3. Difficult to say 21%
60
Percent
55
Fig. 28. Expenses on children’s education
Is it w orth, in your opinion, to spend a great am ount o f m oney on y our ch ild ren ’s education?
1. Yes, definitely 49%
4. R ather not 1.3%
2. R ather yes 42%
5. D efinitely no t 0.4%
3. Difficult to say 6%
Perce n
Fig. 29. The expected motives of a children’s choice of profession
1. Parents' opinions 4.5%
4. Ow n interests 74%
2. Profession tradition in o n e’s fam ily 0.7%
5. Aspects o f a present usefulness 14%
3. A dvice of teachers 1.1%
6. O ther 1.1%
Entrepreneurship
and the Modernization
of an Old Industrial Region:
The Case of the Katowice
Voivodship,1 Poland
Adrian Cybula
University o f Silesia
Katowice
1. Introduction
M arket transition in post-communist countries brings about both tangible and
intangible social adverse effects. Undesired - albeit unavoidable - consequences of
reforms are much more broadly dispersed and intensive in comparison with social
problems generated in developed countries by information revolution, globalization
and the crisis of the welfare state. Old industrial regions are especially disadvantaged
in this respect (Cybula and Szczepański, 1997; 74-84).
The core area of the Katowice Voivodship is still dominated by hard coal­
mining, iron and steel metallurgy, coke industry - and to some extent by heavy
machinery industry. On 2.1% of Polish territory, inhabited by 10.2% of Poland’s
population, operates 10.2% of state-ow ned enterprises - let alone all but one
hard coal-mines. The regional economy covers 9.7% of the country’s work-force,
as well as 16.7% of industrial production (see Table l).2 Non-Polish reader might
be puzzled by relatively low unemployment rate (8.4% in comparison with 13.6%
for Poland) - but the main reason of that is postponed downsizing of the traditional
sector. One may thereby expect, that the worst is still to come.
It cannot be neglected that since 1989 structural changes in the regional economy
have been in progress, but so far their effect is no substantial enough to outweigh
1 Voivodship is an equivalent o f Western European department or province. Right now Poland is
divided into 49 such administrative units. Their number will be reduced to 16 since January 1999.
2 Details concerning the structure o f the regional economy may be found in: Błasiak, Nawrocki and
Szczepański (1993); Nawrocki and Szczepański (1997: 85-103).
Table 1
The role of the Katowice Voivodship in the Polish economy (1996)
Indicator
Area
Population
State enterprises
Commercial law partnerships
among them:
fully controlled by Polish private capital
with the share o f foreign capital
Establishment o f natural persons and civil partnerships
Public enterprises under privatisation procedure
Bank headquarters
Banks’ branches
International fairs
number o f local and foreign exhibitors
Employment
Number o f unemployed
Industrial production sold
Average monthly net wage and salary
Strikes
Strikers
Number
% of Poland’s
6,650 km2
3,918,4 thou.
394
10,488
2.1
10.1
10.2
9.1
8,311
1,761
216,1 thou.
458
47
113
28
4,076
1,477,7 thou.
138,7 thou.
46 billion PLN
883,35 PLN
3
31,1 thou.
9.9
6.2
9.9
8.2
2.7
6.9
9.7
5.9
16.7
124.4
14.3
72.1
S o u r c e : Rocznik statystyczny województwa katowickiego 1997 [The Statistical Y earbook o f the Katowice V oivodship 1997]. Katowice
1997.
cumulated effect of nearly two centuries of heavy industrial development. It is
becoming evident that extracting and smokestack industries ceased to be “locomo­
tives” of the regional economy, but it is not yet clear, whether alternative ones are
emerging. One possible candidate is the automobile industry. Even before 1989 a big
passenger car plant operated in one of the region’s medium-sized towns - Tychy
(since privatization in 1992 controlled by FIAT). After the establishm ent of Special
Economic Zone in 1996, General Motors decided to locate its greenfield plant in
Gliwice. Attracted by the same factor, Isuzu, a Japanese multinational, will build
an engine plant in Tychy. The rush of car-manufacturers to invest in the Zone is so
impressive that some regional analysts suggest elaboration of investment-attraction
policy resulting in more diversified economic structure - warning that otherwise
the outcome will be a new monoculture, like old one dependent on external demand.
Foreign direct investments surely speed up modernization. However, inflow of
capital must be supplemented by other factors to secure the persistence of this
process over time. In submitted paper I will deal with one of such factors - entre­
preneurial attitudes and abilities of the regional community.
Four points support the thesis on the importance of entrepreneurship for moder­
nization in old industrial regions. First, as Schumpeter pointed out, the presence of
entrepreneurs is essential for creative destruction; a process of replacem ent of an
old economic structure by a new one. Second, successful entrepreneurs might be­
come a reference group for those yet employed in the declining sector, showing
them an alternative way of making a living and heightening self-esteem. Third,
entrepreneurs create jobs. Fourth, an individual empowered with entrepreneurial
attitudes and skills is mentally and professionally prepared to cope with the chal­
lenges brought about by modernization. Entrepreneurs trigger changes, serve as
examples to be followed and create opportunities for others. W idespread presence
of the entrepreneurial personality enhance adaptation to changes on the part of those
adversely affected.
The answer to the question, whether entrepreneurship might become an important
factor speeding up modernization of the Katowice Voivodship, should be, therefore,
threefold: (1) Is there a substantial group of entrepreneurs in the region? (2) If there are
entrepreneurs, are they followed by those still employed in the traditional sector? (3) Are
the latter prepared to act as entrepreneurs? I will deal with these questions respectively.
2. Private sector in the Katowice
Voivodship: An overshadowed
parallel world?
In stereotypical outlook the Katowice Voivodship is still regarded as the stronghold
of anti-reformist technostructure (in J.K. Galbraith’s sense) and mighty trade unions,
where no substantial changes are taking place. Indicators invoked earlier suggest that
such a viewpoint is at least partly justified. One could note, however, substantial
development of private sector - though by no means impressive in comparison with
Poland (see Table 2). One criticising still unimpressive share of the private sector in the
regional economy should take into account that at the early stage of transition its
position in the regional economy was inferior in comparison with the whole country.
There are other, more optimistically-looking indicators, however. The voivodship
covers not only a tenth of Polish state-owned enterprises - but also 9.9% of commercial
law partnerships fully controlled by Polish private capital and 9.9% of establishments
of natural persons and civil partnerships3 (see Table 1 again). The latter group of
private firms has increased impressively during analysed period: from 130,0 ths. to
216,1 ths. Therefore, the contribution of the regional com m unity to the devel­
opment of private sector is comparable with the contribution of Poland’s popu­
lation in general.
3
Practically, establishments o f natural persons and civil partnerships are one-man or small busines­
ses, whereas commercial law partnerships are larger corporate bodies (limited liability and joint-stock
companies). Number of the former type businesses is thereby a good indicator o f intensity of entre­
preneurial attitudes in particular community.
Table 2
The share of the private sector (in %)
The Katowice Voivodship
Poland
Indicator
Employment (1991-1996)
Sold production o f industry
Income (1992-1995)
1991
1995
1991
1995
29.0
10.0
15.0
46.4
22.0
29.0
54.3
65.1
45.2
53.7
36.5
S o u r c e : Rocznik statystyczny województwa katowickiego 1997 [The Statistical Y earbook o f the Katowice V oivodship 1997], Katowice
1997; Rocznik Statystyczny 1996 [The Statistical Y earbook 1996]. W arszaw a 1996.
Despite these advantages, development of private sector is still overshadowed
by dominant state-owned enterprises. Overdeveloped heavy industry simply weights
more when average economic indicators are computed, than initially disadvantaged
private sector. The situation might change only after at best several years of rapid
private sector development, combined with further decline of the traditional indus­
tries. There is, however, a danger of slowdown in the expansion of private sector,
due to the lack of (1) entrepreneurial attitudes and (2) entrepreneurial skills in the
regional community. Presence of these factors is essential for very simple fact that
to expand private sector one need people simultaneously (1) willing to set up and
operate private businesses, and (2) empowered with know-how proper for that task.
3. Entrepreneurial attitudes
Prior to 1989, attitudes of the regional community towards entrepreneurship were
decisively shaped by two factors: by (1) technological requirements of heavy in­
dustry and. in the period 1945-1989, by (2) the characteristics of centrally planned
economy and semi-totalitarian political system. Mining and m etallurgy - as well as
traditional manufacturing industries - do not require entrepreneurial personality on
the part of shop-floor workers - and to great extent also on the part of lower and
middle-rank managers. Instead, the most congruent with extracting and smokestack
industries are such mental characteristics as: compliance with strictly defined rules
and standards, indisputable respect for those placed higher in organizational hierar­
chy, strict execution of m anagers’ decisions, high esteem of hard (and sometimes
risky) work. Such traits are more or less spreaded in every industrial society. In the
Communist countries, central planning and deliberate suppression of every indepen­
dent grassroots initiative had additionally contributed to the weakness of entre­
preneurial attitudes. (One should keep in mind in this context that the founder fathers
of Soviet-style central planning were strongly influenced by the organization of their
Table 3
Traits of entrepreneurial personality among unemployed and endangered by unemployment
Out of 356 surveyed, particular trait declared:
TOTAL
Traits of entrepreneurial personality
Initiative
Ability to influence
Elasticity
Creativity
Independence
Ambition
Ability to solve problems
Imagination
Leadership skills
Diligence
Self-confidence
.
men
women
no.
%
no.
%
no.
%
84
31
46
46
60
97
63
77
40
112
79
23.6
8.7
12.9
12.9
16.9
27.2
17.7
21.6
11.2
31.5
22.2
47
17
20
22
33
60
34
36
22
70
44
18.7
6.8
8.0
8.8
13.1
23.9
13.5
14.3
8.8
27.9
17.5
37
15
26
24
27
37
29
41
18
42
35
35.2
14.3
24.8
22.9
25.7
35.2
27.6
39.0
17.1
40.0
33.3
S o u r c e : A. C ybula, 1996.
time W estern heavy industry.) Consequently, industrial hired worker and lower-rank
manager from the post-Communist country is badly prepared for independent ac­
tivity in the competitive and rapidly changing environment - even in comparison
with his colleague from the West.
This point is exemplified by the evidence derived from the questionnaires pre­
pared and distributed by the team organizing in 1990-1991 the first enterprise in­
cubator in the Katowice Voivodship after the breakdown of the Communist system.
Though this attempt turned to be unsuccessful, the organizers managed to collect
356 questionnaires, filled in by persons endangered by unemployment, unemployed,
as well as by schools’ graduates.4 As Table 3 shows, only ca. 15% of the surveyed
declared entrepreneurial attitude. Moreover, key traits of this attitude were declared
by even smaller num ber of respondents (e.g. ability to influence, ability to lead,
elasticity, creativity and independence). Two traits (diligence and ambition) were
chosen more frequently than average, but such a limited self-esteem is insufficient
to classify an individual as a would-be entrepreneur.
M ore than half of the surveyed declared disinterest in running his/her own
business. However, more than half of men declared interest in self-employment;
whereas less than a quarter of women made such statement. Totally, 30.9% of
the surveyed are interested in setting up small business (see Table 4).
The analysis revealed strong correlation between interest in self-employment
and traits of entrepreneurial personality. Those declaring particular trait overwhel­
mingly expressed interest in self-employment (from 63.4% in the case of diligence
4
The leader o f this group was Mr. Janusz Firla. I would like to thank him very much for giving me
access to the questionnaires. The research is extensively reported in: Cybula (1996).
14 Social Aspects..
Table 4
Interest in self-employment among unemployed and endangered by unemployment
TOTAL
Surveyed:
is interested in running his/her own business
is undecided
is not interested
TOTAL
Women
Men
No.
%
No.
%
No.
%
109
59
185
353
30.9
16.7
52.4
100.0
56
44
149
249
22.5
53
15
36
104
51.0
14.4
34.6
100.0
17.7
59.8
100.0
S o u r c e : See Table 3.
Table 5
Education level and interest in self-employment
Education completed
Surveyed:
is interested in
running his/her own
business
is undecided
is not interested
TOTAL
Basic voca­
tional or
lower
Secondary
vocational
Secondary
grammar
l* os t-seco nda r>
school
Higher
l.b.
%
l.b.
%
l.b.
%
l.b.
%
Lb.
%
19
16
57
92
20.7
17.4
62.0
100.0
51
26
87
164
31.1
15.9
53.0
100.0
9
4
26
39
23.1
10.3
66.7
100.0
3
8
10
21
14.3
38.1
47.6
100.0
27
5
5
37
73.0
13.5
13.5
100.0
S o u r c e : See Table 3.
up to 82.6% in the case of creativity.5 Moreover, interest in self-employment is
positively correlated with the education level. 73% of the surveyed with completed
higher education declared interest in running business (see Table 5).
Survey representative for the adult inhabitants of the Katowice Voivodship, con­
ducted in 1995 (Bartoszek and Gruszczyński, 1996: 85-86),6 revealed, that for the
majority of the regional community (51.8%) a state-owned enterprise was still the most
desired place of work in case of being in need of finding new job. However, more than
one third (35.7%) pointed at his/her own firm.7 Interestingly, even greater sympathy
towards self-employment declared respondents in danger of being made redundant.
39.3% preferred his/her own firm and only 29.3% strongly rejected such an option.
To sum up this section, at worst one third of the adult inhabitants of the Katowice
Voivodship (even those endangered by unemployment) are sympathetic towards
would-be self-employment. However, even bigger group - possibly a slight majority
5 Ibidem.
6 The sample o f 1,100 respondents, was representative with respect to sex, age, education and place
o f residence.
7 However, only 5.4% o f the surveyed actually ran business.
- still insists on working for state-owned enterprise. It is also doubtful, whether
substantial faction of these declaring self-employment possess mental powers es­
sential for running private business.
4. Human capital
Scarcity and poor quality of human capital further diminish chances of successful
self-employment. In 1995, among the inhabitants of the voivodship older than 15
years, 67% completed only basic vocational school or lower, unimpressive 27%
completed secondary vocational or grammar schools and mere 6% completed higher
education. These percentages speak for themselves, but it is necessary to stress that
even people with secondary and higher education probably possess very limited
entrepreneurial knowledge, in comparison with their counterparts from the West.
Curricula in basic vocational and secondary vocational schools did not include (and
mostly do not include even now) subjects providing pupils and students with know­
ledge necessary in market economy (economics, business, management, commercial
law, information technologies, public relations, foreign languages, etc.) Moreover,
the quality of teaching of general subjects was extremely low, especially in basic
vocational schools. Generally, in grammar schools invoked subjects were not taught
as well - with the exception of languages. Apart from im proper curricula, teaching
staff did not reward entrepreneurial behaviour of pupils and students.
Unemployed and endangered by unemployment are the worst prepared for ac­
tivity in the emerging competitive environment. Referred to in the previous section
analysis of the questionnaires from the years 1990-1991 exemplifies that overwhelm­
ing majority of such persons possessed neither technical nor economic nor man­
agerial knowledge essential for successful running of small firm. Even those dec­
laring interest in self-employment mostly lacked proper knowledge - and even
a rough idea of what product might supply their would-be business (see Table 6).
The reader should take into account that data presented in the table is based on
declarations of the respondents; consequently actual entrepreneurial knowledge was
probably much lower. This supposition is justified by the analysis of answers to the
request for short, few sentences long, description of respondents’ plans. Only a few
out of 109 declaring interest in self-employment managed to give answer suggesting
that they might eventually construct consistent business plan.
Unfortunately, as authorities from the Labour Administration admit, to great
extent this dark picture is still valid, despite eight years of m arket transition.
Unemployed and endangered by unem ploym ent are still the least em pow ered for
entrepreneurship. The only problem to be disputed is whether the group with pre­
sented characteristics has been diminishing, and - if so - at what pace.
Table 6
Possession of entrepreneurial knowledge
(Declarations of unemployed and endangered by unemployment)
Surveyed:
Kind of knowledge
TOTAL
Technical knowledge
Economic knowledge
Managerial knowledge:
gained through experience
gained on courses
gained in both ways
An idea o f what product to supply:
yes, surveyed has an idea
no, he/she hasn’t an idea, but is willing
to form partnership with others
both possibilities
TO TAL
is interested
is not in­
in running
terested in
his/her own is undecided
running
business
his/her own
business
No.
%
No.
%
No.
%
No.
%
353
83
59
100.0
23.1
16.5
109
50
35
100.0
45.7
32.1
59
15
16
100.0
25.4
27.1
185
18
8
100.0
9.7
4.3
42
15
8
11.8
4.2
2.2
33
6
6
30.3
5.5
5.5
6
4
2
10.2
6.8
3.4
3
5
1.6
2.7
57
16.0
44
40.4
9
15.3
4
2.2
21
3
5.9
0.8
12
3
11.0
7
11.9
2
1.1
2.8
Table 7
S o u r c e : See T able 3.
The percentage of respondents desiring higher education for their children
Respondents’ education level
Primary
Basic vocational
Secondary vocational and grammar
Higher
TOTAL
Percentage desiring
higher education for:
sons
daughters
50.7
59.6
75.7
79.2
63.7
57.1
60.7
71.1
87.3
66.0
S o u r c e : B artoszek and G ruszczyński (1996: 4 1 -4 2 ).
In recent years regional community has been changing attitude towards edu­
cation and retraining. This trend is the strongest among those younger and simul­
taneously better educated. However, interest in completing secondary and higher
education is widely declared even by the worst educated and consequently ste­
reotypical opinion o f low educational aspirations of the regional community is
no longer justified. About 65% wants their children to complete higher school.
Even among those with only prim ary school com pleted such a desire prevails
(see Table 7).
Table 8
The percentage of pupils in 1st classes of different types of post-primary schools
School year
Type of school
Secondary grammar school
Secondary vocational school
Basic vocational school
1989/1990
1994/1995
18.3
29.3
52.4
25.8
38.1
36.1
S o u r c e : Województwo katowickie '96. Raport o rozwoju społecznym |The Katowice V oivodship '96. A Report on Social
Development]. Katowice 1996, p. 106.
Among youngsters graduating from secondary schools, economics, management,
business administration, law, foreign languages and related subjects are becoming
popular choices for further education. 7 out of 13 higher schools in the voivodship are
entirely of such profile (five created after 1989) and two others (University of Silesia
and Silesian Polytechnic) conduct like majors. In the academic year 1995/1996 37.1%
of students studied enumerated majors - as well as 29.7% of that year graduates.
There are first signs of second thoughts concerning education even among young
miners. A survey conducted in April-May 1995 among 687 about to finish their
education youngsters attending three-years mining basic vocational schools revealed,
that 79.0% was satisfied with the choice made three years earlier and more than
70% wanted to work in mastered vocation. However, a half of the surveyed declared
a willingness to acquire new vocation and further 37.9% would retrain if forced by
circumstances. Despite declared overwhelming satisfaction with previous choice,
only 41.3% would repeat it; many would choose vocational schools training in
different vocation or secondary mining schools. Majority (54.7%) declared willing­
ness to continue education at secondary schools. It is early, however, to speak of
mental breakthrough (Geisler, 1996: 99-106) - especially with respect to entre­
preneurship.
Growing interest in education dramatically contradicts with unsatisfactory pace
of changes in the education system. True, as Table 8 exemplifies, the importance of
basic vocational schools has been diminishing. The percentage of pupils beginning
their education in grammar schools has increased. In time these processes, if con­
tinued and accelerated, will change for the better formal structure of education of
the regional community.
Nevertheless, formal changes will not result in real improvement in human
capital unless at least two problems are seriously addressed: (1) the problem of the
content of the curricula, and (2) the problem of the quality of teaching. Even today,
after eight years of market transition, majority of youngsters entering universities
- not to mention those finishing education at lower levels - cannot operate computers
and comprehend at least one foreign language, not to mention writing professional­
ly-looking CV, preparing professional presentation or computing the interest rate
of a bank loan.
Conclusion
In the last few years the regional community did well in the field of entre­
preneurship, though development in this sphere was overshadowed by mammoth
extracting and smokestack industries. However, further progress is doubtful. Maybe,
majority of those mentally and professionally prepared for entrepreneurship have
already engaged themselves in entrepreneurial activities. If this is the case, further
extension of small and medium-sized private sector will be contingent on (1) edu­
cation reform contributing to the improvement of human capital accumulated by
the regional community and (2) parallel restructuring of the traditional sector. The
latter process would gradually diminish the importance of yet prevailing point of
reference, still reinforcing non-entrepreneurial attitudes among substantial faction
of the regional community. The former one would empower people with qualifica­
tions needed in the emerging market environment.
Protagonists of free enterprise like to say, that market losers should be given
a fishing rod, instead of a fish. They should always add, that the losers are
to be taught fishing as well.
References
Bartoszek, A. and Gruszczyński, L.A., 1996. W ojewództwo katowickie '96. Obraz życia i jeg o warunków
w świadomości mieszkańców. [The Katowice Voivodship '96. The Perception o f Life Conditions in
the Awereness o f Inhabitants]. Katowice.
Błasiak, W., Nawrocki, T. and Szczepański, M.S., 1993. Upper Silesia 2005. The Restructuring Scenario.
Katowice.
Cybula, A., 1996. “Mała i średnia przedsiębiorczość w starym okręgu przemysłowym” [Smali and
Medium-sized Entrepreneurship in an Old Industrial Region]. (Typescript). Katowice.
Cybula, A. and Szczepański, M.S., 1997. “New Individualism and Entrepreneurship in an Old Industrial
Region: The Case o f Upper Silesia”, in Jacher, W. (ed.), Sociological Essays, Part Two. Katowice.
Geisler, R., 1996. “Absolwenci szkół górniczych - 1995. Relacja z badań empirycznych” [The Gra­
duates o f Mining Schools - 1995: Research Report], in Rosół, A. and Szczepański, M.S. (eds.),
Między przedszkolem a szkołą w yższą [Between the Kindergarten and the College]. Częstochowa,
pp. 99— 106.
Nawrocki, T. and Szczepański, M.S., 1997. “Social Transformations of Great Mining Regions, Experience
o f the 29th Century, Prospect for the 21st Century: The Case o f Upper Silesia, Poland”, in Jacher,
W. (ed). Sociological Essays, Part Two. Katowice.
Social Capital and the
Adaptation to Systemic
Changes: The Case
of the Katowice Voivodship,
Poland
Adrian Cybula and Marek S. Szczepański
University of Silesia
Katowice
1. Introduction
Physical, technological and human resources are widely regarded as the decisive
factors smoothing the process of adaptation to social changes. This is indisputable.
Deposits of marketable, easily accessed and cheap natural resources, up-to-date machine­
ry, ability to withstand skyrocketing pace of technological competition, funcionally
literate work-force, widely dispersed entrepreneurial attitude, heightened educational
aspirations - all these enhance accommodation to the changing environment. Definitely:
oil and price shocks, market collapses, technological unemployment, stagflation, adverse
effects of market reforms, downsizings or outsourcings are easier to cope with, if adverse­
ly affected communities possess some of these advantages; the more of them, the better.
Recently, a new idea is becoming introduced into the debate on the foundations
of economic and social development - namely the concept of social capital (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1970; Coleman, 1990). This resource is inseparable with particu­
lar community; its basic forms - trust, obligations, shared expectations, norms of
reciprocity, voluntary associations - are embedded on social relations. Tight network
of informal ties allows a community to build up human capital and improves its
quality (Coleman, 1988: 95-120). Social capital makes it easier to overcome collec­
tive action problems (tragedies o f the commons, p riso n er’s dilem m as) and enhances
provision of public goods. Trust and reciprocity reduce transaction costs. No wonder,
that erosion of social capital is noticed with dread (Putnam, 1995: 65-78; Putnam,
1996). Social capital may be examined from different angles, for instance as a varia­
ble speeding up economic development (Fukuyama, 1995) or as a factor improving
effectiveness of public institutions and enhancing civic engagement (Putnam, 1993).
In this paper, social capital perspective is applied to the analysis of adaptation
to social changes. Specifically, we discuss positive and normative aspects of social
changes int the biggest Poland’s old industrial region, situated in the Katowice
Voivodship.1
2. Social capital and the challenges
of modernization
The region, until recently overwhelmingly dependent on hard coal-mining, as
well as on iron and steel metallurgy, has been severely disadvantaged by post-1989
institutional, technological and structural changes in Poland’s economy. Operation
of market mechanisms, diffusion of more efficient, energy-conserving, technologies,
change of governments’ policy goals, dispersion and deepening of ecological awa­
reness - all these have been contributing to gradual diminution of the bargaining
power of these industries vis a vis the Polish economy and society. Despite the fact
that Poland has already regained pre-transition GDP level, annual extraction of hard
coal reaches ca. 70% of the 1980s level (136 m illion tones instead of 190-192
million tones).
' For detailed characteristics o f the Katowice Voivodship (especially its Upper Silesian part) refer
to: Błasiak, Nawrocki and Szczepański (1994); Szczepański (1997: 205-221); Nawrocki and Szczepański
(1997: 74-84).
True, slowed down restructuring of mining and metallurgy2 exemplifies that there
is too early to say that the power of the regional heavy industrial lobby has been
broken definitely, but, on the other hand, it is no longer able to influence solely and
decisively the selection of goals of macroeconomic and industrial policy at the
national level. Consequently, lethal for the traditional sector developments in its
economic, social and political environment are unstoppable and irreversible; at
worst, changes may be slowed down. M iners’ trade unions can postpone closure of
unprofitable mines - but cannot halt dispersion of energy-conserving technologies
outside mining industry. The management of mining and metallurgy is able to water
down institutional changes which would eventually introduce market discipline in
these industries - but is unable to stop the extension of competencies of local govern­
ments, whose interests are often at odds with the interests of mining and metallurgy.
Similarly, management and trade unions may postpone privatization - but institu­
tions of liberal democracy, enhancing articulation of environmental interests (as well
as the interests of local communities, adversely affected by heavy industry opera­
tions) are out of its reach. At the regional level, the heavy industrial lobby is still
a giant in comparison with infant non-heavy industrial ones (e.g. business associa­
tions) - but it is a dwarf vis a vis the European Commission or the W orld Trade
Organisation. All in all, heavy industrial special interests may postpone necessary
changes - but not forever.
Sooner or later, changes in the economic, social and political environment will
force radical downsizing of the traditional sector. The emergence of an alternative
economic structure, based on high-tech industries and on the service sector, is essen­
tial for the diminution of social adverse effects of this development. Quantitative
accumulation and qualitative improvement of the regional com m unity’s human
capital, still unsuited for the requirements of postindustrial economy, is a necessary
prerequisite of the enhancement of modernization. Expansion of entrepreneurship and
new individualism is essential as well (Cybula and Szczepański, 1997: 74-84). Last
but not least, the importance of industrial and social policies, creating institutional
and financial conditions allowing and smoothing restructuring, needs to be stressed.
In the light of the above positive and normative statements, adaptation to chan­
ges, brought about by transition, should be regarded in two steps: The first step is
a set of activities of numerous social actors - individuals, firms, public institutions,
neighbourhood circles, peer groups, local communities, voluntary associations, etc.
- resulting in 20-30 years long perspective in the creation of postindustrial economic
and social structure. In the second step all enumerated actors should address adverse
effects of their own activities. (Division of these two steps is purely analytical; in
reality they are interlinked.) For instance, shutting down an inefficient coal-mine is
an adaptation to changed economic conditions, but policies enabling redeployment,
retraining or earlier retirement, should come along. Closure of basic vocational
2 For details of the policy towards coal-mining in the period 1990-1996, refer to Szczepański (1997).
schools training in non-prospective professions will make youngsters and their
parents modify their educational attitudes. Changed educational expectations, in
turn, are to be meet by changed structure of the education system. Pay schemes
rewarding intellectual work rather than physical one will trigger social unrest
unless certain norms of traditional culture disappear.
Social capital may enhance the adaptation in the following ways:
- First, by contributing to the creation of human capital. For instance, in integrated
local communities civic engagement resulting in new schools or colleges is more
frequent, diffusion of up-to-date educational attitudes is smoother, m utual help
in retraining is more likely to appear.
- Second, by relaxing the shock brought about by unemployment. Made redundant
miner or metallurgist entangled in a web of relations of trust might find new job
easier, might be persuaded to retrain by one of his trustees, might evade mental
depression and find new points of reference in reinforcing self-esteem, etc.
- Third, by overcoming collective action and free rider problems in the provision
of public goods enhancing adaptation, such as new schools, colleges, updated
curricula, improved ecological conditions, associations articulating interests of
local communities or entrepreneurs, elaborated programmes of local development,
effective promotion of particular town resulting in an inflow of capital, im prove­
ment of economic condition in particular locality, reduced level of anomie, etc.
3. Social capital in the Katowice
Voivodship
The Katowice Voivodship (and especially its Upper Silesian part) has longlasting tradition of cultural norms conveniently associated with social capital. Indust­
rial culture of work3 enhances reciprocity and trust in working teams. The institution
of family plays an important role in Silesian workers’ communities; strong family
ties and a sense of loyalty towards relatives are often cited as important traits of
Upper Silesian culture. One can also note a hundred years long tradition of voluntary
associations (such as sports clubs and choral societies), contributing to the integration
of local communities - apart from Roman Catholic parishes (in some localities
Protestant ones as well). Nevertheless, for three reasons the regional social capital is
both weak and incongruent with the requirements of the adaptation to change:
- First, cultural norms do not enhance entrepreneurship and elasticity. A person
socialized in traditional workers’ culture is quite reliable in strictly defined en-
3 For the description o f the Silesian industrial culture of work, see Błasiak (1993: 91-98).
vironment - but is unprepared to handle rapidly changing circumstances. Performs
excellently if told, what to do - but is hardly no entrepreneur. Moreover, the
culture lacks norms rewarding intellectual and highly qualified work. True, one
can find examples of integrated communities in the region - but norms observed
by these communities may inhibit adaptation rather, than enhance it.
- Second, during Communist rules, command economy and undemocratic political
system contributed decisively to the weakening of social ties at the grassroots level.
For the sake of effectiveness of total control, the civil society was to great extent
demolished. For the same reason, entrepreneurial attitudes were discouraged. In
introducing changes authorities relied solely on top-down approach - ignoring
citizens’ interests and abilities.
- Third, in the period 1945-1989, apart from (semi)totalitarianism, inflow of mig­
rants into the region additionally weakened Upper Silesian communities. New­
comers, attracted by high wages and privileges associated with the employment
in heavy industry, were often unwilling to integrate with existing local communi­
ties and needed time to establish their own ones. Consequently, the Katowice
Voivodship is now ethnic and cultural mix, where one can find both examples of
integration and anomie.
As one can see, weakness of the regional social capital, as well as its incon­
gruence with the requirements of adaptation to change, is a consequence of (1)
universal characteristics of heavy industrial development, which in the Katowice
region may be traced back up to the beginning of the 19th century, and (2) the legacy
of Communism. The culture of industrial workers is similar all over the world. Each
rapidly developing heavy industrial region attracts migrants - and the adverse effect
of its inflow is usually anomie. Only the consequences of central planning and
(semi)totalitarianism are specific for the region examined in this paper.
4. Creation and conversion of social
capital: Normative recommendations
The revival of integrated local communities and lower-level grassroots social
groups is a key factor in triggering the process of accumulation of social capital.
Networks of trust and reciprocity, voluntary associations, schools, parishes, neigh­
bourhood circles, peer groups, etc., may allow mobilization of local communities
to collective actions addressing problems brought about by modernization. Never­
theless, accumulated social capital will be incongruent with emerging postindustrial
order, unless traditional regional culture converts in a way securing compatibility of
traditional values with the requirements of modernity. However, the “right” propor­
tion between traditionalism and modernity could not be imposed “from above” - first
of all, because nobody knows yet, how that proportion should look like. It is only
involved individuals, groups, associations and communities, which might solve this
puzzle - by trial and error, so to speak. Accumulated social capital might made
such an effort more effective.
A family is the key socialising institution, introducing new generations into the
complexities of social life, influencing and transmitting patterns of professional and
social mobility - not to mention systems of social norms. It cannot be disregarded,
however, that some scholars engaged in research on social capital stress problems
brought about by the mix of a strong family and disintegrated fam ily’s social en­
vironment: E. C. Banfield identifies a phenomenon of am oral fam ilism (Banfield,
1958); F. Fukuyama insists that too strict family ties make it more difficult to set
up a modem corporation - the step essential for mobilising greater amount of eco­
nomic resources than possible in a family firm. Nevertheless, if fam ilism is entangled
in a wider web of “weak” social relations of trust and reciprocity, these dangers
may diminish.
The biggest problem with Upper Silesian family is its close relation with indus­
trial culture of work. Consequently, it often transmits into new generations values,
which are incongruent with the emerging postindustrial environment. For instance,
there is a long-lasting tradition of the inheritance of parents’ professions by children;
a son takes up the job of miner or metallurgist, whereas daughter is socialised as
a housewife. Emergence of what might be called “renewed work ethics”, melting
together traditional respect for hard work with modem patterns of professional career
(e.g. software designer, manager, financier, scientist) is thereby essential for the
elimination of this drawback of intra-family socialisation.
In an industrial worker’s family housewife plays by no means unimportant role.
True, husband/father is unquestionable breadwinner. Nevertheless, wife/m other is
usually a coordinator of family’s everyday life, a keeper of fam ily’s financial resour­
ces, an inspirer of fam ily’s decisions with respect to consumption. Definitely, male
miners and metallurgists are not the only ones interested in the content of m oder­
nization processes. Their wives should be kept informed as well. This need to be
taken into account in public relations campaigns, accustoming the regional com ­
munity with the essence and consequences of changes.
The revival of integrated local communities is strictly related with the emergence
of civic journalism. Majority of citizens are interested mostly with news and prob­
lems concerning their closest environment: town, district, commune. Therefore, local
newspapers or radios, regional TV, may play undeniable role in mentioned public
relations campaigns. It is, however, essential to keep the messages and argumentation
at the complexity level matching average functional literacy and symbolic competen­
cies. All over the world, excellently elaborated reform packages often fail due to
poor communication with affected communities.
Leadership should not be disregarded as a factor smoothing adaptation to change.
The role of a leader is not only to mobilize and organize particular group - though
by no means it is unimportant. It is an individual, who as the first comes across
a solution to particular problem; only later that solution spills over. The greater is
respect for that individual, the greater are his/her leadership skills, the stronger and
tighter are relations of trust in particular community - the quicker the new pattern
diffuses and, consequently, the adaptation is smoother.
5. Conclusion
The reader has surely noticed that recommended accumulation and conversion
of the regional social capital is contingent on the presence of ... conversed social
capital. This chicken-and-egg problem we suggest to address in a way proposed by
R. D. Putnam for Southern Italy: Institutional reforms, empowering individuals,
groups, local and regional communities with substantial competencies at the expense
of higher level authorities, might in time result in the accumulation of social capital.
From the perspective of an individual, civic engagement or entrepreneurship
makes sense only if effects of individual or collective actions are sensible. A person
might take responsibility for himself/herself only if allowed to do so. In post-1989
Poland, elimination of institutional and legal barriers to the development of private
sector resulted in the expansion of entrepreneurship. Similarly, institutional reform
enabling establishment of local self-governments, introduced in 1990, resulted in
numerous examples of local initiatives: educational, entrepreneurial, cultural, devel­
opmental and others. These two developments exemplify that if persons, groups and
communities are allowed to address problems - sooner or later solutions are find
somewhere.
Further institutional reforms, resulting in extended freedom of action for in­
dividuals and communities, are therefore strongly recommended. True, freedom of
action does not guarantee that proper solutions to problems would be found in each
case. Freedom is often abused or misunderstood. Errors are made. Sense of respon­
sibility for the consequences of one’s own actions (or non-actions) is often weak.
Taking into account such adverse effects of deregulation and decentralization, one
could not, however, suggest an even worse cure; one-sided reliance on top-down
approach. Extended competencies and freedom of action give a chance - dirigism e
offers only an excuse and destroys already existing social capital. Even if in the
deregulated and decentralised environment some individuals and communities fail
to exploit emerging opportunities properly - it will be to great extent their own fault.
References
Banfield, E.C ., 1958. The Moral Basis o f a Backward Society. Glencoe III: Free Press.
Błasiak, W., 1993. “The Economic Identity o f Silesia”, in Szczepański, M.S. (ed.), Dilemmas o f Regio­
nalism and the Region o f Dilemmas: The Case o f Upper Silesia. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwer­
sytetu Śląskiego.
Błasiak, W., Nawrocki, T. and Szczepański, M. S., 1994. Upper Silesia 2005. The Restructuring Scenario.
Katowice: Towarzystwo Zachęty Kultury.
Bourdieu, P. and Passeron, J.-C., 1970. La Reproduction. Paris: Les Editions des Minuit.
Coleman, J. S., 1990. Foundations o f Social Theory. Cambridge and Massachusetts: Harvard
University Press.
Coleman, J. S., 1988 (Suplement). “Social Capital in the Creation o f Human Capital”, American Journal
o f Sociology, 94: 95-120.
Cybula, A. and Szczepański, M .S ., 1997. “New Individualism and Entrepreneurship in an Old
Industrial Region: The Case o f Upper Silesia”, in Jacher, W. (ed.), Sociological Essays, Part
Two. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego.
Fukuyama, F., 1995. Trust. The Social Virtues and the Creation o f Prosperity. New York: Free Press.
Nawrocki, T. and Szczepański, M.S., 1997. “Social Transformation of Great Mining Regions, Experience
o f the 20th Century, Prospects for the 21st Century: The Case o f Upper Silesia, Poland”, in Jacher,
W. (ed.), op. cit.
Putnam, R .D ., 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton
University Press.
Putnam, R .D ., 1995. “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital”, Journal o f Democracy, 6/1
(January).
Putnam, R .D ., 1996. “The Strange Disappearance o f Civic America”, The American Prospect, 24
(Winter).
Szczepański, M .S., 1997. Economic Restructuring and Employment Policy in the Katowice Voivodship
(1989-1996). Katowice: Wyd. “Śląsk” and Główny Instytut Górnictwa.
Szczepański, M. S., 1997. “An Old Industrial Region in the Face of Radical Reconstruction: The Case of
Upper Silesia, Poland”, in Musil, J. and Strubelt, W., Räumliche Auswirkungen des Transformation­
sprozesses in Deutschland und bei den östlichen Nachbarn. Leske, Budrich and Opladen.
Concentration of Poverty
in Polish Large City:
The Example of Łódź
Wielisława Warzywoda-Kruszyńska
and Jolanta Grotowska-Leder
University of Łódź
In this paper an attempt has been made to determine if in Łódź, the second
largest Polish city, there are any districts that might be described as extreme poverty
tracts. Following W estern publications, we assume that the area of extreme paupe­
rization is one where at least 40% of the inhabitants have an income below the
poverty line or are supported by social assistance, and the area of strong pauperiza­
tion is one where the poor constitute at least 25% of the population. The analyses
presented in this paper were based on data from the District W elfare Agency ŁódźŚródmieście and concern the state of affairs in 1994.
Fig. 1. The Łódź city and the Po­
land’s capital, Warsaw against
the background of the Polish ter­
ritory
1. Poverty as an urban phenomenon
The authors of various papers on poverty and its geographical distribution stress
that in the 80s poverty had become a social problem even in cities of developed
countries. It has been noticed that the poor concentrate usually in certain isolated
parts of industrial cities, creating ghettos of poverty. The opinion that such ghettos
are present not only in the United States but also in European countries is becoming
more and more prevalent.
Discussions about the concentration o f poverty in cities alm ost always are
connected with debate on the form ation of the underclass. It is assum ed that
living in poor neighbourhoods increases social isolation of the inhabitants and
expels them from the m ainstream of social life. There are certain behaviours
very characteristic of those living in poverty tracts, which make them distinctive
from the remaining part of the large city community. They remain outside the
occupational system, use long-term welfare support, get involved in crim es,
live in informal m atrim onial relationships, have out-of-w edlock children, etc.
There is a commonly shared opinion that living in the ghettos of poverty con­
tributes to the intergenerational transm ission of poverty (Lewis, 1968). It has
not been agreed, however, if the negative behaviours of the poor are caused
by structural factors (deindustrialization, a “drop out” of structures and institutions)
and are just strategies for survival in extrem ely difficult living conditions, or
are caused by the existence o f the “culture of poverty”, which means acceptance
of particular norms and values as well as acknowledgment of particular aspirations
and expectancies, placing those people on the margin of society.
Researchers dealing with the problem of the urban poor usually try to answer
the following questions:
1. Are there any extreme poverty tracts (EPT) in a particular city, how nu­
m erous are they, where are they located within the city borders and what per­
centage of the population is concentrated in these tracts?
2. Who are the residents of EPTs, i.e., what is their economic, educational,
health, psychological and social situation?
In this paper we are trying to answer the first of the above questions, i.e., can
any extreme poverty tracks be defined within Downtown District of Łódź, where
are they located and how many people inhabit them? In future reports we will
construct sociological portraits of the residends of extreme poverty tracts.
The present study is, to our knowledge, the first attempt at scientific identifica­
tion of poverty tracts in a city of a post-communist country. In Poland, as in other
Eastern Block countries, the process of decommodification of housing was advanced
and housing allocation was perceived to be the provision of shelter. Housing policy
had been employed to counteract class segregation. W orking-class families were
provided with flats in the same areas and apartment houses as middle-class families.
As a result it should be expected that the new poor are likely to be dispersed all
over the city. However, starting in the second half of the 60s, because municipal
provision of housing fell short, tenant co-operatives started to be popular in cities.
Any person who paid a certain fee could become a mem ber of such a housing
co-operative which constructed and administered newly-built blocks of apartments.
Those who could not afford this fee had to live in existing apartments where sanitary
conditions rarely reached the level typical for post-war apartment blocks. The better-off started moving out of the deteriorating districts. Because these processes have
overlapped, we assume that dispersion of the poor within the city is differentiated.
We hope to distinguish areas where the poor are grouped together, where the poor
are dispersed among the non-poor and where there are no poor inhabitants.
2. Łódź - history and presence
We have chosen Łódź to be the subject of our interest as it is the only big Polish
city where in the beginning of the 90s the increase of percentage of the poor was
higher than average for the country (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2. Social assistance recipients per 10,000 population in Poland, as well Łódź and Katowice
districts
15 Social Aspects..
While searching for an explanation of this phenomenon, let us have a closer look
at the history of this city, as well as at its demographic, social and economic situation
today. Łódź was created in the 19th century as an industrial town, set up by a govern­
ment as a factory settlement. Two stages of industrialization can be distinguished:
first - when government played the role of a strategic investor and agent of develop­
ment of small textile factories with manual machines and second - after the Peasant
Liberty Act (1864) and the introduction of steam machines to produce cotton fabrics.
At the second stage both housing and industrial buildings were financed exclusively
by private capital. The spatial organization of the city became chaotic and this
problem was never solved. In 1820 Lódź had only 800 inhabitants. In the 19th
century Łódź was the fastest developing city in Europe. Between 1800 and 1910 the
population of Łódź increased 600 times, while in the same period the population of
Leipzig increased twenty times: Budapest, sixteen times; Munich, fifteen times;
Brussels, Glasgow and Cologne, ten times; and Warsaw less than ten times (Kaczma­
rek, 1996: 14). It took 50 years (1840-1890) for the population to grow by 100,000.
W ithin the next 33 years the num ber of people grew almost by 400,000.
Housing projects built within a very short time were adjusted to the low aspira­
tions and expectations of the future residents who came from the surrounding vil­
lages. The low standard of the housing is the permanent inheritance of this city. As
Łódź was not destroyed during W ord W ar II most of the buildings erected at the
turn of the century are still being used.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Łódź was known as a city where the majority of the
inhabitants, Poles and Jews, suffered from inadequate housing. The years of crisis
and prosperity in Łódź were always bound to the situation in the Russian market.
Łódź was created and developed mainly as the purveyor of textiles (mostly cotton
goods) for Russian consumers.
After World W ar II, when Nazis had murdered the Jews who constituted a third
of the total population, once again Łódź becam e a “prom ised” land for people
coming from nearby villages looking for jobs and better living conditions. Since
the end of W orld W ar II, the population had grown by 300,000 and today stands at
823,000. The num ber of apartments, located mostly on the outskirts in multi-family
apartment blocks, almost doubled. Still the housing problems of the city have not
been solved. Because of the constant demand for new houses, renovations and
technical upgrades in the old houses haved been neglected; financial resources were
allocated to new building projects. As a result, most of the housing in the downtown
area has become sub-standard.
Since the second half of the 70s we can also observe some negative demographic
trends that have considerable influence on the present situation of the city.
During the past twenty years Łódź has been characterized by:
- systematically diminishing employment (in 1975 there were 547.7 employed per
1,000 people, in 1980 - 486.9, in 1985 - 421.9, in 1990 - no data, in 1995
- 301.0), (employed in industry: in 1975 - 276.5, in 1980 - no data, in 1985
- 184.7, in 1990 - no data, in 1995 - 107.1),
- system atic increase in percentage of working women (1975 - 49.9%, 1980
- 50.7%, 1985 - 50.9%, 1990 - 53.5%, 1995 - 52.4%),
- systematic increase in the ratio of people of non-working age to the people of working
age (the indicator of non-productive age residents to 100 of those in productive age
was: in 1975 - 52.0, in 1 9 8 0 -5 3 .3 , in 1985 - 60.2, in 1990 - 65.5, in 1995 - 63.2),
- systematic increase in deaths per 1,000 inhabitants (1975 - 10.7, 1980 - 12.5,
1985 - 13.4, 1990 - 13.8, 1995 - 14.1),
- systematic decrease in live births per 1,000 inhabitants (1975 - 13.5, 1980 - 14.5,
1985 - 12.7, 1990 - 9.0, 1995 - 7.5),
- systematic decrease in population growth (1975 - +2.8, 1980 - +2.0, 1985 - -0.7,
1990 - -4.8, 1995 - -6.6),
- systematic decrease in marriages per 1,000 inhabitants (1975 - 10.7, 1980 - 9.4,
1985 - 7.2, 1990 - 5.9, 1995 - 4.9),
- systematic deterioration of the housing situation (the num ber of new dwellings
per 1,000 new marriages in 1975 - 1.173, in 1980 - 630, in 1985 - 599, in 1990
- 471.5, in 1995 - 243.3) (Statystyka Ł odzi [Statistics of Łódź], 1996: 24-27).
These indicators show the advancing process of aging of the population and its
effects: a large num ber of people of postworking age compared to the num ber of
people of working age, a decreasing percentage of the working population, an increa­
sing number of one-person households and diminishing population growth. The
standard of living of the residents of Łódź is more and more based on wom en’s paid
work. W hen we compare this city with the ten other largest Polish cities, its dissimi­
larity becomes even more distinctive. For example, in 1995 Łódź had (in brackets
there is the indicator for Łódź and the name of the city where the given indicator was
the most advantageous; Statystyka Ł odzi [Statistics of Łódź], 1996: 24-27):
- the lowest employment (301 employed per 1,000 inhabitants; in Lublin - 559),
- the highest percentage of working women (52.4%; in Lublin - 42%),
- the highest absolute num ber of unemployed (68,500; in Katowice 7,300),
- the highest unemployment ratio (21.8%; in Katowice - 3.8%),
- the lowest percentage of unemployed women (53.6%; in Katowice - 67.1%),
- the highest number of people of non-working age per 100 people of working age
(63; in Szczecin - 58.5),
- the lowest population growth ( - 6.6: in Bydgoszcz - 0.0),
- the highest divorce ratio (2.2 divorces per 1,000 inhabitants; in Katowice and in
Lublin - 1.1),
- the greatest number of deaths (14.1 per 1,000 inhabitants; in Gdańsk - 9.2),
- the lowest average usable floor area of the living quarters (47 m2; Poznań - 58 m2).
Unemployment that leads to poverty is the most important social problem in
this second biggest Polish city and it is the feature which most distinguishes Łódź
from other large cities (Table 1).
Table 1
Unemployment ratio and the percentage of unemployed women in large Polish cities in 1995
City
Łódź
Warsaw
Cracow
Wroclaw
Poznań
Gdańsk
Szczecin
Bydgoszcz
Lublin
Katowice
Unemployment ratio
% of woman
21.7
4.8
7.5
8.7
4.7
9.4
8.5
13.1
13.7
3.8
53.6
62.1
61.2
65.2
62.1
66.5
65.3
61.4
57.6
67.1
S o u r c e : Ow n calculations based on: Statystyka Łodzi [Statistics o f Lodz ], 19% .
Presently Łódź is divided into five districts. C oncentration of poverty has
been analysed in the oldest district, created in 19th century. It is also the smal­
lest and the least populated district in Łódź. This Downtown District was analy­
sed because:
1. The degree of pauperization here is the highest, although the absolute number
of the households supported by welfare is the lowest, when compared to four other
districts. In other words, these are the poorest of the poor in Łódź.
2. Poverty and wealth are almost literally mixed together. In Łódź, as in the
majority of contemporary Polish cities, downtown areas are being quickly m oder­
nized to house the headquarters of new institutions and companies and exclusive
shops and restaurants. However, behind renovated front parts of the houses there
are outbuildings with substandard dwellings.
A distinctive feature of Downtown Dictrict is the regular street network, designed
while the city was being planned in the beginning of the 19th century. The streets
intersect at a right angle with Piotrkowska Street, which is 4 km long and runs north
and south. Dowtown encompasses an area of 683 hectares, i.e. 2.3% of the total
area of the city. It is inhabited by 94,000 people, i.e. 11.4% of the total population
of Łódź. However, the population density in this district is the highest with 13,818
people per 1 km2, whereas the average for the whole city is 2,796 people per 1 km2.
It should be stressed that only 30 years ago the Dowtown District had the highest
num ber of inhabitants (203,000) and the highest population density as well (Piot­
rowski, 1996: 150).
There are two reasons for the decrease in the downtown population: many apart­
ment houses were destroyed because they were too old for renovation or to construct
new thoroughfares. Other apartment houses have been renovated to serve as bank
and company offices.
3. Concentration of urban poverty
indicators
This analysis of the concentration of poverty has been based on two indicators:
1. Pauperization indicator (Pi) - defined as the percentage of members of poor
households (i.e. welfare incumbents) among the total population of the area in
question, and
2. D ensity o f the p o o r indicator (Dpi) - defined as the number of persons in
poor households per 1 km2.
Both indicators were calculated in relation to:
- total population,
- children aged 0-14,
- adolescents aged 15-17,
- adults aged 18- 65,
- elderly aged over 65.
This research is unique in the sense that it identificates the pauperization ratio among
different age groups. When we determine which age groups suffer poverty to a larger
extent than others, it is possible to organize more selective and more appropriate
forms of welfare and social work.
4. The concentration of urban poverty:
Outcome of the analysis
The Downtown District of Łódź, as a whole, is a strongly pauperized area
(Pi > 24%). Almost every fourth resident lives in a household supported by welfare.
The pauperization ratio of different age groups varies: almost every second child
(43.8%), every third adolescent (33.5%), every fourth - fifth adult (22.9%) and
every thirteenth (7.6%) elderly person lives on relief. Thus, the D owntown D istrict
in Ł ód ź is an area o f extrem e p o verty am ong children and an area o f strong
p overty among adolescents.
To make our analyses more specific, we defined a street block to be the smallest
analysed spacial unit. A street block is a space between four intersecting streets.
Such a unit can be considered as the close “neighbourhood”. A street block is
a sector where usually the shops and the institutions catering to the needs of the
inhabitants are located (primary school, dispensary, housing administration, etc.).
Street blocks are of varied areas, population and housing, which makes it necessary
to apply both indicators of poverty concentration. It happens that street blocks with
Fig. 3. The Downtown District
[Śródmieście] in Łódź
the same pauperization indicator are not equally populated. Obviously, the social
importance of the fact that half of the population lives in poverty is not the same
when the street block is inhabited by 50 compared to 500 people.
4.1. Street block as a spatial unit of poverty
concentration
The district in question has been divided into 104 street blocks. In 24 blocks
(23% of the total num ber of street blocks in the district) the pauperization indicator
is higher than 25%, what means that these blocks are strongly impoverished. They
have been marked in Fig. 4 by numbers I through 24. Thirteen of these blocks
(marked by numbers 1 through 13) border one another, marking the area of strong­
ly concentrated poverty (ASCP). It is located on both sides of the main street of
Łódź: Piotrkowska Street. The central point of this area is a square called Liberty
Square, ending Piotrowska Street in the north. In the 19th century this square was
the centerpoint of the city where the local governm ent resided. The ASCP is
covered by tenement houses. Not even 5% of the buildings were constructed after
1945. 88% of the houses north of Liberty Square and 67% south of it were built
before 1918. The standard of apartments in these buildings was evaluated in 1988
as “low” and the living conditions (referring to the standard of the apartment, of
the building and of the surroundings) as “bad” in the area north of Liberty Square
Fig. 4. Concentration of poverty in the Downtown District of Łódź in 1994
and “low” - south of it (Kaczmarek, 1996). The northern part of the ASCP was
labeled thirty years ago by the city sociologist as a slum (Piotrowski, 1966).
The area in question is very heavily populated. In its northern part the
population density reaches 28,509 people per 1 km 2, i.e. twice as much as the
average for Downtown District and ten times as much as the average for the
whole city. In nine bordering street blocks, the density of the poor per 1 km2 is
at least three times higher than the average for the whole district (4,750).
Therefore there are many poor residents not only in a relative sense but also in
an absolute sense.
Within the Area of Strongly Concentrated Poverty there are two street blocks
(Nos. 5 and 12) with extremely high pauperization ratios (Pi >40% ), which are called
here extreme poverty tracts. None of them adjoins Piotrkowska Street. Both of them,
however, adjoin another im portant thoroughfare and are only two streets away
from each other. In both of these blocks over 40% of the total num ber of residents
live in households supported by welfare. In one of these tracts there are 1.5
times more poor children than the average for the Downtown District (the children
of the poor fam ilies m ake up 70% o f all the children living in this area), and
in both of them there are alm ost tw ice as many poor adults as the average
for the district (adults in these poor fam ilies constitute over 40% of all the
adults in this area). The southern border of block 12 is m arked by a street
which was already notorious for poverty and prostitution before W orld W ar
I. Residents of this block m ade history when, during the revolution of 1905
against the czar’s Russia (which ruled over Łódź at that time), local prostitutes
poured boiling water on Russian soldiers charging the barricades built across
the streets.
Another, quite com pact area of strongly concentrated poverty is m arked by five
street blocks (Nos. 20, 21, 22, 23, 24) located between two streets parallel to Piotr­
kowska Street towards the east. This Area of Strongly Concentrated Poverty has no
street blocks that qualify as extreme poverty tracts, but more than one third of the
local population uses welfare support. As can be observed on the map, this area is
an extension of strongly and extremely pauperized street blocks enclosed between
the same main streets in their northern part.
Although pre-war tenement houses are the prevailing architecture of this area,
there are some post-war apartment buildings erected after some old houses had been
pulled down. Living in the area between these streets is very troublesome. They are
very narrow, as are most of the downtown streets. One of them is a thoroughfare
for trams, the other one for cars (it is a one way street - in direction of the north).
There is heavy traffic and constant noise. In comparison with the ASCP around Liberty
Square, in this area there are fewer poor residents in terms of both absolute numbers
and density; however, density is still higher than the average for the whole district.
The remaining street blocks categorized as heavily pauperized (Nos. 14, 15, 16,
17, 18, 19), including two of the extremely pauperized (Nos. 16, 18), are not ad­
joining one another and are sparsely populated. Very often there are only a few
apartment buildings located among public buildings (a railway station, a provincial
court, a theatre, a university, etc.). In these cases we prefer to consider them as
separate, pauperized buildings rather than pauperized street blocks.
The picture of concentrated poverty in Łódź is much more gloomy if we accept
the pauperization ratios in different age categories as the basis for categorizing
pauperized areas. The analyses revealed that:
1.
Almost half (43) of the street blocks are extreme poverty tracts for children,
including 28 blocks where the pauperization indicator for children is over 50%,
and out of those 28 blocks there are three for which the pauperization indicator
is over 70%;
2. For over half of the street blocks (53), the pauperization indicator for adoles­
cents is higher than the average for this age category in the whole district, including
19 blocks where the pauperization indicator is over 50%;
3. For nearly half of the street blocks (44), the pauperization indicator for adults
is higher than the pauperization indicator of this age category for the whole district,
including two street blocks for which the pauperization indicator is over 40%;
4. There is only one street block where there are relatively many poor elderly
people (over 30%).
5. Conclusion
These results seem to suggest that formation of an underclass is in a process in
Łódź. Although the data are not surprising for the residents of Łódź, the extent of
poverty, particularly among children, must be shocking; although fewer children live
in the Downtown District than in other districts. The childhood of many and in some
areas of the majority of children is spent not only in bad financial conditions, but also
in bad social and housing conditions. In the vicinity of Liberty Square only 9-14% of
residents have more than secondary education whereas in some other parts of the
Downtown District almost every second resident has some higher education (Kaczma­
rek, 1996). The information concerning employment among the residents of these
areas of strongly concentrated poverty were not at our disposal; however, based on our
observations, we can suppose that participation of the local residents in the occupatio­
nal system is minimal. Today’s children will probably follow their parents’ footsteps
and will become the incumbents of welfare. They have learned since earliest child­
hood that one buys food, fuel, clothes and medication with money from welfare.
Because most of their friends at school and in the playgrounds are in the same situation,
to them the position of their families seems natural and perhaps the only possibility.
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Social Integration
and the Reduction of Poverty:
New Dilemmas
in East-Central Europe
Julia Szalai
Hungarian Academy of Science
The existence, and, especially, the rapid expansion of poverty is one of the most
dramatic features of recent socio-economic development in the countries of EastCentral Europe. The phenom enon is all the more shocking for these societies, because
the socialist ideology and, later, the actual reality of the prosperous years of the late
1960s and the 1970s implanted the general belief that poverty would be left behind
forever. The last decade has brought about an end of these hopes. Large-scale and
m assive unemployment, homelessness, rapid impoverishment and the previously
unknown experiences of lasting insecurity have led to rather severe political conflicts in
some of the countries, and had remarkable contribution to the widely shared pessimism
in even the more “peaceful” ones. General disappointment and fear has been repeatedly
registered by a series of public opinion surveys all over the place. People are full of
skepticism and worry with regard to their personal perspectives, and express even more
doubts when future prospects of their countries come up for consideration.
Beside generally felt frustration, there is a great deal of confusion in the prevail­
ing interpretations of those factors which have invoked a jum p in the incidence of
poverty after the miraculous years of 1989-1990.
The most frequently heard explanations identify lasting decline in economic
growth, as the m ajor cause of the phenomenon. It is argued that the expansion of
poverty follows directly from the chronic stagnation of economic perform ance over
the past one and a half decade. Any rise in the standard of living would presuppose
a positive turn of the trend, i.e., a substantial improvement of productivity and
a stable increase of the yearly GDPs.
Although such a reasoning is unquestionably true from a macroeconomic per­
spective, one has, however, serious doubts regarding the existence of such a direct
relationship on the level of households.
In fact, the one-to-one relationship hardly can be justified, when looked at the
time-series of the distributions of personal income and consumption during the
period in question. Disaggregated statistical data of the respective countries show
that several social groups have actually gained in the meantime: they experienced
a remarkable improvement of their material conditions since the late 1970s. In other
words, one faces two, simultaneous phenomena in the last decades of socialism: the
significant rise of the standard of living and substantial accumulation of wealth in
the upper segments of the respective societies, while general deterioration of the
living conditions and an increase of absolute poverty toward the lower edge of the
income-scales. Thus, the growth of poverty cannot so easily be traced back to the
current state of the economy.
Another reasoning presents poverty as the necessary price for a successful tran­
sition from state-socialism to a market-regulated economy. It describes the pheno­
menon as the unavoidable accompanying feature of the current changes, suggesting
that it would automatically disappear after the accomplishment of marketization.
There are, however, disturbing puzzles here. First, recently published analyses
came to the unequivocal conclusion that the steady growth of poverty had started
well under socialism; thus, it hardly can be related to those systemic changes, which
have begun with the collapse of the old regimes in 1989. Second, such arguments
suggest that poverty is a “fatal” phenomenon, a price, which should be paid by some
people for the advance of the society as a whole. However, the legitimizing prin­
ciples of the uneven share of the burdens remain in the dark. Third, the faith in
“automatic” improvement disregards the internal logic of poverty. It is forgotten
that the lack of adequate income is just one (although usually the most decisive) of
its features, which is in close correlation (and in a self-sustaining interrelation) with
other aspects of life (e.g. all-round defenselessness, poor health, low education, lack
of utilizable skills and qualifications, frailty of personal relationships, etc). It is rather
difficult to think that all these aspects of poverty would be suddenly and spon­
taneously outdistanced just by a rise in personal income. The complex solution seems
to require a wide range of well-targeted additional interventions, too.
Similar to the above-cited neoliberal approach (which expects automatic im­
provement from rapid marketization), the third strand of thoughts (a kind of socialist
conservatism) also starts off from the historical demarcation line of 1989-90. How­
ever, its explanation for the recent expansion of poverty goes the other way round: it
identifies the major cause in the “too” rapid withdrawal of the central states. It is
argued that the hurried decomposition of the “old” states has left behind a vacuum in
social policy, hitting those vulnerable groups in the first place, whose daily liveli­
hood had been the most dependent on central redistribution. Thus, the denational­
ization of social services in the name of privatization, and the decentralization of
certain benefit-schemes are the most responsible factors behind the recent increase.
Although these arguments seem rather convincing from a synchronic perspective,
there is a serious “catch 22” built into them. It cannot be denied that drastic cuts of
central payments cause an immediate deterioration in the situation of those house­
holds, whose financial resources were mainly dependent on transfer payments before.
However, the diachronic approach indicates a somewhat different picture. A
closer look at longitudinal changes of the income distributions of the respective
countries shows that the very same groups have always belonged to the poorest
segments of the East-Central European societies; thus, central redistribution never
was able to induce substantial corrections into their financial situation. Instead, the
relative alleviation of poverty was a product of gradual “liberalization” of the over­
power of the central states in many of the countries of the region, which created
a limited scope for autonomous economic activities for substantial parts of their
societies. As several studies have demonstrated it, those, who were able to put their
livelihood on two pillars (i.e., kept one foot in the state-controlled, and another in
the informal economy), could achieve a remarkable improvement of their living
conditions well before the actual collapse of socialism; whereas those, who had been
reliant only on the state, have lost both, in absolute and in relative terms.
Looked upon from these historical perspectives, it is justifiable to say that
from the late 1960s onwards, gradual marketization has meant an effective pro­
tection against poverty in the more “liberal” segments of the socialist world, while
centralized redistribution on its own has acted toward the maintenance and re­
production of it.
It also follows that - at least in these “reform”-oriented countries - the current
institutional withdrawal of the state is in fact the completion of a process, which
has already started decades ago. The gradual erosion of the om nipotent rule of the
party-state over the society has in a way “prepared” it even under the seemingly
unbroken endurance of the old regime.
As it has been demonstrated by a number of authors, the states of the old Com ­
munist rule never helped those, who could not help themselves. Therefore, its with­
drawal can hardly be interpreted as a phenomenon of unprecedented and “new”
neglect. Instead, the institutional decomposition of the socialist legacy is perhaps
the most important precondition for a genuine change in the prevailing inequalities
and in the self-sustaining inequities of central redistribution.
As the above-outlined brief summary and the comments might already indicate,
the author of this paper attempts to take a fourth position. I equally doubt the “just
transitory” character of poverty in the region, and those simplistic interpretations,
which reduce the background analysis to the play of mere economic factors.
Instead, I would argue that the current state of affairs follows from those lasting
(though, for long, hidden) internal contradictions of state-socialism, which have
logically concluded to the gradual erosion, and, lately, to the ultimate collapse of
the old regimes. The current complex socioeconomic crisis of the region has to be
seen in the context of its prehistory, pointing also to those new socio-political con­
flicts, which are the peculiar features of the post-1989 years of systemic changes.
Given the structurally embedded character of poverty, the various interventions
of social policy also have to be presented in the context of their m ultisided political,
economic and social determinations. Neither the undeniably great successes, nor
the “achievements” which turned out to be temporary or even illusory, can be ex­
plained satisfactorily without an understanding of the major guiding principles and
built-in contradictions of the one-party-ruled, totalitarian system of socialism. The
controversial legacy of this system did not disappear from one minute to the other;
until now, it has largely determined the most important socio-political conflicts of
transition toward market-regulated economies, and has set also serious limitations
to the attempts to overcome these conflicts within a short time.
While the roots of contemporary massive poverty have to be traced back to the
socialist past, it also has to be admitted that the current changes work toward the
deepening of its crises in most of the countries of the region. Many of the restrictive
recent interventions adopted in the name of marketization have led actually to the
creation of a “secondary class” of the citizenry. On the grounds of a wide range of
recent findings, one can give a historically rooted sociological description of the
evolvement of their present situation.
It follows from the social history of poverty that the dominant groups of these
“secondary societies” can be found among the late successors of the once proudly
elevated and mobilized landless peasantry, which everywhere gave the fundament
of early socialist industrialization. They are those whose preceding generations had
based their lives and aspirations on the incentives, orientations and regulations of
the 40 years of “socialism ” . Answering the challenge of industrialization, they
moved to urban settlements; they helped their children acquire qualifications which
seemed to be favourably applicable in a “socialist” economy; they gave up their
peasant roots and traditions even in their ways of life by occupying the large, closed
housing estates built “for them”, etc.
The political turn in 1989-90 entirely questioned all their previous efforts. The
late grandchildren of the once elevated peasant-workers suddenly found themselves
on the side of the hopeless losers. Instead of getting support and assistance to a suc­
cessful adaptation amid the radically changed conditions, they became the betrayed
symbols of earlier failures and the incurable remittances of a dead-end past. The
greater majority of them lost the very fundament of living-employment - from one
day to the other, and besides facing unresolvable financial crises, they became also
confronted with the psychological burdens of all-round degradation.
If these broad layers of the once “new” urban working class had been gradually
“forgotten” in the late decades of socialism, then they started to suffer full “disen­
franchisement” in the new democracies. The former duality of the social structures
of East-Central European societies has developed to apparent disintegration during
the past few years.
In the light of its historically rooted character, any arguments on the “automatic”
dissolution of this kind of massive disintegration through the spontaneous momen­
tum of economic growth seem to be ill rooted and illusory. The (hopefully near) end
of the current economic crisis of the region might lead to a general rise in income,
and, thus, the majority will certainly re-gain the material stability of everyday life.
However, economic growth in itself will be insufficient to halt those processes
by which many of the societies of East-Central Europe seem to be falling apart.
Although the material side of poverty might also be easened by a turn to economic
prosperity, nonetheless, the irreversible consequences of lasting degradation would
not promptly disappear. A meaningful re-integration of the poor would thus require
deliberately designed and well-established programmes of societal policy. Such
programmes should start off with the rehabilitation of social membership in the full
sense of the term, and should adjust all their measures to a serious recognition of
human dignity.
Otherwise, there is a danger even on the longer run that poverty and social
disintegration will remain. W ithout purposeful intervention, the legacy of the so­
cialist past and its harmful recent accentuation will not conclude in the much-hoped
eloquent development, but in a third world-type reproduction of the conflictouos
co-existence of affluence and dramatic misery.
Slovak Society
at the Threshold of the 5th Year
of the Slovak Republic’s
Existence
Jan Bunćak and Eva Laiferova
Slovak Sociological Association
After 1989, differentiation is the most spectacular sing of societal life in Slova­
kia. In political sphere, the process of differentiation has led to the split of the
Czecho-Slovak state. In the sphere of politics, differentiation has brought the frag­
mentation of political scene and an exclusion of groups of the “others” from political
discussion.
In economic sphere, sociologists have regularly observed property differentiation
between nouveau riches and new poor on micro level, and between prosperous and
underdeveloped regions on macro level. All regions depraved in the process of
transformation from command to market economy are characteristic by dependence
on single branch of production or agriculture. Mostly industrial regions with one
huge heavy machinery producer whose former prosperity was allowed thanks to the
autarchy of economic system existed in Slovakia. International competition destro­
yed almost all small producers of fruits and vegetables in southern agricultural
regions of Slovakia. It was a traditional base of second economy in communist
regime that formerly supplied 70% of home consumption. Social differentiation has
deepened the status differences and made the demonstration of more open forms of
status symbols possible. Small private armies of bodyguards that work for new social
groups serve as a good example of this phenomenon. On the other hand, social
differentiation caused labour market segmentation and closed preferred labour mar­
ket segments particularly to the Roma people, but to women and older people as
well. Job announcements looking for the people “under 35” became a symbol of
the present times.
In the sphere of culture, differences between universaliStic understanding of
culture on one hand, and nationalistic, ethno-regional, confessional or other group
understanding of culture on the other hand, have been deepened. In their explanation
of big differences in political behaviour of different Slovak regions, sociologists
often underline the influence of traditional culture with authoritarian elements in
16 Social Aspects..
Table 1
The most important individual and family goals in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia (in %)
Type of goals
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Poland
Money
Investment
Consumption
Promotion and career
Employment
Personal, post-materialistic
General materialistic
Balanced post- and materialistic
Not found
10.5
10.9
10.5
10.5
5.5
29.9
5.7
10.8
5.8
9.7
13.7
15.3
8.9
12.0
19.0
5.5
9.2
6.8
8.4
22.8
9.8
15.5
11.1
17.4
0.7
3.0
11.6
TOTAL
100.0
100.0
100.0
Slovak village and of the tolerant, permitting civic culture in the cities.
The big amount of processes of differentiation that are running paralelly is
leading to particular state of social consciousness, that was expressively described
by Ziółkowski (1995). As he says, “Focus on economic and welfare related goals
is often accompanied by an inaccurate diagnosis of reality and the inability to find
appropriate means for the realization of assumed goals. Many groups who define
their goals pragmatically do not have the pragmatic knowledge which is indispen­
sable for the realization of their goals” (Ziółkowski, 1995: 176.)
W e know more about people’s goals thanks to the international project “Actors
and Strategies in Societal Change”, where we participated with W. Adamski and P.
Machonin.
All declared types of goals are markedly socially conditioned by gender, age,
level of education, profession, size of living place and the level of family income.
M ore new opportunities for social promotion and careers are open to the people
with higher education. Large proportion of people with lower education faces the
existential problems associated with m aintenance of their standard of living and
job-seeking. This tendency is also corroborated by the distribution of aspirations
according to the size of settlement. In the large cities, the orientation towards career,
social promotion, balanced materialistic and post-materialistic goals prevail. On the
contrary, an orientation towards job-seeking, income and standard of living ensuring
dominates in the small cities and villages. In the country, there is also stronger
orientation towards inwestment into housing and into agricultural farms, especially
in Poland.
Goals that people pursue on a daily basis represent a primary link between the
social macro- and micro-levels. Households with a shortage of resources for satis­
fying their daily needs face the question of how to gain them. Households where
the basic existential resources are ensured pay more attention to the issues of the
development of their members. Individual and family strategies are built on social
micro-levels according to the way people interpret their particular situation. The
individual and family strategies are not only a simple answer, pure reaction to the
external macro-social stimuli, but they are based on various modes of individual
interpretation of social reality, and they are influenced by value orientation as well
as other individual gifts. The process of tranformation has evidently consumed
more adaptational energy (that people need to adapt themselves to the changed
macro-societal situation) in Poland and Slovakia than in the Czech Republic.
Sociologists in post-communist countries have to be critical in their attempts to
describe social reality. Only rational criticism gives the possibility to identify the
new mechanisms of social integration. Recent social differentiation should be balan­
ced by some new modes of social integration. W e knew only one method of social
integration in the last decades, namely, an integration through dominance. Undoub­
tedly, the modernization of post-communist societies must be connected with revi­
talization of non-totalitarian or implementation of some new mechanisms of social
integration. Our main problem today is to change the internal culture of institutions
which have potential capacity to integrate the society. The Catholic Church may
serve as an example of such institution. We expected a lot from Catholic Church in
the beginning of social transformation. However, as we can see now, there is a lack
of imagination how to make this integration happen in the Church hierarchy. Still,
the Church hierarchy rather makes an effort to assess the dominant position in
society than it does in order to play an integrative role as it did in post-war Germany.
Natural actors that are able to bring new forms of social integration are local
governments, non-governmental organizations, and public service institutions.
In the period of last five years sociologists observe significant changes in the
development of civil society in Slovakia. Development of the third, non-govemmental sector is an important positive result of the transformation process. It is
represented by wide palette of foundations, non-profit funds, civic associations,
initiatives, self-help clubs, and non-profit institutions. The appearance of the non­
governmental sector can be interpreted in the following ways:
1) it is a manifestation of awakening civil consciousness in the case of associa­
tions oriented at defense of human and civil rights,
2) it is a revitalization of supportive stereotypes and attitudes to marginalized
and handicapped that are fixed in deep social memory (charity revival),
3) it is a civic reaction to the crisis of confidence in public institutions and their
way of solving important social problems, as is the protection of nature, life and
social help.
As the Slovak sociologists show, the activities of NGOs are based primarily on
the values of independence, pluralism, personal initiative and human solidarity.
These values were damped for decades and still are not sufficiently rooted in the
civil consciousness. It is also one of the reasons why voluntary and non-profit
organizations face so many administrative and bureaucratic barriers, as well as so
many purely social barriers of misunderstanding and of lack of interest. Voluntary
and non-profit work represents a significant part of activities in social politics and
it contributes to addressness of social help (at target groups, homeless people, single
young mothers and abandoned children).
Two basic types clearly prevail in the structure of NGOs: foundations (acting
on the base of property association) and non-profit public associations (acting on
the principle of free association). N G O ’s are rather proportionally regionally dis­
tributed throughout Slovakia, although the best built network of N G O ’s is in the
capital and surrounding region.
Both foundations and associations are active in the area of education of
children and youth, charity, social help and health care. Research results show
that the citizens still consider a wide spectrum of their needs as insufficiently
fulfilled.
Very im portant aspect of social integration is the health care and health
protection. M any expectations w ere put in the reform of health care system
at the end of 1980s. The health profile of the population is a synthetic indicator
of effectiveness of social development. This indicator is unfavourable for Slovakia:
there is a decline in mean life-span expectation, especially for male population,
from 1960s; also, there is an increase in the num ber of oncological and heart
diseases, diabetes, as well as an increase in the num ber o f pensioners (up to
5% o f the econom ically active population). These trends indicate the ineffec­
tiveness and decay of health care system. As we know, health profile of the
population has also its socio-econom ic dim ension. Short- and long-term un­
em ploym ent, destroyed family relationships, isolation of senior generation from
their fam ilies, overloading of children, overloading of some groups of entre­
preneurs illustrate the influence of this dim ension on the health profile of po­
pulation.
The perception of the health’s value in population makes a particular problem.
The researchers point out relatively ambiguous attitudes towards and opinions about
health in Slovakia. Although there still prevails rather low interest in health and its
m aintenance in certain parts of population (represented by absence of regular phy­
sical exercise, lack of relaxation culture, traditional nutrition customs, smoking,
alcoholism), we can observe signs of new orientations and strategies for healthy
lifestyle. These strategies are visible in (1) the orientation at products and knowledge
of alternative medicine, (2) the self-healing culture supported by WHO, but socially
limited in our domestic circumstances, and (3) development of the solidarity and
help groups for patients after complicated surgeries and in long-term treatment.
Changes in the social system bring about changes in behaviour of individuals
and social groups. In order to ensure the integrative effects of these changes, modi­
fications in organizational culture are needed. New way of social integration calls
first of all for stronger horizontal cooperation between local governments, N G O ’s,
public service and independent cultural institutions. Sociological analyses of devel­
opment potentials in particular regions stress the importance of human capital and
its regular revitalization, as the developed human capital is necessary for any regio­
nal modernization.
References
Ziółkowski, M., 1995. “The Pragmatic Shift in Polish Social Consciousness: With or Against the Tide
of Rising Post-Materialism”, in Wnuk-Lipiński, E. (ed.), After Communism. Warszawa: 1SB PAN.
Społeczne aspekty rekonstrukcji
starych regionów przemysłowych w Europie
Streszczenie
Pod hasłem „Śląsk - Polska - Europa. Zmieniające się społeczeństwo w perspektywie lokalnej
i globalnej” obradował we wrześniu 1997 roku w Katowicach X Ogólnopolski Zjazd Polskiego Towarzys­
twa Socjologicznego. Niniejszy tom zawiera teksty referatów wygłoszonych w ramach jednego z sym­
pozjów zjazdowych, poświęconego społecznym aspektom rekonstrukcji starych regionów przemysłowych
w Europie.
Województwo katowickie, a ściślej biorąc Górnośląski Okręg Przemysłowy, stanowi typowy
przykład starego regionu przemysłowego, którego przyszłość rysuje się w czarnych barwach. Prędzej
czy później wymagania globalnego rynku wymuszą tu zasadnicze przekształcenia strukturalne. Ich
przebieg w dużej mierze będzie zależeć od tego, w jaki sposób zostaną rozłożone społeczne koszty tych
przekształceń, ale także od tego, czy i w jakim zakresie uda się zachęcić do współpracy w poszukiwa­
niach wspólnych rozwiązań sektor publiczny i prywatny. Taki generalny wniosek wypływa z dyskusji
toczonej w trakcie dwudniowych obrad w Katowicach. Zaproszeni do udziału w sympozjum specjaliści,
reprezentujący obie części jednoczącej się Europy, mieli okazję zaprezentować wyniki swoich badań
dotyczących starych regionów przemysłowych, poprzedzonych często - w wypadku przedstawicieli
Europy Wschodniej - ogólną refleksją na temat dokonujących się obecnie w ich krajach przekształceń
ustrojowych.
Tom otwiera tekst Jifl Musila poświęcony obecnym przekształceniom strukturalnym tradycyjnych
regionów przemysłowych Republiki Czeskiej. Cennym uzupełnieniem i uszczegółowieniem rozważań
J. Musila jest przedstawiona przez T. Sirovatkę wnikliwa analiza segmentacji rynku pracy w Republice
Czeskiej, a także czynników decydujących o marginalizacji nisko wykwalifikowanej siły roboczej na
lokalnych rynkach pracy. Trzy kolejne opracowania - przygotowane przez badaczy niemieckich
- W. Strubelta, Th. Rommelspachera oraz J. Friedrichsa i R. Kiippersa ukazują złożony i niejednoznaczny
w swej wymowie obraz przekształceń strukturalnych starych regionów przemysłowych w starych i no­
wych landach zjednoczonych Niemiec. Ze względu na strukturalne podobieństwo Górnośląskiego Okręgu
Przemysłowego i Zagłębia Ruhry refleksje przedstawione w tych tekstach mają szczególną wymowę.
Wynika z nich między innymi, że choć w wielu wypadkach można mieć poważne wątpliwości co do
efektywności działań rewitalizacyjnych, podejmowanych przez poszczególne miasta (na przykład w od­
niesieniu do możliwości tworzenia nowych miejsc pracy dla zwalnianych z niej robotników) - to zanie­
chanie tych działań mogłoby doprowadzić do ich całkowitej degradacji i upadku.
Krytyczne spojrzenie na doświadczenia brytyjskie w dziedzinie programów rewitalizacji starych
regionów przemysłowych przynoszą teksty D. Byrne’a i S. Kaczmarek. Jeszcze inne spojrzenie na
społeczne problemy towarzyszące procesom restrukturyzacji ekonomicznej starych regionów przemys­
łowych w Wielkiej Brytanii przedstawiono w artykule L. Morris. Autorka zwraca uwagę na znaczenie
nieformalnych relacji społecznych (rodzinnych, przyjacielskich, koleżeńskich) w kształtowaniu indywi­
dualnych, rodzinnych strategii przystosowawczych do strukturalnych zmian na rynku pracy. W kolejnych
czterech artykułach powracają problemy upadających regionów górniczych. V. Mansourov i M. Chernysh
przedstawiają dramatyczny obraz sytuacji w rejonie Workuty i Przymorza, gdzie górnicy od wielu
miesięcy nie otrzymują wypłat za swoją pracę. W opracowaniu K. Wódz zaprezentowano obszerne wyniki
badań wśród górników zatrudnionych w kopalniach województwa katowickiego, dotyczących ich obaw
i przewidywanych reakcji na zmiany wywołane procesami restrukturyzacji ekonomicznej.
A. Cybula, opierając się na wynikach własnych oraz cudzych badań socjologicznych, prowadzonych
w ostatnich latach w województwie katowickim, wypowiada się sceptycznie o występowaniu wśród
mieszkańców tego regionu postaw przedsiębiorczości oraz stwierdza, że dalsze zmiany w tej dziedzinie
wymagałyby zasadniczej przebudowy systemu kształcenia, zdominowanego nadal przez szkolnictwo
zawodowe. Swoistym komentarzem do przedstawionych w tekstach K. Wódz i A. Cybuli wyników badań
empirycznych są refleksje nad znaczeniem kapitału społecznego w procesach adaptacji do zmian sys­
temowych w województwie katowickim - przedstawione przez A. Cybulę i M. S. Szczepańskiego.
Ubóstwo jako skutek procesów deindustrializacji oraz efekt ogólnych przeobrażeń systemowych
w krajach Europy Centralnej i Wschodniej to temat podejmowany przez W. Warzywodę-Kruszyńską
i J. Grotowską-Leder oraz J. Szalai. Tom zamyka wychodzący nieco poza obszar tematyczny sym­
pozjum tekst E. Laiferovej i J. Bunćaka, poświęcony analizie procesów różnicowania się społeczeństwa
słowackiego oraz ich wpływu na procesy dezintegracji i reintegracji społecznej w tym kraju.
Jako organizatorka spotkania składam wszystkim uczestnikom serdeczne podziękowania za przy­
gotowanie referatów z nadzieją, że obecny tom będzie kolejnym krokiem na drodze ku wymianie do­
świadczeń badawczych i refleksji nad dniem dzisiejszym i przyszłością starych regionów przemysłowych
zjednoczonej Europy.
Kazimiera Wódz
Die gesellschaftliche Aspekte der Rekonstruktion
der alten Industriegebiete in Europa
Zusamm enfassung
Im September 1997 tagte in Katowice unter dem Motto ’’Schlesien - Polen - Europa. Die sich
verändernde Gesellschaft aus der lokalen und globalen Perspektive” die 10. Polnische Konferenz der
Polnischen Soziologischen Gesellschaft. Der vorliegende Band beinhaltet die Texte der im Rahmen eines
der Tagungssymposien gehaltenen Referate, die die gesellschaftlichen Aspekte der Rekonstruktion der
alten Industriegebiete in Europa betreffen.
Die Wojewodschaft Katowice, und genauer genommen das Oberschlesische Industriegebiet (GOP)
ist Beispiel für ein typisches altes Industriegebiet, dessen Zukunft sich nicht als optimistisch bezeichnen
läßt. Früher oder später erzwingen die Erfordernisse eines globalen Marktes grundsätzliche strukturelle
Umwandlungen. Ihr Verlauf wird im großen Maße davon abhängen, wie die gesellschaftlichen Kosten
dieser Umwandlungen verteilt werden, und auch davon, ob und inwiefern es gelingt, die staatlichen
und die privaten Unternehmer zu bewegen, gemeinsame Lösungen zu finden. Das ist die Schluß­
folgerung der während der zwei Symposiumstage in Katowice geführten Diskussion. Die zur Teilnahme
an dem Symposium eingeladenen Fachleute aus beiden Teilen des sich vereinigenden Europas hatten
die Gelegenheit die Ergebnisse ihrer Forschungen über die alten Industriegebiete darzustellen; den
Referaten gingen sehr oft - im Falle der Vertreter Osteuropas - allgemeine Überlegungen über die
sich gegenwärtig in ihren Ländern vollziehenden Systemumwandlungen voraus.
Den Band leitet der Text von Jirt Musil ein, über die aktuellen strukturellen Umwandlungen der
traditionellen Industriegebiete der Tschechischen Republik. Eine wertvolle Ergänzung und Detaillierung
der Erörterungen von J. Musil ist die von T. Sirovätka dargestellte präzise Analyse der Segmentierung
des Arbeitsmarktes in der Tschechischen Republik und in den Regionen der traditionellen Industrie wie
auch der Faktoren, die über die Marginalisierung der nichtqualifizierten Arbeitskräfte auf dem lokalen
Arbeitsmarkt entscheiden. Die drei nächsten Referate wurden von deutschen Forschern, W. Strubelt und
Th. Rommelspacher und J. Friedrichs und R. Küppers vorbereitet wurde, zeigen das komplizierte und in
seiner Wirkung nicht eindeutige Bild der strukturellen Umwandlungen der alten Industriegebiete in den
neuen und alten Ländern des vereinigten Deutschlands.
Wegen der strukturellen Ähnlichkeit des Oberschlesischen Industriegebietes und des Ruhrgebietes
sind die in diesen Texten dargestellten Erörterungen von besonderer Bedeutung. Aus ihnen resultiert
unter anderem, daß obwohl in vielen Fällen die Effektivität der durch die einzelnen Städte unternom­
menen Revitalisierungsaktivitäten starke Zweifel aufwerfen könnten (zum Beispiel in Bezug auf die
Möglichkeit der Bildung neuer Arbeitsplätze für die gekündigten Arbeiter), könnte das Aufgeben dieser
Aktivitäten zur vollen Degradierung und zum endgültigen Fall führen.
Eine kritische Erörterung der englischen Erfahrungen auf dem Gebiet der Revitalisierungsprogramme
alter Industriegebiete sind die Texte von D. Byrne und S. Kaczmarek. Eine andere Sicht der gesellschaft­
lichen Probleme, die die ökonomische Restrukturalisierung der alten Industriegebiete begleiten, ist im
Aufsatz von L. Morris zu finden. Die Verfasserin weist auf die Bedeutung der informellen gesellschaft­
lichen Beziehungen (Familie, Freunde, Bekannte) für die Gestaltung individueller und familienbezogener
Anpassungsstrategien im Bereich der Änderungen auf dem Arbeitsmarkt hin. In den folgenden vier
Aufsätzen werden erneut die Probleme der sich dem Fall neigenden Bergbaugebiete dargestellt. V.
Mansourov und M. Chernysh zeigen die dramatische Lage auf dem Gebiet Workuta und dem Küsten­
gebiet, wo die Bergleute seit vielen Monaten keinen Lohn für ihre Arbeit bekommen. Im Aufsatz von K.
Wódz wurden die Ergebnisse der Untersuchungen der in den Gruben der Wojewodschaft Katowice
angestellten Bergleute über ihre Ängste und die voraussichtlichen Reaktionen auf die Veränderungen,
die durch die Prozesse der ökonomischen Restrukturalisierung hervorgerufen werden, analysiert.
In Anlehnung an die Ergebnisse der eigenen und fremden soziologischen Untersuchungen, die in
den letzten Jahren in der Wojewodschaft Katowice durchgeführt wurden, stellt A. Cybula skeptisch fest,
daß die Unternehmungsbereitschaft - als Grundlage für den ökonomischem Erfolg unter Bedingungen
der Marktwirtschaft - bei einer relativ kleinen Gruppe der Untersuchten auftritt; er meint auch, daß
weitere Veränderungen auf diesem Gebiet eine tiefgreifende Reform des Bildungssystems, das weiterhin
durch die Berufschulen beherrscht wird, erfordern. Ein Kommentar zu den in den Texten von K. Wódz
und A. Cybula dargestellten Ergebnissen der empirischen Untersuchungen sind die Überlegungen über
die Bedeutung des gesellschaftlichen Kapitals in den Prozessen der Anpassung an die Systemveränderun­
gen in der Wojewodschaft Katowice, die von A. Cybula und M. S. Szczepański dargestellt wurden.
Die Armut als Folge der Deindustrialisierungsprozesse und Ergebnis der allgemeinen Systemverän­
derungen in den Ländern Mittel- und Osteuropas sind das Thema, das W. Warzywoda-Kruszyńska und
J. Grotowska-Leder wie auch J. Szalai erörtern. Den Band schließt der Text von E. Laiferovä und
J. Buncäk, der den Rahmen des Symposiums ein wenig sprengt und die Differenzierungsprozesse der
slovakischen Gesellschaft und seinen Einfluß auf die gesellschaftliche Desintegrierung und Reintegrierung
in diesem Land analysiert.
Als Veranstalter dieses Treffens möchte ich bei allen Teilnehmer herzlich bedanken für die Vor­
bereitung der Referate und ich hoffe, daß der vorliegende Band ein nächster Schritt im Austausch der
Erfahrungen, Untersuchungen und Reflexionen über die Gegenwart und die Zukunft der alten Indust­
riegebiete im vereinigten Europa bilden wird.
Kazimiera Wódz
Sociological books published in English
by the University of Silesia Press - still available
Dilem m as o f Regionalism and the Region o f Dilem mas: The Case o f U pper Silesia.
Ed. M arek S. Szczepański. Katowice 1993
Sociological Essays. Ed. W ładysław Jacher. Katowice 1993
Region and Regionalism : Culture and Social Order. Ed. Wojciech Świątkiewicz.
Katowice 1995
The Problem s o f Ecological Awareness. Ed. Jacek Wódz. Katowice 1995
Ethnic M inorities and Ethnic M ajority: Sociological Studies o f Ethnic Relations in
Poland. Ed. M arek S. Szczepański. Katowice 1997
Sociological Essays. Part Two. Ed. W ładysław Jacher. Katowice 1997
Problems o f the History o f Sociology and Sociological Theory. Ed. Tadeusz Banaszczyk.
Katowice 1998
Distribution by
in f o r e i g n c u r r e n c y
- CHZ Ars Polona, P.O. Box 1001, 00-950 Warsaw, Poland
in P o l i s h z l o t y s
- The University of Silesia Press Bookshop, Bankowa Street 12, 40-007 Katowice,
tel. 582-441, ext. 1172, 1860, opening hours 9.00 a.m. - 3.00 p.m. (Mon. - Fri.),
9.00 a.m. - 1.00 p.m. (Sat.)
- The University of Silesia Press Office, Bankowa Street 12B, 40-007 Katowice,
tel. (032) 596-915, fax (032) 599-605, 586-895 - Mail-Order Sale
www.us.edu.pl/uniwersytet/wydawnictwo
e-mail wydawus@us.edu.pl
On the cover
Reproduction of the painting of the Silesian naive
artist Paweł Wróbel (1979) from the private collection
of Kazimiera and Jacek Wódz
Executive Editor
Jerzy Stencel
Technical Editor
Halina Kramarz
Proof-reader
Violetta Tomala-Kania
Copyright © 1998 by
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
All rights reserved
ISSN 0208-6336
ISBN 83-226-0826-X
Published by
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
ul. Bankowa 12B, 40-007 Katowice
First impression. Edition: 250 + 50 copies.
Printed sheets: 15.75. Publishing sheets: 20.0.
Passed to the Printing House in Septem ber 1998.
Signed for printing in Decem ber 1998.
Price zł 14,-
Printed by
Centrum Usług Drukarskich. Henryk Miler
ul. Katowicka 107, 41-500 Chorzów
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