Prof. Dominic Power Uppsala University dominic.power@kultgeog.uu.se

1. Prof. Dominic Power Uppsala Universitydominic.power@kultgeog.uu.se European Integration Lecture I: Integration at the level of firms and the economy

2. Trends in the European Economy • Post-War boom (the Marshall plan + the rise of consumerism) + political efforts (Coal and Steel Pact, EEC, EU) = interlinked European economy and firms Globalisation has made this trend possible and even stronger • Globalisation: “a fallible attempt to capture something fundamental that is happening across the globe, much of which we can only understand in a partial and incomplete way” (John Allen, 1995:58) • Global Shift (Dicken 1998): globalisation is part of a much longer internationalisation process Causes: • ICT and new transport methods; • Deregulation-political integration; • Spatially flexible institutions and organisations: from MNCs (Colt, Dunlop, etc) to TNCs (BP, Shell, ABB)

3. More Trends in the European Economy Key trends in the European economy • Post-Fordism • Flexible specialization • The rise of services • The post-material generations: don’t want any old job • Feminization of the work force: increasing number of women in work (declining in E.Eur.) • New working life: no more job for life • The knowledge economy • Governmental intervention… next week

4. National economies – 1998-2008

5. Where is the growth? In general it is a picture of spatial concentration • Blue Banana • Sunbelts • World cities: London, Paris, Milan, (Frankfurt) • Post-industrial cities: Barcelona… culture and economy • High-tech clusters and technopoles • Ireland: dynamic and wonderful • Environmentally/regulatory relaxed areas… Eastern countries; UK

6. Blue Banana: 40% of Europe's citizens 20% percent of Europe's space 50% of Europe’s GDP

7. Old and new bananas…

8. Unemployment and poverty • Jobless growth • Regional differences

9. Where is declining 2 main places of decline, outward migration… • Rural areas: agriculture and industry lost… tourism about the only hope in many areas; or commuting in smaller countries • Despite the idea of the global cottage working from the country is increasingly hard • Industrial ‘heartlands’: Ruhr Valley, Liverpool, Manchester, Bergslagen, etc…. A story of heavy industry, heavy pollution, path dependency/blindness… Places not suited to compete in the knowledge economy

10. Integration: issues and problems Europeanization: from national economies to a continental economy dominated by cities and regions This presents governments, etc. with a problem: the aim in democracies is that everyone, everywhere has equal chances and equal living standards

11. New members: an even wider Europe • EU has always been growing (this is nothing new) • New members: big differences between them • More to come What this means for European countries and firms: New additions of low-cost locations V. New markets Are these competitors or complements? Depends on who you talk to Economic theory: the more available inputs (labour) the more your economy will grow

12. Conclusions Challenges for the future • Keeping on track with the knowledge economy • Dealing with structural problems: esp. the demographic time bomb (or we are too old to pay for everything) • Integrating new members • Integrating new citizens and workers from outside the EU • Dealing with regional differences and inequalities… must we accept an unequal world?