Deindustrialisation and globalisation
Deindustrialisation means the fall of manufacturing and mining jobs. In the UK it was fastest from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Causes
- Globalisation: firms moved factories to countries with lower wages; cheaper imports came in by container ship.
- Machines (mechanisation) did work that many people once did.
- Coal ran out or became too costly to dig; demand for steel and ships fell.
- Government policy: from 1979 many state-owned industries were sold or closed (privatisation).
Effects
Job losses, empty factories and poorer high streets in old industrial towns; but also cleaner air and land free for new uses.
The post-industrial economy
A post-industrial economy earns most of its money from services and knowledge, not from making things.
- Tertiary jobs: retail, health, education, tourism, transport.
- Quaternary jobs: research, IT, finance, design.
- Science and business parks sit near universities and motorways, with space, parking and a pleasant setting (e.g. Cambridge Science Park).
Environmental impact: new industry can be made more sustainable, e.g. old quarries restored as lakes, wind farms, factories using recycled heat.
Rural change
The countryside is changing too, but in two directions:
- Growing villages: near cities, people move in and commute (counter-urbanisation). House prices rise; local young people may not afford homes; village shops may close as newcomers shop in town.
- Shrinking villages: in remote areas young people leave for jobs; schools, buses and shops close; the population gets older.
Farming now employs very few people because of machines.
Transport improvements
Better transport helps trade and spreads jobs:
- Roads: wider and 'smart' motorways that use the hard shoulder at busy times.
- Rail: new fast lines and city lines (e.g. London's Elizabeth line, opened 2022).
- Ports: deep-water container ports for huge ships.
- Airports: hubs that link the country to world cities; expansion is debated because of noise and emissions.
The north-south divide
The north-south divide is the gap in income, health, house prices and jobs between the richer south-east (around the capital) and poorer parts of the north and west.
Why?
Old industries were mostly in the north; new service and finance jobs gathered around the capital.
Ways to reduce it
- Better transport links between northern cities.
- Moving government offices and broadcasters out of the capital.
- Money and tax breaks for firms in poorer areas (enterprise zones).
- More power for local city-regions.
The UK's place in the wider world
The UK is linked to the world through:
- Trade in goods and especially services (finance, education, law).
- Investment: foreign firms build car plants and offices; UK firms invest abroad.
- Transport and communication: hub airports, ports and undersea internet cables.
- Groups: the UN (a permanent Security Council member), the G7, NATO and the Commonwealth. The UK left the European Union in 2020 but still trades heavily with it.
Try it: sort the jobs
List ten jobs done by people you know (family, neighbours). Sort them into primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary. Work out the percentage in each. Then set the 3D slider to 1900 and to 2020 β is your list closer to the old or the new pattern?
Key formulas and definitions
- Primary sector: taking raw materials from nature (farming, mining, fishing)
- Secondary sector: making goods (factories, building)
- Tertiary sector: providing services (shops, health, transport)
- Quaternary sector: knowledge and research (IT, science, finance)
- Deindustrialisation: the decline of manufacturing industry
- Globalisation: the world becoming more connected through trade, firms and communication
- Counter-urbanisation: people moving from cities to the countryside
Worked examples
1. A town had 12,000 factory jobs in 1975 and 3,000 in 2005. What percentage of the factory jobs were lost?
Lost = 12,000 β 3,000 = 9,000. Percentage = 9,000 Γ· 12,000 Γ 100 = 75%.
2. Explain why a science park is often built on the edge of a university city.
It is close to university researchers and graduates (skilled workers), land is cheaper and flatter than in the centre, there is room for parking, and motorways or airports are nearby.
3. Give one positive and one negative effect of people moving into a village near a city.
Positive: more customers can keep the pub or school open. Negative: house prices rise so local young people cannot afford to stay, and many newcomers commute out, so the village is empty in the day.
Common mistakes
- Thinking deindustrialisation means the UK makes nothing now. It still makes cars, planes and medicines, but with fewer workers.
- Mixing up tertiary (services) and quaternary (research and knowledge) jobs.
- Saying all rural areas are growing. Remote ones often lose people.
- Treating the north-south divide as a sharp line. It is a general pattern with rich and poor places on both sides.