Rethinking deindustrialization and health across time and space

Abstract

The transition towards a service-based society, defined as deindustrialization, has led to an extensive body of research exploring the socio-economic and health impacts of industrial decline. The literature has been mainly confined to the regional effects of unemployment and inactivity. However, considering the morbidity and mortality outcomes of this event, most studies have focused on single cases such as regions and specific industrial occupational groups. Within this context, this thesis aims to assess the health-related implications of deindustrialization by considering the elements of contrast, magnitude and time. Those elements capture the dynamic nature and uneven pace of industrial decline across different levels, aggregated and individual.

This thesis measures and compares the severity of industrial decline across Europe and seeks to identify whether deindustrialization is associated with mortality variations. By including fixed effects modeling it distinguishes between the long and short-term relationship of industrial decline and mortality. Furthermore, this thesis adopts a longitudinal perspective and aims to explore the long-term self-assessed morbidity of various occupational groups by following their transition towards unemployment, inactivity and re-employment. The analysis follows a logistic regression approach based on the evaluation of self-assessed morbidity.

It concludes that deindustrialization is a transitional event that progresses unevenly and disproportionately affects health at national, regional and individual levels. At a population level, industrial decline appears to be beneficial for health as countries have progressed towards the creation of safer contemporary working environments. At an individual level, the transitional effects of occupational mobility do not uniformly influence the morbidity of individuals.

The extent of the susceptibility of certain countries, regions and population groups towards this event is a result of various internal and external socio-economic factors, health-related and political decisions. Subsequently, this thesis introduces the necessity of rethinking the health consequences of deindustrialization, whereas future research should consider the changing nature of employment within the industrial and service sectors.