Van Egeraat, Chris and Breathnach, Proinnsias
(2007)
The Manufacturing Sector.
In:
Understanding Contemporary Ireland.
Pluto Press, London., pp. 146-157.
ISBN 9780745325958
Abstract
Manufacturing industry is a crucial ingredient in national economic development.
This is because of the value which is added to natural resources and intermediate
products through industrial processing. Where this value is retained in an
economy, its circulation can sustain many more jobs than are created directly
in manufacturing itself. Even in so-called ‘post-industrial economies’, rising
industrial output continues to be a key source of wealth creation despite rapidly
contracting employment in manufacturing industry per se. The extraordinarily
high rate of economic growth which Ireland experienced in the 1990s was
largely driven by rapid expansion of its manufacturing sector, arising principally
from a surge of inward investment by transnational fi rms which began around
1993. This chapter outlines the historical background to this recent phase of
strong industrial growth, before examining in some depth the key dimensions
of this crucial feature of the so-called ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy. The chapter
concludes with an assessment of the long-term developmental implications
of the form recent industrial development has taken, particularly in the light
of certain weaknesses in the industrial structure which have become apparent
in the early 2000s. Case studies of the microcomputer and pharmaceutical
sectors are presented to illustrate key themes raised in the main text. The spatial
dimensions associated with successive industrial development phases are also
described and analysed.
| Item Type: |
Book Section
|
| Keywords: |
Manufacturing; Sector; Understanding; Contemporary; Ireland; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography |
| Item ID: |
9489 |
| Depositing User: |
Proinnsias Breathnach
|
| Date Deposited: |
17 May 2018 15:47 |
| Publisher: |
Pluto Press, London. |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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