Speaker
Description
In many cities of the global north, the first decades of the 21st century were characterized by a significant population and employment growth. In combination with neoliberal urban policies this growth resulted in an increasing competition for urban land and an increasing displacement pressure on urban functions with lower profit margins. Residential displacement processes such as gentrification are well researched and a known as a universal feature of dynamic urban regions. However, there is a lack of research and public awareness of displacement processes of other urban functions such as traditional manufacturing, construction and crafts industries. While the manufacturing sector in developed economies is less important than in the past, it is still a relevant and viable part of urban economies and an often overlooked attractive employment and income base for citizens without academic education.
The displacement of manufacturing has been analysed in only a few global cities with highly dynamic housing and land markets such as New York and London (Curran, 2007; Ferm & Jones, 2016). Following these authors industrial displacement can be understood as a process that is not only the outcome of economic restructuring, but is passively and actively promoted by developers, planners, individual gentrifiers and urban policies, favouring more profitable uses such as housing and knowledge-intensive services over urban manufacturing.
We aim to study the mechanisms and drivers of industrial displacement in five cities in the Federal State of North-Rhine-Westfalia, Germany, focussing on the crafts and light manufacturing sector. Our sample of urban areas includes large and highly dynamic cities such as Cologne and Düsseldorf as well as medium sized cities (Bonn, Münster, Aachen). Empirically, we follow a mixed methods approach combining quantitative data on business relocations, land use and land prices with qualitative data from expert interviews with representatives from local business associations, planning institutions and economic development agencies.
While the results of our quantitative analysis provide evidence for a significant economic structural change in highly densified urban areas, we do not find evidence for a displacement process of light manufacturing firms at a larger scale across all of our case study cities. However, our interviews reveal that, particularly smaller light manufacturing and construction businesses face an increasing displacement pressure caused by increasing environmental conflicts and a lack of extension areas due to increasing residential infill development. This pressure is partially reinforced by planning interventions converting commercial and industrial land into mixed use or so-called “urban areas”. While “urban areas” were created with the intention to promote mixed-use development, the effects on traditional manufacturing businesses are rather negative, since competing land uses such as housing and service industries are strongly in these areas. In general there seems to be a lack of acknowledgement and understanding for the requirements of the manufacturing and crafts sector as an important part of resilient and inclusive cities. Recent policies and initiatives to promote urban manufacturing often solely focus on new high-tech and emmission-free forms of manufacturing, ignoring the needs of more traditional firms, which are and always have been a foundational part of urban economies.
The consequences of displacement for the affected businesses can be existential, since many of them are strongly dependent on highly localized supply and costumer networks. Under these circumstances even smaller relocations between different city districts could lead to a loss of the economic base.
References
Curran, W. (2007) 'From the Frying Pan to the Oven': Gentrification and the Experience of Industrial Displacement in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Urban Studies, 44(8), 1427–1440. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/00420980701373438
Ferm, J. & Jones, E. (2016) Mixed-use ‘regeneration’ of employment land in the post-industrial city: challenges and realities in London. European Planning Studies, 24(10), 1913–1936. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2016.1209465
| Keywords | industrial displacement; land use conversion; urban manufacturing; Germany |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
