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Restructuring Europe’s Rustbelt

The case of the German Ruhrgebiet

  • Articles
  • Re-Industrialisation
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Intereconomics

Abstract

With the enlargement of the European Union its “Rustbelt”, the mosaic of regions traditionally specialised in heavy industries such as coal and steel, will also be enlarged. The new member states in Eastern Europe have many regions that face industrial decline and need to be restructured. What can these traditional industrial areas learn from the case of the German Ruhrgebiet, one of Europe’s most prominent examples of regional industrial restructuring?

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Saxion Universities for Applied Sciences, The Netherlands

    Gert-Jan Hospers (Professor of Strategic Management, Assistant Professor of Economics)

  2. University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Gert-Jan Hospers (Professor of Strategic Management, Assistant Professor of Economics)

Authors
  1. Gert-Jan Hospers
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Additional information

Parts of this paper have been written while on sabbatical leave at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Münster, Germany. The author would like to thank Frans Boekema, Aloys Prinz, Albert Steenge and Burckhard Wetterau for generous support and valuable advice.

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Hospers, GJ. Restructuring Europe’s Rustbelt. Intereconomics 39, 147–156 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02933582

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