Spatial Division in Society

Spatial Division in Society

Introduction

In late 2006 the fate of a factory employing about 300 workers in South Wales made the international stage when Hollywood actor and son of the Rhondda Valley, Ioan Gruffudd, joined a campaign against the closure of the plant and the proposed relocation of its production of Burberry polo shirts to China or South America. This was the latest in a whole series of clothing factory closures in the UK and elsewhere in the 'old' European Union (EU) over the last 20 years which, in the UK, has seen employment in the industry drop, according to Annual Business Inquiry data, by 88 000 jobs or 64% in the 5 years since 1998 alone. In the wider EU, between 1985 and 1995, employment in the clothing industry is estimated to have declined by 40%. The Burberry factory in Ynyswen was no longer deemed competitive following a supply chain review by the global brand which is famous for its high-end fashion garments and distinctive British sensibility and, more recently, for finding favor among sections of working-class youth culture. The local economic impact is likely to be devastating in a region that has had its industrial heart torn out over the last 20 years. As one long-standing employee of 40 years, 56-year-old Alan Williams described:

“Who's going to employ me at my age?”. …He is bitter about Burberry's decision to close the plant, which has been in the Rhondda since 1938 and once employed 2,500 people. “We have worked to get Burberry where they are today, and they're just dumping us on the scrapheap. They're going to China to earn 2% more than they earn now.” The GMB estimates Burberry will make an extra £4 m by switching production to Asia or South America; operating profits in the six months to September 30 were £84m; full-year profits are on course to be double that. (Moss, 2006)

It is unusual for a day to go by without such media discussion of changing spatial divisions in society, such as that in the Ynyswen case. While the language may be different, issues involving the changing location and organization of supply chains, patterns and shifts of employment, and the dynamism of organizational structures in the global economy attest to the very rapid transformations in economic geographical life we are currently witnessing. Indeed, the Ynyswen case highlights the central concept of changing spatial divisions in society. From its headquarters in London, the design and decision making of Burberry is geographically removed from the sites of assembly production which operate in a quite fluid and increasingly liberalized global landscape of economic costs and social relations of production. Increasing competitive pressures in the global economy lead key decision makers in capitalist economies to take decisions which impact upon people and places from South Wales to China. From the call centers of India to the emergence of China as the putative 'workshop of the world', new geographies of economic activity and new spatial divisions in society are continually ...