INDUSTRIAL-CHANGE IN SOUTHERN ENGLAND - A CASE-STUDY OF THE ELECTRONICS AND ELECTRICAL-ENGINEERING INDUSTRY IN THE SOUTHAMPTON CITY-REGION

The electrical engineering and electronics industry is the largest manufacturing industry in the Southampton "city-region', providing over 25% of all manufacturing jobs. This analysis, which is based on detailed case studies of nineteen companies which employed over 11 000 workers in 1987, reveals that recent changes in the industry in the city-region can best be understood by reference to the changing role of local establishments within the wider corporate geography of their parent groups. Despite the high degree of external ownership, the city-region contains various subsidiaries with important control functions and with resposibility for product innovation and development. In response to a range of market pressures there has been a progressive upgrading of the technological sophistication of the products made within the city-region. These changes have had an important impact upon the skill composition of the work force. These occupational and production changes have, particularly in the larger firms, been associated with new working patterns. -from Authors