Controlling contamination: the origins of clean room technology

Cleanroom technology is central to high tech manufacturing. Its development stems from the convergence of needs in several fields of manufacturing, health care, and military requirements. Small‐sized mechanical and electro‐mechanical devices brought problems with dirt and dust to the forefront, particularly during World War II. High efficiency air filters developed during that conflict rapidly commercialized after the war, and found broader applications. As electronics became a military and commercial staple, filtered and conditioned air, controlled procedures and behaviors, employee training, special uniforms, carefully selected construction design and materials, and physical isolation from other parts of the manufacturing facilities came together in the earliest clean rooms. Diversity in practices drove the demand for standards and fostered further developments. By the 1960s contamination control emerged as a distinct field, with clean room technology at its core. Thus established, the benefits of clean manufacturing spread to other fields and industries. The convergence of needs which underlay earlier developments remained an important developmental dynamic in contamination control.     

Synthesis by microbes or chemists? Pharmaceutical research and manufacturing in the antibiotic era

This article presents a case study of the rise of Pfizer as a leading pharmaceutical company, with a focus on changing relationships between manufacturing technology and R&D between the mid 1940s and the mid 1960s. Pfizer first moved into pharmaceuticals through participation in the US government's penicillin effort during World War II. The company had expertise in deep tank, biological fermentation for the production of chemicals that it adapted to the manufacture of penicillin. Having greatly expanded its biological manufacturing capacity to meet state needs, Pfizer adopted an R&D program to find new microbial antibiotics suited to its manufacturing technology after the war ended. Pfizer's successes in this antibiotic era established the firm as a major pharmaceutical company. In looking to larger commercial markets for drugs, Pfizer, like its competitors, pursued medicines for chronic diseases rather than acute infections. For this pursuit, in the 1950s and 1960s, Pfizer transformed itself into a chemistry‐orientated pharmaceutical firm by reorienting its R&D toward chemistry. This led to a growing divergence between R&D and manufacturing and the eventual replacement of biological manufacturing with chemical manufacturing. The article explores the changing trajectories of R&D and manufacturing at Pfizer, their shifting positions within the firm, and the consequences of these changes and shifts for the firm's strategy and organization.     

Twenty‐first Century Industrial Policy in a Small Developing Country: The Challenges of Reviving Manufacturing in Rwanda

The Rwandan government — widely lauded for its political commitment to development — has refocused its efforts on reviving growth in the manufacturing sector. This article examines how pressures from different levels — international, regional and domestic — have shaped the evolving political economy of two priority sectors (apparel and cement). To achieve its goals of manufacturing sector growth, the Rwandan government aims to access foreign markets (on preferential terms) and larger regional markets while developing effective state–business relationships with locally based firms. Despite the government's political commitment to reviving its manufacturing sector, its strategy has been both shaped and impeded by shifting pressures at the international level (through Rwanda's recent suspension from the African Growth and Opportunity Act), the regional level (through competition from regional firms) and the domestic level (through over‐reliance on single firms). Within the current industrial policy literature, there is limited reflection on how developing countries are dealing with the multi‐scalar challenges of enacting industrial policy in a much‐changed global trading environment. This article contributes to the industrial policy literature by addressing this lacuna.     

Chile's Export Diversification since 1960: A Free Market Miracle or Mirage?

Conventional wisdom has proclaimed Chile's recent economic development a ‘free market miracle’. In an examination of Chile's export diversification experience, this article departs from that view. By analysing the dynamics underlying the emergence of the salmon, fruit, forestry and wine sectors in Chile's export basket since the 1960s, the study sheds light on the crucial role of industrial policy in the process of capability accumulation that shapes new industries. The article undertakes a qualitative historical analysis of the scope and nature of policy interventions in each of the four sectors and conducts a quantitative policy evaluation using the difference‐in‐difference method. It finds that public institutions are essential in overcoming market failures inhibiting the emergence of new industries. Specifically, it shows that the government has a key role to play as a catalyst of human capital accumulation, as a venture capitalist, in trade promotion, and in ensuring ‘national’ sector reputation through a strong regulatory and quality control role. By elaborating on the dynamic process of structural transformation and capability accumulation, this article contributes to theoretical debates on the role of vertical policies in the emergence of new competitive sectors, and debates relating to static versus dynamic approaches to comparative advantage.     

Unravelling the Relationships between Used‐Clothing Imports and the Decline of African Clothing Industries

African clothing industries have declined since the implementation of economic liberalization policies in the early 1980s whilst used‐clothing imports to Africa have increased. The general effects of economic liberalization on African clothing industries are well documented, although little research has been conducted on the particular impact of increased imports of second‐hand clothes on the local manufacturing sectors. Whether these two processes are causally related is difficult to determine due to limitations in official data sets. In this article, the used‐clothing trade is explored in detail and a broad range of cultural and local economic processes are investigated. Trends such as declining local purchasing power and the opening of African markets to cheap new clothing imports, as well as imports of used‐clothing, are examined, along with the converse boost to African clothing export production resulting from preferential trade agreements in the 2000s. With respect to the differential legal and illegal imports of second‐hand clothing to selected African countries, it is demonstrated that official trade data sets often fail to capture the nuances of contemporary social and economic processes.     

From nuclear physics to semiconductor manufacturing: the making of ion implantation

This article examines the emergence of ion implantation as a major semiconductor manufacturing process from the early 1960s through the late 1970s. Ion implantation techniques originated in nuclear physics research and were first employed to make solar cells for military satellites at the Ion Physics Corporation (IPC). This work at IPC inspired a research group at Sprague Electric to use ion implantation techniques to make transistors. Sprague's process development work, and its key finding that ion implantation enabled the control of critical transistor characteristics, were both exploited by Mostek, a semiconductor start‐up funded by Sprague. Mostek's engineers incorporated ion implantation into their manufacturing process to produce a string of integrated circuits that other firms could not make. Mostek's market success encouraged semiconductor firms to embrace ion implantation in the early and mid 1970s. By the end of the decade, ion implantation was used in the manufacture of virtually all advanced integrated circuits. This article improves our understanding of the development and adoption of semiconductor, and more generally high technology, manufacturing processes. It also advances our knowledge of the ways in which new technologies developed in the Cold War context made their way into the manufacturing economy.     

Globalization and modes of interaction in two sub‐sectors in Ireland

This paper begins with a brief discussion of Ireland's recent economic success, focusing on aspects of industrial structure. A theoretical framework is then developed to facilitate comparisons between sub‐sectors. Globalization and localization, industries and markets, and interactions among firms are the three main constituents of this framework. Two particular sub‐sectors are chosen for examination: the wooden furniture industry in County Monaghan and the software manual printing industry in Dublin. We show that the first, as an industrial district, has both vertical and horizontal links among firms, is a local industry and has limited market internationalization; the second, based largely on preferred supplier relationships with subsidiaries of the software multinationals, is dominated by vertical relationships, is also in some respects a local industry, and its product reaches a much more global market.     

THE IMPACT OF LOCAL WAGE REGULATION ON EMPLOYMENT: A BORDER ANALYSIS FROM ITALY IN THE 1950s*

This paper measures the impact of wage zones—compulsory wage differentials at the province level—on Italy's local labor markets during the 1950s. Using spatial regression techniques, it finds that for the industrial sectors covered under wage zones there was an increase in employment when one crossed the border from a high‐wage province into a low‐wage one; the effect diminished, however, as the distance from the boundary increased. The paper also illustrates that the impact on the overall (nonfarm) private sector, which includes both covered and uncovered sectors, was negligible.     

‘Born in an atomic test tube’: landscapes of cyclonic development at Uranium City,Saskatchewan

Drawing together insights from neo‐Innisian geography and environmental history, this paper explores the landscape and environmental changes engendered by ‘cyclonic’ patterns of development associated with uranium production at Uranium City, Saskatchewan. Strong postwar demand for uranium led to the establishment and rapid expansion of Uranium City on the north shore of Lake Athabasca as a ‘yellowcake town’, dedicated to producing uranium oxide concentrate to supply federal government contracts with the US military. In spite of optimistic assessments for the region's industrial future, the new settlement remained inherently unstable, tied to shifting institutional arrangements and external markets, and haunted by the spectre of resource depletion. The planning and development of the townsite at Uranium City reflected both neocolonial desires to open the north to Euro‐Canadian settlement and efforts by the state to buffer the stormy effects of resource dependency. Ultimately, however, quixotic government efforts to implant an outpost of industrial modernity in the Athabasca Region failed to forestall the inevitable winds of change, which left in their wake destructive legacies of social dislocation and environmental degradation, already evident with the near‐collapse of the uranium export market by the early 1960s.     

THE EFFECTS OF TRADE WITH DEVELOPING COUNTRIES ON THE REGIONAL DEMAND FOR SKILL IN THE U.S.: EVIDENCE FROM COUNTY DATA*

ABSTRACT Using county‐level data from the 1980s and 1990s and a county‐level trade measure that incorporates the county's industrial mix and patterns of international trade across industries, I provide new evidence that trade with developing countries raises the demand for skill and the skill premium in the U.S. Consistent with Heckscher–Ohlin, I find that trade driven by differences in factor endowments has an economically significant impact on local labor markets. The evidence suggests that when trade with developing countries rises, counties with higher skill endowment and greater employment in industries with larger trade shares experience greater relative demand for high‐skilled labor.     

Nigerian Oil and Exchange Rates: Indicators of ‘Dutch Disease’

This article assesses the impact of expanding oil revenues on non-oil sectors of the Nigerian economy from 1960 to 1985/6. Emphasis is placed on the effects of exchange rate appreciation during the 1970s on the agricultural, manufacturing and non-traded goods sectors. The analysis is conducted within a Dutch disease context. Two main conclusions are that the decline of Nigerian agriculture during these years can be attributed to a combination of low real producer prices and insufficient government investment, as well as the overvalued Nigerian naira; and that the high real exchange rate may have benefited the manufacturing sector.     

The Creative Industries,Creative Occupations and Innovation in London

London is a global hub of the creative industries. These industries are seen as both innovative in themselves and an input in innovation processes in other sectors. Yet few studies have tested these relationships. This article investigates these issues using large-scale survey data for London. Using four measures of product and process innovation, we find no evidence that London's creative industries are more innovative than other sectors. Yet, individuals doing creative occupations in other sectors are a robust driver of product innovation in London's firms. The results suggest that occupations performed in London may be an important driver of product innovation in the city, and firms in other sectors may use creative occupations to develop new products in the capital. This finding is supportive of policies attempting to stimulate the creative industries by integrating creative occupations into firms across the whole economy.     

Forging Environmentalism: Justice,Livelihood and Contested Environments. Joanne Bauer,ed.

A senior Japanese authority on the Russian economy and its energy sector addresses the country's exposure to the so-called Dutch disease, suggesting that Russia did suffer from the potentially ruinous overdependence on oil and gas exports. The author argues, however, that the symptoms of the disease were actually not severe, attributing his interpretation to: (1) drastic decline of noncompetitive domestic manufacturing industries in the 1990s, which prompted a huge inflow of imports in the 2000s, but left competitive manufacturing enterprises in a position to survive; (2) extraordinary oil price increases in the 2000s, which significantly raised household and business incomes, creating augmented demand for products of domestic origin; (3) large differences between Russian and world prices of oil and gas, which functioned as subsidies for domestic manufacturing; and (4) massive intervention in foreign exchange markets by the Central Bank of Russia, which restricted the growth of imports and thus strengthened the surviving domestic manufacturing enterprises.     

The newshot Isle project

The economic events of the late 1950s and early 1960s precipitated a crisis of major proportions for British shipbuilding, hitherto one of this country's most important and prestigious industries. Severe competition from new and reconstructed economies in the Far East and Western Europe would terminally challenge outmoded management and labour relations in an industry which had led the world for a century. Although there would be no respite for British shipbuilders, the industry endeavoured to meet the challenge from abroad by embarking upon yard modernisation schemes, as if these alone were the panacea for righting the industry's deep‐seated problems. However, this agonising period was accompanied by the dramatic increase in the size of crude oil carriers, soon to be given the acronym VLCC (Very Large Crude Carriers), which added a twist of their own and give rise to the Newshot Isle Project.

These vessels, at that time approaching 250,000‐dwt, had prompted a number of foreign yards to construct large dry docks in which to build them. As dry docks appeared to be a highly efficient way to build such large vessels, several of the larger British shipyards pondered how they might reorganise their productive resources by constructing large dry docks within the physically restricted areas their yards occupied. For world renowned shipbuilders, John Brown & Co. Ltd of Clydebank, the extraordinary proposal was made, biblical in scale, to divert the River Clyde into a new channel and build three giant dry docks in the redundant riverbed. However, such a massive scheme would require public money, as the estimated £25 million it would consume was well beyond the means of beleaguered John Brown & Co. At the same time, the Labour Government of the day, alarmed at the crisis facing British shipbuilders, established a Committee of Inquiry to report in 1966 on restructuring and financing the industry in a hoped for return to profitability. This article looks at the imaginative but unfulfilled John Brown proposal, and charts its progress in the face of the Government's own proposals for shipbuilding on the River Clyde.     

The Role of Female Labour in Industrial Restructuring: New production processes and labour market relations in the Istanbul clothing industry

For many industries, a new production system characterised principally by flexibility has become one of the key means of achieving competitive advantage in world markets. In traditional industrial sectors flexibility in the organisation of production is based upon subcontracting, within which female labour is of undisputed importance. In this article, research on female labour in the Istanbul clothing industry is used to investigate these processes of industrial restructuring. Particular attention is drawn to changes in women's attitude to work and in their responses to working conditions, which have important consequences for the industry itself.     

Environmental Standards and Industrial Restructuring: the Case of the Australian Paper Industry

Environmental standards imposed on the Australian paper industry have emerged in response to public concern over the logging of native forests and the ‘greening’ of consumer demand. Such standards play an integral part in the paper industry's restructuring. Neo-classical theorists hypothesised environmental standards as encouraging the relocation of polluting industries to countries with lax regulations. An alternative hypothesis is that environmental standards encourage in-situ restructuring that can positively affect a company's competitiveness. In considering this alternative hypothesis the implications for state and federal policy are briefly considered.     

China's Energy Future: A Framing Comment

A noted Hong Kong-based specialist on China's energy industries presents a comment on three papers comprising a symposium on that country's rapidly expanding oil, natural gas, and nuclear power sectors. He frames his observations around five overarching themes that have shaped China's energy sector development over recent decades and will continue to do so in the future. These include observations to the effect that: (a) China's energy policy seeks broadly similar objectives to those of other countries; (b) the country's energy resource endowment is not particularly rich when viewed in relation to the size of its population; (c) its energy mix continues to be dominated by coal, with important implications for the environment and domestic freight transportation; (d) the country's economy is confronting a pronounced spatial mismatch between the location of energy resources and the markets where they are consumed; and (e) strategies for energy developments in China are closely tied to overriding political and economic concerns at any given point in time.     

Henry I of Germany's 929 military campaign in archaeological perspective

In 929, King Henry I of Germany (919–36) launched an exceptionally successful offensive against the Slav polities along the length of his eastern frontier. This campaign, which is recorded in contemporary written accounts, has long been known to historians, and its importance in the political history of the German kingdom is undisputed. However, to date, there is no book‐length or article‐length study devoted to Henry's military successes in 929. This article fills that striking lacuna by drawing on the vast body of information provided through excavations, which sheds considerable new light on the scale and sophistication of Henry I's undertaking.     

The growth of artistic nationalism in Senegal

ABSTRACT. In the 1960s, Senegal's first national leaders narrowly defined how artists should practise nationalism through their work, particularly in the weaving craft, and enforced this definition through selective state patronage. This ideological and stylistic control echoed state control over economic markets. As subsequent administrations have restructured the economy, leading to a powerful informal business sector, so have independent contemporary weavers redefined artistic nationalism. Using ethnographic and archival interviews, this article examines nationalism in Senegalese weaving, placing the perspectives of contemporary weavers alongside those of two arts administrators who helped to develop state‐sponsored programmes in the 1960s and 1970s. I argue that contemporary weavers find inspiration from Senegalese nationalism of the mid‐twentieth century, yet have modified it to encompass individual expression. Because definitions of artistic nationalism in Senegal have shifted, it remains a significant ideology within the national arts scene.