Occupational Structure and Change in Post-war Coventry

Abstract

Globalisation is not a simple term to engage with. Over the last number of decades it has been ascribed an importance that has captured popular public attention. It has been alternatively presented as a Ricardian tool for closer cooperation and growth while forcing down inflationary forces through trade with developing countries, or as a trap that increases inequality and limits the capacity of the state to deal with same (Martin and Schumann 1997). In more recent years luminaries such as Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman have begun to question whether the globalising process, or more accurately the unrestricted movement of goods and labour or trade globalisation, has in fact gone too far, arguing that advocates overestimate the benefits and underestimate costs, particularly for the standards of living of those in advanced countries with limited skills (Krugman 2016; Stiglitz 2017). It is this skills and occupational component that arguably deserves greater focus when considering the impact of globalisation on a city such as Coventry.