Robert Forrant

Approaches to sustainable development : the public university in the regional economy

How can cities and regions foster sustainable development? What role can a university play in this process? These are the central questions addressed in this innovative collection of essays, which brings together scholars in such diverse fields as history, political economy, community studies, industrial theory, economic geography, environmental studies, ergonomics and work design, race and gender studies, manufacturing engineering, and public health. In 1993 a core group of faculty members at the University of Massachusetts Lowell launched an interdisciplinary study to find ways for the university to help stimulate regional development on a sustainable basis. They looked at models of development, new processes, and practical tools for transforming ideas into actions. At the same time, they moved beyond traditional research paradigms that focus on business growth and technology diffusion to the exclusion of social, environmental, and cultural development. Lowell is an ideal place for exploring these issues, given its rich industrial and immigrant history and the Universitys expertise as a science and engineering institution. The product of this research is a set of thoughtful essays that span the physical and social sciences, engineering, and the humanities and engage the debate over how best to achieve sustainable development - a debate in which issues of social justice, popular participation, and economic development are inextricably linked.

Pulling Together in Lowell: The University and the Regional Development Process

Universities are increasingly involved in regional economic development and innovation. In the long-established industrial city of Lowell, Massachusetts, in the US north-east, firms, community groups, and various centres, institutes, and academic departments at the University of Massachusetts have been engaged in systematic activities designed to revitalize neighbourhoods and improve industry performance. This paper examines these relationships and assesses changes made at the University since 1990 as it seeks to implement an enhanced regional development mission. An iterative process has begun at Lowell that involves faculty from diverse disciplines and off-campus constituencies. Internal relationships among faculty and between faculty and administrators are being altered, while external relationships are being reconstituted to make certain that the campus listens better and engages the community in collaborative activities in the best land-grant university tradition.

Globalization, Universities and Issues of Sustainable Human Development

This volume raises an important question: Given the fast-changing global economy and the challenges it presents, what is the role for the university as an institution promoting sustainable human development? The editors begin by outlining the changes associated with the recent wave of globalization, particularly transformations in the relative power of institutions internationally. They analyze the constraints universities face in industrialized and developing countries in promoting sustainable human development.

Work Systems, Corporate Strategy and Global Markets: Creative Shop Floors or a Barge Mentality?

In the US, corporate restructuring of financial and physical assets as well as work systems has been widespread. Our study examines the inter-relationship between creative work systems and destructive markets, using a sample of US manufacturing firms in the metalworking, jet engine production and steel processing industries.

The Manufacturing Modernization Process: Mediating Institutions and the Facilitation of Firm-Level Change

Case studies of the Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center in Philadelphia and the Labor Management Council for Economic Renewal in Michigan are presented to demonstrate how manufacturing modernization organizations (MMOs) facilitate organizational change in small and medium-size firms. Despite differences in structure, size, and funding, these two MMOs shared important characteristics that enabled them to work effectively with firms. First, each organization had credibility in the employer community. Second, each organization was connected to existing state and local industrial resources to network services to firms. Third, staff of each organization had sufficient shop floor knowledge to catalyze change through on-site problem solving. Fourth, each organization developed collective activities such as group trainings and seminars to help firms learn from one another about organizational innovations. Finally, each organization pursued continuous contact with the firms they serve to maintain their confidence. These five characteristics have important implications for the funding and design of MMOs.

Globalization, Universities and Sustainable Human Development: A Framework for Understanding the Issues

This volume raises an important question: Given the fast-changing global economy and the challenges it presents, what is the role for the university as an institution promoting sustainable human development? The editors begin by outlining the changes associated with the recent wave of globalization, particularly transformations in the relative power of institutions internationally. They analyze the constraints universities face in industrialized and developing countries in promoting sustainable human development.

The International Association of Machinists, Pratt & Whitney, and the Struggle for a Blue-Collar Future in Connecticut

Riding down Main Street in East Hartford, Connecticut toward the six smokestacks dominating the front of Pratt & Whitneys mammoth aircraft engine factory, one cannot help noticing numerous artifacts associated with rapid industrial decline: empty and trash-strewn lots, boarded-up storefronts, and vacated triple-deckers, once homes for Pratt & Whitney workers. A short drive away on the other side of the Connecticut River one can observe the dichotomies between East Hartford and downtown Hartford with its glittering insurance companies, banks, and the headquarters – known around Hartford as the “Gold Building” – of Pratts parent, the United Technologies Corporation (UTC). The various social clubs, bars, and purveyors of fast food, ice cream, and fresh baked pies, that have served thousands of lunches and early suppers to members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) are at risk.

Regional Industrial Modernization Programmes: Two Cases from Massachusetts

Faced with the dramatic loss of manufacturing employment in the late 1980s and early 1990s, two regions of Massachusetts became home to innovative industrial modernization programmes designed to enhance the performance of remaining enterprise and hopefully strengthen the states manufacturing base. The Machine Action Project, a community and industry based endeavour in Western Massachusetts, worked with hundreds of metalworking firms while in Eastern Massachusetts the University of Massachusetts Lowell restructured many of its existing academic and research activities to better meet the needs of firms and communities. These two programmes are analysed for the ways in which they established public-private partnerships to enhance their regional economies as well as contributed to the ongoing discussion over the role of public institutions in sustainable regional development.

Empty Mills and zombie cities

It was there that the sleight of hand lawyers proved that the demands lacked all validity for the simple reason that the company did not have, never had had, and never would have any workers in its...

Book Review: Banded Together: Economic Democratization in the Brass ValleyBanded Together: Economic Democratization in the Brass Valley. By Brecher. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2011. 280 pp. ISBN 978-0-252-03612-5,

BA NDED TOGETHER: ECONOMIC DEMOCRATIZATION IN THE BRA SS VA LLEY (THE W ORKING CLA SS IN A MERICA N HISTORY) To get Banded Tog ether: Economic Democratizat ion in the Brass Valley (The Working Class in A merican History) PDF, please click the button under and download the document or gain access to additional information which are relevant to Banded Together: Economic Democratization in the Brass Valley (The Working Class in American History) book.