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DEINDUSTRIALIZATION
AND REINDUSTRIALIZATION IN 20th-CENTURY EUROPE
When the ICSIM (istituto per la Cultura e la Storia d'impresa
Franco Momigliano), an institute based in the centrai ltalian
town of Terni, offered to host the second conference of the European
Business History Association, choosing the topic - Deindustrialization
and Reindustrialization in twentieth-century Europe - deciding
what to do was easy. At the end of the 1800s, Terni was one of
the first ltalian company towns, being constructed around the
most important (at that time) steei piant in the country. Subsequentiy,
during the course of the next century, Terni experienced the fate
of this "oid" sector - decline (made more severe by the fact that
the company was entireiy dependent on the constant and direct
support of the State), a State support which financial and political
reasons made progressively impossibili. But Terni did not surrender
to its economic decline. As is argued in one of the papers in
this volume, on the basis of the professional skilis acquired
from years of operatine in the industry, Terni tried to maintain
at least part of its steei production and to develop new activities,
even if not always with success. This centrai ltalian town became
a significant example of the history of the 'old continent", the
cradie of industrialization, in this century. Two worid wars that
had a deep impact (they are often defined as European "civil wars"),
the most terribie crisis of the capitalist system, an energy shock,
sharp fluctuations in markets, and territorial division of labour
couid not provoke substantial tremors in the European industriai
structure. Yet the cuiturai and technical wealth, the great variety
of the "actors" involved, the capacity to respond to chalienges,
ali this, even in a complicated process not devoid of failure,
made Europe as a whole an area that it wouid be difficuit to define
as "declining". This volume provides a rich and multifaceted contribution
to historical knowledge. The structure is intentionally loose,
so as to allow students and academics from the various European
countries who participate in EBHA meetings like this an opportunity
to exchange views and information. The objective is to form a
common European scholarship in business history. (from lntroduction)
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