Category Archives: Week 9: Deindustrialization

During the shift from an industrial to a service-based economy, the working class in Pennsylvania went through a difficult transition. Many people lost their jobs when factories shut down, and they had to find work in the service industry, which often paid less and had worse conditions. Some workers tried to retrain for new jobs,Continue reading “The Industrial Shift”

Blue-collar workers experienced a torrid time in the United States during the period of deindustrialization of the 1970s and 80s. No greater area was hit than the Western Pennsylvania region by these changes. As someone who used to live in this part of the country, I can tell you that the sentiments in this articleContinue reading “Bethlehem to Burgers: The Forgotten Man in Western Pennsylvania”

In The Enduring Disaster, David Winant explores the devastating effects of deindustrialization in Pennsylvania during the 1970s and 1980s, particularly on the working class. The transition from an industrial to a service-based economy “recycled” the working class by displacing millions of industrial workers, leaving them with few opportunities in the emerging service sector. The economic,Continue reading “Devastating effects of deindustrialization”

The working class was “recycled” in the transition from an industrial to service-based economy because a large number of working-class individuals who had previously relied on industrial jobs—such as within the steel industry—had to settle for underpaid service positions, early retirement, or unemployment. Workers were in a sense “recycled” because they were thrown away byContinue reading “The Working Class: Paper or Plastic?”

The reality of de-industrialization meant that for those used to working high-wage industrial jobs, they were forced to find work in low-wage service jobs (180). Those displaced from industrial jobs, such as the steel-working industry, were then forced to find new employment in a scarce job market. The reallocation of labor had racial and genderContinue reading “Deindustrialization and the Working Class”

The working class was recycled by the process of displacement and reabsorption during a transitional period. Many workers had relied on the manufacturing jobs and once those jobs start disappearing many become unemployed. For African Americans men this was an exclusion from stable employment. These men started relying on informal works, low paying jobs thatContinue reading “deindustrialization”

The collapse of the industrial era since the 1970s can be credited to the shift of uncertainty for future economic stability for many working-class citizens. Specifically, analyizing Pittsburgh’s transition from an industrial steel to a service-based economy. The transition did not erase the working class but instead restructured the functioning of this population in waysContinue reading “The Real Working-Class Crisis—How the Inclusion of Women and POC Shifts the Narrative”

During the 1970s and 80s, steel employment faced a devastating blow due to a combination of factors: global competition, technological advancements rendering the need for workers obsolete, government policies, and the broader decline of heavy industry in the U.S. Rather than a one-time, linear decline, the process of deindustrialization in Pennsylvania, and in the broaderContinue reading “The Devastating Impacts of Deindustrialization in Pennsylvania”