Page 23 - Beyond Decommissioning

4 Beyond Decommissioning

Fig. 1.3 Naumachie, Taormina, Italy.
Photo by M. Laraia (2018).

reduction of industrial capacity or activity in a city, country, or region, of all types of
industries but especially large industrial complexes (e.g., heavy industry or
manufacturing industry). National policies and institutional changes have also con-
tributed to deindustrialization such as economic restructuring and redistribution.
Globalization is a popular term that encompasses these phenomena. With break-
throughs in transportation, communications, and information technology (IT), and
a globalized economy that spurred foreign investment, capital mobility, and labor
migration, industrial complexes moved to low-cost countries and were replaced by
service companies (IT, real estate, etc.) and financial agencies typically concentrated
in cities. Due to the urban growth, industrial complexes that used to be in the remote
periphery of the city today are now inside the city. New business concepts, users’ and
citizens’ environmental concerns have led to relocation of industrial functions to new
areas, outside the city, leaving vacant sites behind.