Dr Phil Tomlinson to co-edit a new book on Industrial Policy for the UK economy
Dr Phil Tomlinson of the School of Management and the Institute for Policy Research has been invited - along with collaborators Professors Keith Cowling (Warwick) and David Bailey (Coventry) – by the leading academic publisher, Oxford University Press - to co-edit a new book on Industrial Policy for the UK economy.
Entitled ‘New Perspectives on Industrial Policy for a Modern Britain’, the book will seek to explore how the UK might emerge from the current ‘Great Recession’ by successfully re-balancing its economy and promoting future growth and new opportunities in a wider range of industrial and related sectors. Twenty-eight leading academics from the UK and around the world have agreed to contribute to the edited volume, which will cover a wide range of industrial policy related issues. The volume will include chapters exploring how the UK might acquire a new competitive edge in manufacturing, policies promoting innovation and new (and green) technologies and the role of industrial training. It will also explore policies geared towards facilitating more balanced regional development within the UK, while governance issues will also be considered especially where they relate to managing inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and regulating monopoly power. While the book has primarily a UK policy remit, some chapters will specifically consider how lessons can be drawn from industrial policies previously employed in Asia, Europe and North America. The book is intended for policy-makers, academics and other researchers and students interested in industrial policy issues and economic policy-making more widely.
Commenting on the book invitation, Dr Tomlinson said ‘We are delighted with this exciting opportunity from a leading academic publisher. There is currently a huge policy vacuum, with the economy mired in recession and policy-makers struggling to find viable alternatives to the economics of austerity. We believe a UK industrial policy can potentially fill this vacuum and help to promote long-term, balanced and sustainable growth. This edited volume will bring together twenty-eight leading scholars to explore how a co-ordinated industrial policy might achieve this aim. The book will thus have contemporary policy relevance as it seeks to inform public opinion and influence the wider polity’.
Professor Graham Room, Acting Director of the University of Bath Institute for Policy Research (IPR), added: ‘The sluggishness of the economic recovery is depressing living standards and blighting the lives of unemployed young people in particular. Policies of deficit reduction have proved quite insufficient to the task. Phil Tomlinson and his colleagues have a more hopeful message, one based on careful research and one which merits the attention of public and policy makers alike. The book will be eagerly awaited’.
In conjunction with the IPR and Oxford University Press, the editors plan to hold a Winter symposium to discuss contributor’s draft chapters and the future course of Industrial Policy (details to be confirmed). The book is expected to be published by Oxford University Press in late 2014.
