This volume takes a closer look at the impact of manufacturing - notably automotive - plant closures in the UK (Birmingham) and Australia (Adelaide) in recent years and policy responses to those closures.

1. Introduction: A tale of two cities - auto plant closures and policy responses in Birmingham and Adelaide Andrew Beer and Holli Thomas 2. Supply chains and locational adjustment in the global automotive industry Ho-Yeon Kim and Philip McCann 3. Rover and out? Globalisation, the West Midlands auto cluster, and the end of MG Rover David Bailey, Seiji Kobayashi and Stewart MacNeill 4. Birmingham: whose urban renaissance? Regeneration as a response to economic restructuring Austin Barber and Stephen Hall 5. The housing and neighbourhood impacts of knowledge-based economic development following industrial closure Alex Burfitt and Ed Ferrari 6. The impact of factory closure on local communities and economies: the case of the MG Rover Longbridge closure in Birmingham Caroline Chapain and Alan Murie 7. Risk and return: housing tenure and labour market adjustment after employment loss in the automotive sector in southern Adelaide Andrew Beer 8. Closure of an automotive plant: transformation of a work-based 'community' Fiona Verity and Gwyn Jolley 9. Auto plant closures, policy responses and labour market outcomes: a comparison of MG Rover in the UK and Mitsubishi in Australia Kathy Armstrong, David Bailey, Alex de Ruyter, Michelle Mahdon and Holli Thomas 10. A tale of two regions: comparative versus competitive approaches to economic restructuring Holli Thomas, Andrew Beer and David Bailey

Andrew Beer is Professor in the School of Geography, Population and Environmental Management at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.

Holli Evans is a Lecturer in the School of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Queensland, Australia.