Japanese Auto Transplants in the Heartland
Corporatism and Community

The idea for this book was formed during the early 1980s when the author was studying the impact of plant closings on displaced workers and communities. In one community, workers who were displaced by a plant closing expected to receive retraining funds through the Job Training and Partnership Act (JTPA), only to find that the state had committed all the JTPA funds to train new workers for a Japanese transplant. Soon it became apparent that deindustrialization, job loss, and economically depressed communities were linked with the escalating interstate competition to provide multi-million dollar incentive packages for businesses to settle in their state. When Japanese automobile companies considered coming to the United States, they fueled the interstate competition for these large projects, which promised thousands of jobs and economic growth.

1 The Coming of the Transplants: Why Are They Important? 2 The Global-Local Connection: How the Changing Global Economy Affected States and Communities 3 Settling in the Heartland: Why the Midwest Corridor? 4 Selling Growth in Small-Town America: Media Images 5 Creating a New Worker: Fusing Labor, Community, and Company 6 In the Heart of the Heart of the Country: Corporatism as Civic Virtue 7 Capital and Community in Transition: Continuing Corporate Welfare or Nascent Social Economy?