Editorial Comment:

Abstract: The paper explores the relevance of an institutionalist approach to industrial unemployment by examining the transformations that have occurred in the chemical industry of two industrial areas: Teesside (UK) and Brindisi (Italy). It assumes that processes of industrial restructuring and redundancies are shaped by (and shape) a complex matrix of institutions that affect corporate definitions of economic rationality and mediate their employment strategies. These institutions also explain the spatial heterogeneity of restructuring responses to common restructuring problems. The emphasis of this approach lies therefore less in the claim that organizational action adapts to the conditions of the market or is independent of it, but rather that organizations behave as part of specific institutional systems.