Making Microchips: Policy, Globalization, and Economic Restructuring in the Semiconductor Industry (Urban and Industrial Environments) [Hardcover]

Janice Mazurek (Author)

Book Description

Series: Urban and Industrial Environments | Publication Date: December 11, 1998

In Making Microchips, Jan Mazurek examines the environmental and economic implications of the computer microchip industry's exodus from California's Silicon Valley to New Mexico, Virginia, Ireland, and Taiwan. Globalization, economic restructuring, and changing manufacturing processes in this rapidly growing industry present difficult new questions for environmental policy. Mazurek challenges the assumptions of U.S. policies designed to promote the competitiveness of domestic microchip makers. She argues that, although these initiatives focus on the economic effects of environmental regulation, they fail to acknowledge how economic and organizational changes within the industry collide with and often confound efforts to monitor and manage pollution from chemicals used in microchip manufacturing.Despite its reputation as a clean industry, microchip manufacturing is fraught with hazards. More than sixty dangerous acids, solvents, caustics, and gases are used to make microchips, and some of them are suspected to be carcinogens and/or reproductive toxins. Mazurek describes the environmental by-products of chipmaking, including soil contamination, air and water pollution, and damage to human health. Applying insights from economic geography to questions of how and where companies organize production, she shows how Silicon Valley played a pivotal role in the development of the microchip. Pairing federal environmental data with structural and geographic information on the six firms that continue to build wafer fabrication plants in the United States, she demonstrates how reorganization and relocation of manufacturing facilities divert attention from trends in toxic emissions and how they complicate public and private efforts to improve the industry's environmental performance. In the concluding chapter, Mazurek marshals her findings in a broader analysis of the expansion of global manufacturing and the resultant environmental problems.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A timely study of how current regulations and initiatives are addressing environmental concerns in the semiconductor industry." John Abbott Computer Business Review

"Jan Mazurek has written an interesting and provocative work which provides great insight into the future of the environment and the economy." Terry Davies, Director, Center for Risk Management, Resources for the Future

About the Author

Carl H. Coleman, J.D., is an Associate Professor and Associate Directorof the Health Law and Policy Program at Seton Hall LawSchool. He is the former Executive Director of the New York StateTask Force on Life and the Law. He has published articles on a broadrange of bioethical issues, including assisted reproductive technologies,physician-assisted suicide, and research with human subjects.

Jan Mazurek directs the Center for Innovation and Policy at the Progresive Policy Institute in Washington, DC. She is the coauthor (with J. Clarence Davies) of Pollution Control in the United States: Evaluating the System.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 261 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (December 11, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262133458
• ISBN-13: 978-0262133456
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,044,434 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Environmental Issues More Than Anthing Else, August 24, 2001

By 

"psinyc" (New York, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Making Microchips: Policy, Globalization, and Economic Restructuring in the Semiconductor Industry (Urban and Industrial Environments) (Hardcover)

The first quarter of the book was extremely interesting and informative. She gave a basic overview of the semiconductor industry, and included reasonable comparisons and predictions. She included an abundance of information and research on possible environmental issues that could arise from semiconductor manufacturing. As I began reading, I prepared myself for a slamming of the industries' "clean manufacturing" procedures. However, I was pleased to discover that her analysis was well thought out, and presented in an unbiased fashion. I would have liked to see more analysis in terms of the economic implications/costs, either micro or macro, associated with restructuring the industry into a "cleaner state." In review, this book was informative, and helpful in presenting underlying environmental issues associated with the semiconductor industry.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Clean manufacturing, or not?, August 4, 2001

By 

Katherine Derbyshire "kewmsamzn" (Stoneham, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Making Microchips: Policy, Globalization, and Economic Restructuring in the Semiconductor Industry (Urban and Industrial Environments) (Hardcover)

I didn't want to like this book. The cover copy led me to expect a one-sided attack on the semiconductor industry's claims of clean manufacturing. Instead, I found a clear discussion of the difficult balance between the public interest and the needs of a constantly evolving industry. Semiconductor manufacturers regularly change manufacturing processes, shift production between countries, and even (through foundries) transfer production to entirely different companies. All of these characteristics complicate traditional environmental regulation based on clearly defined lists of pollutants from clearly defined sources. Meanwhile, the industry's sometimes obsessive secrecy, though justified by competitive pressures, complicates community relations and can hamper more flexible regulatory approaches.

In some cases, Mazurek's lack of semiconductor manufacturing expertise shows. For example, she repeats without comment the contention of environmental groups that water too dirty for wafer manufacturing is, of necessity, unfit for human consumption. In other instances, the existing regulatory structure itself leads to potentially misleading analysis. For example, Department of Commerce statistics on semiconductor shipments do not clearly distinguish between US-manufactured chips and US-designed chips manufactured outside the US, making it difficult to tell whether declines in toxic releases are due to cleaner manufacturing or simply to production transfers.

These complaints are merely quibbles, though. Taken as a whole, Mazurek has composed an impressive and thought-provoking analysis. Environmental policy makers, manufacturing executives, and the citizens affected by their decisions could all learn something from this book.