The Limits of Flexibility
Comments on the Post-Fordist Vision of Production and Its Geography
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11554451 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Meric S Gertler (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1988 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 419-419 |
| Publication date | 1988-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-2754 • E-ISSN: 1475-5661 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.2307/622739 |
| OpenAlex | W2332934849 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 171 |
| References cited | 17 |
Recently some economic geographers have drawn our attention to what are alleged to be fundamental changes in production, based on the adoption of more flexible machines and labour within firms, and more flexible relations between firms. Certain spatial implications such as reagglomeration of production are said to have resulted from these changes, or are believed to be underway. This paper critically examines these contentions by setting out the fundamental elements of these changes, considering the degree of their pervasiveness throughout western economies, and the extent to which such changes really do represent a distinct break with the past history and geography of production. In doing so, this paper seeks to uncover the true motivations underlying technological change in the workplace, exposing some common misconceptions about the new flexible production methods and their impacts
Economic geography · Economics · Economy · Flexibility (engineering · Fordism · Geography · Management · Microeconomics · Production (economics · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis · Regional resilience and development
From geopolitics to geoeconomics
Negotiating national action
Economic geography
Postfordism in question
Trading Blocs and Multilateralism in the World Economy
Economic Geography
Economic Theory and Human Geography
Regulation/Deregulation
Branch Plant Economy
Studying Regions by Studying Firms∗
Searching for a New Institutional Fix
Post‐Fordism
Employment Theory and the Wheel of Retailing
Producer Services and Flexible Production
Does the Digitalization of Manufacturing Boost a ‘Smart’ Era of Capital Accumulation
Tourism oligopoly is at work
Sticky Places in Slippery Space
A Tale of Twelve Cities
Flexible Circulation in the Pacific Rim
Across the Great Divide
Discontinuity and the Emergence of Flexible Production
Worker Displacement and Corporate Restructuring
Some Dilemmas of Automation
Just-in-Time
Theorizing Economic Geographies of Asia
Objections to Economic Restructuring and the Strategies of Coercion
Conceptual Linkages in the Study of Production and Reproduction in Latin American Cities
Productive and Spatial Strategies in the Montreal Tobacco Industry, 1850-1918
Fordism at Ford
Labor and Agglomeration
The Ambiguous Future of Professional and Technical Workers in Manufacturing
Beyond Flexible Accumulation
From Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism
The Ties That Bind. Informal and Formal Sector Linkages in Streetvending
Dispositions towards automation
Metrópole ressurgente
Reimagined communities? European image spaces, beyond Fordism
Shifting monument production chains and the implications for gravestone design on Prince Edward Island, 1820–2005
Outsourcing and Offshoring of Business Services
Entrepreneurship in a Modern Network Economy
Flexibility in Small Manufacturing Firms and Regional Industrial Formations
The Little Town That Did
Fuzzy Concepts, Scanty Evidence, Policy Distance
Company Perceptions of Comparative Advantage by Region
The UK Whiteware Industry
High-skill, Low-wage Manufacturing in North America
Dutch Textile Industry in a Global Economy
Just-in-time Inventory Control and the Economic Integration of Japanese-owned Manufacturing Plants with the County, State and National Economies of the United States
Implementing Advanced Manufacturing Technologies in Mature Industrial Regions
Flexible Employment Strategies in British Industry
The Changing Corporate Head Office and its Spatial Implications
Nike just did it
Manufacturing Demand for Business Services in a Core and Peripheral Region
New Firm Formation in the Semiconductor Industry
Piercing the Corporate Veil
Regulating the Restructuring of the US Steel Industry
From Mass Production to Flexible Specialization
Competition, Collaboration and Cooperation
Conceptualizing Countryside Change
Business Reorganization and the Uneven Development of Corporate Services in the British Urban and Regional System
Labour Flexibility and Industrial Restructuring in the UK 'Sunbelt
Marshallian Industrial Districts
Flexibility Revisited
Flexibility in the US Service Economy and the Emerging Spatial Division of Labour
Local modes of social regulation? Regulation theory, thatcherism and uneven development
Ramen noodle supply geographies in the Kansai region of Japan
Introducing new process technology
Flexible production in the developing world
Women's employment and peripheralisation
The contradictions of flexibility
Flexible production and flexible theory
Insider or outsider, both or neither
Transplanted Organizations
Small and medium-sized enterprises in the Republic of Korea
Network Access Skills and Equity in the Workplace
The Flexibility Fetish A Review Essay on Flexible Specialisation
Industrialization After (De) Industrialization
Intergovernmental dynamics in responding to Covid-19 in English and Australian cities
Modes of corporate organization and the geography of development
Understanding the Changing Geography of China's State-Owned Enterprises
The Resurgence of Regional Economies, Ten Years Later
The Meaning of Work
The logistics of Just-in-Time between parts suppliers and car assemblers in Japan
Logistics strategies in the single European market and their spatial consequences
Innovations, competitiveness and local embeddedness
Network Activities, Information and Competitiveness in Small Firms
The Heart of the Place
Business Dilemmas and Social Dilemmas
Networks and embeddedness in the dynamic types of new industrial districts
Strategy and industrial restructuring
Accumulation, regulation and the geographies of post-Fordism
Globalizing Parisian thought-waves
An uncertain future
Industrial geography
Industrial subcontracting and employment forms in Latin America
The influence of economics on geographic inquiry
Critical reviews of geographical perspectives on business organizations and the organization of production
Intersectoral linkages and the role of the state in shaping the conditions of industrial accumulation
Public Administration and the Changing Nature of Space
Wage Rates, Occupation Staffing Patterns, and the Location of the Computer and Semiconductor Industries
Regional Dynamics
The second industrial divide
Technological Change and Regional Shifts in American Manufacturing∗
Forces of production
Across the Industrial Divide
Progress Report
Industrial Restructuring in a Period of Crisis
The Impact of Technological Change upon the Spatial Pattern of UK Employment within Major Corporations
The geography of technological change in the information economy
Technological and Organizational Change in Automobile Production
Flexible Specialization and Regional Industrial Agglomerations
Productive Decentralisation in Three European Regions
Industrial Organization and Location
The decentralisation of production - the decline of the mass-collective worker
Flexible Integration, Scope Economies, and Strategic Alliances
From Fordism to Flexible Accumulation
Some Problems of Time in Economic Geography
| Unique citing works | 171 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4,5 |
| Citation span | 1988 - 2026 (39) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 166 |