Flexibility Revisited
Districts, Nation-States, and the Forces of Production
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8963802 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Meric S Gertler (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1992 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 259-259 |
| Publication date | 1992-01-01 |
| 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 | 10.2307/622879 |
| OpenAlex | W2334076514 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 90 |
| References cited | 20 |
A vibrant debate has raged in geography and other social sciences over the past several years, concerning the nature and extent of changes to contemporary capitalism that might be identified as more flexible. This paper critically surveys the recent work on this theme, identifying areas of consensus, continuing disagreement, and important but still neglected questions. Some consensus appears to have emerged over the types of new practices that firms are pursuing in their production systems, about the nature of contemporary competition, and about the continuing importance of politics and social relations in production. Disagreement remains evident on empirical questions concerning the pervasiveness and significance of flexible practices, on the characteristics of a 'true' industrial district, and on the role and importance of large versus small firms. Theoretical debates continue over how to interpret local cases of success or failure, as well as the motive forces underlying contemporary economic change. As for neglected issues, there is a pressing need for more systematic and comparative analysis cutting across a wider range of local experiences. There is also a need to redress the relative lack of attention directed toward declining regions, service industries, and gender relations in the economy. Nor have the continuing importance of nation-states, nor the geographical determinants of forces of production, yet received their due. The paper concludes by highlighting new dilemmas facing geographers as the theory of flexible industrialization is translated increasingly into practice
Business · Economic geography · Economics · Flexibility (engineering · Geography · Management · Microeconomics · Political science · Production (economics · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis · Regional resilience and development · Rural development and sustainability
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Searching for a New Institutional Fix
Post‐Fordism
The Roepke Lecture in Economic Geography Global-Local Tensions
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Fordism at Ford
Labor and Agglomeration
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Reconfiguring the rural or fording the divide
An ‘expert labor’ approach to business service change
The Resurgence of Regional Economies, Ten Years Later
The Meaning of Work
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Regional push
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The Geography of Trade Policy
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Variations on the theme of agglomeration and growth
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Focus
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The Competitive Advantage of Nations
The Informal Economy
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An evolutionary theory of economic change
Industrial subcontracting and employment forms in Latin America
The Limits of Flexibility
Uneasy Alliances
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Local modes of social regulation? Regulation theory, thatcherism and uneven development
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Industrial Districts
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Fordism's unknown successor
| Unique citing works | 90 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,65 |
| Citation span | 1992 - 2024 (33) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 88 |