The Transition to Flexibility

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. The Current Transition in Industrial Capitalism

   • Daniel C. Knudsen, Jeffrey S. Boggs

   Pages 1-14

3. Technology, Competitiveness, and Flexibility: Constantly Evolving Concepts

   • Edward J. Malecki

   Pages 15-32

4. Labor and Capitalist Accumulation in the Late Twentieth Century: What and Who is Flexible?

   • Martin Kenney, James Curry

   Pages 33-47

5. Preparing Workers and Students for the New Workplace

   • Larry Mikulecky

   Pages 49-65

6. Large Firm Strategies: Spatial Patterns of Production

   • Claire Ellen Pavlik

   Pages 67-86

7. Services and Flexible Production: Contingent but Mutually Reinforcing Systems

   • Barney Warf

   Pages 87-110

8. Inter-Firm Collaboration and Industrial Competitiveness

   • Brian Bosworth

   Pages 111-123

9. Government Response to Structural Change and the Implementation of More Flexible Management and Production Systems

   • J. W. Wheeler

   Pages 125-136

10. Fixed Structures in Transition: The Changing Demand for Office and Industrial Infrastructure

    • Nancey Green Leigh

    Pages 137-153

11. Period and Place, Capitalist Development, and the Flexible Specialization Debate

    • Kevin R. Cox

    Pages 155-177

12. The Current Transition Reconsidered

    • Daniel C. Knudsen, Raymond L. Martin

    Pages 179-185

The advanced capitalist nations are currently undergoing an enormous economic, social, and political transformation. At the heart of this transformation is the transition between large scale, standardized production (Fordism) and new, more flexible approaches to manufacturing (flexibility), and a concomitant extension of manufacturing to include products both concrete (goods) and ephemeral (services). This volume explores the consequences of this transition from the standpoints of technology, labor relations, firm strategy, education, government programs, and geography.
The book is a collection of papers by well-known scholars investigating the current global transition from mass consumption and production to flexible production for niche markets. The book is unique in that it not only discusses standard economic concerns, but also investigates the social and political implications of this transition. Each chapter is concerned with a different aspect of the same restructuring process.

• competitiveness
• development
• economic development
• education
• growth
• infrastructure
• management
• manufacturing
• mass
• production
• production systems
• public policy
• regulation
• restructuring
• strategy

• Department of Geography & Institute for Development Strategies School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University at Bloomington, Bloomington, USA

  Daniel C. Knudsen

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