The Roepke Lecture in Economic Geography The Collective Order Of Flexible Production Agglomerations: Lessons for Local Economic Development Policy and Strategic Choice

Abstract

A significant portion of the modern world economy is constituted as a patchwork of dense industrial agglomerations. The currently shifting structure of production from Fordist to flexible accumulation has intensified this state of affairs. In this paper, I describe changes in the thrust and content of regional policy resulting from these developments. I briefly delineate the inner logic of flexible production agglomerations, and I argue that they are likely to be most successful when they secure for themselves appropriate frameworks of institutional and collective order. Generic tasks for such frameworks are described in terms of five main arenas of social intervention: (1) industrial technology, (2) labor training, (3) business service associations, (4) innovation networks and cooperative manufacturing structures, and (5) local government and land use control. The case of recent public efforts to establish an electric car industry in Los Angeles is discussed as an illustration of the argument. The paper ends with a brief remark about some of the wider political implications of the analysis.

Key words:

• agglomeration
• collective action
• flexible production
• industrial policy
• local economic development
• regional growth
• strategic choice