GEOG 216 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Post-Fordism, Hutchison 3G, Fordism
13 Jun 2018
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Lecture 21 to 23: Post-Fordism, the division of labor and new industrial spaces
Outline
• New industrial spaces
o 1. Geography and the division of labor (DoL):
o 2. Externalities, transactions and linkages
o 3. Growth dynamics, agglomeration and new industrial spaces
Introduction
• Regulation Theory → macro-structural analysis
• Transition from Fordism to post-Fordism → shifts in world space-economy
o New industrial spaces rising to prominence (industrial
agglomerations/complexes = concentration of firms in particular
types of activities) Starting in late 1960s- new industrial
agglomerations (Silicon Valley)
▪ Examples: Silicon Valley, Route 128, Research Triangle (NIC),
Montreal biotech & aerospace clusters, 3rd Italy, Bangalore etc.
o Rupture (between Fordism to post Fordism as we go from one
economic regime to the next) → window of locational opportunity
(new firms not beholden to locate near older Fordist manufacturing
centers; seek out to new locations to escape rigidities for example
they were trying to escape unions
o Key factors
1. Pro-business environment
2. Absence or lack of union activity
3. Land rents lower
4. Strong university linkage (human capital, recently graduated
engineers)
5. Tax policies/subsidies
• Point of departure → two geographical forces constantly at work:
o Dispersion (decentralization) to suitable places
o Agglomeration (centralization/clustering)
Part 1- theory of industrial organization
• Division of labor (first-cut def.: the separation of tasks of production
activity within the labor or production process and the allocation of these
tasks to different workers.
• i.e., DoL → fragmentation of tasks and specialization of production functions
remember Smiths pin factory, 1 workers doing only one task all day
long
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Input-output system- depicts different steps in the production.
Each step is moments in the DoL, upstream flows; think of a river, where
does the raw material aka water come from.
As we move through this and get closer to the markets these movements in
the division of labor are referred to as downstream flows.
The arrows connecting the movements are transactions
There are many types of transactions (ex: cost of transportation).
These exchanges happen over time and somewhere in space. It has a
geographical dimension.
Roundaboutness
• Roundaboutness, coined in early 1800s: number of interconnected steps
between the production of raw materials on which the economy is based and
the production of final outputs. Simple system no very roundabout. A
regional economy will have a bunch of moment so much roundaboutness
• Increased roundaboutness → more complex input-output system comme un
rond point
o → Also more potential for geographical differentiation of economic
activities!
Technical Vs. Social DoL (1)
• Technical DoL (within the firm):
o Production process broken down into several specialized tasks:
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o Involves vertical hierarchy of transactions internal to firm
Fords river rouge complex near Dearborn, MI 1917-2004, it had its own
canal system to unload raw material, they had their own steel smelters
• Social DoL (between firms): breaking down into different specialized firms
o Parceling out of different tasks between independent firms in pattern
of vertical disintegration
o E.g. specialized producers buy and sell among themselves in networks
of externalized transactions governed by market forces -> price
mechanisms
Firm A and B decide to merge
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Lecture 21 to 23: post-fordism, the division of labor and new industrial spaces. Geography and the division of labor (dol): 2. Input-output system- depicts different steps in the production. Each step is moments in the dol, (cid:498)upstream(cid:499) flows; think of a river, where does the raw material aka water come from. As we move through this and get closer to the markets these movements in the division of labor are referred to as downstream flows. There are many types of transactions (ex: cost of transportation). These exchanges happen over time and somewhere in space. Roundaboutness: roundaboutness, coined in early 1800s: number of interconnected steps between the production of raw materials on which the economy is based and the production of final outputs. A regional economy will have a bunch of moment so much roundaboutness. Increased roundaboutness more complex input-output system comme un rond point: also more potential for geographical differentiation of economic activities, technical dol (within the firm):
