ABSTRACT
The dynamism, coupled with the highly internationalized character of much of the industry, makes capital in electronics more mobile than in many other industries. The electronics industry is often cited as a prime example of decentralized production systems with branch plants having little economic impact on the areas in which they are located because their suppliers and markets lie elsewhere, i.e. the ‘cathedrals in the desert’ syndrome. The development of an industry such as electronics therefore has to be understood in terms of the articulation of processes operating and manifested on a variety of different scales. Despite the global character of the industry, nation states and their governments are significant actors in the process of uneven spatial development from the start. In the electronics industry the less-routinized forms of work tend to require a larger number of skilled workers and of course better paid ones than in more routinized work.
