ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relationship of internationalisation to a period of sustained international 'crisis' in the context of analyses of the international 'restructuring' of capital. Capital is, of course, in a continual process of change: it is always, in some sense, 'restructuring', including in an international-spatial dimension. Diverse contemporary explanations of restructuring have made certain essential assumptions about the nature of the changes which have been characterised as 'recent internationalisation': that restructuring since the 1970s has been a response to an international crisis of profitability; and that restructuring can be understood as changing relations between national units. The focus of 'classical' Marxism has dictated the fundamental conception of internationalisation which has dominated contemporary theories of restructuring. The observed experience of international restructuring is all about industry and industrial change: industry closures, unemployment, and regional decline offset by the emergence of new industries in new regions with new employment opportunities.
