ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the impact of change and the shift from Fordist production to flexible post-Fordist systems in the place-specific context of engineering industries in Turin. For some years now the interrelationships between the size of an enterprise, competitiveness and territory have occupied a significant position in socio-economic analysis. In other chapters in this volume the context is outlined of the changes that have occurred in the world economy within which the dynamics of these relationship can be interpreted: deverticalisation of the production process, transformation of the supply of goods and components, the formation of global commodity chains, the growth of the role of small and medium sized enterprises, and the changing provision of finance and services.
