ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the FSRP situates the new and developing post-Fordist production and industrial complexes and regimes within the transforming spatial, regional, and global political economy that has been developing and has become embedded particularly in the United States and Europe (where most of the research took place within the FSRP); in particular, this chapter examines the emergence of, through the transcendence of mass production Fordism, post-Fordism, a flexibly specialised form of de-centralised production regime which, in turn, relates to the arguments of post-classical economists such as Alfred Marshall with his idea and theory of ‘industrial districts’ as localities and regions where specific industries cluster and, moreover, arrange themselves around in a mutually beneficial manner, involving both competition but also trust and cooperation for their mutual advantage. However, the chapter argues that there are dangers and disadvantages to the post-Fordist (flexibly specialised) arrangement and ensemble, namely, the emergence and consolidation of new forms of social and economic exclusion which harks back to Piore’s much earlier analysis of forms of ‘dual labour markets; finally, the chapter warns that this specific model of economic and social organisation could or has already, had negative, unintended and perverse political consequences which could lead to retrograde forms of regionalism and, possibly, neo-fascism forms of capitalism. On the other hand, calls for decentralisation of decision-making and the redistribution of power and resources could be central for a reinvigorated and egalitarian form of socialism.
