ABSTRACT
Modernization in the West after the Second World War drew upon many of the principles of production and wealth accumulation already established before the war; nonetheless, economic growth in the post-war years was linked to a social space more integrated than before. The standardized conditions of production were intended to create a modern, disciplined assembly-line worker, and, as Harvey observes, Fordist theories of manufacture had recognized that mass production entails mass consumption, with the consequence that both sides of the process need to be held in place by 'a new kind of rationalized, modernist, and populist democratic society' (1989: 126). 'Postwar Fordism', Harvey continues, 'has to be seen, therefore, less as a mere system of mass production and more as a total way of life' (1989: 135). This period also saw an increased internationalism among capitalist countries, based upon the rationalization of production and sales in major construction industries. The other side of this capitalist market was state investment in transport, public utilities and communications systems to provide for the workers who would support the production system.
