ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on 'Fordism' in the narrow sense remains a viable model of mass production and the ways in which it relates to other organizational forms of mass production that have emerged in recent years, forming a complex and changing pattern of geographies of production. The chapter focuses on changes in the car industry within Europe, though with reference to other parts of the world. It explores various aspects of relationships between companies within the overall car production filiè re. The chapter examines the dialectic of competition and cooperation in the strategies of the major car production and assembly companies within Europe, especially in relation to the threat posed by inward investment from Japan. The relationships between car assembly companies and their component suppliers are then analysed, leading to consideration of competition and cooperation between the major component companies themselves. The chapter considers the regulation of production by the state, at various levels and spatial scales.
