ABSTRACT
In his review of relational economic geography Yeung attempts to go beyond the descriptive aspect of relationality and proposes a theoretical turn that will enable explanation, what he describes as "theorizing explanations of difference". He proposes to address why and how difference produces power that becomes expressed in concrete outcomes, in place. Ethnography and geography enable to address the actual relationship between these two processes, spontaneous or intentional, of making history. Comparison of ethnographic cases enables to understand the various scales that interlock in the concrete places where livelihoods are materially situated. Restructurings of heavy industry have had similar effects, namely, job losses and the reorganization of production relations around the polysemic concept of "flexibility". Structural and functional flexibility are imposed by capital in industry allegedly to enhance productivity and become more competitive in a globalized market. In all cases what amounts to the same destruction of workers' value and workers' power is realized through various forms of flexibility.
