This book is the product of four years of collaborative work within the framework of the European Science Foundation's Regional and Urban Restructuring in Europe (RURE) programme. With one exception, all of the chapters have been prepared by participants in RURE - the exception being that commissioned from Conti and Enrietti on Fiat and Italy to provide a fuller coverage of changes in the main automobile producing companies and countries of Europe. A - perhaps the - central theme around which the RURE programme was conceived is that the restructuring of the production system lies at the heart of the changing map of Europe. Equally, it continues to be the case that the automobile industry lies at the cutting edge of the search for viable new models of production. Some eighty years ago the automobile industry occupied a pivotal position in the transition from craft to mass production - indeed "Fordism" came to denote not just a particular micro-economic model of production organisation in the factory but a macro-scale model of economic development, characterized by a particular pattern of relations between mass production, mass consumption and national state regulation. From the late 1960s, however, it became increasingly clear that Fordism as a macro-scale model of advanced capitalist development was reaching its limits.

This book is the product of four years of collaborative work within the framework of the European Science Foundation's Regional and Urban Restructuring in Europe (RURE) programme. With one exception, all of the chapters have been prepared by participants in RURE - the exception being that commissioned from Conti and Enrietti on Fiat and Italy to provide a fuller coverage of changes in the main automobile producing companies and countries of Europe. A - perhaps the - central theme around which the RURE programme was conceived is that the restructuring of the production system lies at the heart of the changing map of Europe. Equally, it continues to be the case that the automobile industry lies at the cutting edge of the search for viable new models of production. Some eighty years ago the automobile industry occupied a pivotal position in the transition from craft to mass production - indeed "Fordism" came to denote not just a particular micro-economic model of production organisation in the factory but a macro-scale model of economic development, characterized by a particular pattern of relations between mass production, mass consumption and national state regulation. From the late 1960s, however, it became increasingly clear that Fordism as a macro-scale model of advanced capitalist development was reaching its limits.

This book is the product of four years of collaborative work within the framework of the European Science Foundation's Regional and Urban Restructuring in Europe (RURE) programme. With one exception, all of the chapters have been prepared by participants in RURE - the exception being that commissioned from Conti and Enrietti on Fiat and Italy to provide a fuller coverage of changes in the main automobile producing companies and countries of Europe. A - perhaps the - central theme around which the RURE programme was conceived is that the restructuring of the production system lies at the heart of the changing map of Europe. Equally, it continues to be the case that the automobile industry lies at the cutting edge of the search for viable new models of production. Some eighty years ago the automobile industry occupied a pivotal position in the transition from craft to mass production - indeed "Fordism" came to denote not just a particular micro-economic model of production organisation in the factory but a macro-scale model of economic development, characterized by a particular pattern of relations between mass production, mass consumption and national state regulation. From the late 1960s, however, it became increasingly clear that Fordism as a macro-scale model of advanced capitalist development was reaching its limits.

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject Geography / Earth Science - Economic Geography, grade: 1,7, University of Lisbon, course: Industriegeographie, Geografia de Industria, language: English, abstract: Wirtschaftsgeographie, Arbeit ber geographische Verteilung und Dynamik sowie den Einfluss von betriebswirtschaftlichen Organisation- und Produktionsformen auf die geographische Verteilung der Automobilindustrie. Blick auf portugiesische Automobilindustrie

The New European Automobile Industry is about the struggle for survival going on among the assembler and components firms which constitute the European automobile industry. It describes and explains the competitive, structural, organisational and technological changes currently sweeping the industry and outlines the spatial and economic effects of those changes. The empirical core of the book is a study of a number of technology fields in automobile components. These sections draw on the latest research carried out by the authors in Europe through which they evaluate the extent to which lean production techniques have permeated the vehicle assemblers and components industry.

′The social and political power of the verity that there are no such things as economies, only economic geographies demands an analysis of the complex flows and relations implied by it. At last, here is a book – the book - which addresses the questions central to the critical understanding of economies and their formative geographies. This is a highly creative and transformative contribution′ Roger Lee, Professor of Geography, Queen Mary, University of London How do we conceptualise the production and re-production of social life? What are the most appropriate ways to conceptualise capitalist economies and their geographies? Economic Geographies integrates ideas of structure, agency, and practice to provide: · a detailed overview of recent key debates in economic geography: from political-economy and Marxism to post-structuralism · an explanation of the of relations between production, retail and consumption, governance and regulation · a discussion of the economy in terms of circuits, flows, and spaces that systematically relates the material to the cultural Economic Geographies is a systematic audit of related developments in economic geography and the social sciences: these include consumption; economy and nature; and culture. The text will be required reading for upper-level undergraduates on courses in economic geography.

This study examines a crucial period in European integration, ending in the early 1990s, when significant progress was made towards the dream of a unified European market. It shows how European automakers were part of these changes and how their influence within the institutions of the European Union (EU) yielded a wide range of policy compromises governing a single European car market. The book begins by reviewing the history of the EU and the logic of regional free trade, and goes on to develop a political explanation for the kinds of changes that actually occurred. The author argues that European automakers enjoyed a privileged place in the political arena, albeit one much transformed by the new institutions of the EU. Therefore, these firms often significantly influenced regional policy outcomes. The argument is applied to policymaking in the important areas of environmental regulation, trade, subsidies, and anti-trust regulation. This work lies at the intersection of business, economics, and political science and is of interest to both experts and non-specialists with an interest in the tremendous economic and political changes brought about by the creation of a united Europe and, more generally, by the worldwide process of regional economic integration. Academics, professionals, businessmen, and leaders in government all have something to learn from the way in which firms and governments combined to build the largest car market in the world. Roland Stephen is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, North Carolina State University.