Beyond Corporate Abandonment

Abstract

Following World War II, executives from the General Motors Corporation (GM) implemented a sweeping corporate growth plan that centered on the suburbanization of manufacturing. As part of this agenda of metropolitan capitalism, company officials shifted resources and jobs away from the city of Flint, Michigan—GM’s international manufacturing headquarters. However, these capital migrations were not examples of corporate abandonment. Rather, the company’s investment decisions were part of a larger effort to expand Flint’s boundaries and create a regional government. Although suburban opponents ultimately defeated the proposal for a “New Flint,” GM’s support for metropolitan government belies the notion of capital flight at the heart of most literature on the “urban crisis.” Emphasizing the local struggles that unfolded over GM’s postwar investment strategy, this case study posits metropolitan capitalism as a new framework for explaining urban deindustrialization and, more broadly, the processes of suburban development.