Industrial Reorganization, Capital Restructuring and Locational Change: An Analysis of the Canadian Automobile Industry in the 1960s

Abstract

There were significant changes in the locational structure of the Canadian automotive industry in the 1960s. It is clear that these changes cannot be fully understood and explained by reference only to changes in the geographical distribution of location factors. The changes were instigated by the reorganization and rationalization of production which occurred in the wake of a major crisis of accumulation which developed in the industry in the late 1950s. The paper outlines a general analytical framework for the analysis of locational change associated with industrial reorganization and restructuring. This framework is then used to understand the changes which occurred in organization and locational structure. The specific forms which these changes took were shaped by the interaction between the new conditions of accumulation brought about through the rationalization and reorganization of production and the existing geographical configuration of factors and conditions of production. In turn, the new spati...