Political economy, industrial location and the European motor car industry in the postwar period

Abstract

Ward M. F. (1982) Political economy, industrial location and the European motor industry in the postwar period, Reg. Studies 16, 443–453. Recent changes in the locational pattern of manufacturing industry in advanced capitalist economies have highlighted the need for new approaches to the study of industrial location. It is argued that analysis must begin at the fundamental level of the nature of the economic system. Locational patterns are the outcome of the interplay of various institutions within the structural framework of the economic system as it is situated in geographical space. The locational development of the European motor industry in the postwar period is used to illustrate the approach. Particular emphasis is placed upon the political interplay between industrial capital, the State and labour.