Not Flexible Accumulation—Contradictions of Value in Contemporary Economic Geography: 2. Regional Regimes, National Regulation, and Political Strategy

Abstract

In this and a previous paper, work by geographers that is based on the idea that we are in a period of transition to an epoch of flexible accumulation, or post-Fordism, is examined. It is argued that this thesis relies on abstracting the technical and organisational aspects of current restructuring from its value relations. An account which includes value relations shows that the phenomena said to characterise flexible accumulation are more contradictory and unstable, more varied, and more open to struggle than is supposed in work in which a new epoch is assumed. In this second part of the study internal regimes of regions, the relations between regions, and regulation of national space economies are discussed. It is argued that the politics flowing from the flexible accumulation accounts oscillate between fatalism and utopianism, and that an approach based on value relations is able to provide a clearer basis for political struggle.