A New Era of Flexibility? Some Evidence and Problems from the Petrochemicals Industry

In: Environment and planning. A, Band 23, Heft 10, S. 1429-1446

Abstract

The debate over the notion of 'flexibility' has centred around evidence from a small number of industrial sectors. In this paper, the petrochemicals industry is examined for evidence of a shift towards flexibility. It is concluded that there is evidence of both a move towards flexible production and organisation and a move towards the retention of commodity production. In so doing, three problems in the flexibility argument are dealt with; the breakup of mass markets, the potential for small firms, and the engineering-derived nature of the approach.