Thinking about Flexibility: A Response to Gertler

In a recent article in this journal, Gertler criticizes the notion of flexibility, focusing on the issues of the empirical pervasiveness of flexible production methods and the social, economic and technical barriers to their spread. Emphasizing the labour control advantages of an extensive spatial division of labour, he criticizes geographers who have linked flexible production with spatial reconcentration. This paper takes issue with Gertler's criteria for evaluating the significance of flexibility, his assessment of the origins of technological and organizational change in production, and the relationship between labour control and the spatial allocation of production. It presents an alternative interpretation of the meaning of flexibility in industrial history.