Abstract

The classical distinction between center and periphery — with or without the idea of a “homeland base” (which used to be relevant for explaining differences in the performance of automakers’ internationalization strategies) — might now keep us from understanding the new phase of restructuring under way in the automobile industry. Two questions — related to product policies and productive organizations — serve to measure the new challenge that history has forced upon research in the social sciences. Social scientists must avoid transposing their grids of analysis to current events. They are being asked to renovate their theoretical paradigms and methods of investigation at a pace at least as fast as events in the field.