The Industrial Structural Change and Regional Development : The Rise of New Industrial Spaces in the Industrialized Countries and in the Newly Industralizing Countries

선진자본주의사회에서의 산업구조변화와 신흥공업국에서의 산업화에 따른 지역발달문제

Many of the industrialized countries since the 1970s have been experiencing the change in the industrial structure due to technological development, that is, from Fordism to post-Fordism, or to "flexible production system". Regional development has been undergoing some changes according to the different industrial production systems. During the Fordist mass production period, the manufacturing belt was the core region of the production system. As the system shifts to flexible production system of which characteristics are veritcal disintegration, emphasis for JIT(just-in-time) delivery system, part-time and short-time labor contracts, design-intensive industries, etc, the new system requires the new production core and has produced the new industrial spaces, such as Sunbelt cities, suburbs, small-or medium-sized cities, and non-metropolitan areas. In the perspective of global system, the Fordist production system made th NICs developed, because the mass production required many unskilled and low-wage workers. As the NICs exports of manufactured goods have incredibly expanded during the 1970s, the industrialized countries have become threatened. The industriablized countries have restructured their economies and international policies. Such restructures resulted in the economic depression of the NICs. The investment pattern of the industrialized countries has changed and particularly those industries adopting the Post-Fordism have invested from the NICs to the peripheral areas of their own countries or toward the underdeveloped countries which have much lower wage workers. The investment pattern of the NICs is also undergoing some changes like from metropolitian areas to small or non-metropolitan regions. The regional development since the post-Fordist production is still going on, thus it is not possible to generalize the tendency. That could be a particular phenomenon or a stage in the long-term cycle. But the regional development in the world system since 1980s definitely shows the different pattern.t pattern.