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Fordism as a type of production organisation appears to be losing its dominance in the advanced industrial economies. A wealth of industrial case studies has been amassed over the past decade documenting the appearance of new ways of organising production systems, labour markets, and labour-capital relations (Wilkinson, 1981; Solinas, 1982; Scott, 1984; Rubery and Wilkinson, 1981; Murray, 1983; Ikeda, 1979; Bagnasco, 1977; Berger, 1981; Christopherson, 1986; Brusoo, 1982; Brusco and Sabel, 1983). Most especially, the recent evidence suggests that vertical integration, mass production, and stable oligopolistic market structures—the hallmarks of Fordist industries—are not the necessary culminations of sectoral development, as was often assumed in the early post-war years (Storper, 1985). Since Fordism refers not only to a type of production organisation but also a compatible form of macroeconomic …