World of Possibilities: Flexibility and Mass Production in Western Industrialization(Studies in Modern Capitalism)

This book presents a bold and original reinterpretation of Western industrialization from the eighteenth century to the present day in terms of the interplay between flexibility and mass production. Drawing on extensive new research by a multinational and multidisciplinary team of scholars, the volume challenges standard views about the inevitable triumph of the large-scale, vertically-integrated corporate enterprise. In contrast, World of Possibilities highlights the plurality of forms of successful industrial organization, past and present, throughout the Western world.

Table of Contents:
Part I. The Modernity of Tradition: 1. Fashion as flexible production: the strategies of the Lyon silk merchants in the eighteenth century Carlo Poni; 2. The fate of fabriques collectives in the industrial world: the silk industries of Lyon and London, 1800–1850 Alain Cottereau; 3. The rise and decline of flexible production: the cutlery industry of Solingen since the eighteenth century Rudolf Boch; 4. Manufacturing flexibility in nineteenth-century Switzerland: social and institutional foundations of decline and revival in calico printing and watchmaking Beatrice Veyrassat; Part II. The Battle of the Systems: 5. Between flexibility and mass production: strategic ambiguity and selective adaptation in the British engineering industry, 1840–1914 Jonathan Zeitlin; 6. The lost paradigm: an Italian metalworking empire between competing models of production, 1900–1920 Alain Dewerpe; 7. 'Have a heart for the manufacturers!': production, distribution and the decline of American textile manufacturing Philip Scranton; 8. The small-holder economy in Denmark: the exception as variation Peer Hull Kristensen and Charles Sabel; Part III. The Resurgence of Flexible Production: 9. In search of flexibility: the Bologna metalworking industry, 1900–1992 Vittorio Capecchi; 10. Local industry and actors' strategies: from combs to plastics oyonnax Jean Saglio; 11. Producing producers: shippers, shipyards and the cooperative infrastructure of the Norwegian maritime complex since 1850 Hakon With Andersen; Index.

Review :
'This excellent book ... is a scholarly and rigorous academic text, drawing upon a wide range of multi-national research, impressive in its historical breadth and depth. It makes us think about how we think and write history ... It is quite simply good history.' Labour History Review