 Steel – bulk-reducing – traditionally located near what?  Shifts happened because the inputs necessary changed and eventually proximity to markets became more important over time  Motor vehicles – bulk-gaining – traditionally located near what?  East Asia, Europe, North America  Textiles and Apparel  Less-skilled, low-cost workers  China and India have become the dominant fabric producers because their lower labor costs offset the expense of shipping inputs and products long distances

 Shift away form northwestern Europe and northeastern US  Europe – to convergence regions  US – to the South and West  The South was historically the poorest region of the US due to the Civil War  1930s – gov’t policies to reduce disparities, build up infrastructure  Many manufacturers now dispersing to the South because of lower wages and willingness to not join a union

 Requires a factory to maintain a so-called “open shop” and prohibits a “closed shop”  “Closed shop” – everyone must join the union to work in the factory  Right-to-work laws make it much more difficult to organize factory workers, collect union dues and bargain with employers  Attractive to companies who want to keep out unions

 Industry has shifted to LDCs  Wage rates are lower than traditional industrial regions  Especially attractive for labor-intensive industries  Transportation cost is higher but substantially lower wages make up for it in jobs that need little skill  Operations that require high level of skill remain in MDCs  Before 1970, LDCs mostly used for their resources/materials not labor  New International Division of Labor – selective transfer of some jobs to developing countries

 Transnational corporations allocate production to low-wage countries  Moving individual steps in the production process (of a good or service) to a supplier, who focuses their production and offers a cost savings  Growth in manufacturing in Mexico (maquiladoras) and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa)

 Availability of skilled labor  Fordist vs. post-Fordist production  Rapid delivery to market  Just-in-time delivery

 Fordist = single site mass production  Replaced Cottage Industries  Singles company owns all aspects of production.  Specialized labor force  Large inventory of products  All tasks done by corporation  Leads to Urbanization  Post-Fordist: Production dispersed and accelerated  Replaced Fordist?  Just-In-Time Delivery  Global Division of Labor  Time Space Compression  Outsourced and Offshore  Avoid Government Regulations  Is anything left in the Core?  High Tech Manufacturing and R&D