Over the past 15 to 20 years, most of the productive and organisational innovations that have materialised in the world’s varying automobile systems were justified if not motivated by the need for a better and quicker adaption to increasingly unwieldy market changes.

Having reached saturation in the developed countries, these very same markets have been beset by exacerbated competition, forcing manufacturers into a race towards innovation and differentiation. One result is that demand has become increasingly uncertain and demanding. Simultaneously, the search for new outlets means that a great deal of emphasis is being placed on potentially emerging markets, leading to deep-seated changes in the geography of production.

At the productive and organisational levels, the focus on greater flexibility, and more generally on a permanent adaptation of supply to the different kinds of demand, is now the marching order underlying most current restructurings. The net effect has been a push towards ever-leaner flows and increased employee responsiveness, elements that are in turn structuring today’s work organisations. Furthermore, carmakers’ and automobile systems’ relative performances are also being interpreted in such terms, notably by financial analysts.

GERPISA’s next conference will focus on this issue, one that has long been neglected or marginalised in our studies yet which deserves to be revisited to help us apprehend the transformations affecting the different automobile systems. Sessions on more specific topics (like the employment relationship, financialisation and the State) will discuss our work progress in other areas. It would be useful, however, for researchers to try to integrate market relationship issues into their outlooks.