The Contemporary Transition

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Abstract
In this paper six attempts to periodise economic life are distinguished—those due to Gibson and Horvath, Kleinknecht, Lash and Urry, Lipietz, Mandel, and Piore and Sabel. The aspects of the economy that they analyse, the type of period they describe, the spaces associated with the periods, and the processes of transition are contrasted. The theories differently explain the economic slowdown of the 1970s and 1980s, and crucial distinctions are: whether the productivity slowdown is a cause or a consequence, what factors determine changes in profitability, and the role of newly industrialising countries. It is argued that recent phases in economic life can more accurately be interpreted as waves or cycles than as periods. The paper concludes with an assessment of the capacities of the theories to incorporate a role for space and to interpret the contemporary transition.

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