THE GEOGRAPHY OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION SYSTEMS IN A CONTEXT OF SYSTEMIC TRANSITION OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM

Abstract

The article analyzes the geography of industrial production systems as an important variable in the systemic transition that global capitalism is undergoing in the first quarter of the 21st century. In the face of the turbulence generated by the recent economic, ecological, and geopolitical crises, and by the Covid-19 pandemic, the economic and political functions of industry are being revalued. Interestingly, this occurs after a large and diffuse academic literature declared, decades ago, the emergence of a post-industrial society. In general terms, this demonstrates the strength of industrial production systems in consolidating global economic wealth, but it also reveals how a geographically unequal pattern of technological, productive, and environmental qualifications seems to demarcate the main characteristics of a new hyper-industrial world.