FLEXIBILITY IN PRODUCTION THROUGH SUBCONTRACTING - THE CASE OF THE POULTRY MEAT INDUSTRY IN GREECE

The author focuses on the issue of flexibility in production using a p articular historical example: that of the poultry meat industry in Gre ece. The case study material is presented as an example of the advanta ges of theoretically informed empirical research and realist methodolo gy for studying uneven capitalist development and the enormous range o f contrasting configurations of capitalist production and its spatial distribution. The poultry meat industry in Greece, although showing th e characteristics of an extreme flexibility in production (which is pr imarily the result of an extensive subcontracting system), shows devel opments that cannot be interpreted within the theoretical framework of the school of flexible specialization. This allows the author to sugg est that the eagerness of flexible specialization theorists (Piore and Sabel, Freeman and Perez, et al) to prescribe new technoeconomic futu res hinders their appreciation of sociospatial complexity in capitalis t development and encourages them to persist with models of industrial transformation of limited relevance. The points that are raised must also be seen as a reply to those in Greece-researchers and politicians -who argue in favour of a flexible specialization strategy as a means of modernizing the structure of Greek industry.