DUTCH TEXTILE-INDUSTRY IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY

Spatial-sectoral studies have often viewed the Dutch textile industry as a homogeneous sector in the last stages of the product life cycle. Accordingly, these studies pay no attention to possible variation to t he simple product life cycle model. Our paper explores such variation in the past decades, partially by considering a zonal division of the Netherlands. The paper proceeds with an assessment of variation in the adoption of Post-Fordist strategies. In the literature we find opposi ng views on the pervasiveness of flexibilization and its spatial impac ts. In the latter respect this paper explores the recent and future gl obal shift of textile industry and concomitant threats to the Dutch te xtile industry.