Towards the post-Fordist economy: emerging organizational models

Using a vast interdisciplinary literature, this paper discusses the transit ion to the post-Fordist economy, as an unavoidable trend, which affects ind ividual organizations and countries. One of the great dangers of the curren t debate about post-Fordism is the overlapping of the various levels of dis cussion. The absence of rigour in posing the question has confused abstract reasoning (the outline of scenarios) with the process of demonstration (th e utilization of concrete, supporting data to validate the theory). This su rvey is essentially dedicated to the former question, leaving aside the lat ter (thus, the very complex issue of finding neutral data, nationally unbia sed, to test it empirically). In our view post-Fordism is an organizational paradigm (guidelines for new principles), not a realized model. Nor will i t ever be one, since our hypothesis maintains that institutions matter, and that historical modifications of firms/industries/countries are the result of hybridization and complex co-evolution. This article discusses, in fact , the nature of change implied by the post-Fordist paradigm only in relatio n to four abstract domains: its model of labour regulation, its organizatio n of production, its firm organizational model, and its societal and spatia l context.