PROXIMITY IN PRODUCTION NETWORKS - THE CIRCULATORY DIMENSION

In a context of decreasing transport costs, quasi-ubiquity of quality infrastructure and the increasing importance of non-material flows, tr ansport infrastructure appears to be less important as a location fact or for industry. However, the globalization of markets and the restruc turing of production systems lead to an increased role for transportat ion in industrial strategies. The traditional framework dealing with t ransportation mainly as a cost thus becomes less relevant for understa nding the spatial dynamics of industry. The framework developed in thi s article divides production into transformation and circulation activ ities. Interactions between the transformation process and its environ ment of resources, suppliers, customers and other producers form a sys tem of circulation of goods, information and knowledge. Transportation thus becomes a particular set of techniques of interaction in the spa ce-time grid. The spatial dimension is introduced, not through the ide a of mere spatial propinquity as a determinant of production networks, but through the concept of organizational proximity and its spatial a nd circulatory dimensions. The circulatory dimension of proximity desc ribes rapid, reliable and well adapted circulation of goods and inform ation as well as the efficient mobilization of external resources, esp ecially of non-traded, specific resources. This dimension of proximity thus includes more than geographical accessibility. Its determinants are as much the infrastructure as a generic resource for circulation a s the organization and the degree of control of flows of goods, inform ation and people.