Editorial - Michel Freyssenet

This Summer the co-ordinators of the books "Variété et organisation productive dans l'industrie automobile mondiale" ("Variety and productive organisation in the world automobile industry") and "Travail en groupe dans l'industrie automobile" ("Group work in the automobile industry") received an answer from two of the three experts consulted by the editor on the synopsis and the two chapters requested as samples of content. They have begun to respond to the comments and to propose some modifications. The editor's decision should be known in October. The synopsis of the work "Hybridation" should be sent off soon. It was foreseen to send in the manuscript of "Les trajectoires des firmes" ("Company trajectories") in June but this wasn't possible as the final version of a few chapters got held up. It should be sent to the editor at the beginning of October. The essay on the general interpretation of the programme results, which Robert Boyer and I are writing, is proving to be a bigger job than we had anticipated. This is due to events which appeared useful and necessary to us. Two chapters and the conclusion still needed to be written at the beginning of September. Then the whole text will probably have to be shortened to a size which will make it more easily readable. The network members who still have texts to hand in for any of the works are invited to do so as quickly as possible..

The next three months will be devoted to setting up the work groups for the second programme The network's first workday in France, to be held on 11 October, will allow discussion on a text on a general problematic arising from the work of the Fourth International Encounter and propositions which will have been drawn up by the secretariat. Final decisions will be made during the International Steering Committee Meeting on 22 and 23 November 1996.

An extract of the text on the general problematic can be found in the rubric "Programme News" of this issue of La Lettre. It is a paragraph entitled "The recomposition of the economic and political world environment and the automobile industry". It outlines why the carmakers' and suppliers' strategies and forms of internationalisation constitute a major issue today.

The complete text "Entre mondialisation et régionalisation: quelles voies possibles pour l'industrie automobile?", ("Between globalisation and regionalisation: What possible paths for the automobile industry?") is the written version of the exposés given by Yannick Lung and me by way of introduction and conclusion to the Fourth Encounter, enhanced and improved by the debates which have taken place and the remarks made in the meantime. It will be published in the next issue of Actes du GERPISA with a text entitled "Globalisation: Mythes et réalité" by Robert Boyer in which he makes a review of existing literature, confronting it with the first data at our disposal.