La lettre du GERPISA no 110 (févier 1997)

Editorial - Michel Freyssenet

In this number of La Lettre, Juan Jose Castillo and Peter Jansen open up the "Debate" on the groups' work plans. Juan José Castillo suggests that we should take into account the effects that new industrial models in the process of international recomposition have on local and regional societies, and not only the opposite movement, that is to say the consequences of the developments in different countries, of their automobile markets and their wage relations on the automobile industry and its strategies and forms of internationalization. We certainly have to take a closer look than we have so far at the way the automobile firms have contributed to the developments in national wage relations and at the way their internationalization choices are going to affect the trajectory of the countries and regions studied. Peter Jansen thinks that it seems to be usefull to analyze the "logics of failure and retreat" concerning the globalization and he raises the question, whether the term "manufacturability" will have the same meaning in differents regions.

Maybe it is necessary to repeat here that each network member can be concerned about and interested in two or even more work plans. There is nothing to prevent anyone from contributing to more than one work group. Just give your priority to one group and let the people responsible for the other groups know which points you would be able to write a paper on.

The editors of GERPISA's La Lettre were sensitive to the rather flattering remarks made about the January number. The changes made to the layout that you noticed are the result of a bias. Given the consistent quality of the texts published and the novelty of certain information, we were wondering if it would be worth bringing the quality of the support up to the standard of its content, that is to say to pass to a bicolor, printed Lettre. Besides the quite considerable costs that this would entail, such a system would create a certain rigidity for the process of drawing up, producing and dispatching La Lettre. So, rather than abandoning the flexibility of the present system, we are going to try to depend on the possibilities, and also the imperfections of photocopying, of ordinary paper and of the software that we use, to come up with a more pleasant, original and high-quality layout and presentation. That will be done little by little without heavy investment. If you have suggestive or original photos, drawings or diagrams that could be put on the "cover" of La Lettre, send them to us, as well as your texts for the "Debate", "Factory Visit" and "Member Activities" columns and any information you may have on colloquiums and the latest publications.

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