| La lettre du GERPISA | no 94 (juin 1995) |
Programme News (2) - Michel Freyssenet
The final decisions concerning the Third International Meeting of GERPISA have now been taken: the programme of parallel sessions according to working group, preparation of synthesis reports, and new versions of the synopses. At this point about forty researchers from the international network have agreed to participate, and this number ought to exceed fifty.
The budget for this meeting is higher than previously, for two reasons. Almost all contributing authors have been invited. In fact, this will be the final opportunity for them to meet before the publication of each working group's book. We have allowed for simultaneous interpretation by two interpreters for each of the parallel sessions, since experience has shown that the efficacy of discussions is greatly diminished otherwise, even though the French speakers are capable of generally following discussion in English. Thus, in order not to exceed our budget we have been compelled to limit the number of fares that can be reimbursed. Lastly, the management of the SevelNord factory has accepted our request to visit the site. This is the factory shared by PSA and Fiat which assembles mini-vans for Citroen, Fiat, Peugeot and Lancia. SevelNord is the first assembly plant to be built in France for a long time; a special characteristic of this factory is the emphasis which it places on organization rather than automation.
The third important point on our agenda was the financing of translations. It was agreed that the organization of translation and the choice of translators would be the responsibility of the book coordinators. A translation budget will be set up for each group. However, this will not be sufficient to cover the expenditure in its entirety. Consequently, each group ought to seek out further sources of finance from the various institutions to which contributing authors are affiliated.
The synopsis of the third "synthesis" book has been prepared by Patrick Fridenson. Whether this third book is well-founded was discussed again. At the end of the discussion there did appear to be a place for such a book in which different points of view would be expressed relating to each area of change in the life of firms since 1974. It will therefore be a work related to the ongoing debate within GERPISA, but based on a process shared amongst the contributing authors. The question that remained unanswered was how to find and gather together the relevant contributors within and eventually outside the GERPISA network. Robert Boyer and Patrick Fridenson have been made responsible for the further development of a second version of the synopsis which will be submitted to the programme's International Steering Committee on the 14th June.
The last significant point raised concerned "post-programme" activities. Various hypotheses and their viability were examined. A new theme was raised during the discussion: the automobile and society. This would encompass problems related to the evolving expectations of drivers, lifestyles, urban constraints, sources of energy, pollution, transport policies, safety, etc. It would correspond with the current investigations being undertaken by manufacturers and the various research programmes either envisaged or under way on the national or European scale. On the other hand it diverges further from the current programme than had been imagined thus far regarding industrial models and the process of the globalization-regionalization of the motor industry. Discussion on this topic will be resumed within the international steering committee and during the GERPISA international meetings.