Restructuring processes affecting the European, American and Japanese automotive industries

The 2008-2009 crisis revealed a startling gap between the different dynamics at work in the leading developed country markets and automotive industries and the same in China, Brazil or India. In turn, this led to more or less violent restructuring processes that have generally caused state authorities to intervene on what has at times been a massive scale. A comparative study of these restructuring processes well beyond the year 2009 could teach us a lot about this period by outlining (at least partially) the global hierarchy that is in the process of emerging.

Towards this end, there would be particular interest in studies of the public policies that are being implemented based on varying degrees of cooperation with industrial actors and aimed at encouraging such changes and/or adapting them more or less explicitly to the search for a sustainable mode of development for this industry and for mobility in general. Studies should be comparative in nature and cover the localisation and/or re-allocation choices that affect carmakers or suppliers’ production and design activities. Towards this end, special attention should be paid to the role of regional organisations, the opportunities they offer and the constraints and incentives that they may structure, whether in Asia, Europe and North America.