论“柔性”的内涵及其对经济地理学研究的启迪

“柔性”已成为象征后福特主义时代新生产方式的代名词。对柔性及其空间影响、空间结构的研究，构成了20世纪80年代以来国际经济地理学界主流。文章试图以柔性为主线来理解现代生产方式和产业组织发展变化的新趋势，进而探索现代经济地域空间特别是产业区、产业集聚的形成机制。为此，首先回顾了柔性研究兴起的理论背景，并对柔性的内涵进行诠释。在此基础上，整理了经济地理学在对柔性的空间实现形式的研究中所取得的关于“新产业区”和“产业集聚”的理论发现。最后提出了该领域今后的课题。

THE CONNOTATION OF FLEXIBILITY AND ITS ENLIGHTENMENTS ON THE STUDIES OF ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

Flexibility has become the synonym of the new mode of production in the age of Post Fordism. The studies on Flexibility and its special influences as well as special structure have been the mainstream in academia of international Economic Geography. Taking the Flexibility as the main thread, the paper attempts to apprehend the new trend of development of the modern mode of production and industrial organization, and thus reveals the engendering mechanism of modern economic regions, especially that of industrial districts and industrial clustering. Therefore, firstly the paper briefly reviews the theoretical background from which the studies of Flexibility originated, and then explains the connotation of Flexibility. Based above, and from the specialization of Flexibility and the Japanese mode of Lean production, the paper further to sum up the theoretical achievement on new industrial space and industrial clustering gained by studies of economic geography on special form of Flexibility. Finally it proposes the future questions for discussion.