While the flexible production literature has become increasingly abundant in recent years, the vast majority of it is narrowly restricted to manufacturing activities, entirely ignoring the role that producer services play in modem systems of production. This paper attempts to explore the conceptual linkages between the growth and the location of producer services, on the one hand, and the rise of flexible forms of production, on the other. After a brief summary of the flexible production approach, the factors underlying the growth and the increasing externalization of producer services are examined. The appropriateness of employing a flexible production framework in the case of producer services, and the significance of flexible production for understanding the location of producer services are then explored. Finally, the labor force effect of flexibility in the production and use of producer services is considered.

This paper explores the current state of regional science. Our principal thesis is that “mainstream” regional science is in a state of crisis. There arc two major symptoms that justify the use of the term crisis: a lack of relevance and a narrowness of perspective. On the one hand, the field has not sufficiently demonstrated that it can address real world problems. On the other hand, the openness and breadth that was the original goal of regional science is mostly conspicuous by its absence. In order to stimulate a debate on the nature and evolution of regional science, we present a set of orienting principles that indicate desirable directions for the future orientation of the field.

During the decade of the 1980s, regional science began to devote more and more attention to the influence of two phenomena upon the structure and functioning of the space-economy: (1) service activities, in general, and producer services, in particular, and (2) flexible production systems. This paper explores the extent to which these two major preoccupations of contemporary regional science can be integrated, and attempts to contribute to the understanding of the growth and location of producer services by examining the manner in which an analytical framework based upon flexible production may be applied to the latter. The exploration begins with a summary and criticism of the flexible production approach. This is followed by a discussion of the growth of producer services and of the trends towards the increasing externalisation of these activities. Next, the appropriateness of employing a flexible production framework in the case of producer services is examined. The significance of the concept of flexible production for understanding the location of producer services is then explored. Finally, the paper examines the effects upon the labour force of flexibility in the production and use of producer services.

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Two general issues relating to the nature of the service sector are addressed in this paper. The first concerns the growing interdependence between the secondary and tertiary sectors, largely a function of the increased use of service functions in the manufacturing process; these service inputs may be either internalized or externalized by a manufacturing firm. The second issue concerns the role of the service sector in promoting regional economic development. It is generally acknowledged that, although it may be important for a region to possess a sufficient level of service activity so that its firms are not required to make major service imports, because of externality effects, high-order service activities tend to locate in major cities. Can it therefore be concluded that the locational pattern of the service sector has a minimal potential for reducing regional disparities, and that it would be unrealistic to expect the diffusion of services into peripheral regions? This may be the case for higher order services, but those more directly linked to industrial production may indeed be able to be decentralized. The potential for the decentralization of services activities is examined both within a conceptual framework and by reviewing the results of certain empirical studies conducted in Switzerland.