INDUSTRIAL RESTRUCTURING IN A PERIOD OF CRISIS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE CANADIAN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY, 1973–83.*

The recent crisis in the North American economy is rooted in the disintegration of a particular model of capital accumulation known as Fordism. Using the empirical context of the auto industry in Canada the paper analyses the development and subsequent breakdown of Fordism and the forms taken by the restructuring which has occurred in response to the crisis.