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Worlds of Production: the Action Frameworks of the Economy Michael Storper and Robert Salais
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA/London, 1997, 370 pp., g29.95 (hb), ISBN 0-67496-203-6
M. Storper and R. Salais have written a dense and difficult book with the purpose of explaining diversity in economic structure1 and performance between regions and nations. In this review, I will, first, try to present the essence of the authors' approach and, second, give my opinion on certain aspects of their book.
Coordination and Convention
The starting point of Storper and Salais' reflexion is the central problem of economic theory: the problem of `producing coordination among actors' (p. 14). This brings them to consider non-economic forces (institutions, cultures and social practices) to explain regional economic diversity--that is, the sociological, political and regulatory environment in which economic activity takes place. In this environment, they centre their attention on, what they call, the conventions-in a way, the agreements that rule the relations between economic actors.
According to the authors, (collective) economic action needs to be preceded by an agreement between the actors (buyers and sellers of a commodity, input-supplier and purchaser, one worker and another on the workfloor, manager and worker) on what is to be done. "Without this agreement, the collective, mutually interdependent activity cannot go forward" (p. 16). This agreement is what Storper and Salais call a convention. "A convention is a system of reciprocal expectations on the competences and behaviors (of each actor). The expected behaviors do not have to be conceived in advance or written and ordered to be obtained".2 The territorial (regional and national) dimension of the authors' approach lies in these conventions between actors which are specific to the territory.
Four Worlds of Production
Concurrently, Storper and Salais study the requirements for an efficient organization of the production process. These requirements differ from product to product. They introduce a typology of products based on two criteria: one reflecting the kind of demand the product in question has (the market-side) and one describing the type of inputs used in its production (the production-side). On the market-side of the product, they make a distinction between dedicated products (where the firm offering such a product must satisfy specific demands of particular clients3 and has, therefore, a highly...