Abstract
Flexible manufacturing networks (FMNs) in Europe and Japan give small firms the ability to make timely, innovative responses to market shifts. Using FMNs for community development may boost the capacities of small firms while increasing community assets. U.S. models of FMNs tend to neglect issues of social process. This article argues that FMN programs need to be localized; network arrangements should emerge from local contingencies of group formation and institution building. A project from Toledo, Ohio, is used to present a social mobilization model of FMNs. Firms aspiring to joint production are placed into collaborative encounters with each other, customers, and community supporters. The aim is to usher firms through a developmental process that brings new conceptions of self peers, community actors, and strategic possibilities. Preliminary results indicate that processes of group formation and institutional change have begun.
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