This article draws on Harvey’s theory of uneven development and spatio-temporal fix to conceptualize the changing geography of the European automotive industry based on the spatial profit-seeking strategies of automotive firms. It employs the spatial concept of integrated peripheries, in order to explain the growth of the automotive industry in peripheral regions and its contemporaneous restructuring in existing locations. The empirical analysis is based on 2124 restructuring events of large automotive industry firms in the European Union countries and Norway between 2005 and 2016, and on 91 interviews with foreign automotive industry subsidiaries conducted in Czechia and Slovakia between 2009 and 2015. Large differences in labor costs and other production costs across the European Union explain the growth in the East European integrated periphery and simultaneous restructuring in both traditional core regions and old integrated peripheries in Western Europe. The empirical analysis also confirmed the increasing internationalization and the decreasing role played by large domestic firms in the European automotive industry.

中文翻译：

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欧洲汽车工业的重组和国际化

本文借鉴哈维的不均衡发展和时空固定理论，基于汽车公司的空间谋利战略，将欧洲汽车工业的地理变化概念化。它采用综合周边的空间概念来解释周边地区汽车工业的增长及其在现有位置的同时重组。实证分析基于 2005 年至 2016 年欧盟国家和挪威的 2124 次大型汽车工业企业重组事件，以及 2009 年至 2015 年在捷克和斯洛伐克对外国汽车工业子公司进行的 91 次访谈。整个欧盟的劳动力成本和其他生产成本的巨大差异解释了东欧一体化边缘地区的增长以及传统核心地区和西欧旧一体化边缘地区的同步重组。实证分析也证实了欧洲汽车行业的国际化程度不断提高，而国内大型企业的作用正在减弱。