D:\Documents and Settings\A.Lagendijk\My Documents\resources\Library\lib-5095-pike- embedding2.doc 1 CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON ‘EMBEDDEDNESS’ IN ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY: THE CASE OF LABOUR MARKET GOVERNANCE AND TRAINING IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY IN THE NORTH EAST REGION OF ENGLAND Andy Pike, Arnoud Lagendijk, and Mário Vale Final version published as Pike, A., Lagendijk, A., en Vale, M. (2000): Critical reflections on 'embeddedness' in economic geography: labour market governance in the North East region of England. In: Giunta, A., Lagendijk, A. en. Pike, A. (eds.): Restructuring industry and territory: the experience of Europe’s regions TSO, London (p. 59-82). Introduction ‘Embeddedness’ has increasingly become common currency in economic geography to describe and explain the relations between economic agents and their context across a range of geographical scales. The idea that economic action is ‘embedded’ in ongoing spatial systems of social relations has often been used as a touchstone - usually dealt with by reference to GRANOVETTER (1985) - for the recognition of the various ‘turns’ - social, cultural and institutional - currently pervading the sub-discipline (AMIN, 1998; LEE AND WILLS, 1997).