Fort Worth and the postmodern political economy

Cities in the United States have experienced profound changes during the past twenty years. This process of change is called restructuring. Restructuring has altered the political economy of industrial capitalism. The political economy of capitalism has seen its Fordist forms of organization experience a decline and what are called more flexible forms of organization emerge. This transition in the political economy has driven changes in the urban regions of the United States. This thesis discusses these changes and examines their impact on the political economy of Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Houston. The experiences of these cities are compared to that of the Fort Worth-Arlington urban region. Fort Worth-Arlington benefitted from many of the changes in the earlier stages of the restructuring process. But with the end of the Cold War, the Fort Worth economy has experienced changes that will necessitate a new round of restructuring.