The regulation school, developed in France by M. Aglietta (1976), holds that:

• • capitalism is always prone to periods of crisis but occasionally displays periods of long-run stability known as regimes of accumulation

• • regimes of accumulation are composed of a structural coupling between an accumulation system (form of production) and a mode of social regulation (MSR)—extra-economic dimensions, such as institutions, habits, customs, and norms

• • a structural coupling involves coevolution mediated by class struggle and is a chance discovery.

Two examples of regulation theory are the Fordist post-war period of capital expansion (which broke down in the early 1970s); and the current post-Fordist (or after-Fordist) capitalist period based on several suggested capitalist forms—flexible specialization, flexible accumulation, and reflexive accumulation.

‘Because capitalism is prone to destabilizing and self-generated crises, and because the system has nevertheless persisted, there must be some complex of economic, social, cultural, and political ‘‘regulation’’ that works to soothe, mute, and partially resolve the contradictions and crises of capitalism’ (Purcell and Nevins (2005) Pol. Geog. 24, 211).