本文藉著重新理解臺灣汽車產業晚近的發展經驗，發展與展示作者提出的「跨界產業場域」理論，希望由單一產業、跨越國界的場域概念來克服「在地vs.全球」的二分架構，並透過分析場域底層的產品架構變化、學習與控制的辯證雙元性、以及不對等互賴的動態，一方面復甦傳統世界體系論的視野，另一方面避免其被詬病的決定論陷阱。臺灣汽車產業經過國家扶植政策的失敗、市場開放與WTO的衝擊，仍舊透過能力學習與控制策略的交互作用，扮演東亞蓬勃汽車市場中一個隱形中介的角色，維持生存利基的開放性。本文試圖透過「跨界產業場域」的理論視野，鉤勒臺灣為「全球車」正由全球寡佔的迷思轉向多層提攜網絡現實的例證，闡明後進廠商在核心企業主導的跨界產業場域中，學習成長的機會與限制。本文希望透過臺灣個案的理論建構，摸索全球化複雜現實挑戰下發展社會學跳脫既有瓶頸的新理論契機。

This article proposes a theory of developmental sociology called the “Trans-border Industrial Field” (TBIF), which offers and analytic framework with three research foci: an asymmetric interdependence between global firms and local firms, the duality of learning/control as revealed in their interactions, and the underlying product architecture of the specific industrial fields in which they reside. The theory's merits are demonstrated on two related levels of analysis. First, a critical review of the theoretical evolution in developmental sociology pinpoints a missing theoretical space that is vital to the discipline's valid response to the challenge of globalization and the advantages of the TBIF theory, compared with other relevant theories, are illustrated. Second, the TBIF theory is applied to the Taiwanese auto industry to show how it can overcome the weakness of alternative theories and better explain the complex dynamics of the industry's recent development, after the existing theory announced that such development was an “illusion.”