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Two broad developments reshaped work at the end of the twentieth century. The first was the implosion of the Soviet Union and the worldwide triumph of market capitalism. The second was the increasing use of computer-based production technologies and management command-and-control systems. How do we make sense of these important developments?The editors have assembled a collection of provocative, original essays on work and workplaces throughout the world that challenge the current celebration of globalization and new technologies. Building on labor process analysis, individual case studies venture beyond factory and office to examine "virtual" workplaces, computer-era cottage work, and emotional and household labor. The settings range from Indian and Irish software factories to Brazilian supermarkets, Los Angeles sweatshops, and Taiwanese department stores.Other essays seek to make theoretical sense of increasingly de-centered production chains, fluid work relations, and uncertain employment. Individually and collectively the authors construct a new critical study of work, highlighting the connections between geography, technology, gender, race, and class. They offer an accessible and flexible approach to the study of workplace relations and production organization -- and even the notion of work itself.
List of contents
Acknowledgments Introduction: Making Sense of Work in the 21st Century Rick Baldoz, Charles Koeber, and Philip Kraft. Part I: Continuity and Change 1. Dwelling in Capitalism, Traveling Through Socialism Michael Burawoy 2. Do Capitalist Matter in the Capitalist Labor Process? Collective Capacities, Group Interest, and Management Prerogatives, C. 1886-1904 Jeffrey Haydu Part II: Service and Service Sector Workers 3. Gender, Race, and the Organization of Reproductive Labor Evelyn Nakano Glenn 4. The Body as a Contested Terrain for Labor Control: Cosmetics Retailers in Department Stores and Direct Selling Pei-Chia Lan 5. Silent Rebellions in Capitalist Paradise: A Brazil-Quebec Comparison Angelo Soares Part III. Production and Industrial Workers 6. Flexible Despotisms: The Intensification of Insecurity and Uncertainty in the Lives of Silicon Valley's High-Tech Assembly Workers Jennifer Chun 7. The Challenge of Organizing in a Globalized/Flexible Industry: The Case of the Apparel Industry in Los Angeles Edna Bonacich 8. Transcending Taylorism and Fordism? Three Decades of Work Restructuring James Rinehart 9. Manufacturing Compromise: The Dynamics of Race and Class Among South African Shop Stewards in the 1990s Edward Webster Part IV. Professional and Technical Workers 10. "Globalization": The Next Tactic in the Fifty Year Struggle of Labor and Capital in Software Production Richard Sharpe 11. Controlling Technical Workers in Alternative Work Arrangements: Rethinking the Work Contract Peter Whalley and Peter Meiksins 12. Net-Working for a Living: Irish Software Developers in the Global Workplace Sean O'Riain About the Contributors
Summary
Two broad developments reshaped work at the end of the twentieth century. The first was the implosion of the Soviet Union and the worldwide triumph of market capitalism. The second was the increasing use of computer-based production technologies and management command-and-control systems. This title deals with these important developments.
