Global Restructuring and the Power of Labour (International Political Economy Series)

Bill Dunn considers and contests accounts of globalization and post-Fordism that see structural economic change in the late Twentieth-century as having fundamentally worsened the conditions and weakened the potential of labour. Including a comparative survey of restructuring in four major industries; automobiles, construction, microelectronics and finance, the book suggests the timing of change and its complex and contradictory nature undermine structural explanations of labour's situation. It redirects attention towards labour's political defeats and own institutional shortcomings. One Of The Commonly Assumed Consequences Of Globalization - That Workers Are Worse Off And No Longer Have The Power They Once Had To Fight Effectively On Their Own Behalf - Is Still Often Taken For Granted. Labour, Suggest Mainstream Theories Of Restructuring, Has Been Dispersed Across Space As Capital Flits To Wherever It Can Pay The Lowest Wages. Meanwhile Old Collectivities Are Destroyed And Labour Is Also Socially Dispersed - Divided By Skills, Gender And Nationality In Increasingly Isolated Workplaces Within Diffuse Subcontracting Networks. Bill Dunn Challenges These Assumptions. He Argues That Changes In The Structure Of Capitalism Are Overstated, Cannot Account For Workers' Experiences And Do Not Preclude Effective Organisation By Labour.--jacket. Pt. I. Perspectives Of Labour And Global Change -- 1. Introduction : Bringing Labour Back In -- 2. Globalisation, The State And Labour -- 3. Globalisation : The Spatial Dispersal Of Labour? -- 4. Post-fordism : The Social Dispersal Of Labour? -- 5. Investigating The Claims Of Globalisation And Post-fordism -- Pt. Ii. Evidence Of Labour's Condition -- 6. Automobiles -- 7. Construction -- 8. Semiconductors -- 9. Finance -- Pt. Iii. Reconsidering The Power Of Labour -- 10. Assessing Restructuring And Labour's Situation -- 11. From The Critique Of Globalisation And Post-fordism To Strategic Research For Labour. Bill Dunn. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 213-236) And Index. "One of the commonly assumed consequences of globalization - that workers are worse off and no longer have the power they once had to fight effectively on their own behalf - is still often taken for granted. Labour, suggest mainstream theories of restructuring, has been dispersed across space as capital flits to wherever it can pay the lowest wages. Meanwhile old collectivities are destroyed and labour is also socially dispersed - divided by skills, gender and nationality in increasingly isolated workplaces within diffuse subcontracting networks. Bill Dunn challenges these assumptions. He argues that changes in the structure of capitalism are overstated, cannot account for workers' experiences and do not preclude effective organisation by labour."--BOOK JACKET.