Description
Book SynopsisThe last two decades have seen a reshaping of the international economy together with a radical weakening in the conditions of the working class. New productive techniques and methods in the organization of labour have been implemented on a world-wide scale partly as a consequence of the financialization of capital. The geographical diffusion of market relations has continued and with it the dominance of capital in all realms of social reproduction. In charting this change, the book offers an alternative view of contemporary capitalism.
It has been suggested that we are entering a new phase where the 'globalization' of economic activities is fully achieved, where 'post-Fordist' regulation has overcome the crisis of Keynesian capitalism, and where the dominant tendency is towards the 'end of work'. In contrast to this view, the authors of this book argue that current internationalization is not a structure, but a contradictory process and that new patterns in the division of labour while successful in increasing the pressure over workers have not been able to supersede Fordism entirely. They conclude that the slow growth of the economies, caused by neoliberal economic policies, is a crucial factor in explaining unemployment and the fragmentation of labour.
Trade Review'This book swims against the current of orthodox assertions and offers a realistic theoretical analysis that supports labor's emancipation.' -- Stavros D. Mavroudeas, Review of Political Economy
Table of ContentsContents: Introduction 1. After Fordism, What? Capitalism at the End of the Century 2. Structural Unemployment in the Crisis of the Late Twentieth Century 3. Which Europe Do We Need Now? Which can we get? 4. Britain under ‘New Labour’ 5. The Euro and Europe’s Labour 6. The Accumulation Process in Japan and East Asia as Compared with the Role of Germany in European Post-war Growth 7. Historical Notes on the Rise and Fall of Fordism and Flexible Accumulation in the United States 8. Lean Production in North America 9. Management-by-Stress and Skilled Work 10. Is Technical Change the Cause of Unemployment? 11. Intensive and Extensive Investment, Employment and Working Time in the European Union 12. The Transformation of the Italian Labour Market 13. Changing Patterns in the Division of Labour and in the Segmentation of the Labour Force Index
