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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2009
1 Cyert, Richard and Mowery, David, Technology and Employment: Innovation and Growth in the US Economy (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1987), p. 5Google Scholar; also Cohen, Stephen S. and Zysman, John, Manufacturing Matters: The Myth of the Post-Industrial Economy (New York: Basic Books, 1987), p. 170Google Scholar; and Forester, Tom, ed., The Microelectronics Revolution (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1980), p. 295.Google Scholar
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3 Among works generated during the 1950s–early 1960s debate were Buckingham, Walter, Automation: Its Impact on Business and People (New York: Mentor, 1965)Google Scholar; Diebold, John, Automation (Princeton, NJ: Van Norstrand, 1952)Google Scholar; Dechert, Charles, The Social Impact of Cybernetics (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1965)Google Scholar; and Wiener, Norbert, The Human Use of Human Beings (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1954).Google Scholar There was a still earlier edition of the automation debate during the great depression of the 1930s; see chapter 1 in Cyert, and Mowery, , Technology and Employment.Google Scholar
4 For example, Shonfield, Andrew, Modern Capitalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965).Google Scholar
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6 Dosi, et al. , eds (London: Frances Pinter, 1988)Google Scholar; Freeman, and Soete, (London: Frances Pinter, 1990)Google Scholar; Cyert, and Mowery, (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1987)Google Scholar; Derian, (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1990)Google Scholar; Oakley, and Owen, (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1990)Google Scholar; Friedman, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988)Google Scholar; Zuboff, (New York: Basic Books, 1989)Google Scholar; and Matthews, (London: Pluto, 1989).Google Scholar
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9 In itself job loss is not a symptom of grave underlying problems. A dynamic economy sheds as many as one of every ten jobs each year while the labour displaced is absorbed elsewhere in more productive and profitable activities. This pleasant scenario assumes that workers' skills are at least partially transferable and/or that adequate public/private provisions for retraining exist. It also assumes that labour is quite mobile or else that capital is – but not too much so (going offshore). Unemployment becomes a policy problem when (1) the rate of displacement outruns the pace of job creation for a protracted period, and (2) when public pressure is brought to bear on policy-makers who are ideologically disposed and institutionally capable of responding with ameliorative measures.
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56 A policy crisis occurs if the credibility of a state's commitment to full employment is compounded by harm inflicted on groups that support incumbent parties. Cuts in social spending and public employment lighten the tills of many businesses. Slack capacity raises unit costs so that export sector firms must lower profit margins or else lose competitiveness. High interest rates and overvalued currency interfere with inter-industry purchasing patterns so that multiplier effects diminish. Unused ‘human capital’ strains state budgets because fewer taxes and more compensation are paid. The discontent of declining producer groups is expressed in protectionist inclinations. All the more reason to attend to the issues of technological design and workplace reforms.
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88 My thanks to a referee who suggested this point.
89 Henderson, Jeffrey, The Globalisation of High Technology Production (London: Routledge, 1989), p. 143CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cyert, and Mowery, , Technology and Employment, p. 81Google Scholar; also Freeman, , ‘Technical Innovation in the World Chemical Industry and Changes of Techno-Economic Paradigm’Google Scholar, in Freeman, and Soete, , New Explorations, pp. 74–92.Google Scholar
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