Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-784d4fb959-mvngg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-17T10:26:03.716Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Globalization or Spatialization? The Worldwide Spatial Restructuring of the Labor Process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Michael Wallace  and
David Brady
Edited by
Terrence McDonough ,
Michael Reich  and
David M. Kotz
Michael Wallace
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Connecticut
David Brady
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Duke University
Terrence McDonough
Affiliation:
National University of Ireland, Galway
Michael Reich
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
David M. Kotz
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Get access

Summary

Introduction

Since the 1990s, scholarly accounts of globalization and its consequences have become prevalent throughout the social sciences (see Brady et al. 2007 for a review). While some view globalization as a centuries-long process of world system integration (Sklair 2002), others focus on recent changes in the last several decades. Although conceptualizations of globalization vary widely, they share a common insight that many phenomena previously centered in the local, sub-national, or national levels are increasingly interconnected on a global scale. Globalization implies increasing interpenetration and interdependency among societies, cultures, and peoples of the world often accompanied with a concern that the autonomy and sovereignty of the local setting is being diminished.

The changes created by globalization resemble the transformations discussed by those who advance social structures of accumulation (SSA) theory. Various scholars in this tradition place primary emphasis on the emergence of finance capital, neoliberalism, or other manifestations of globalization as the primary face of the new SSA. While having made numerous advances in SSA theory (Kotz, McDonough, and Reich 1994), we contend that SSA scholarship has strayed from Gordon, Edwards, and Reich's ([GER] 1982) central premise that the transformation of the labor process is a defining feature of each SSA (Wallace and Brady 2001). With the aim of restoring the centrality of the labor process, we extend the SSA approach in three ways.

Information

Type
Chapter
Information
Contemporary Capitalism and its Crises
Social Structure of Accumulation Theory for the 21st Century
 , pp. 121 - 144
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Akin, William E. 1977. Technocracy and the American Dream. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Alderson, Arthur S. 1999. “Explaining Deindustrialization: Globalization, Failure, or Success?” American Sociological Review 64: 701–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alderson, Arthur S. 2004. “Explaining the Upswing in Direct Investment: A Test of Mainstream and Heterodox Theories of Globalization.” Social Forces 83: 81–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alderson, Arthur S. and Nielsen, Francois 2002. “Globalization and the Great U-Turn: Income Inequality Trends in 16 OECD Countries.” American Journal of Sociology 107: 1244–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alvesson, Mats 1987. Organizational Theory and Technocratic Consciousness. New York: Walter de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Cynthia D., Schulman, Michael D., and Wood, Phillip J. 2001. “Globalization and Uncertainty: the Restructuring of Southern Textiles.” Social Problems 48: 478–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, Edmund L. 1996. “Don't Go Away Mad, Just Go Away.” New York Times (February 13): D1, D6.Google Scholar
Applebaum, Eileen and Albin, Peter 1989. “Computer Rationalization and the Transformation of Work.” Pp. 247–65 in Wood, Stephen J., ed. The Transformation of Work? Skill, Flexibility, and the Labor Process. Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Arsen, David D. 1991. “International and Domestic Forces in the Postwar Golden Age.” Review of Radical Political Economics 23: 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldwin, Robert E. 2003. The Decline of U.S. Labor Unions and the Role of Trade. Washington DC: Institute for International Economics.Google Scholar
Bardhan, Ashok Deo and Howe, David K. 2001. “Globalization and Restructuring during Downturns: A Case Study of California.” Growth and Change 32: 217–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blair-Loy, Mary and Jacobs, Jerry A. 2003. “Globalization, Work Hours, and the Care Deficit among Stockbrokers.” Gender and Society 17: 230–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bluestone, Barry and Harrison, Bennett 1982. The Deindustrialization of America. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bonacich, Edna and Appelbaum, Richard P. 2000. Behind the Label. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bowles, Samuel, Gordon, David M., and Weisskopf, Thomas E. 1983. Beyond the Wasteland: A Democratic Alternative to Economic Decline. Garden City, NY: Garden Press.Google Scholar
Brady, David and Wallace, Michael 2000. “Spatialization, Foreign Direct Investment and Labor Outcomes in the American States, 1976–1996.” Social Forces 79: 67–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brady, David, Beckfield, Jason, and Zhao, Wei 2007. “The Consequences of Economic Globalization for Affluent Democracies.” Annual Review of Sociology 33: 313–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brady, David and Denniston, Ryan. 2006. “Economic Globalization, Industrialization, and Deindustrialization in Affluent Democracies.” Social Forces 85: 297–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braverman, Harry 1974. Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century. New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
Budros, Art 1997. “The New Capitalism and Organizational Rationality: The Adoption of Downsizing Programs, 1979–1994.” Social Forces 76: 229–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burris, Beverly H. 1993. Technocracy at Work. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Burris, Beverly H. 1998. “Computerization of the Workplace.” Annual Review of Sociology 24: 141–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castells, Manuel 1996. The Rise of the Network Society. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Choi, Minsik 2006. “Threat Effects of Capital Mobility on Wage Bargaining.” Pp. 64–86 in Bardhan, Pranab, Bowles, Samuel, and Wallerstein, Michael, eds. Globalization and Egalitarian Redistribution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dasgupta, Indo and Osang, Thomas 2002. “Globalization and Relative Wages: Further Evidence from U.S. Manufacturing Industries.” International Review of Economics and Finance 11: 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dimaggio, Paul 2001. The Twenty-First Century Firm. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul J. and Powell, Walter W. 1983. “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Reality in Organizational Fields.” American Sociological Review 48: 147–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, Richard 1979. Contested Terrain: The Transformation of the Workplace in the Twentieth Century. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Frank, David J., Hironaka, Ann, and Schofer, Evan 2000. “The Nation-State and the Natural Environment over the Twentieth Century.” American Sociological Review 65: 96–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giddens, Anthony 1990. The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Gille, Zsuzsa and O'Riain, Sean 2002. “Global Ethnography.” Annual Review of Sociology 28: 271–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, David M. 1994. “The Global Economy: New Edifice or Crumbling Foundations?” Pp. 292–305 in Kotz, David M., McDonough, Terrence, and Reich, Michael, eds. Social Structures of Accumulation: The Political Economy of Growth and Crisis. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gordon, David M. 1996. Fat and Mean: The Corporate Squeeze of Working Americans and the Myth of Managerial “Downsizing.”New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Gordon, David M., Edwards, Richard, and Reich, Michael 1982. Segmented Work, Divided Workers. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Graham, Laurie 1995. On the Line at Subaru-Isuzu. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Grant, Don Sherman 1995. “The Political Economy of Business Failures across the American States, 1970–1985.” American Sociological Review 60: 851–73.Google Scholar
Grant, Don Sherman and Hutchinson, Richard 1996. “Global Smokestack Chasing: A Comparison of the State-Level Determinants of Foreign and Domestic Manufacturing Investment.” Social Problems. 43: 21–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grant, Don Sherman and Wallace, Michael 1994. “The Political Economy of Manufacturing Growth and Decline across the American States, 1970–1985.” Social Forces 73: 33–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, Bennett 1994. Lean and Mean: The Changing Landscape of Corporate Power in an Age of Flexibility. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Harrison, Bennett and Bluestone, Barry 1988. The Great U-Turn. New York, NY: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Harvey, David 1989. The Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Harvey, David 2004. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Henson, Kevin D. 1996. Just a Temp. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Hirschhorn, Larry 1984. Beyond Mechanization. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hollingsworth, J. Rogers 1998. “New Perspectives on the Spatial Dimensions of Economic Coordination: Tensions between Globalization and Social Systems of Production.” Review of International Political Economy 5: 482–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kay, Tamara 2005. “Labor Transnationalism and Global Governance: The Impact of NAFTA on Transnational Labor Relationships in North America.” American Journal of Sociology 111: 715–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kotz, David M., McDonough, Terrence, and Reich, Michael, eds. 1994. Social Structures of Accumulation: The Political Economy of Growth and Crisis. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef
Kraft, Philip 1977. Programmers and Managers: The Routinization of Computer Programming in the United States. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kunda, Gideon 1992. Engineering Culture: Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Corporation. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Kurdelbusch, Antje 2002. “Multinationals and the Rise of Variable Pay in Germany.” European Journal of Industrial Relations 8: 325–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Cheol-Sung 2005. “International Migration, Deindustrialization and Union Decline in 16 Affluent OECD countries, 1962–1997.” Social Forces 84: 71–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magnani, Elisabetta and Prentice, David 2003. “Did Globalization Reduce Unionization? Evidence from U.S. Manufacturing.” Labour Economics 10: 705–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mittleman, James H. 1996. “The Dynamics of Globalization.” Pp. 1–19 in Mittleman, James H., ed. Globalization: Critical Reflections. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
,New York Times 1996. The Downsizing of America. New York: Times Books.Google Scholar
Ono, Hiroshi 2007. “Careers in Foreign-Owned Firms in Japan.” American Sociological Review 72: 267–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, Robert E. 1994. Flesh Peddlers and Warm Bodies: The Temporary Help Industry and Its Workers. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Powell, Walter and Smith-Doerr, Laurel 1994. “Networks and Economic Life.” Pp. 368–402 in Smelser, Neil and Swedberg, Richard, eds. The Handbook of Economic Sociology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Przeworski, Adam 1991. “Could We Feed Everyone? The Irrationality of Capitalism and the Infeasibility of Socialism.” Politics and Society 19: 1–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, Jackie Krasas 1995. “Just a Temp: Experiences and Structure of Alienation in Temporary Clerical Employment.” Work and Occupations 22: 137–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, Sam 1991. “From Segmentation to Flexibility: A Selective Survey.” Review of Radical Political Economics 23: 71–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubin, Beth A. 1996. Shifts in the Social Contract: Understanding Change in America Society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sassoon, D. 1996. One Hundred Years of Socialism. London: Fontana Press.Google Scholar
Scheve, Kenneth and Slaughter, Matthew J. 2004. “Economic Insecurity and the Globalization of Production.” American Journal of Political Science 48: 662–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sennett, Richard 1998. The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Shaiken, Harley 1984. Work Transformed. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Sklair, Leslie 2002. Globalization: Capitalism and Its Alternatives. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Vicki 1997. “New Forms of Work Organization.” Annual Review of Sociology 23: 315–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sutcliffe, Bob and Glyn, Andrew 1999. “Still Underwhelmed: Indicators of Globalization and Their Misinterpretation.” Review of Radical Political Economics 31: 111–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vallas, Steven P. 1999. “Rethinking Post-Fordism: The Meaning of Workplace Flexibility.” Sociological Theory 17: 68–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, Michael 1998. “Downsizing the American Dream: Work and Family at Century's End.” Pp. 23–38 in Vannoy, Dana and Dubeck, Paula J., eds. Challenges for Work and Family in the Twenty-first Century. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Wallace, Michael and Brady, David 2001. “The Next Long Swing: Spatialization, Technocratic Control, and the Restructuring of Work at the Turn of the Century.” Pp. 101–33 in Kalleberg, Arne L. and Berg, Ivar, eds. Sourcebook on Labor Markets: Evolving Structures and Processes. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Wellman, Barry, Salaff, Janet, Dimitrova, Dimitrina, Garton, Laura, Gulia, Milena, and Haythornthwaite, Caroline 1996. “Computer Networks as Social Networks: Collaborative Work, Telework and Virtual Community.” Annual Review of Sociology 22: 213–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Western, Bruce 1997. Between Class and Market. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Williamson, Oliver E. 1975. Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications: A Study in the Economics of Internal Organization. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×