Book Review: Baldoz, Koeber & Kraft, Critical Study of Work

Rick Baldoz, Charles Koeber and Philip Kraft, eds.
The Critical Study of Work: Labor, Technology, and Global Production.
Temple University Press, 2001, 285 pp.
$US 27.95 paper (1-56639-798-7), $US 79.50 cloth (1-56639-797-9)

This book is an edited collection of 12 chapters (plus introduction) prepared by 16 contributors, inspired by the conference “Work, Difference and Social Change: Two Decades after Braverman’s Labor and Monopoly Capital” held at the State University of New York at Binghamton in May 1998. The book begins with the assertion that global market capitalism as a phenomenon of the second half of the twentieth century has shown mixed results or returns - both positive and negative - “... bringing prosperity and polarization, more consumption and less leisure, more wealth and more debt, expansion and contraction” (p.5). The common theme across this set of chapters is “... concern for the predicament of workers in the global workplace” (p.16) - their precarious position in the evolving workplace, their struggles, successes and failures to contend with forces beyond their direct control. In the analysis of contemporary global market capitalism, these essays cover a very broad range of geographic settings (including the United States, Canada, Ireland, Brazil, Taiwan, and South Africa), as well as distinct workplaces and kinds of workers (such as supermarket cashiers, cosmetics retailers, high-tech assembly workers, and computer software developers, to name a few). Consistent with more contemporary forms of labour process analysis, many of the essays “... incorporate race, gender and other forms of social inequality” (p.11), yielding a more complex and sophisticated understanding of conflict and struggle in the modern workplace.

The first part of the book (subtitled “Continuity and Change”) provides a more theoretical overview of the development of labour process analysis. Michael Burawoy examines “... the durability of advanced capitalism, the fragility of state socialism, and the peculiarities of postsocialism” (p.23), based on twenty years of ethnographic research conducted in a number of countries. Burawoy also addresses some of the reasons for the worldwide demise of socialist orders, pointing to the dialectic of economic and political (state) forces in all regimes: “... each system incubates its opposite, which can in turn either reinforce or undermine the dominant order” (p.42). In his essay, Jeffrey Haydu poses the fundamental question, “Do Capitalists Matter in the Capitalist Labor Process?” and concludes that labour process analysis needs to address the identities, solidarities and collectivities of employers, rather than focus exclusively on workers: “Our understanding of the labor process requires that we treat employers as we treat workers: as agents and as members of larger communities” (p.46). Despite the fact that many of the ties which bind employers begin and are maintained outside of the workplace, such connections can have a profound impact upon the labor process in the workplace (p.60).

The second part of this reader (subtitled “Service and Service Sector Workers”) begins with a chapter by Evelyn Nakano Glenn assessing the division of reproductive labor (which encompasses a wide range of domestic household, kinship and childcare responsibilities), and highlighting important distinctions along both gender and race lines: “... less desirable or more onerous aspects of reproductive labor have devolved on disadvantaged women of color ‘freeing’ more privileged women for higher-level pursuits” (p.73). This is also symbolic of a growing polarization in the distribution of wealth in the modern global economy, and given the degree of segmentation evident within the sphere of reproductive labor, it leads Glenn to challenge the utility of developing a single or unified “policy” - at a national or global level - for protection of interests of all “working women” (p.80). The chapter by Pei-Chia Lan continues the stratification theme, exploring the differences across cosmetics retailers in Taipei, Taiwan (in department stores and direct selling settings), with distinct gendered patterns of recruitment, required qualifications, training opportunities and task assignments for “male make-up artists” and female “beauty advisors.” The section concludes with an essay on the work experiences of supermarket cashiers in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Montreal, Quebec, in which Angelo Soares explores the “strategies of resistance” employed by cashiers, including subtle and sophisticated forms of “... silent rebellions aimed at maintaining control over and within work ...” (p.120).

The third part of the reader focuses on “Production and Industrial Workers.” Jennifer JiHye Chun examines the plight of high-tech manufacturing workers in the printed circuit board (PCB) industry in Silicon Valley, California, demonstrating how flexible production practices (including greater reliance upon subcontracting and contract manufacturing) results in “flexible despotism” for workers with common instances of layoffs, shutdowns and a range of unfair labour practices. Edna Bonacich investigates the Los Angeles apparel industry, as an example of global/flexible production, “... an immensely efficient engine of exploitation” (p.176) which controls labor through contracting and piecework systems and constant threats of job loss. The chapter by James Rinehart reviews work restructuring in the North American auto manufacturing industry since the 1970s, including the more recent introduction of “lean production” systems, methods and practices which have “... failed miserably to live up to [the] promise of humanizing the workplace” (p.192). The final essay in this section by Edward Webster explores the role of shop stewards in South Africa as agents for change in a political context, though often in conflictual and contradictory positions between the workers they represent and organization management.

The final part of this edited collection examines “Professional and Technical Workers”, beginning with Richard Sharpe’s examination of labour control mechanisms in the computer software production industry, including the shift from employer-employee to customer-contractor relationships, and the trend towards “globalization” (decentralization through the creation of new locations for software production, although Sharpe observes that the trend is geographic-specific and not truly “global”). Peter Meiksins and Peter Whalley explore corporate part-time employment among “flexible” technical professionals in the United States (including engineers, computer professionals and technical writers), and the bureaucratic barriers and restrictions to non-standard employment arrangements often desired by workers. In the last chapter, Sean O Riain provides an ethnographic account of teamwork among software developers in Ireland, placed in the context of a global workplace (requiring international networking, cooperation and conflict resolution) with “time-space intensification” surrounding real deadlines for software projects.

This edited collection will be of interest to scholars curious about the theoretical development and recent empirical research in labour process analysis. The diverse set of chapters contribute to our understanding of the negative effects of “global market capitalism” in its many and varied forms from outsourcing and contracting to “lean production” methods and practices. The qualitative/ ethnographic methodologies employed in these labour process analyses yield valuable insights into the real experiences of workers confronting the forces of global market capitalism.

Robert D. Hiscott
University of Waterloo.
hiscott@watarts.uwaterloo.ca



		Canadian Journal of Sociology Online January - February 2002 Rick Baldoz, Charles Koeber and Philip Kraft, eds. The Critical Study of Work: Labor, Technology, and Global Production. Temple University Press, 2001, 285 pp. $US 27.95 paper (1-56639-798-7), $US 79.50 cloth (1-56639-797-9) This book is an edited collection of 12 chapters (plus introduction) prepared by 16 contributors, inspired by the conference “Work, Difference and Social Change: Two Decades after Braverman’s Labor and Monopoly Capital” held at the State University of New York at Binghamton in May 1998. The book begins with the assertion that global market capitalism as a phenomenon of the second half of the twentieth century has shown mixed results or returns - both positive and negative - “... bringing prosperity and polarization, more consumption and less leisure, more wealth and more debt, expansion and contraction” (p.5). The common theme across this set of chapters is “... concern for the predicament of workers in the global workplace” (p.16) - their precarious position in the evolving workplace, their struggles, successes and failures to contend with forces beyond their direct control. In the analysis of contemporary global market capitalism, these essays cover a very broad range of geographic settings (including the United States, Canada, Ireland, Brazil, Taiwan, and South Africa), as well as distinct workplaces and kinds of workers (such as supermarket cashiers, cosmetics retailers, high-tech assembly workers, and computer software developers, to name a few). Consistent with more contemporary forms of labour process analysis, many of the essays “... incorporate race, gender and other forms of social inequality” (p.11), yielding a more complex and sophisticated understanding of conflict and struggle in the modern workplace. The first part of the book (subtitled “Continuity and Change”) provides a more theoretical overview of the development of labour process analysis. Michael Burawoy examines “... the durability of advanced capitalism, the fragility of state socialism, and the peculiarities of postsocialism” (p.23), based on twenty years of ethnographic research conducted in a number of countries. Burawoy also addresses some of the reasons for the worldwide demise of socialist orders, pointing to the dialectic of economic and political (state) forces in all regimes: “... each system incubates its opposite, which can in turn either reinforce or undermine the dominant order” (p.42). In his essay, Jeffrey Haydu poses the fundamental question, “Do Capitalists Matter in the Capitalist Labor Process?” and concludes that labour process analysis needs to address the identities, solidarities and collectivities of employers, rather than focus exclusively on workers: “Our understanding of the labor process requires that we treat employers as we treat workers: as agents and as members of larger communities” (p.46). Despite the fact that many of the ties which bind employers begin and are maintained outside of the workplace, such connections can have a profound impact upon the labor process in the workplace (p.60). The second part of this reader (subtitled “Service and Service Sector Workers”) begins with a chapter by Evelyn Nakano Glenn assessing the division of reproductive labor (which encompasses a wide range of domestic household, kinship and childcare responsibilities), and highlighting important distinctions along both gender and race lines: “... less desirable or more onerous aspects of reproductive labor have devolved on disadvantaged women of color ‘freeing’ more privileged women for higher-level pursuits” (p.73). This is also symbolic of a growing polarization in the distribution of wealth in the modern global economy, and given the degree of segmentation evident within the sphere of reproductive labor, it leads Glenn to challenge the utility of developing a single or unified “policy” - at a national or global level - for protection of interests of all “working women” (p.80). The chapter by Pei-Chia Lan continues the stratification theme, exploring the differences across cosmetics retailers in Taipei, Taiwan (in department stores and direct selling settings), with distinct gendered patterns of recruitment, required qualifications, training opportunities and task assignments for “male make-up artists” and female “beauty advisors.” The section concludes with an essay on the work experiences of supermarket cashiers in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Montreal, Quebec, in which Angelo Soares explores the “strategies of resistance” employed by cashiers, including subtle and sophisticated forms of “... silent rebellions aimed at maintaining control over and within work ...” (p.120). The third part of the reader focuses on “Production and Industrial Workers.” Jennifer JiHye Chun examines the plight of high-tech manufacturing workers in the printed circuit board (PCB) industry in Silicon Valley, California, demonstrating how flexible production practices (including greater reliance upon subcontracting and contract manufacturing) results in “flexible despotism” for workers with common instances of layoffs, shutdowns and a range of unfair labour practices. Edna Bonacich investigates the Los Angeles apparel industry, as an example of global/flexible production, “... an immensely efficient engine of exploitation” (p.176) which controls labor through contracting and piecework systems and constant threats of job loss. The chapter by James Rinehart reviews work restructuring in the North American auto manufacturing industry since the 1970s, including the more recent introduction of “lean production” systems, methods and practices which have “... failed miserably to live up to [the] promise of humanizing the workplace” (p.192). The final essay in this section by Edward Webster explores the role of shop stewards in South Africa as agents for change in a political context, though often in conflictual and contradictory positions between the workers they represent and organization management. The final part of this edited collection examines “Professional and Technical Workers”, beginning with Richard Sharpe’s examination of labour control mechanisms in the computer software production industry, including the shift from employer-employee to customer-contractor relationships, and the trend towards “globalization” (decentralization through the creation of new locations for software production, although Sharpe observes that the trend is geographic-specific and not truly “global”). Peter Meiksins and Peter Whalley explore corporate part-time employment among “flexible” technical professionals in the United States (including engineers, computer professionals and technical writers), and the bureaucratic barriers and restrictions to non-standard employment arrangements often desired by workers. In the last chapter, Sean O Riain provides an ethnographic account of teamwork among software developers in Ireland, placed in the context of a global workplace (requiring international networking, cooperation and conflict resolution) with “time-space intensification” surrounding real deadlines for software projects. This edited collection will be of interest to scholars curious about the theoretical development and recent empirical research in labour process analysis. The diverse set of chapters contribute to our understanding of the negative effects of “global market capitalism” in its many and varied forms from outsourcing and contracting to “lean production” methods and practices. The qualitative/ ethnographic methodologies employed in these labour process analyses yield valuable insights into the real experiences of workers confronting the forces of global market capitalism. Robert D. Hiscott University of Waterloo. hiscott@watarts.uwaterloo.ca http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/cjscopy/reviews/critwork.html January 2002 © CJS Online