FRINK Linked Data Fragments server

Matches in SemOpenAlex for { <https://semopenalex.org/work/W2007295670> ?p ?o ?g. }

• W2007295670 endingPage "112" @default.
• W2007295670 startingPage "111" @default.
• W2007295670 abstract "Reviewed by: Forces of Labor: Workers’ Movements and Globalization Since 1870 Martin Comack Forces of Labor: Workers’ Movements and Globalization Since 1870. By Beverly J. Silver . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 238 pp. $65 hardback. $23 papear. There has been no lack of commentary and analysis over the past decade on the course of the relentless globalization of world markets and the capability of international capital, waving the banner of free trade, to move with agility from country to country and skip from continent to continent. For organized labor, whether in the industrialized or underdeveloped world, the general prognosis is universally grim. Transnational investors invariably seek out areas where labor is cheap and unions weak or non-existent. So far as wages and working conditions are concerned, it appears to be a headlong race to the bottom. Beverly Silver's new book provides a more measured and considered view of globalization and its various discontents. She relates how the post-World War II social contracts between capital, labor, and government in North America and Western Europe eroded and finally were abandoned by economic elites in the 1970s, as profit margins began to decline. Free trade, privatization, and unregulated markets became the new mantras of economic analysis and public policy. Based on extensive research, Silver identifies two major initiatives, or fixes, of the capitalist system—one geographical, the other technological—that were used throughout the twentieth century to lower labor costs and bolster profits. To illustrate the geographical fix, the author presents the automotive industry as a model, demonstrating how the mass production of cars moved from the Detroit area to other sites within the United States, to Western Europe, and finally to Brazil, South Africa, and South Korea. Each successive relocation of production has had the effect of engendering a militant and class-conscious proletariat provoked to mass mobilizations and direct action in demanding higher wages and better working conditions. In the second case, Silver notes that technological fixes that spawn the manufacture of new products and services often enhance the bargaining power of various sectors of the labor force at the same time. So-called just in time systems, for example, remain quite vulnerable to disaffected employees located at strategic points in the productive chain, for example, transport workers. If globalization has been an inevitable step given the logic of the free enterprise system, economic elites must still maintain at least a modicum of social legitimacy to avoid serious challenges to their rule. Silver ponders this question in the light of the periods of reform and repression [End Page 111] flthat have waxed and waned across the globe over the last century. She emphasizes the point that the effects of globalization must be regarded as contradictory processes that both foster and retard labor's strength and bargaining power, locally and internationally. Prospects are therefore not nearly as dim as they have been painted, neither for the old working classes of the developed world, or for the new industrial workers of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The author has been able to present this somewhat complex topic in a clear, precise, and accessible style. This book can be highly recommended as a text for graduate students in the social sciences, as well as a guide for labor educators developing courses on globalization. Silver's well-founded conclusions supply a much-needed corrective to the notion that the new transnational economic order has foreclosed on the future of the organized working class. Globalization may yet be the unwitting and involuntary source of a new labor internationalism. Martin Comack Northeastern University Copyright © 2004 the West Virginia University Press, for the United Association for Labor Studies" @default.
• W2007295670 created "2016-06-24" @default.
• W2007295670 creator A5042732915 @default.
• W2007295670 date "2004-01-01" @default.
• W2007295670 modified "2023-10-17" @default.
• W2007295670 title "Forces of Labor: Workers' Movements and Globalization Since 1870 (review)" @default.
• W2007295670 doi "https://doi.org/10.1353/lab.2004.0037" @default.
• W2007295670 hasPublicationYear "2004" @default.
• W2007295670 type Work @default.
• W2007295670 sameAs 2007295670 @default.
• W2007295670 citedByCount "0" @default.
• W2007295670 crossrefType "journal-article" @default.
• W2007295670 hasAuthorship W2007295670A5042732915 @default.
• W2007295670 hasConcept C136264566 @default.
• W2007295670 hasConcept C138885662 @default.
• W2007295670 hasConcept C138921699 @default.
• W2007295670 hasConcept C162324750 @default.
• W2007295670 hasConcept C17744445 @default.
• W2007295670 hasConcept C2119116 @default.
• W2007295670 hasConcept C2778137410 @default.
• W2007295670 hasConcept C34447519 @default.
• W2007295670 hasConcept C41895202 @default.
• W2007295670 hasConceptScore W2007295670C136264566 @default.
• W2007295670 hasConceptScore W2007295670C138885662 @default.
• W2007295670 hasConceptScore W2007295670C138921699 @default.
• W2007295670 hasConceptScore W2007295670C162324750 @default.
• W2007295670 hasConceptScore W2007295670C17744445 @default.
• W2007295670 hasConceptScore W2007295670C2119116 @default.
• W2007295670 hasConceptScore W2007295670C2778137410 @default.
• W2007295670 hasConceptScore W2007295670C34447519 @default.
• W2007295670 hasConceptScore W2007295670C41895202 @default.
• W2007295670 hasIssue "3" @default.
• W2007295670 hasLocation W20072956701 @default.
• W2007295670 hasOpenAccess W2007295670 @default.
• W2007295670 hasPrimaryLocation W20072956701 @default.
• W2007295670 hasRelatedWork W1556327015 @default.
• W2007295670 hasRelatedWork W1923842183 @default.
• W2007295670 hasRelatedWork W1934818874 @default.
• W2007295670 hasRelatedWork W2020032182 @default.
• W2007295670 hasRelatedWork W2367708128 @default.
• W2007295670 hasRelatedWork W2372245426 @default.
• W2007295670 hasRelatedWork W2382324404 @default.
• W2007295670 hasRelatedWork W2899084033 @default.
• W2007295670 hasRelatedWork W3123611915 @default.
• W2007295670 hasRelatedWork W4229440217 @default.
• W2007295670 hasVolume "29" @default.
• W2007295670 isParatext "false" @default.
• W2007295670 isRetracted "false" @default.
• W2007295670 magId "2007295670" @default.
• W2007295670 workType "article" @default.