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Globalisation Contested an International Political Economy of Work

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Globalisation Contested an International Political Economy of Work Document1 11/12/04 3:23 PM Page 1 Globalisation contested An international political economy of work LOUISE AMOORE 6 Globalisation contested MUP_Amoore_00_Prelims 1 6/19/02, 11:58 AM MUP_Amoore_00_Prelims 2 6/19/02, 11:58 AM Globalisation contested An international political economy of work LOUISE AMOORE Manchester University Press Manchester and New York Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave MUP_Amoore_00_Prelims 3 6/19/02, 11:58 AM Copyright © Louise Amoore 2002 The right of Louise Amoore to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Published by Manchester University Press Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NR, UK and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA Distributed exclusively in Canada by UBC Press, University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for 93-50558 ISBN 0 7190 6096 6 hardback First published 2002 100908070605040302 10987654321 Typeset in Minion and Minion Display by Koinonia, Manchester Printed in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King’s Lynn MUP_Amoore_00_Prelims 4 6/19/02, 11:59 AM Dedicated to Mary Elizabeth Amoore and John Arthur Gregory, in memory and with much love. MUP_Amoore_00_Prelims 5 6/19/02, 11:59 AM MUP_Amoore_00_Prelims 6 6/19/02, 11:59 AM 6 Contents List of figures and tables page viii Acknowledgements ix List of abbreviations xi Introduction 1 1 Globalisation, restructuring and the flexibility discourse 14 2 International political economy and global social change 38 3 Producing hyperflexibility: the restructuring of work in Britain 67 4 Producing flexi-corporatism: the restructuring of work in Germany 93 5 The ‘contested’ firm: the restructuring of work and production in the international political economy 115 6 Globalisation at work: unheard voices and invisible agency 137 Conclusion: an international political economy of work 158 Bibliography 166 Index 188 MUP_Amoore_00_Prelims 7 6/19/02, 11:59 AM 6 List of figures and tables Figure 2.1 Susan Strange’s ‘determinants of choice’ page 48 Tables 1.1 The OECD’s ‘Jobs Strategy’ recommendations 30 3.1 Key legislative reforms of industrial relations in Britain, 1980–99 84–5 3.2 Workers involved in strikes and lockouts 89 4.1 Average hourly labour costs in manufacturing industry, 1999 107 4.2 Standardised rates of unemployment (as % of civilian labour force) 110 MUP_Amoore_00_Prelims 8 6/19/02, 11:59 AM 6 Acknowledgements During the course of the research and writing of this book I have discovered that matters ‘global’ are truly close to people’s everyday lives. Barely a day has passed when someone somewhere has not challenged my thinking. The influences and signposts along the route have been numerous – not only scholars, but also corporate managers, workers and trade unionists – I hope to recall at least some of them here. The book reached its first draft stage as a Ph.D thesis, researched and written between 1995 and 1998, and submitted in the Department of Politics, University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Particular thanks go to Phil Daniels, Ronen Palan, Randy Germain and Andrew Gamble for their inspirational comments and challenges. During this period the Newcastle Working Group on Globalisation provided an important source of intellectual challenge, debate and criticism. Particular thanks to Barry Gills, Richard Dodgson, Don Marshall, Iain Watson and Paul Langley. For providing inspiration and support during fieldwork travels, I am grateful to the staff and students at the Center for German and European Studies, Georgetown, and to all at the Max Planck Institute, Cologne, especially to Wolfgang Streeck. The research for this book would not have been possible without the assistance and enthusiasm of managers and workers in firms across three countries. I can only hope that I have done some justice to their extra- ordinary insights into the ‘globalness’ of their everyday lives. Their number is too great to thank them all by name here, but their contributions have been invalu- able. That said, my profound thanks to Bob Reid, Peter Rostock and Richard Gibbs for their support of the project. During the later stages of research I have had invaluable inspiration and criti- que from ongoing debates and discussion with scholars and friends. Special thanks to Jeff Harrod (for warning me of the hazards of studying work and labour!), Robert O’Brien, Dimitris Stevis, Roger Tooze, Matt Davies, Chris May, Tony Payne, Magnus Ryner, Rebecca Harding, Gigi Herbert, Kim Hutchings and Mark Boyer, and to the anonymous reviewers of the articles from which some of the material is drawn. My former colleagues at the University of Northumbria supported this project in many ways: thanks to Phil Garrahan, Lynn Dobbs, Rosie Cunningham, Doug Miller, John Fenwick and Keith Shaw. My colleagues in the Department of Politics, University of Newcastle have provided much encourage- ment in the final stages of the work. Thanks to Peter Jones, Tony Zito and Ella Ritchie for support and encouragement. The discussions taking place in two reading MUP_Amoore_00_Prelims 9 6/19/02, 11:59 AM 10 Acknowledgements groups have provided intellectual stimulus and respite, provoking thought and revision: thanks to Tim Kelsall, David Campbell, Erna Rijsdijk and Ralph. A special thank you to Marieke deGoede, a challenging scholar and good neighbour. Finally, thanks to my family, John, Jenny and Jonathan, for their support and good humour. It is difficult to express a debt of gratitude that is as great as that owed to Paul Langley. He has tirelessly read and commented on drafts of chapters and the final manuscript, and has permitted me to develop ideas that were first presented in a co-authored paper, in the second chapter. I have had the luxury of being able to discuss IPE in the car, the kitchen, on holiday and in our everyday lives. Yet, Paul also represents all that is not about work and writing, and for this happy balance I am eternally grateful. On a more formal note, I wish to thank the ESRC for financial support (award R00429534005), and the Department of Politics for supporting travel in the later stages. The staff at Manchester University Press have enthusiastically supported and guided the project throughout. I also express thanks to the editors and publishers of the following journals for permission to reprint revised passages from papers first published in their series. Parts of chapter 1 first appeared in Global Society (1998), 12: 1, pp. 49–74. Parts of chapter 5 first appeared in New Political Economy (2000), 5: 2, pp. 183–204. MUP_Amoore_00_Prelims 10 6/19/02, 12:00 PM Introduction 11 6 List of abbreviations AICs advanced industrialised countries BBC British Broadcasting Corporation CEC Commission of the European Communities ECJ European Court of Justice EDRC Economic and Development Review Committee EI employee involvement EIRO European Industrial Relations Observatory EIRR European Industrial Relations Review EPZs export processing zones FDI foreign direct investment G7 Group of Seven: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US GPE global political economy HRM human resource management ICTs information and communication technologies IDW Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft (Institute of the German Economy) IILS International Institute for Labour Studies ILO International Labour Organisation IMF International Monetary Fund IPE international political economy IR international relations JIT just-in-time LDCs less developed countries LIEO liberal international economic order MNC multinational corporation NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement NGO non-governmental organisation OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development SMEs small/medium size enterprises TQM total quality management TUC Trades Union Congress UNDP United Nations Development Programme WIRS Workplace Industrial Relations Survey WTO World Trade Organisation MUP_Amoore_00_Prelims 11 6/19/02, 12:00 PM MUP_Amoore_00_Prelims 12 6/19/02, 12:00 PM 6 Introduction he mood is shifting in the contemporary globalisation debate. Only a few Tyears ago, talk of the contested and politicised nature of globalisation would have met with scepticism from those who emphasise the sheer economic power of globalising forces. The orthodox popular and academic representations of globalisation have for several decades sustained the image of a powerful economic and technological bulldozer that effortlessly shovels up states and societies. The very discourse of the ‘competition state’ (Cerny, 1990) effectively sanitised the globalisation process, removing the messiness of politics and leaving only the ‘right and necessary’ policy measures. As the millennium turned, the picture began to change so that we now begin to see partial glimpses of the push and shove of a social and political contestation that was, in truth, always present. Now we see the news media popularising debates about the power of multinational corporations (MNCs), the plight of the global economy’s ‘new slaves’ and the ‘anti-globalisation’ protests (Klein, 2000; Bales, 1999; British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Panorama, 2000; Channel 4, 2000). The effect is to bring less comfortable and optimistic images
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