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Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Social Sciences 93

A New Paradigm of Industrial Organization

The Diffusion of Technological and Managerial Innovations in the Brazilian Industry

BY LEDA GITAHY

ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS UPPSALA 2000 Dissertation for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology presented at Uppsala University 2000 Abstract Gitahy, Leda, 2000. A New Paradigm of Industrial Organization. The Diffusion of Technological and Managerial Innovations in the Brazilian Industry. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Social Sciences 93. 48 pp. Uppsala. ISBN 91-554-4778-3. Based on the concepts of techno-economic paradigm, network and production chain, the main purpose of this dissertation is to analyse the diffusion of technological and managerial innovations in the Brazilian industry during the 1980s and the 1990s. It consists of a summary and six selected papers. Empirical studies were conducted at different moments of the re-structuring process and at different points of the production chain. The samples cover large leading firms as well as small second and third-tier suppliers in the automotive and footwear industries. They throw light on the process of diffusion and establishment of a new paradigm of industrial organization, mostly in conflict with the Taylorist/Fordist. Ideas, methods and management techniques were largely adopted and imitated from the so-called “Japanese model”, but the diffusion of the new paradigm in Brazil is also the result of adapting and modifying this model by trial and error. At the firm level, the adoption of these innovations entails a highly complex process of social change, reversing norms and models of behaviour hitherto dominant. They modify the daily practices at work, and the within and between companies, as well as between companies and other institutions, such as those within the educational system. These transformations are studied by distinguishing , management, and technological patterns. The results show that, under the conditions of a an extremely large domestic , the re-structuring of the Brazilian industry occurs in a context characterized by crisis, economic instability, and as well as by political re-democratization and growing influence of the labour movement. The diffusion of the new paradigm of efficiency together with the increasing globalization of the and the ongoing abandonment of import substitution, transformed the organization of work and inter-firms relations, changing the volume, structure, and location of as well as the content and hierarchy of skills. Keywords: technological paradigm, flexible production, network, employment, skills, education, Brazilian industry. Leda Maria Caira Gitahy, Department of Sociology, Uppsala University, Box 821, S-751 08 Uppsala, Sweden.

© Leda Gitahy 2000 ISSN 0282-7492 ISBN 91-554-4778-3 Printed in Sweden by University Printers, Ekonomikum, Uppsala 2000 “... Nations which adopt the new techniques from abroad always do so for a double and apparently self-contradictory motive: to become like their more advanced rivals, but to remain just as they are. They must at least meet the efficiency standards of their powerful competitors if they are to preserve their independence - hence the need to copy who ever has come up with the successful techniques of the day. But paradoxically, they imitate others the better to defend their individuality.” Charles Sabel

“Just how to achieve self realization, to preserve freedom, and adapt society to both, seems increasingly harder to know; it is felt as a central, overwhelming problem of our days. … From finding security in a repetion of sameness, of only slight and slow variations, we are having to live with a very different kind of security; one that must rest on achieving the good life, with very little chance to predict the outcome of our actions in a fast changing world. … To manage such a feat, heart and reason can no longer be kept in separate places. … The daring heart must invade reason with its own living warmth, even if the simetry of reason must give way to admit love and the pulsation of life. No longer can we be satisfied with a life where the heart has its reasons, which reason cannot know. Our hearts must know the world of reason, and reason must be guided by an informed heart.” Bruno Bettelheim LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

I. Gitahy, Leda (2000) Toward a New Paradigm of Industrial Organization? The concept of technological paradigm and its to study the diffusion of technological and managerial innovations in the Brazilian industry. Accepted for publication in Portuguese as Gitahy, Leda (2000) Na direção de um novo paradigma de organização industrial? O conceito de paradigma tecnológico e sua utilidade para tratar o tema da difusão de inovações tecnológicas e organizacionais na indústria brasileira, Coleção Mundo do Trabalho, Boitempo Editorial, São Paulo (in print).

II. Gitahy, Leda (1994) Technological Innovation, Subcontracting, and the Labour Market. Published in Portuguese as Gitahy, Leda (1994) “Inovação Tecnológica, Subcontratação e Mercado de Trabalho” in São Paulo em Perspectiva, Vol. 8 nr 1, pp 144-153, São Paulo. (ISSN 0102-8839).

III. Gitahy, Leda, Rabelo, Flávio, and Costa, Maria Conceição (1990) Technological Innovation, Industrial Relations, and Subcontracting, version in English prepared as a paper presented to the I Symposium on “New Technological and Societal Trends” (Session IV) at XII World Sociological Congress, Madrid, July. Originally published in Portuguese as Gitahy, Leda, Rabelo, Flávio, and Costa, Maria Conceição (1991) “Inovação Tecnológica, Relações Industriais e Subcontratação” in Textos para Discussão nr 10, DPCT/IG/UNICAMP, Campinas, pp 1-34. Also published in Spanish as Gitahy, Leda, Rabelo, Flávio, and Costa, Maria Conceição. (1992) "Innovación tecnológica: relaciones industriales y subcontratacción" in Boletin CINTERFOR, nr 120, julio-setiembre, pp 71-98, Cinterfor/OIT, Montevideo (ISSN 0254- 2439).

IV. Gitahy, Leda and Rabelo, Flávio (1991) Education and Technological Development: the Case of the Autoparts Industry. Originally published in Portuguese as Gitahy, Leda and Rabelo, Flávio (1991) “Educação e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico: o caso da indústria de autopeças” in Textos para Discussão nr 11, DPCT/IG/UNICAMP, Campinas, pp 1-30. Published in Spanish, as Gitahy, Leda and Rabelo, Flávio (1992) “Educación y Desarrollo Tecnológico: el caso de la industria de autopartes”, in Gallart, M.C.(ed.) Educación y Trabajo - Desafios y Perspectivas de Investigación y Políticas en la década de los Noventa - Red Latinoamericana de Educación y Trabajo CIID-CENEP y CINTERFOR/OIT, Montevideo, pp 107-140. Published in Portuguese as Gitahy, Leda e Rabelo, Flávio (1993) “Educação e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico: o caso da indústria de autopeças”, in Educação e Sociedade, Ano XIV, agosto, pp 225-251, CEDES/Papirus, Campinas (ISSN 0101-7330). V. Gitahy, Leda, Ruas, Roberto, Rabelo, Flávio, and Antunes, Elaine (1997) Inter-firm Relations, Collective Efficiency, and Employment in two Brazilian Clusters. Originally published in Portuguese as Gitahy, Leda, Ruas, Roberto, Rabelo, Flávio, and Antunes, Elaine (1997) ”Relações interfirmas, eficiência coletiva e emprego em dois clusters da indústria brasileira”, in Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios del Trabajo, nr 6, pp 39-78, ALAST, São Paulo (ISSN 1 405-1311). An earlier version was published in English as Ruas, Roberto, Gitahy, Leda, Rabelo, Flávio, and Antunes, Elaine (1994). ”Inter-Firm Relations, Collective Efficiency, and Employment in two Brazilian Clusters”, World Employment Programme Research, WEP 2-22/WP.242, pp 1-55, ILO, Geneva, March (ISBN 92-2-109333-6).

VI. Abreu, Alice, Gitahy, Leda, Ramalho, José Ricardo, and Ruas, Roberto (1999) Industrial Restructuring and Inter-firm Relations in Brazil: A Study of the Auto-Parts Industry in the 1990s in Occasional Papers nr 21, Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London, London. (ISSN 0953 6825) pp 1-40. Also accepted for publication in Portuguese as Abreu, Alice, Gitahy, Leda, Ramalho, José Ricardo, and Ruas, Roberto (2000) ”Produção flexível e relações inter-firmas: a indústria de autopeças em três regiões do Brasil”, in Abreu, Alice (editora) Produção flexível e novas institucionalidades na América Latina, Editora UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro (in print).

Reprints were made with permission from the publishers Contents

Acknowledgements Preface 1. Introduction 1.1 Objectives 1.2 Historical background 1.3 Basic concepts 1.4 Method 2. The studies 3. Conclusions and suggestions for further research 3.1 Main findings 3.2 Changes in the Brazilian industry, 1970-1999 3.3 Final discussion References

Articles I) Toward a New Paradigm of Industrial Organization? II) Education and Technological Development: the Case of the Autoparts Industry III) Technological Innovation, Industrial Relations, and Subcontracting IV) Technological Innovation, Subcontracting, and the Labour Market V) Inter-firm relations, Collective Efficiency and Employment in two Brazilian Clusters VI) Industrial Restructuring and Inter-firm Relations in Brazil: A Study of the Auto- Parts Industry in the 1990s Acknowledgements

As is the case for most PhD theses, there are many persons who, in different ways, have contributed to the fulfilment of the dissertation. Taking into consideration the period that has elapsed since I began my graduate studies at the Department of Sociology, Uppsala University, and the presentation of this dissertation, to name and thank all those that have been involved would amount to a very long list. To all of you who in one way or another have supported and trusted me, a collective and deeply felt: thank you! and, trust me, the memory is treasured. Research reported herein has been partially financed by IIEP/UNESCO (France); IDRC (Canada); ILO/OIT (Geneve); FINEP, CNPq , SEBRAE and DPCT/IG/UNICAMP (Brazil). In four of the six articles reported here, the following persons were my co-authors: Alice Rangel de Paiva Abreu, Elaine Antunes, Maria Conceição da Costa, Flávio Rabelo, José Ricardo Ramalho, and Roberto Lima Ruas, and I truely appreciate their collaboration. I want to express my gratitude to the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University, which never gave up on me in all these years and especially to my supervisor Pablo Suarez. I hope I have somehow measured up to the high academic standards he set for his students. But his contribution goes beyond academic support; he is a friend, who understood my special situation and encouraged me to bring my studies to a close. I am also very thankful to my second reader, Hedda Ekerwald who has critically read my work and offered valuable suggestions. Bo Lewin, Christine Roman and the administrative staff of the department, Kristina Jacks, Eva Henricson, Margareta Thomas, Margareta Mårtensson and Anders Hökback, who made my life easier and this thesis possible in various unforeseen ways. I thank them warmly. Many colleagues created an encouraging and stimulating environment during this critical Swedish summer. I want to thank Nora Machado for her friendship, Sandra Torres, Anne-Marie Kalliokoski, Astrid Kubis, Arja Lehto and Maria Eriksson for their collegiality and friendly support. Regarding the final stage I would like to thank the discussants at my final seminar, Göran Ahrne and Johan Nylander, for their helpful comments. Tom Burns gave me valuable advice, for which he is thanked. Anne Posthuma has transleted one of the articles. John Humphrey and Luis Paulo Brescianni helped me with the technical terms. Peter Ekegren read the last version of the Comphehensive Summary and helped me when I was ‘blindfolded’. My dear friend Kersti Gløersen has revised the English language. The Department of Science and Technology Policy, Institute of Geosciences, at Campinas University in Brazil was my ‘habitat’ during all these years. In the last few months some colleagues of mine were obliged to take care of my courses and duties and I want to thank them, specially Sandra Brisolla, Ruy de Quadros Carvalho, André Furtado, Newton Pereira and Sérgio Salles Filho. To Adriana Garutti Teixeira, Juarez Costa, Neide dos Santos Furlan, Waldirene Pinotti and all other personnel who helped and supported me unhesitantly in my work I give my full thanks. There are three teachers, Amílcar Herrera (in memoriam), Ulf Himmmelstrand, Juarez Brandão Lopes and two colleagues Elizabeth Souza-Lobo (in memoriam) and Helena Hirata who have deeply influenced my intellectual trajectory, and I want to express my particular gratitude to them. Anne-Marie Morhed and Lennarth Wallström opened their home and their hearts to me during all these years and are therefore part of my thesis. I am greatful for their friendship. Special thanks to Magdalena Czaplicka, Gladys Goulborne, Aida and Lasse Lagergren, Elcira and Robert Liljequist and Alejandro Zamora, for their support, specially during the last and stressful period of completing the dissertation. Finally, there are those who suffered and supported me out of all proportion. Thanks Berna, Gui and specially Chico, who travelled to Uppsala to take care of me; thanks to all my family, from my granny (the oldster) to my syster’s daughter Carolina (the youngster) and specially my mother Eunice Caira Gitahy, from the bottom of my heart! Preface

This thesis, which gathers together six papers written in Brazil during the 1980s and the 1990s, is marked by the reflections, dreams, and experiences of a long trip shared with my generation. We were born in the baby boom after the Second World War, and in our childhood, marked by the romanticism of the Hollywood films of the 1950s, we believed that “at the time of evil I think we had not been born yet” [“no tempo da maldade acho que a gente ainda não tinha nascido”] (“João e Maria”, by Chico Buarque de Holanda). We woke up at the end of the 1960s in a world divided by the violence of the Cold War and the scenes of the Vietnam War, which used to invade our TV screens every night. As it is said in the same song, “now it was inevitable that the make-believe ended like that, beyond that yard it was an endless night”, [“agora era fatal que o faz-de-conta terminasse assim, pra lá desse quintal era uma noite que não tem mais fim”] (“João e Maria”, by Chico Buarque de Holanda). I entered the University in 1968 and, one year later, with Bernardino, my love and companion since then, I had to leave Brazil “running like crazy” [“num rabo de foguete”] (“O Bêbado e a Equilibrista”, by Aldir Blanc). We could only return in 1980, with our two sons: Guilherme, who was born in April, 1973, in Santiago de Chile, and Francisco, who was born in May, 1977, in Uppsala, Sweden, countries which have welcomed us in our successive exiles. Ironically, it was as ‘survivors’1 of the totalitarian regimes which devastated Latin-American countries during our youth that we reached Europe, from where our great-grandparents have departed, as victims of the great migratory movements provoked by the social transformations which formed the Second Industrial Revolution. The seven years spent in Sweden during the 1970s have taught me that it is possible to build institutions which join democracy, development, and social , depending on the characteristics, creativity, and modes of action of the social movements. I have never been able to separate my intellectual work, strongly marked by rationalistic tradition and faith in Science, inherited from the Enlightenment, from my daily life, my emotions, and dreams. In this sense, my work means a kind of long return, marked by my experiences in Chile and Sweden. To live in different countries get me the ability to see Brazil in a new light on my return, and, in the beginning, the paradox of feeling a foreigner in my country. Little by little, through my research and teaching activities, in which I have sought shelter, devoting myself to understand the recent history of my country and continent, I have found that the magical realism of Latin-American literature is much more realistic than magical. Countries of the future with no memory from the past, we go on repeating the cycles of our “Hundred Years of Solitude”, so well portrayed by Gabriel Garcia Márquez. My effort, together with that of colleagues who have collaborated in the researches giving origin to part of the articles which constitute this thesis, was to try, as much as possible with no prejudices, to open the ‘black box’ of concrete processes of industrial re-structuring. It would be impossible without the collaboration of all those present in the various investigations on which this thesis is based: managers, engineers, workers, and businessmen, actors and victims of the re-structuring processes at the time, who chose to share their experiences, knowledge, beliefs, and expectations with us.

1 For Primo Levi, who survived the Holocaust (cited by Hobsbawn, 1995:11), ”we survivors... are those who, by prevarication, skill or luck, have never touched the bottom. Those who have done it, and who have seen the faces of the Gorgons, did not return, or returned with no words”. 1. Introduction

1.1 Objectives The objective of this thesis is to analyse the process of diffusion of technological and managerial innovations in the Brazilian industry in the 1980s and the 1990s, based on: (a) A theoretical-methodological discussion on the concept of techno-economic paradigm (Perez, 1985) and its utility to study the diffusion of technological and managerial innovations in the Brazilian industry 2; (b) The use of the concepts of network and production chain to analyse concrete processes of restructuring; (c) A set of four empirical studies based on different researches carried out at different moments and in different types of companies in the 1980s and the 1990s. It is a matter of understanding how the introduction of a set of inter-related innovations, inspired in a new paradigm of efficiency, modifies: (a) on one hand, the daily work activities (routines, procedures, modes of producing, indicators, criteria, status symbols, habits, and values); (b) and, on the other hand, the division of labour within firms and among them i.e. inter-firm relations), as well as between firms and different institutions, including those of the education system. The main idea is to show how the diffusion of a new paradigm of efficiency, associated with the process of globalization of the economy and the abandonment of the model of development based on import substitution, transformed the work organization and the inter-firms relations in the Brazilian industry, changing the volume, structure, and location of employment as well as the content and hierarchy of skills. Under the conditions of an extremely large domestic market (in spite of its great contraction, especially at the crisis peaks of 1981-1983 and 1990-1992), the re- structuring of the Brazilian industry occurs in a context characterized by crisis, economic instability, recession and unemployment as well as by political re-democratization and growing influence of the labour movement. It is within this scenario that the slow abandonment of the model of development based on import-substitution, the increasing integration to global economy and the diffusion of the new paradigm of industrial organization have taken place. In the beginning of the 1990s, the of the economy intensifies this process. It is through studies realized in companies at different moments that I try to retrieve the links between the change in daily practices and the constitution of a new production scheme. This thesis consists of two parts: this summary, which discusses some central issues and the concepts used in the different studies which constitute the thesis, and six selected papers based on researches carried out in the 1980s and the 1990s. Among them, four are based on researches conducted at different moments of the re-structuring process and in different points of the production chain (articles III, IV, V and VI), and two are efforts of synthesis and theoretical comprehension of how the re-structuring processes in Brazilian industry have happened (articles I and II). Some studies have been carried out in large leading companies in the production chain and others intentionally seek to reach firms at the end of the chain, and even home-working (in the case of the shoe industry). The empirical studies allow us to understand, on one hand, changes in time (i.e., the different rhythms of innovations’ diffusion), and on the other hand, differences in various types of companies (from large firms to small second- and third-tier suppliers).

2 See also Dosi (1984) for the related notion of “technological paradigm” and Kuhn (1963) for the more general concept of “paradigm”.

9 The aim has been not only to understand the evolution of the re-structuring process, but also how the actors’ perceptions have changed. At a different level the papers also show how I and my collaborators were changing our views about the processes being investigated and witness at the same time our theoretical and methodological evolution. My research was at first focused on the rise of women’s -union membership among the metal-workers in São Bernardo do Campo (Gitahy et al., 1982a and 1982b; Lobo et al., 1984). In these papers, we started from the social movements of female workers. Through the analysis of their claims and social practices (using documents and interviews in depth) we began to see, using the available bases of quantitative data, what was happening both on the labour market and within trade unions. Labour Process, Sexual Division of Labour, Labour Market, Trade Unions, and Social Movements were the keywords in these papers. Our premise was that women’s perceptions of their work, family life, and trade-union experiences were signs of important social changes both in the composition of labour market and in the very forms of women’s participation within trade unions, a hypothesis which was confirmed. My subsequent research, also centred on the labour process, was aimed at investigating the social effects of the introduction of new technologies in companies in various industrial sectors (Peliano et al., 1987; Gitahy and Rabelo, 1988). Working in several projects carried out in the 1980s I realized, little by little, that the introduction of technological innovation was associated with the diffusion of a set of organizational innovations based on a paradigm of efficiency qualitatively distinct from the Taylorist-Fordist. I also realized that the process of diffusion of the new paradigm had the characteristics of a social movement. When searching for the effect of the introduction of machines, I found a social movement of engineers, businessmen, managers, etc (see articles I and III). From the middle of the 1990s onwards, I started to study transformations in several production chains, emphasizing the comparison among different regions in Brazil (see articles V and VI) and the location and relocation of employment (Gitahy and Cunha, 1999; Abreu et al., 2000). At the same time we began to link the results of these studies with those of the studies conducted on the action of trade unions during the last few years, which generated various papers (Gitahy and Bresciani, 1998; Araújo and Gitahy, 1998 and 1999). Research on these processes led me eventually to a reconsideration of the understanding of links between changes in daily practices and the construction of a new productive and institutional scheme. The main issue was to understand how actions at the level of the firm, oriented by different perceptions of the paradigms in force, result in changes not only in the structure of employment and labour market, but also in the very structure and location of the industrial system. In my opinion, this may contribute to a better understanding of the linkages between daily work practices, on one hand, and processes of industrial re-structuring and re-ordering of production chains, on the other.

1.2 Historical Background In the last two decades, Latin-American countries have witnessed profound changes in their traditional productive relations, which have been greatly affected by globalization and the associated international re-structuring process. This process is characterized by the diffusion of technological and organizational innovations through different production chains and by the markets re-ordering. At the core of these transformations is an intense process of labour reorganization and an increase in , affecting the volume, structure, and location of employment, the level and hierarchy of skills, and patterns of work-force management. It is important to understand the dynamics and the nature of these changes in order to understand the transformations they entail. The relations between work and education and the dynamics of productive re-structuring in the region are particularly relevant in this context (Gitahy, 1994b:9). In Latin America, these transformations have occurred at the same time as the replacement of the import substitution model. This project, which characterized different political and economic

10 experiences3, has had as a common axis the establishment of a salary-based society founded on the domestic market, which allowed a sustainable income rise and the overcoming of poverty. Paradoxically, it was precisely in the countries where more inclusive social structures had been brought about that, in the early 1970s, a succession of military coups were staged. Starting with Pinochet in Chile and followed by Argentina and Uruguay, the military regimes repressed violently parties, trade-unions, and other organized social groups while disorganizing the domestic economic basis. Strongly supported by the Reagan and Thatcher governments, Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile opens a new perspective of development, oriented to a larger external exposition of , made possible by the financial internationalization trend which began to acquire importance in that period (Castro and Dedecca, 1998:10). ‘Adjustment’ policies associated with the liberalization of markets and to the fomenting of exports were implemented in a context marked by economic crisis and recession. To the already traditional problems of the region (such as structural unemployment, income concentration, deficiency of education systems) can be added the effects of crisis and recession, either by the consequences of spirals, which concentrate income, or by the desindustrialization and dismantlement of public systems provoked by ‘shocks’ in adjustment and policies. Simultaneously, we witnessed a process of political redemocratization and reorganization of civil society, and efforts of economic co-operation and regional integration (Gitahy, 1994b:10). The economic crisis in the beginning of the 1980s affects the countries of this region in different ways. In Brazil and Mexico, the process of foreign debt explains recession, whereas in Chile and in Argentina the crisis is produced by the effects of external exposition on the local market and by a disproportional rise in the availability of and services. Nevertheless, whereas in Brazil the crisis is concomitant with the slow process of political opening, redemocratization, and resurgence of social movements, in Chile and Argentina we have the binomial dictatorship/recession, i.e., the worst of all possible worlds. In Brazil, the 1970s was characterized as a period of great industrial expansion and, although the symptoms of crisis and economical recession could be felt already in 1974, their negative employment effects were only visible after 1981. In this period, a great expansion in industry and industrial employment is verified, especially in terms of the increase in the amount of workers classified as semi-qualified. Another important element was the massive incorporation of women in direct production activities, especially in the metal-working industry (Gitahy et al., 1982a). This process occurs under a competition pattern basically directed to an internal market in expansion and protected by the import-control politics. The capital-goods sector developed, on the one hand, to meet public-sector demand (large governmental projects in a variety of areas) and, on the other, to meet demand in the durable consumer-goods sector which was also growing. Concerning the labour management pattern, we found, in mass-production industries, a model4 characterized by an extreme parcelization of activities, extensive use of non-qualified work-force, high and induced turnover5, extremely conflictive work relations, where discipline is obtained through authoritarian methods, associated, in the case of the auto industry, to salaries higher than in other sectors6. The crisis in the beginning of the 1980s and the process of political liberalization question the foundation of this model (Gitahy, 1988). From the point of view of the competition pattern, the contraction of the internal market, associated

3 From democratic experiences to military governments, some of which have dissociated from social development. 4 Which Fleury (1978) also called “routinization” and Carvalho (1987) “predatory ways for using the workforce”. 5 For a discussion on turnover as a management policy, see Stutzman (1981). 6 Humphrey (1982) adds to these elements the importance of work laws and jobs and structures used by large firms and relates the authoritarian character in work relations in the firms to the political context in which they are inserted.

11 with the issue of the external debt, takes the firms to a new level of competition, in a moment of re- ordering of the markets on the international level. If the problem in the 1970s was producing “quantity”, in the 1980s the keyword turns out to be “quality”. The increase in exports, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the increased competition on the internal market made it vital for firms to increase their levels of productivity and efficiency. Concerning the technological pattern, we can notice the introduction of product and process innovations (use of systems CAD/CAM/CAE, NCMTs7, robots, introduction of Just-in-time, Kanban, cellular production, group technology, TQM systems with the use of SPC8), related to the process of diffusion of microelectronics accelerating during the crisis. The change in the labour management pattern, though, is the slowest one. It encompasses the implementation of more participative management methods, revision of jobs, and wage structures, work-force stabilization politics, ‘democratization’ of the use of restaurants, and greater concern with human-resource management. This change begins in the 1980s and is enhanced in the beginning of the 1990s, especially in the auto industry. The great competitive pressures on course in the world auto industry9 (car assemblers and autoparts makers), brought by the entrance of Japan, caused deep and radical changes in this sector’s organization and forced the re-structuring of the frequently turbulent relations between the vehicle car manufacturers and their component suppliers. The pressure on auto assemblers to increase plant productivity and quality of the vehicles had a vital effect upon the autoparts industry (see articles II and IV). Since the 1990s new and important changes can be noted in inter-firm relations, in product and labour markets, in worker’s mobility, and in skill requirements. At the same time, in a country like Brazil, some forms of flexible production are being established in a context of labour market deregulation and the atomization of collective action. These processes have emphazised the need for a simultaneous analysis of what is going on both within, between, and outside firms10. Hence, the social construction of production networks and the new forms of institutional articulation are a particularly relevant theme for social scientists (see articles V and VI).

7 CAD = Computer Aided Design; CAM = Computer Aided ; CAE = Computer Aided Engineering); CNCMT = Computer Numerical Controlled Machine Tools. 8 JIT - Just-in-time, a management system created in the Japanese car industry to adjust input demands and production, reducing stocks, and costs of production. It can be used within the firm (internal Just-in-time) or between client firms and suppliers (external Just-in-time). Kanban is a control system using cards to manage Just-in-time production. Production and inputs are organized through cards containing information on each part being produced (name, code, number of pieces, and where in the prodution line it is used). TQM - Total Quality Management, a management system aiming at total quality in production. SPC - Statistical Process Control is a control system using statistics that transfer responsibility for quality to the shop-floor workers, eliminating the traditional quality control based on inspectors. 9 For the auto-world industry it was a decade of intense global competition and rivalry, and a new re-structuring phase was on course in Europe. The reality found by the most important auto manufacturers consisted of the reduction of the demand’s growth and the increase in excess capacity, while the expansion of Japanese leading firms were going on in the USA and began to have a considerable impact on Europe (there was expectations of an increase in the participation of Japanese firms on the European market from 11% to 18-20%). The agreements and mergers, the increasingly faster technological change which induce the growth in R&D expending and heavy capital (related to severer environmental laws), and the innovations implemented by Japan in the production methods bring to the auto manufacturer’s mind a great variety of challenges. Between the end of 1989 and the beginning of 1990, Ford (USA) bought Jaguar (UK), GM (USA) bought 50% and the control of Saab (Sweden), Volvo (Sweden) joined Renault (France), Daimler-Benz (Germany) set up negotiations with Mitsubishi (Japan), while Ford and Fiat were negotiating a deal in the tractors and heavy-trucks sector (Financial Times, May 16th, 1990, cited in Article IV). 10 For Ahrne (1994:vii) “what is going inside, outside and between organizations is central in all analysis of society. Organizations are the mechanisms that shape macro-processes at the same time as they are the preconditions for every day life. Action and structure are brought together in organizations.”

12 1.3 Basic concepts The theoretical and methodological effort of this thesis is directed toward the question of how to study an ongoing transformation process, which involves radical changes from the economic and social point of view (change in the model of development) associated with a change in the paradigm of efficiency. It is based on empirical studies conducted in industrial enterprises, which were undergoing re-structuring11 processes at different moments in the 1980s and the 1990s. I started my study on the diffusion of technological innovations in Brazilian industry in the beginning of the 1980s. The initial studies are centred on the analysis of the introduction of new technologies based on microelectronics in companies of different sizes and sectors (Gitahy, 1983; Peliano et al., 1987; Gitahy, 1988; Gitahy and Rabelo, 1988 and Article III). During the researches carried out in this period I realized, little by little, that: a) the introduction of technological innovations was associated with the diffusion of a set of organizational innovations which used to modify radically not only labour organization and modes of working, but also the very form of conceiving productive efficiency; b) I was witnessing more than a diffusion of machines; it was a process of diffusion of ideas and social practices associated with such ideas, and c) this process of diffusion had the characteristics of a social movement of engineers, managers, businessmen, workers, etc. During the interviews conducted at companies, I have faced a highly complex process of social change at the micro level, which turned the established norms and behaviour12 models familiar to organization members inside out, setting new systems of authority and control. This process transforms norms, values, and routines and creates new sources of insecurity, anxiety, and resentment (see Article I and II). The diffusion of this set of innovations implies transformations in daily routines of labour13, in modes of producing, thinking, and feeling. Just to give an example, today, in many metal-mechanic companies, pride of being smeared with grease (which used to show hard work) was substituted for that of wearing, at the shop-floor, an impeccable white apron (synonymous with organization and “quality”), after a successful 5 S programme14. This is something which is happening either in a traumatic way (as, e.g., at moments of downsizing or re-engineering) or in a gradual way with different degrees of visibility, either to the different actors involved in this process or to researchers who pass by with their questionnaires and interview guides (Gitahy, 1999). Today, when this process is extremely advanced, the anguish of managers, engineers, technicians, and workers (direct actors in the process of change) is impressive, as it is said that everything they have learned before is no longer of use. In order to survive in the ‘magical world of globalization’, it is necessary to be modern, competitive, and to redesign daily practices based on a sort of perception of the underlying principles of a new paradigm of efficiency, which each and everyone interprets as they can, risking concretely to find themselves excluded both from the company and from the formal labour market, because they are too old, neither modern or updated, or whatever the discourse in fashion dictates. At the common-sense level, the idea spreads that companies and individuals should become “competitive”, “productive”, “modern”, “entrepreneurial”, “polyglots”, “multi-disciplinary”,

11 The empirical studies that make up this thesis are just a part of the researches carried out and published in the period, which have strongly influenced the theoretical approach I have developed throughout time. 12 For a discussion on technology, social action, and rule systems, see Burns and Flam (1987). 13 Even if this process is extremely heterogeneous, when compared to the contradictions among the “guiding principles” and the “practices” effectively implemented, what changes is the everyday life at work: routines, procedures, modes of producing, indicators, criteria, status symbols, habits, and values (Gitahy and Cunha, 1999). 14 A programme which aimed at constant improvement of 5 S: Seiri (clearing up - throwing away unnecessary items); Seiketsu (things disinfected, hygienic etc.); Seiso (sweeping or cleaning - getting rid of dirt); Seiton (tidying - putting things in proper order); Shitsuki (discipline or self-discipline).

13 “polyvalent”, “post-modern”, and “employable” in order to survive. To reach these objectives (which nobody knows exactly what they are and which individuals will interpret in their own ways) can be acquired through a set of recipes, methodologies, techniques, packages, etc., spread by an ample literature, courses, and the most diverse means of mass communication (Gitahy, 1999, see also Gitahy and Fischer, 1996). According to the media, it is necessary to study and to recycle throughout life in order to, perhaps, get some kind of occupation; or, in the words of a worker at a large company of cellulose, interviewed in 1998: ”In order to stay in the job now we have to be scientists, real experts”, whereas another one, discouraged, states: ”I am a sparepart, which cannot be milled anymore” (Santos, 1999:IV). Little by little, I realized that: a) the agents of change themselves, managers, workers, and especially engineers (strongly motivated by their firm belief in technological progress and in innovations), have not been able to see the results of their actions; b) we, the researchers, with our long questionnaires and our questions, have somehow been actors and agents of the same process, and none of us has seen the results of our actions; c) in reality, we have been working with a mix of perceptions, expectations, and values (theirs and ours), which biased our studies15. Based on the contrast between the insights from my experience in the fieldwork16 and the nature of the debate in scientific congresses (which, at that time, seemed to me locked into the dichotomy continuity/rupture or straitjacketed by the ”positive” or ”negative” effects of new technologies) that I was going to move away even more from the approaches influenced by structuralism (Braverman, 1974 and the French School of Regulation) and come closer to authors who, either in labour sociology or in , seemed to me to be more influenced by empirical findings. Taking for example economics and sociology, studies such as the one by Piore and Sabel (1984), which had a great impact, question the idea of the inevitability of technical progress via specialization (included in ’s pin factory), and point toward the importance of the interaction among views, ideas, actors, and processes of institutionalization to explain the constitution and the hegemony of the system of mass production from the beginning of the century onwards. Also Neo-Schumpeterian (Dosi, Freeman, Perez), when studying innovation, borrow from epistemology the concept of paradigm17 (Kuhn,1963), which also assumes actors and views to explain the dynamics of generation, selection, and choice of innovations (see Article I). As defined by Perez (1985:443), the concept of techno-economic paradigm makes reference to “a set of common sense guidelines for technological and decisions” which guides the actor’s choices. As such, the concept was deemed to be adequate to analyse the social and economic

15 Morin (1982) points out that one of the basic problems of modern science is the difficulty in thinking of itself due to the elimination, on principle, of the subject which observes, experiences, and conceives the observation, eliminating the real actor (scientist, man, intellectual, inserted in culture, society, and history). 16 During the 1980s, among different research projects, I think I visited more than 100 companies (from different industrial sectors), some of them many times. In the 1990s, I believe this number was doubled. 17 The concept of ‘technological paradigm’ appears in the literature on diffusion and the dynamic of innovation by means of an analogy borrowed from modern epistemology, based on Kuhn (1963). Dosi (1984:13-16) defines technology as “a set of pieces of knowledge, both directly ‘practical’ (related to concrete problems and devices) and ‘theoretical’ (but practically applicable albeit not necessarily already applied), know-how, methods, procedures, experiences of successes and failures, and also, of course, physical devices and equipment. Existing physical devices embody the achievements in the development of a technology in a defined problem-solving activity. At the same time, a ‘disembodied’ part of the technology consists of particular expertise, experience of past attempts, and past technological solutions together with the knowledge and the achievements of the state-of-the-art. Technology, according to this view, includes the ‘perception’ of a limited set of possible technological alternatives and of notional future developments. This definition of technology is very impressionistic, but it seems useful for the exploration of the patterns of technical change. One can see that the conceptual distance between this definition and the attributes of science - as suggested by modern epistemology - is not so great.” Based on this definition, the author proceeds analogously, defining ‘technological paradigm’: “we shall push the parallel further and suggest that, in analogy with scientific paradigms, there are ‘technological paradigms’ (see Article I).

14 dynamics of the diffusion of technological and managerial innovations in the Brazilian industry. The paradigm is a “a general guiding model”, a kind of “ideal type of productive organization”18, which is used as “the most efficient and rational” during a certain period of time (Perez, 1985: 443) with a strong power of inclusion/exclusion (Dosi, 1984:16). It is worth mentioning that, used in this manner, the concept leaves an ample margin to exploit the nature of the performance of sociological variables in the diffusion process. There is something similar in Piore and Sabel’s (1984) view, when they analyse the confrontation of two production systems based on different visions of technological efficiency. In the same way as Perez, their approach presupposes social visions and actors who hold these visions. Chart 1, based on Perez (1985) and Piore and Sable (1984), shows the differences betwen the ‘old’ (Taylorist-Fordist or “mass production”) and the ‘new’ (Post- Fordist or “flexible specialization”) paradigm of efficiency (see Articles I and II). The new forms of industrial organization has received various titles in the international literature: “Neo-Fordism” or “Post-Fordism” (for the French , e.g., Aglietta, 1976, Palloix, 1976, Boyer, 1987), “new techno-economic paradigm” (for the Neo-Schumpeterians, e.g., Perez, 1985), “PIW strategy” (for Björkman and Lundkvist, 1987), “flexible specialization” (for Piore and Sabel, 1984), "systemofacture" (for Hoffman and Kaplinsky, 1988), “lean production” (for Womack et al. 1990, from the world automotive study conducted at MIT). Despite the variety of terms used, all make reference to the same phenomenon. Owing to this and in order to avoid to contribute to the plethora of terms in the litterature, I will just call it the “new” paradigm (see Articles I and II). The idea that attracted me in Perez’ (1985) definition of paradigm as common-sense principles- guiding decisions, in the analysis of processes of change, is that generally the mobilizing ideologies and the so-called common-sense principles19 usually take on a normative format20 and are based on the codification of some kind of mobilizing social experience. Distinguishing the model (paradigm) from reality, in its turn, allowed me to separate the ”recipes”21 from the practices effectively implemented. The model is always an interpretative construction of reality and should be distinguished from reality itself 22. This allowed me to move away from the views which took models for reality, either to claim that new forms of labour organization and use of technology should be followed in order to survive (Womack et al., 1990) or to reduce them to some sort of immanent logic (almost a natural law) of , which has risen both among the ideologists of the neo laisser faire and in variants of structuralist neo-Marxism.

18 Perez (1985:443) suggests “that the behaviour of the relative cost structure of all inputs to production follows more or less predictable trends for relatively long periods. This predictability becomes the basis for the construction of an 'ideal type' of productive organization, which defines the contours of the most 'efficient' and 'least cost' combinations for a given period. It thus serves as a general 'rule of thumb' guide for investment and technological decisions. That general guiding model is the ‘techno-economic paradigm'. As it generalises, it introduce a strong bias in both technical and organizational innovation. Eventually, the range of choice in technique is itself contained within a relatively narrow spectrum, as the capital equipment increasingly embodies the new principles. Furthermore, for each type of product, expected productivity levels, optimal scales and relative become gradually established, together with the forms of competition in each market”. 19 What my grandmother calls “the law of life”. 20 From catechism to administration manuals and almost all the bibliography aimed at executives via cash on delivery and that invades bookshops and airport newspaper stands. 21 Which, in general, used to come in different packages sold by consultancy companies, and especially through programmes of Total Quality Management. 22 One of the problems pointed out by Morin (1982) as a cause of scientist’s incapacity to thinking science is the belief that scientific knowledge is a reflex of reality.

15 CHART 1: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PARADIGMS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION Taylorist-Fordist Paradigm or Post-Fordist Paradigm or Mass Production Flexible Specialization Size of • Large (the corporation) • Small and large firm/plant Organization of • Analytical model, focuses on • Systemic model, focuses on links and the firm parts or elements of processes, it systems of interrelations for holistic led to detailed definition of tasks, techno-economic co-ordination, merging posts, departments, sections, activities into one single interactive responsabilities and to complex system: managerial and productive, white hierarchies and blue collar, design and marketing, economic and technical • Adapting demand to production • Adapting production to demand • Periodic planning • Dynamic "on line" monitoring • Specialized plants and • Flexible production systems equipments Technology • Specialized dedicated machinery • General purpose machinery Labour • Great number of workers • Reduction of the number of workers • Narrowly trained • Broadly trained • Separation of conception and • Integration of conception and execution execution • Fragmented and routinized tasks • Multi-skilled and varied tasks • Narrow job classification • Broad job classification Characteristics • semi-skilled or specialized • Skilled, multifunctional and co-operative of the Worker Management • Hierarchical and formal • Flat hierarchy, informal Managerial • Strategy to control market • Fast adaptation to change, innovation behaviour Characteristics • Intuition-based skills, that would • Information-based skill, a more integrated of the Manager lead to the right decisions in the techno-economics skills and increased face of scant information. creative, intuitive skills. Production • High volume, limited range of • Large and small batch, single units standardised products varied/customised products Characteristics • Energy and materials intensity • Information intensity of the products: Characteristics • Automation • Systemation of the • , based on • or specialization production homogeneity based on flexibility • "Minimum change" strategy • Rapid technical change strategy • Producer-defined products • User-defined systems System of • Hierarchical bureaucracies • Decentralized networks control Source: Gitahy (1994:148-149) charts 2 and 3, Gitahy (2000) charts 3 and 4; see also Faria (1999, 84-85).

Another theoretical-methodological problem I had to face was the fact that, when observing a process of change, we always find the coexistence of elements of transformation and conservation,

16 and, in analysis, it is possible to privilege one or the other23. Depending on the stage of this process, it is possible to find more elements from the old than from the new24. In this sense, the survey, statistically representative, is not the most adequate instrument in studying changes in the period in which they are still embryonic and have not been expanded to the whole industrial fabric yet25 (see Article I). To study a process of diffusion of innovations and its relation to social changes implies taking into consideration longer periods of time in order to understand their potential and their dynamics of diffusion. To study innovation, it is necessary to seek it where it is or where we think it has some possibility to occur, and to try, by means of successive approximations, typologies, scales, and reports, to reconstitute and understand its process of diffusion. This means, on the one hand, to identify the characteristics of the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ via the construction of ideal types or models, to identify the islands and their characteristics, and, on the other hand, to understand the timing and the dynamics of its process of diffusion (see Article I). A way of overcoming this problem was to use the historical-comparative method. I have started with the hypothesis that the phenomena I was observing should be similar to those which occurred during the diffusion of Taylorism in the beginning of this century in the USA. Thus, using an ample bibliography about the social history of technology, I have compared the present debate and context with those contemporary of the process of diffusion of Taylorism (see Article I). Trying to answer the question of how the process of diffusion of the previous paradigm happened, helped me to think of possible forms of studying an ongoing process and to light up the path in order to understand the present moment. In order to understand the dynamics of the diffusion of a new paradigm, one must distinguish between different ideas regarding the practice and timing of this process. Distinct differences in time and space exist between the emergence of ideas, the initial experiments to put them into practice, their systematization, and their diffusion in different societies. The ‘success’ of these first experiments induce a process of imitation and adaptation, leading to distinct outcomes in different contexts and situations. This process involves new actors, generating support and opposition, whereby new contributions and ideas are either transformed or “renamed”. By means of this mechanism, it was possible to point out five basic issues: the context of diffusion, the contents of the changes, the mechanisms (paths) of diffusion, time, and finally the incentives and obstacles found in this process. Following this approach, it was possible to discuss: 1) The concept of paradigm: (a) as a managerial ideology (in the sense proposed by Bendix (1956) and Merkler (1980), i.e., as visions of the role of the worker, of the manager, and of technology); (b) as the organization of the labour process; (c) as the enterprises’ structure; (d) as work relations in terms of the enterprise (posts and salaries, policies of human-resources management); (e) as industrial relations (the relationship with the trade unions); (f) as an industrial organization (relationship among the enterprises); and (g) as a system, relations among parts.

23 An interesting interpretation of European history in the period known as the Second Industrial Revolution from the point of view of conservation and not of change is the work of Mayer (1981). This author’s thesis is that the two World Wars in the 20th century are the Thirty Years’ War of this century, and only after them the "ancien régime" disappears, and it is this permanence which is at the roots of wars. This work shows the existence of small "islands" of modernity immersed in a sea of "tradition”. A survey carried out in the USA or Europe during the Second Industrial Revolution probably would not catch the importance of Taylorism and mass-production system for the constitution of modern societies. However, Hobsbawm’s works in the same period show a reading from the point of view of change and innovation. 24 The theses which privilege continuity (Neo-Fordism, continuum of degradation, there is not enough empirical evidence, at the end everything is the same, in Japan yes in Brazil no, etc.). Even being important for the debate, these aproaches put too many demands and filters on the limit of a consolidated process in order to accept its existence. 25 A survey of the automobile industry in the beginning of the 1970s could not predict the emergence of the "Japanese challenge", even if at that time Japanese experiments were already quite advanced.

17 2) The diffusion of the ideas and practices of paradigms, as a process of imitation and recreation, having diverse results depending on varying socio-economic contexts and the characteristics of the “actors” or “agents” in the process. 3) The adoption and institutionalization of paradigms26. Hence, in order to analyse the diffusion of the new paradigm in Brazilian industry, it was necessary first of all to distinguish between the so-called “guiding principles” and those practices actually implemented. Secondly, one must take into account that re-structuring and implementation is a long and complex process, even in the same firm. Finally, one must identify which dimensions are affected by changes27. In order to understand the actors or agents of the processes of change I was obliged to study: a) the dynamics of market niches where companies were inserted28; b) their relations with clients and suppliers; c) the characteristics of their products and production processes; and d) the characteristics of technologies and ”packages” of innovations in detail. Charts 2 and 3 summarize the dimensions used to characterize changes within (Chart 2) and between (Chart 3) companies in the case of the automobile production chain.

CHART 2: CHANGES WITHIN COMPANIES 1. Technical basis • Higher use of process automation (technological • Flexible equipment innovations) • Computerized systems supporting management 2. Production • Changes in plants lay-out (mini-factories, cells) organization and • Quality and productivity programmes aiming at continuous improvement, management waste reduction and costs cutting (inventory, defects, materials flow time, equipment setup time and lead-time) 3. New methods of • Changes in the professional tasks of direct workers work organization • Multi-skilling process and management • Greater responsibility for leading processes • Introduction of teamwork concept 4. New ideas on • Hierarchical structure downsizing production • Technical and behavioural training management • New management attitudes • Participatory programmes • Variable payment- and -sharing systems • New focus, specialized plants Source: Gitahy and Bresciani (1998:35).

26 Littler (1978), in his analysis of Taylorism, points at the importance of considering the process of institutionalization of different systems of ideas (and ideologies) taking into account the relation between ideas and structure. He shows that different ideologies and models cannot be treated as equivalent and in the same dimension, because if all ideologies have structural implications, some of them have more implications than others, and the difference is the process of institutionalization of the different systems of ideas: “... the knowledge and understanding derived fromTaylorism was institutionalized within industry in terms of practices of industrial and production engineers. It resulted in the creation of industrial engineering departments and became deeply rooted in the training of general engineers and managers.” (Littler, 1978:187), (see Article I). 27 Such as management ideology, organization of the labour process, firm structure (hierarchical levels, organizational structure, and systems of authority and control), human-resource management policies (career and salary structure, training and use of participatory methods), industrial relations (union relations), and industrial organization (inter-firm relations, client-supplier relations). 28 Watanabe (1983) rejects the common practice of analyzing the structure of the market and the level of competition based only on data from industrial census. To analyse the relationship between competition and technology, a micro analysis based on field research is necessary. Not all enterprises included in the same industrial branch compete among themselves and it depends on specific characteristics of the products, location, etc. (see Article III).

18 The dimensions used to characterize changes within firms are: a) technical basis, i.e., technological innovations in a strict sense (e.g., new machinery); b) production organization and management, i.e., systems of production control and planning (e.g., new layouts); c) methods of work organization and management, (e.g., changes in work-task assignments); and d) application of new concepts of production management such as downsizing, variable payment, and profit-sharing systems. Chart 3, in its turn, presents the dimensions used to analyse changes in inter-firm relations: a) introduction of new strategies for market positioning (e.g., client redefinition); b) development of inter-firm networks with suppliers as well as with “external” and “internal” subcontractors; c) organizational changes such as establishment of “industrial condominiums”29 where various enterprises share a common plant to produce a variety of components (e.g., assemblers and auto- parts) for a particular product; and d) effects of the introduction of new materials or components such as the use of electronic devices in cars.

CHART 3: CHANGES IN INTER-FIRM RELATIONS 1. New forms of market • Introduction of the Just-in-time system in order to adapt firms’ structures positioning to the market fluctuations • Processes focusing, product and client redefinition (specialization) • Flexibility of the company’s operational conditions • redefinition of products (use of new materials and components) 2. Development of inter- • With suppliers – establishment-selected partners and a certain level of firm networks stability that guarantees the supplied-material quality and the delivery dates. This partnership often includes the technical assistance from the large firm to its productive suppliers • With ”external” subcontractors – who start to carry out some production tasks or to make components and parts that will be included in the final products of the large firm, or to execute services outside its premises • With ”internal” subcontractors – who start to carry out some supporting activities for the production system (as maintenance, tooling, process and product engineering etc) 3. Organizational • Establishment of industrial condominiums changes • ”Modular consortium” implementation 4. Effects of new • Obsolescence of parts and models products • Use of new materials and components Source: Gitahy and Bresciani (1998:39).

Based on these main ideas and observations, I proceed to use the concept of flexible specialization (Piore and Sable, 1984) or flexible production, to describe the practices oriented by the new techno- economic paradigm (Perez, 1985) and to analyse the transformations whithin and between companies (inter-firm relations) in different production chains (see Articles III, V and IV). The pioneering work which developed the concept of flexible specialization (Piore and Sabel, 1984) refers to two cases of industrial organization, which have proved to be effective in adapting firms to unstable and more segmented markets through greater flexibility and lower cost production. These two cases are: (a) the vertically integrated production chains commanded by large firms present in the Japanese car industry; and (b) the association of more independent geographically concentrated groups or clusters of small- and medium-sized firms in certain regions of northern Italy. The so-called Japanese production system (referred to as “toyotism” in some studies) has been widely discussed in organizational and managerial literature. Crucial to its success has been the ability to combine flexibility with standardization.

29 As the VW new plant at Resende/RJ (1996) and the Ford plant at Taboão/SP.

19 In the case of the geographically concentrated industrial complexes or clusters, flexible specialization is based on an organization of the production process dominated by small- and medium-specialized firms dividing among themselves the various production stages of certain items or families of items (Schmitz, 1992). The principal features of this model include: (a) geographical concentration of firms belonging to the same industrial sector; (b) member firms of various sizes, where medium and small enterprises hold a prominent role; (c) productive specialization among firms along the vertical production chain, involving suppliers of all types of ; (d) great flexibility in quantity and wide differentiation of products; (e) horizontal division of production among different firms through subcontracting and complementary activities; (f) the most effective of such industrial complexes base their competitive advantages on non- factors; (g) low ; and (h) access to information and networks. Such a structure is called a cluster of firms, which enjoy collective efficiency through the ability of the cluster to create competitive advantages shared by all member firms, which the individual producer alone could not obtain (Sengenberger and Pyke, 1990). The major benefits provided by a cluster include: (a) proximity of clients to their suppliers; (b) the ability to create very dynamic market niches through the development of various suppliers of goods and services; (c) the presence of financial- and technical-aid institutions; and (d) the availability of a skilled workforce. In regard to inter-firm relations, we must distinguish between vertical relations (complementarity in the production chain) and horizontal ones (which may range from fierce competition to some co-operative efforts). Not every cluster, though, shows a tendency to specialization and innovation. To a large degree, this will depend on the nature of the manufactured goods and market dynamics. In less developed countries, more than in the developed ones, competitiveness implies the ability to quickly adapt to unforeseen circumstances30 (see article V). The concept of production chain was useful to map networks of linked production activities and to analyse the transformations of the inter-firm relations in different industries (see Articles V and VI). Gereffi (1994 and 1995) uses the broader concept of global commodity chain. In this analysis the main units are industries and firms and the study is conducted through a mapping of the economic networks in three dimensions: (a) product – which encompasses the production cycle and complete : supply of raw material, project, components and final-goods manufacturing, export, , and sales; (b) location: i.e., the geography of chain; and (c) the organization: companies’ characteristics (e.g.: if firms are specialized or vertically integrated, large or small, transnational or national) hierarchization and power relations among the components of chain and structures of governance. Gereffi (op.cit.) argues that the study of chains allows the study of global capitalism, and points out

30 Besides flexibility and collective efficiency, some other structural elements may establish the specific characteristics of a cluster. Among them we may include the low cost of labour and the existence of a reserve work force. Under these conditions, it is common to find competitive strategies based on low prices, guaranteed by low and precarious employment conditions (see ArticleV).

20 that, in this approach, different patterns of national development indicate results and not starting points for research (Gitahy, 1996). The use of the concept of networks indicates a kind of analysis where the emphasis is on the relations’ dynamics. It is a matter of mapping and describing dynamic relations which occur in a certain context or environment, which, in turn, is also dynamic. Following this line, several authors start to map the most diverse networks31 from the globalized commodity chains (Gereffi, 1997), which identifies the elements that move the different types of commodity chains (buyer-driven vs producer-driven), to the sophisticated techno-economic networks of Callon (1992), whose concepts are built on economic and sociologic theories, but using much of the methodology of anthropology. However, we observe that different authors use the concept of networks differently to reach different objectives32 (Gitahy, 1996). Based on the analysis of daily lives whitin companies, it was possible to check that the process of industrial re-structuring on the international level, associated with the globalization of the economy (which is translated into simultaneous mergers, acquisitions, and market re-ordering), is inducing simultaneous movements of destruction/reconstruction of traditional productive relations. This process is translated into significant changes in inter-firm relations in different production chains, in product and labour markets, in workers’ mobility, and in qualification demands. Next, in order to understand the changes in employment conditions and in qualification demand, it is necessary to analyse simultaneously what happens inside and outside companies. Studies on new demands for qualification and technological capacity point toward the emergence of new arrangements and agreements between companies, trade unions, education institutions, and centres which produce scientific/technological knowledge. Thus, the theme of social construction of productive networks and their new forms of institutional articulation becomes important. This perspective allows us to gather and articulate several contributions from the research accumulated in the past few years in our countries, ranging from analyses on the diffusion of technological and organizational innovations in state-of-the-art sectors of the economies to studies on the dynamics of the informal sector and precarious employment (see articles II, V and IV). Focusing on the issue in this way allows us to avoid economic or technological determinism (present in many studies on the ”effects” of new technologies or globalization, and, por ende, the idea of the inevitability of changes in one sense or the other) and think about ongoing transformations in terms of multiple choices made by concrete actors in view of given social and economic conditions. This means, when studying the process of diffusion of innovations associated with a new paradigm of efficiency, we should consider how and why certain ideas and modes of producing, and not others, are those which assert themselves in a certain period (a question, by the way, easier to answer a posteriori than a priori), and how they are institutionalized (see Article I).

31 For a view on the use of the concept of network, see how Callon (1992) uses the idea of ”techno-economic networks”, Segenberger and Pyke (1992) the idea of ”collective efficiency”, Sabel (1993a and 1993b) the idea of ”trust”, and Granovetter (1990) the one of ”embeddedness”. An interesting view is that of Langlois and Robertson (1995). These concepts are inserted in many debates, which cross each other in the literature of the 1990s; among them there are discussions on the between sociology and economics in the study of technological change (about the need to think of the social to understand the economic, and vice versa), the paradigm of flexibility, and the nature of the necessary ”competencies” to face environments characterized by instability and accelerated rhythms of social, economic, and technological change (Zarifian, 1995). 32 The central issue, for Granovetter (1990), e.g., is to understand the social construction of economic institutions, which leads to what he calls the problem of embeddedness. This author has based his view on two fundamental sociologic propositions: (1) the action is always socially situated and cannot be understood by means of a reference to individual motivation, and (2) the social institutions do not appear automatically from some inevitable form, they are ”socially built” (Berger and Luckman, 1966), and both propositions are inconsistent with the basic beliefs of neo-classic economics (Gitahy, 1996).

21 1.4. Method (a) Data Research reported herein has used data collected in different forms: • Data was collected on visits to the companies under study, with a long schedule including: a) interviews with entrepreneurs33, directors, managers, technicians, and workers; b) direct observation; and c) data and documents provided by companies; • Data collected on visits to the business associations of the studied sectors, where we have obtained data on the sector’s performance and studies conducted or ordered by such associations; • Census data from different sources; • Review of all kinds of research reports, magazines, theses, books, specialized technical magazines, etc. about the studied sectors or markets. We worked with interview guides for visits and extremely comprehensive and detailed questionnaires, which had questions ranging from general characteristics of a company and its history to products and their markets’ characteristics as well as to the whole labour process (from product and process development to manufacturing and sales), to human-resources characteristics and policies (selection and recruiting, characteristics of labour force, structures of job and wage, programmes of professional education, etc), to relations with clients and suppliers and with different institutions. In each one of the sectors studied, we have asked about the type of innovation introduced in past years. An important aspect was to discuss relations between clients, suppliers, and competitors. (b) Interview guides Our schedules were flexible and adaptable to different kinds of companies and have been sophisticated and formalized during learning time. It is worth emphasizing that the interaction with the interviewee and the immersion in the daily routine of companies were extremely important to the development of our research instruments34. Little by little, we learned from our interviewees the language of companies, and gradually understood both the technical and economic parts and their systems of rules, written or not. On a first visit, specially in large companies, we used to go for a general survey to gather information on the company’s structure, visit the plant, and elaborate a schedule of interviews and observations with the people in charge of the sectors we would study in detail. During interviews, we have been shown examples of how to solve problems whereafter we went to the plant again. In some companies, we have attended courses on quality, costs, etc., invited by their organizers and we have followed audits in which client companies certified suppliers. Sometimes this process has taken several weeks, depending on the size of the company. Whenever possible, in each interview, there were at least two of us (one more experienced interviewer and a trainee). We have used a tape recorder only at moments in which it did not seem to interfere with the situation. All interviews were transcribed the next day together with our impressions on what we had seen and on the conditions of the interview. In this sense, the method employed was almost ethnographic. An important aspect is that questions and data were always related to a longer period of time (from 5 to 10 years).

33 In small companies, their owners. 34 The analysis of the evolution of our questionnaires could produce an article on the theme. In the beginning, I did not know how to distinguish one machine from the other. I call this learning process ”learning to see”.

22 (c) Characteristics of material gathered The material obtained from the companies can be classified in different types: • Transcriptions of interviews with entrepreneurs, workers, managers, engineers, technicians, etc. in charge of different activities; • Tables with series of data (e.g., evolution of sales, production, numbers of employees, turnover, salaries, and sometimes structures of job and wage); • Lists of clients and suppliers; • Lists and descriptions of machines purchased; • Documents: organization charts, product catalogues, technical rules, procedures descriptions, manuals, instructions of organizational packages, programmes of different types of courses, examples of calculated cost structures, etc. (d) Characteristics of samples The companies included in the studies were selected using a nonrandon purposive sample design according to the objectives of each article, as in the chart below (see Chart 4). The samples used in the articles were selected among the companies under study in the research projects35 mentioned in the summary of the studies.

CHART 4. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAMPLES Objective Data Number Sector Localization Size Sample’s collection of firms design III Relations between 1987-1988 11 Metal- SP Large and Firms small and large metal- mechanical small using working firms in the and NCMT diffusion of NCMT Electronics and new HR policies IV Relations between 1990-1991 18 Autoparts SP Large and Leading technological and middle firms by organizational type of innovations and product changes in schooling and skill demands for production workers V The nature of inter- 1993 37 Shoes/ RGS/SP Large, Sector, firm relations within autoparts middle, region, two different and small type of Brazilian clusters firm VI Changing in inter-firm 1996-1997 53 Autoparts SP/RJ/RGS Large, Region, relations and the middle, size, and impact the new and small different strategies on local position in labour markets and production local institutions in chain three regions

It is worth pointing out that, in general, it was through large companies that we reached their clients and suppliers. Thus, using the informal networks between companies we had access to other companies (names, telephone numbers, addresses, etc.). For instance, in the case of article III, in order to find out which companies used NCMT (one of the sample parts was about companies

35 Number of firms interviewed in each project (other sectors and localizations to): III (40); IV (20); V (37).; VI (87).

23 which used automation equipment), we started the research in a company which manufactured these machines and which provided us with a list of the companies, which had purchased the machines and their characteristics. (e) Analysis When we finished fieldwork, we had a huge amount of material of various types, which needed to be tabulated and which were organized in folders and files by company. There were great differences between the quality and the quantity of information obtained in each company. The next step was to summarize the information in descriptive tables per group of relevant variables for analysis in order to visualize the set of material obtained. This was an extremely time- consuming task, from which we had to extract a maximum of significant information for the objective of the study. In the analysis of innovations, we have opted for listing occurrences and their descriptions in order to construct our codes and classification categories, which generated the tables presented in the articles. Here, it is worth emphasizing that it was necessary to arrange many discussions and team meetings between the several stages of codification and analysis of the material in order to distinguish the practices of interviewees’ discourses (what was said and what was done), and, using the criterion of intersubjectivity, to try to untie the knot of a mix of perceptions, expectations, and values (both of our interviewees and of the interviewing team), which could bias data interpretation36.. Even if this is an insoluble methodological problem, the fact of having tackled the problem and opted for a research strategy which was more exploratory than confirmatory of hypotheses deducted from consolidated theories (often domineering in debates), it has helped us to perceive some types of transformations when they were still in their embryonic stage and appeared in ”deviated” cases.

2. The Studies

I. Toward a New Paradigm of Industrial Organization? 37 This paper analyses the concept of technological paradigm, and the so-called “new technological paradigm” in its different versions (“flexible specialization”, “lean production”, “Neo-” or “Post-Fordism”, Japanese, Swedish, and Italian models, etc.) and discusses its utility in dealing with the theme of diffusion of technological and managerial innovations in Brazilian industry. One of the problems of the literature on the theme, especially in Brazil, is that it seems to be closed in a kind of vicious circle organized around two main lines of thought: • Continuity or rupture? • Whatever the nature of the changes (continuity or rupture), are they in a process of diffusion in Brazil? First, theoretical arguments regarding the contents and nature of the ideas associated with the paradigms under debate are often mixed and confused with arguments of an empirical nature, with respect to the characteristics of organizational and technological innovations that are being implemented within the enterprises. The second line of thought is primarily associated with a more general discussion on the situation of the developing countries within the new international order, and secondly, with the debate on the process of diffusion and social effects

36 When we work in teams, it is extremely useful and clarifying to confront our perceptions and expectations with the same material obtained, and it is very interesting to observe that the content of what each one considers more or less positive or negative varies considerably. 37 Paper originally presented as Gitahy, Leda (1992) “Na direção de um novo paradigma de organização industrial? Algumas reflexões sobre o conceito de paradigma tecnológico e sua utilidade para tratar o tema da difusão de inovações na indústria brasileira” at XVI Annual Meeting of ANPOCS, Caxambu, octuber 1992.

24 of new technologies in these countries. Here the discussion seems to be even more confused and the diverse possible combinations of arguments of the first line of thought with those of the second, in the most diverse mixes, many times lead to a kind of ‘dialogue among the deaf’. How can this vicious circle be avoided? One possibility is through the comparative historical method, i.e., to compare the current debate on the contemporary situation with the process of diffusion of the former paradigm. It is an attempt to try to answer the question “how did the process of diffusion of the former paradigm come about?” and “how to study a process in progress?" so as to enlighten the path to understand the current moment. The period chosen for comparison with the current moment was that of the diffusion of Taylorism in the beginning of the century, in the USA and in Brazil, with a brief look at Sweden. The essential idea is to treat the diffusion process of the new paradigm as a social movement: of engineers, entrepreneurs, managers etc., as an inflexion point in the so-called “rationalization movement”. From there, a new question appears: how, in which socio-economic context, and through which means and social groups are these ideas and practices disseminated.

II. Technological Innovation, Subcontracting, and the Labour Market. 38 The objective of this article is to discuss the re-structuring process underway in Brazilian industry, giving special attention to a discussion of inter-firm relations and its impact on employment relations and the labour market. In a context where economic instability in the country and domestic market contraction were associated with the intensification of international competition, this induced companies to re-structure through the introduction of a set of product and process innovations and client-supplier relations inspired by the Japanese model. This diffusion process has taken the form of imitation and recreation, trial and error. More than the introduction of technological innovations, the application of these tools on the firm level signifies a highly complex process of social change, reversing established norms and models of behaviour which were familiar to members of organizations. Total Quality Management programmes often appear as a vehicle, or detonator, of this change process. This wave of re- structuring, in which the crisis has served as an intense pressure, has implied a tendency in which a company initiates a process of reflection and revision of goals and objectives, often through an external consultant, oriented by some type of view of the guiding principles of the new paradigm. The ”” trend intensified with the pressure to reduce costs and increase efficiency, starting with a process of deverticalization and an externalization of activities. It is possible to identify different ”trajectories” in the outsourcing process. On one hand, one type of outsourcing is associated with a joint effort between a large and a small firm in order to qualify suppliers and increase their product quality and, on the other hand, other forms are associated with ”restrictive” strategies, involving the externalization of activities in order to cut costs through more precarious employment conditions, even risking the quality of services provided. The search for increased competitiveness leads to the creation of subcontracting networks and new forms of inter-firm relationships with quite heterogeneous characteristics. This situation points toward significant modifications in the labour- and new challenges for the institutions and social actors involved in this process.

38 Paper originally presented as Gitahy, Leda (1993) “Inovação Tecnológica, Subcontratação e Mercado de Trabalho” at XVII Annual Meeting of ANPOCS, Caxambu, october 1993

25 III. Technological Innovation,Industrial Relations and Subcontracting.39 This paper discusses the relationship between small and large metal-working companies in the process of diffusion of new automation technologies, mainly Numerical Control Machine Tools (NCMT) and in the changing of industrial-relations policies in the Brazilian industry. The study, based on research undertaken from May 1987 to June 1988, is restricted to some metal-working companies in the state of São Paulo. The practice of subcontracting tends to enhance the diffusion of new technologies. The quality of the products of the large company is influenced by the quality of the services delivered by the small subcontracting partners. Thus the large company may find it advantageous to transfer to its subcontractors new production techniques. The demands of the contracting company for higher quality standards from its subcontractors will put pressure on the latter to enhance the qualification of its human resources.

IV. Education and Technological Development: the Case of the Autoparts Industry.40: This paper discusses the relationship between technological and organizational innovations and changes in schooling and skill demands for production workers based on research undertaken from October 1990 to June 1991. In a sample of 18 firms, from various sectors of the Brazilian autoparts industry, we investigate how the implemented innovations affect schooling and skill levels among shopfloor workers. The main innovations treated here are the Total Quality Management (TQM) programmes and Just-In-Time (JIT) production systems. These innovations cause changes in the desired profile of shopfloor workers since they imply a transfer to them of new responsibilities, typically associated with white-collar personnel, requiring thus a greater level of self-control.

V. Inter-firm Relations, Collective Efficiency and Employment in two Brazilian Clusters.41 This study, based on research undertaken from March to September 1993, analyses and compares the nature of inter-firm relations within two different Brazilian clusters, i.e., the shoe industry in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) and the metal-working industry clustered around the city of Campinas in the state of São Paulo (SP) and their impact on industrial competitiveness and employment. It attempts to identify the major obstacles to the establishment of the flexible specialization (FS) model in both clusters and to assess whether this model shows a trend toward a core-periphery segmentation of the labour force and whether it contributes to greater workers’ skilling. The study shows that the diffusion of innovations associated with the FS model in the two clusters surveyed has followed different patterns and affects employment and inter-firm relations in different ways. These differences result, to a larger extent, from the diverse competitive strategies dominating each cluster: price reduction in the shoe cluster and quality improvement in the Campinas cluster. However, geographical proximity has favoured a close interaction between firms and teaching/research institutions in both regions. The research supports the hypothesis that a core-periphery phenomenon between firms under subcontracting

39 This paper is based on the results of the research entitled: “Education and Technological Development: the case of infornatization of industry in Brazil”, co-ordinated by Leda Gitahy in NPCT/IG/UNICAMP, financed by IDRC/Canada and IIEP/UNESCO (1986-1989). Flávio Rabelo and Maria Conceição da Costa worked in the project as research assistants. 40 This paper is based on the results of the research entitled “Estratégias Competitivas, Capacitação Tecnológica e Gestão de Recursos Humanos”, DPCT/IG/UNICAMP (1990-1991) co-ordinated by Leda Gitahy. Flávio Rabelo was a research assistant in the project. 41 This paper is based on the results of the research entitled ”Inter-Firm Relations, Collective Efficiency and Employment in two Brazilian Clusters”, realized by PPGA/UFRGS and DPCT/IG/UNICAMP in 1993, funded by ILO/OIT. The research was co-ordinated by Roberto Lima Ruas (UFRGS) and Leda Gitahy (UNICAMP). Flávio Rabelo worked as a researcher and Elaine Antunes as a research assistant in the project

26 arrangements is present in the shoe-manufacturing industry in RS. In the Campinas cluster, on the other hand, a workforce with similar characteristics in terms of skill and experience is found in both the larger and small firms. The difference is that in the latter they receive lower wages, have fewer training opportunities, and enjoy much less social benefits.

VI. Industrial Restructuring and Inter-firm Relations in Brazil: A Study of the Auto-Parts Industry in the 1990s. 42 This paper looks at the process of re-structuring in the Brazilian autoparts industry, using data collected in fifty-three autoparts firms, located in three different regions of Brazil: Campinas (São Paulo), Rio de Janeiro, and Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul). Data were collected between August 1996 and May 1997. In Campinas, the research studied a medium-sized firm producing brakes and ten of its suppliers (medium- and small- scale). In Rio Grande do Sul, the research gathered data on nine auto-parts firms and seven suppliers for three of those firms. In Rio de Janeiro, the research outline was different from the two other regions, since all twenty-six autoparts firms in operation were interviewed. Of these, however, only nine were direct suppliers to the automobile assemblers; three others supplied parts to other autoparts firms and the rest worked with the after-sales market. Using the concept of a production chain as a reference point, the research aimed at studying not only on the level of diffusion of technological and organizational innovations inside the firms, but also how these changes affect the reallocation of activities along the production chain. In this sense, it was thought that the introduction of strategies of focused production and externalization of activities to the top of the chain would affect the organization structures of the chain as a whole. The main focus of the research was, therefore, inter-firm relations, but it also looked at the impact of these new strategies on local labour markets and local institutions.

3. Conclusions and suggestions for further research

3.1 Main findings This thesis encompasses a period of twenty years, in which we can see the process of diffusion of a set of product and process innovations, and of relations among clients and suppliers, inspired by the so-called ”Japanese model”. Such innovations are oriented by a new paradigm of efficiency, qualitatively distinct from the Taylorist-Fordist model. From the point of view of the use of labour, it is important to point out that such innovations imply the transformation of a model characterized by the extensive use of semi-skilled labour into another based on the intensive use of skilled, multi- functional and co-operative workers (see Articles II and IV). The essential idea was to treat the process of diffusion of the new paradigm as a social movement of engineers, businessmen, managers, etc., as a point of inflexion in the so-called ”rationalization movement”. By means of this mechanism, it is possible to think of five basic issues: the context of diffusion, the content of changes, the mechanisms of diffusion (paths), time, and finally encouragement and obstacles found in the process (see Articles I and II). The main findings can be summarized as follows: 1) The diffusion of technological and organizational innovations in Brazilian industry began in the middle of the 1970s, at the same time as the beginning of the economic recession, the process of political liberalization (“reabertura politica”), the emergence of the so-called new trade-

42 This paper is based on the results of the research entitled ‘Reestruturação produtiva, trabalho e educação: os efeitos sociais da terceirização industrial em três regiões do país’ (Productive Restructuring, Work and Education. The Social Impacts of Industrial Outsourcing in Three Regions of Brazil), 1995-97, funded by FINEP and CNPq, co-ordinated by Alice Rangel de Paiva Abreu and José Ricardo Ramalho (PPGS/IFCS/UFRJ) in Rio de Janeiro, Leda Gitahy (DPCT/IG/UNICAMP) in São Paulo, and Roberto Ruas (PPGA - UFRGS) in Rio Grande do Sul.

27 unionism, and the crisis of the model of industrial relations in force during the ”miracle” period (1969-1974). It is in this context that, in most modern firms and sectors, the first experiments related to the new paradigm of industrial organization began. During the 1980’s, contraction and competition fierceness in the domestic market associated with an increase in exports in a context of intensification of international competition have induced companies to re-structure through the introduction of a set of product and process innovations and client-supplier relations inspired by the “Japanese model”. From the beginning of the 1990s, the liberalization of the economy intensifies this process and Just-in-time, Kanban, and flexible production are now part of ordinary Brazilian industry’s vocabulary from managers to production workers (see Articles II, III, IV and VI). 2) In the last decades we could see a series of successive changes within and between companies, related to the size and depth of innovations adopted and to the perceptions of the actors involved in these processes (entrepreneurs, managers, engineers, workers) about the nature and consequences of these innovations. By the end of the 1970s up to mid-1980s, innovation for many companies signified buying equipment and/or introducing organizational or motivational “programs”, which were often implanted in sectors of companies under the initiative of this or that department, with heterogeneous outcomes43. Starting at the end of the 1980s, an increasing number of companies entered a profound re-structuring process, originating from a management decision to introduce a set of inter-related innovations44. These efforts toward more integrated re-structuring were manifested through the introduction of some type of Total Quality Management (TQM) program (see Articles II, IV and VI). In the Brazilian case, the Total Quality Programs often appear as a vehicle or even as a detonator of this process of change. A similar phenomenon was observed in British industry by Hill (1991), which passed from the partial use of Japanese management methods (especially Quality Control Circles which were widely diffused in the middle of the 1980s and increasingly abandoned by companies) to more integrated strategies based upon Total Quality Programs. The problems encountered in these initial experiments reflect the clash between traditional principles and firm structure and the new principles, which created an anomalous situation of duality and conflict. The new programs pointed toward a deeper and more integrated transformation (see Articles II and IV; Gitahy, Leite and Rabelo, 1993; and Rachid and Gitahy, 1995). The set of changes that are introduced within companies, either in a partial form or through broader or “systemic” strategies, imply substantial changes in their traditional forms of organization. From the point of view of labour management it is interesting to highlight some elements such as the reduction of the turnover levels, initiatives to obtain a greater involvement of the workers, and elevation of the formal schooling requisites for direct production jobs. These changes occur in a quite distinct direction from that of the model used previously. Quality systems such as the Statistical Process Control (SPC) illustrate this thesis well. The transfer of responsibility for quality to shop-floor workers, eliminating the traditional quality control based on inspectors, generally involves large retraining programs. The low schooling of most of the

43 Leite (1992) highlights the importance which organizational innovations have taken on in the modernization strategy of companies. After the initial phase in which the modernization efforts have been concentrated on the acquisition of new equipment, companies began to perceive the need for reorganizing production as a fundamental issue, whether because the new production concepts, based upon the principles of flexibility, quality, and speed of the labour process demanded quicker and less rigid forms of labour organization than what was predominant at the time, or because the new forms of labour organization were seen as central even for guaranteeing a more efficient utilization of the new equipment (see Article II). 44 Fleury (1988) and Ruas (1994) distinguish three types of company strategies in reaction to the crisis: restrictive, partial, and systemic. In the first case, companies respond with traditional cost-cutting methods; in the second, they partially introduce some technological and organizational innovations; and in the third, they involve a broader change process through the increasing utilization of new production concepts (see Article II).

28 production labour was an obstacle to the new organizational systems. Besides retraining programs, enterprises also advance towards more rigorous recruitment plans, where schooling becomes a fundamental variable. It is interesting to observe that it was only when the SPC started to be introduced that many enterprises noted that a significant percentage of their personnel was practically illiterate and was not familiar with basic mathematical operations. Apart from the technical training itself, the firms had also to act in the motivational sphere45 (see Article IV). This movement towards re-structuring46 consists of a variety of measures, among which the following are most important in their consequences (see Articles IV, V and VI): a) reduction of hierarchical levels, which is reflected not only in the dismissal of managers and even top executives, but also in the increase in the search for recycling courses of the most diverse nature; b) change in the structure of jobs and wages, creating new career plans47 associated with training programmes, even for shopfloor workers; c) increase in the importance attributed to management of human resources and training; d) adoption of programmes for the qualification of suppliers; and e) outsourcing48. 3) The “outsourcing” movement intensified with the economic crisis (81-82 and 91-93) and the pressure to reduce costs and increase efficiency, starting during the 1980s with a process of de- verticalization and an externalization of activities (see Article II). In the 1990s, this movement intensified in a more structured and systematic way (see Articles II and V), and from 1994 in a very different context – not of crisis, but rather of industrial growth. In this second phase, the externalization of activities is clearly associated with policies of focusing, development, and reduction of suppliers and with quality enhancement. This externalization began in service areas, but also affected productive activities. It was possible to identify different “trajectories” in the outsourcing process. On the one hand, one type of outsourcing is associated with a joint effort between a large and a small firm in order to qualify suppliers and increase their product quality and, on the other hand, other forms are associated with “restrictive” strategies, involving the externalization of activities in order to cut costs through more precarious employment conditions, even risking the quality of services provided (see Articles II, V, and VI). The research conducted in Campinas region, in the autoparts, machine tools, and computer industries in the 1980s, pointed toward a complex industrial network where production by large firms is relatively integrated with a significant number of small- and medium-sized suppliers. Despite the fact that most of the large firms were highly verticalized, this showed a clear tendency toward de-centralization. In this respect, the research revealed three important features: a) subcontracted companies based their on the use of advanced machining technologies - all were using NC machine tools;

45 As stated by one of the industrial managers interviewed in 1990: “If the worker has no idea about the product he’s manufacturing or even why the tolerance limits must be so narrow for his good performance, he thinks that all this worry about quality is simply another managerial whim to make his life more difficult” (see Article IV). 46 This wave of re-structuring, where crisis operates as intense pressures, has involved that companies start, often resorting to an external consultant, a process of reflection, a review of goals and objectives, and a reorganization oriented by some sort of perception of the guiding principles of the new paradigm. 47 It is worth pointing out the introduction of multi-function careers for shopfloor workers. 48 Programmes transferring activities that were formerly carried out by the employees of a specific company to outside agencies, meaning companies or institutions that operate either within (internalization) or outside (externalization) the premises of the company, are known as outsourced activities. This term is currently used by those involved in the outsourcing processes for activities and describes a broad range of combinations and possibilities.

29 b) during the 1981-83 recession, the employment behaviour of these firms was much more stable than that of the large subcontracting companies, and c) the small companies used a qualified labour force (machine-tool operators and mechanics) which was comparable in most cases with their large client firms (see Article III). The research carried out in in the begining of the 1990s compared the diffusion process of flexible specialization in the cluster of footwear producers in Rio Grande do Sul and in the subcontracting networks in the metal-working industry in the Campinas region. The study confirmed that the diffusion of innovations associated with these model in the two clusters involved different trajectories and consequences for employment conditions and for inter-firm relations. An important explanatory factor for these differences is the competitive strategy on the markets in which these firms operated. The two case studies indicate that the process of diffusion of innovations based upon the concept of flexible specialization is indeed taking place, albeit at different speeds and with different outcomes. These differences could be explained due to the specific characteristics of the two sectors as well as the dominant competitive strategy – i.e., low prices in the case of the footwear industry and new quality standards (certification under the ISO 9000 norms49) in the case of the metal-working industry. In terms of employment levels, the footwear industry showed rising levels, yet within a context in which the characteristics of subcontracting pointed toward a clear separation between “core” and “peripheral” workers, in a phenomenon characterized as “rudimentary flexibility”. In the case of the metal-working industry in the Campinas region, employment levels are dropping, but the differences between large and small firms are not significant in terms of labour qualification or the nature of the production processes, but are significant in terms of wages and social benefits. It is worth mentioning at this point, that a detailed analysis of employment and wage conditions in the most advanced cluster points toward a situation where quite reduced levels of stable, polyvalent, and co-operative labour in the large firms coexist with labour in the small firms which is equivalent in terms of skill requirements, yet with lower wages, fewer opportunities for training, and less social benefits. Employment in the small firms in the sample was found to be skilled, less prone to oscillations during periods of crisis, formalized, and had higher average salaries than those of other industries and could not be classified as precarious labour. However, this characterizes a qualitatively different situation than that which was predominant prior to the crisis and the beginning of the re-structuring process in the firms (see Article V). 4) In the research carried out between 1996 and 1997 in fifty-three autoparts companies localized in three different regions of the country, we tried to better understand these processes. The three regions have a very different industrial history and this is reflected in the profile of the autoparts industry in each one of them. The autoparts industry in Rio de Janeiro is characteristic, in many ways, of an old and decadent sector. It was an important player in the constitutive period of the Brazilian automotive industry in the 1950s and 1960s. Now, however, it is facing very important changes, with the installation of several assembly plants in the region or in bordering regions of the state such as the Volkswagen and Peugeot plant at Resende and the Mercedes Benz plant in the south of Minas Gerais. The metal-working industry of Rio Grande do Sul was by origin closely related to agricultural production and the firms had different phases of adaptation to the different industrialization periods. The switch to autoparts started in the 1950s and 1960s. Their importance is greater now because of the Mercosur agreement (South America’s Common Market, including Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay). The region of Campinas, São Paulo, on the other hand, has a very dynamic industrial sector, which grew

49 ISO 9000 is a set of norms edited by ISO (International Organization for Standardization) for evaluation and certification of companies. The norms ISO 9001-9003 are used as a base for contracts and ISO 9004 describes the main bases for a quality system. The norms are attesting to levels of quality in many aspects, such as management production.

30 steadily even during the 1980s – the ‘lost decade’ for most of Brazilian industry. Metal-working industries have a long tradition in the region, dating back to the 1930s, when the main national machine-tool firms were created. Other national and multi-national groups installed plants in the Campinas region in different phases of the import substitution process, among them leading autoparts firms. A large transportation, services, and educational supports this dense economic fabric. Campinas also has a privileged location, close to the main industrial centres of the country. Using the concept of production chain as a reference point, the research aimed to study not only the diffusion of technological and organizational innovations inside the firms, but also how these subsequent changes affected the reallocation of activities along the automobile chain. The main focus of the research was, therefore, inter-firm relations, but it also looked at the impact of these new strategies on local labour markets and in local institutions. The central hypothesis was that the externalization and/or internalization of processes were being implemented by the large client firms resulting in a major recomposition of industrial workers in those firms and that a new industrial fabric is being created by this re-structuring process (see Article VI). We found that one of the main consequences of the re-structuring process for companies in the autoparts sector is the shift in the relationships between client firms and suppliers (vertical relationships). It was possible to identify some trends in the reorganization of these relationships between the firms in the three regions: a) intensification in the trend toward outsourcing/internalizing activities (auxiliary and productive) on all levels of the production chain, which implies a redefinition of the division of work among companies; b) tremendous pressure from client firms to formalize quality systems offered by their suppliers, reflected in regular audits and assessments and, more recently, in the demand for ISO 9000 certification50; c) growing demands for flexibility, meaning the capacity to cope promptly with frequent alterations in the scheduling of customer orders (see Article VI). In the first place one must stress that the movement towards externalization and/or internalization of activities and the resulting redefinition of the division of labour among firms in the autoparts industry is extremely complex, heterogeneous, and dynamic. What we are seeing was the result of a re-structuring process that started among the large autoparts firms in the 1980s. This has been accentuated in the 1990s, with flexibilization, cost reduction, and focusing being closely related to quality improvement. As previous research has shown, however, this is a trial and error process (see Articles I, II and Gitahy, 1994) and the introduction of these measures will depend on specific conditions. Their diffusion along the production chain is very dissimilar. This research provided some information on how, and to what degree, these processes are disseminated along the production chain in the three regions.

50 A widespread trend identified in the reorganization of the relationships between client firms and suppliers is the tremendous pressure from client firms to formalize product quality from suppliers. This marks a clear-cut trend reflecting rising demands to introduce documentation and procedures related to production quality, parallel to rising pressures to trim costs. These demands are reflected in regular assessments and audits by the client firm companies and, to an increasing extent, pressures to obtain ISO 9000 certification. This type of assessment guides the selection of those to be maintained or eliminated by client firm in order to reduce the overall number of suppliers. This process could be detected in the companies studied in the three regions, but with varying characteristics and intensity. In general, this initially involved a performance assessment of the supplier by the client firm, including regular assessments of the rejection rates for the product, prices and/or delivery periods, followed by visits by the client firm to the supplier in order to authorize supplies with ‘guaranteed quality’, resulting in the elimination of on-receipt controls at the client firm company. This ‘guaranteed quality’ is generally followed by audits of the supplier quality system carried out by the client firms, covering additional information and more frequent visits to rank the suppliers. At a later stage, the client firm company may require ISO 9000 certification, which in principle eliminates the need for them to audit their suppliers, as the certificatory agency carries out regular audits.

31 The outsourcing of such activities as restaurant facilities and cleaning is very widespread. In all three regions and at all firm sizes, including the very small ones, these services are being externalized. The research also shows productive activities being externalized, but this is more diversified among the different firms and seems to depend on a variety of factors, some of which are outside the direct control of the individual firm. Regional differences seem to be particularly important in this matter. In fact, productive outsourcing affects two different types of activities: a) activities related to labour-intensive products or processes, which can be located outside the firm without affecting the production flow; b) activities related to more complex products or processes, in those densely industrialized regions, capable of absorbing those activities with efficiency and reliability. Some variables seem to be particularly important in defining which production activities are outsourced and to whom. The type of product and/or process involved in outsourcing is a key variable for defining what is outsourced, and cost-cutting considerations are vital in this decision. On one hand, labour-intensive processes for which the location outside the company does not affect the production flow (such as assembly tasks and machining simple parts) are very frequently outsourced. For more complex products and/or processes, on the other hand, it depends on the availability of an industrial network that is sufficiently reliable and efficient in the region where the company is located. The definition of to whom these outsourced production activities are assigned depends on variables relating to the nature of the relationships between the client firm and the supplier, and their intensity: a) the track record of the relationship between the client firm and the supplier, meaning past experience which determines levels of mutual trust; b) the importance of the client firm to the supplier and vice versa; c) the combination of size (scale and investment capacity) and competence (technical capacity) of both client firms and suppliers. The pressures for lower costs paired with enhanced quality and flexibility have intensified the re-structuring of companies on all levels of the chain studied in the three regions, resulting in innovations in the organisztion of production and work as well as in management policies. The drive to reorganize production and work in the companies is characterized by the introduction of various types of innovation within the firms: a) higher investment in production-process automation, mainly through the acquisition of new and more flexible equipment; b) alterations in the layout of the plants, with the introduction of mini-plants and production cells, and alterations in job specifications, stressing multi-function skills; c) adoption of new production control and planning techniques as well as quality control in order to obtain ISO 9000 certification (JIT/Kanban, SPCl). In turn, these innovations pave the way for a new definition of the division and content of the work by expanding the duties and responsibilities of workers in the production sector through the transfer of activities related to the formalization of quality and maintenance tasks. 5) The links between pressures to cut costs, formalization of quality, enhanced productivity, and greater flexibility for deliveries have triggered appreciable transformations in the division of work, both within the companies (through the reorganization of the work process, parallel to investments in equipment and organizational innovations), as well as between companies (the trend towards internalization/externalization of activities). This process has significant consequences, not only for job structures, but also for workforce profiles, ushering in alterations to the structure and hierarchical levels of skills. If, on the one hand, higher productivity is

32 associated with the introduction of technological and organizational innovations, on the other hand, these innovations have resulted in more intensive work and higher educational demands within a context where the labour market is extremely unfavourable to the workers. Higher educational levels are increasingly used as selection criteria in the companies when hiring workers and also the use of new different psycho-technical testings to test the so-called new qualities as for example initiative and creativity, capacity to work co-operatively in a group, ability for the mutual formation in the workplace itself, competence to evaluate the product of his work, and to make decisions that will improve the quality and control of the planning techniques and work organization (see Article VI). The organization of production and work has taken on a new logic which incorporates self- regulation mechanisms that ensure the feasibility of reducing the number of hierarchical levels (reducing the number of bosses) and increasing the independence of workers in terms of conducting production processes. As a result, companies become more dependent on their employees. Their success depends on the motivation and commitment of participants to the competitive targets of the company and the quality programmes as well as the new routines introduced. Within this context, the need arises not only for training programmes, but also for the adoption of different types of participatory systems, designed to motivate and/or involve the employees as a group. This includes the dissemination of information on the company’s performance, rewards for good ideas brought in through suggestion plans, the introduction of multi-function careers and profit-sharing schemes (Gitahy and Bresciani, 1998). The quest for greater commitment from the workforce has paved the way for major changes in human resource management in the three regions, within a context marked by the limited presence of trade unions in the companies. Nevertheless, in spite of intensification of labour associated with workers’ new attributions (vertical and horizontal enrichment of tasks) and an increase in the demand for schooling in selecting workers, it seems that no improvement has occurred in the compensation received by workers, neither in salaries nor in benefits. Salaries seem not to follow increase in productivity or reduction in benefits, and new hiring is carried out under ever larger demands and ever lower salary patterns, a situation made easier by a context of generalized unemployment. This situation becomes more serious in small and middle-large companies, which cannot follow the conditions related to salaries, and specially benefits found in larger companies. In its turn, in a context of generalized unemployment and weakened trade unions (with the usual exceptions), their capacity to negotiate innovations is low. 6) The re-structuring process intensified two trends noted in the course of this study: on one hand, the externalization/internalization of activities associated with the process of focusing on core businesses, and on the other, the reduction in the number of suppliers, associated with intense pressure to formalize quality, enhance flexibility, and cut costs. This means that, from the standpoint of vertical inter-firm relationships, major changes have been introduced in the division of work between firms and in the nature of the relationships between client firms and suppliers. In order to survive within this context, companies have invested heavily not only in machinery and equipment, but also in quality programmes and schemes for retraining their workers. This situation has increased the relationships of the companies with a number of institutions in the regions analysed, in order to expand the possibilities of access to resources and know-how that cannot be found in-house. This means that the companies have sought to participate and build up relationships with various types of institutions, partly in order to mobilize funding, ensure access to up-to-date information, and resolve urgent problems, but also because these forms of relationships/participation are of vital importance for the dissemination of knowledge on the correct forms of organization and the subsequent legitimization and institutionalization of new practices. Trade unions and employer associations, consulting firms, the vocational training

33 system, technical schools, universities,and financing agencies are examples of institutions, which play a vital role in the links that constitute what could be called communications networks. In this sense, there is a revitalization or establishment of communication networks among companies, town halls, trade unions, and employers’ associations, financing agencies, consultancy companies, and education institutions, specially the system of vocational education, technical schools, and universities. However, these co-operative efforts have been made difficult due to factors such as an environment of fierce competition, lack of previous associative experiences, conservative culture inherited from the ”miracle” period associated with the traditional practices of the Taylorist-Fordist model of efficiency. The difficulty in the relations among companies and labour trade unions is an example of this kind of inheritance and also of its fragility, a consequence of the unfavourable situation of the labour market. It was thus possible to conclude that co-operation initiatives between various types of institutions have become extremely important for the survival and growth of some companies, contributing equally to their adaptation to the new demands related to product quality and labour force skills. This indicates a reconfiguration of institutional relationships. Thus, it is possible to state that the relationships between these companies and a number of different types of institutions are playing an increasingly important role in the survival and development of a more competitive industrial network in the regions studied. Within this new scenario, the responsibility and importance of the institutions in the educational system have become increasingly vital for the social and economic development of the various regions (see Article VI). 7) With regard to the companies studied in the Campinas region, from the middle of the 1990s onwards, the upturn in the growth of the Brazilian automotive complex and the intensification of the competition on a national and international level violently accelerated the re-structuring process of the enterprises in this production chain. During this period, the diffusion of technological and organizational innovations appears associated with the increase in investments and a sustained movement of increase in productivity and the re-location of industrial plants that are translated in the reduction of volume and the re-location of employment. Even though the Campinas region is one of the privileged areas in the location of new investments, the intensification of the process of reorganization of this commodity chain in an environment of increasingly fierce competition and the increase in imports (global sourcing strategies), has provoked an intense concentration movement through fusions/acquisitions or even closing down of enterprises (see Articles V and VI). Under these conditions, the process of re-structuring along the commodity chain intensified two tendencies observed in articles III, V, and VI: on the one hand, the externalization/ internalization of activities associated with focusing processes and, on the other hand, the tendency toward the reduction in the number of suppliers associated with the enormous pressure toward the formalization of quality, flexibility, and cost reduction. Thus, from the point of view of the vertical relations, we will see significant transformations in the division of labour between the enterprises and changes in the nature of the relation between clients and suppliers. So as to survive in this environment, the small enterprises have strongly invested not only in machines and equipment, but also in quality and re-training programs for their workers.This scenario has, to a certain extent, altered the configuration of the horizontal relations and increased the enterprises’ relationship with different institutions located in the region. This process has important consequences not only for the employment structure (labour division among enterprises) but also for labour profile. The increase in productivity appears clearly associated with the introduction of technological and organizational innovations, linked to the concept of flexible specialization and has involved the intensification of labour and greater demands of schooling for the hiring of labour, but in a context in which the labour market is extremely unfavourable to the workers and in which the workers’ unions find themselves

34 considerably weakened. 8) During the 1990s, the transformations in the national and international scenario and the opening up of the Brazilian market affected the footwear cluster in Rio Grande do Sul (RS cluster for short) in a different way. Even though the activities of the footwear enterprises continue to be concentrated on production, a stage in the chain in which the added is relatively low (around 20%) and its main competitive strategy continues to be based on the reduction of the labour costs, these transformations led to important changes in the configuration of cluster (see Article V). For example, the consolidation of the opening up of the Brazilian market engendered an intensification of the relationship between the cluster producers and the suppliers and external producers, leading to difficulties on the level of internal cohesion. Two examples are paradigmatic with regard to this new situation: in the cluster, the footwear producers’ for imported machinery (causing a serious crisis for the local machine producers) and the massive exports of semi-treated leather - the wet-blue - which, in turn, has established a supply difficulty for the local producers. Besides these two examples, there is no doubt that the possibility of having access, both rapidly and at a low cost, to the supply from suppliers located in other countries can cause a serious threat, as it precisely hits the key element of the cohesion of the cluster, i.e., the facilities arising from geographical proximity. Other issues related to the globalization of the markets also seem to threaten the continuity of the RS cluster. It is worthwhile highlighting the ”Chinese phenomenon”, which, in little more than five years, took up a priority role on the international footwear market, practically outdoing almost all the footwear producers of a low- or medium-low price range on the North-American market. On the crest of this wave, many enterprises of the cluster under study were directly (among those that traded with the American market) or indirectly (those that were sub- contracted by export enterprises) jettisoned from the market. In this context, the shutting down of many enterprises and the dismissal of thousands of employees were observed. In the outcome of this process, it is possible to highlight some trends concerning changes in the configuration of the RS cluster. In the scope of industrial organization, a kind of centralization of the subcontracting process was noticed, through the consolidation of the facção as a transaction emerging from this type of relation. By means of the facção,51 the hiring enterprises increased the demand for subcontracting of the finished shoe and reduced the demand for the subcontracting of parts, that was predominantly carried out by workshops. In this new format, the relation between the enterprises and the workshops was weakened and the workshops started to give preference to the relationship with the facções. On the other hand, the growth of unemployment triggered off the constitution of some workers’ co-operatives. Some of these co- operatives, which at the beginning of their creation were stimulated by some entrepreneurs and representatives of municipal town halls, had their production practically all dedicated to one or few enterprises. The production of these co-operatives is also oriented toward finished products, especially intensive labour and low-price products. Finally, regarding the labour profile, a greater demand for schooling of the workers has been observed among the larger enterprises. This change in the criteria of selection, reflect, in most cases, demands for a more committed attitude toward the enterprise and the new procedures related to the quality of products and processes, i.e., a new attitude among labourers.

51 Facção is a small firm, sub-contracted to produce shoes integrally. The subcontracting firm etablish the design, bath, and final price and add it’s label to the product. It is a new configuration (after the mid 1990s) in this cluster.

35 3.2 Main changes in the Brazilian industry, 1970-1999 The technological and managerial innovations that began to be adopted following World War II are being propagated as a new paradigm of industrial organization all around the world. This paradigm is qualitatively different from the Taylorist-Fordist model of efficiency (based upon the scientific management of labour) with origins in the beginning of the Second Industrial Revolution. The new model began to be established in the 1940s and 1950s, and its diffusion has been accelerated during the crisis of the 1970s. During the 1980s and 1990s this process intensified due to the great competitive pressures stimulated by Japan's entry into the North-American and European markets (see Articles I and II). The metal-working industry, and especially the automotive industry which was the birthplace of the previous industrial paradigm, has held a privileged position in this process of change. This diffusion process has taken the form of imitation and recreation, trial and error. Ideas, methods, and management techniques have diffused, based largely upon imitation of the so-called "Japanese model". Hence, in the Brazilian case, one can trace a simultaneous diffusion of ideas and new techniques, many of which are in conflict with those traditionally used. More than the introduction of technological innovations, the application of these tools on the firm level signifies a highly complex process of social change, reversing established norms and models of behaviour which were familiar to members of organizations, establishing new systems of authority and control and creating new sources of insecurity and anxiety (see Articles I and II). The diffusion of a new paradigm of efficiency, associated with the process of globalization of the economy and the abandonment of the model of development based on import substitution, transformed the work organization and the inter-firms relations in the Brazilian industry, changing the volume, structure, and location of employment as well as the content and hierarchy of skills. The re-structuring of the Brazilian industry occurs in a context characterized by crisis, economic instability, recession and unemploymentt as well as by political re-democratization and growing influence of the labour movement. It is within this scenario that we see the slow abandonment of the import substitution model, in an economy in which the domestic market is extremely significant in spite of its great contraction, especially at the crisis peak (1981-1983 and 1990-1992). The automobile chain, and particularly the autoparts industry, has been subject to an intense re- structuring process in the last two decades. The autoparts industry – especially the leading firms in this sector – is crucial to the understanding of the dynamics of technological innovation in the metal-mechanical complex. This industry occupies a central position, between, on the one hand, the large auto assemblers, and, on the other, the large chemical, metallurgical, and machine industries. Innovations in the autoparts industry affect the industrial matrix both up-stream and down-stream. The Brazilian automobile industry started in the 1950s as an international industry. Multi-nationals were given special incentives to install plants in Brazil, as part of the import-substitution policy then prevailing in the country. From the multi-nationals’ point of view, this fitted the new ‘international division of labour’, and access to the large and unexplored internal market in Brazil was an important consideration.52 This industry had a steady growth until 1980, based on a protected and expanding internal market. In the early 1980s this situation changed, with several years of crisis and recession, which led, in 1981-1982 to a 30% reduction in production and employment. The early 1980s were also years of important changes in the industry worldwide, with the Japanese entering the USA and European markets. All these factors led to the beginning of a re-structuring process, with the slow abandonment of the import substitution policy. In the middle of the 1980s, the response to the crisis was an increase in exports, mainly to Europe and the USA. This in turn led to a defensive re-

52 The international literature shows that during this period there was a strong re-structuring of the world industry with a ‘new international division of labour’. Several of the large car manufacturers from Europe and the USA installed plants in Brazil in the late 1950s and were followed by their main autoparts suppliers (Gitahy and Bresciani, 1998).

36 structuring of the leading firms,53 oriented by the guiding principles of the new paradigm of efficiency. Increasing exports as a compensation for recession on the internal market was helped by export incentive policies put in practice at that time. This in turn led to a concern in quality,54 although changes were introduced only partially and more through reorganization than through large investments in new machinery. Eventually, the economic crisis of 1990-92 and the opening up of the Brazilian economy intensified this re-structuring process. With economic stability (from 1994), firms made new investments, new firms came to Brazil, and there was a strong geographical reallocation of the automotive industry, previously highly concentrated in São Paulo. During the 1990s, transformations in the national and international scenarios and the liberalization of the Brazilian market affected in different ways the production chains under study. In both of them (shoe and autoparts production), however, the intensification of the competition induced the firms to re-structure themselves, introducing innovations oriented by the perception of the actors involved in these processes regarding the guiding principles of the new paradigm of efficiency. The introduction of these innovations: a) modifies the daily practices at work (routines, procedures, modes of producing, indicators, criteria, status symbols, habits, and values), and, b) the division of labour within companies and between companies (inter-firm relations) as well as between companies and different institutions, ssuch as those within the educational system. These processes affected the configuration of the industrial fabric in the regions studied. As a consequence, and in conjunction with the general trend towards market liberalization and reordering of global production, we can observe significant changes in patterns of competition, technology, and management in different production chains. Chart 5 is a synthesis of such transformations in the Brazilian automobile chain, comparing the 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s. These transformations are studied by distinguishing between three types of patterns, namely, competition, technological, and management patterns. The competition pattern characterizes the econonomic context faced by firms and their competitive strategies. The technological pattern summarizes the innovations introduced within and between firms. The management pattern describes the changes in three dimensions: company structures, the structure of skills and labour management policies, and the nature of relations with trade-unions (industrial relations). As we can see in Chart 5, the following differences can be observed: • In the 1970s: a) a competition pattern characterized by expanding production, directed to the protected internal market; b) a technological pattern clearly oriented by the Taylorist-Fordist paradigm of efficiency; and c) a management pattern oriented by the same paradigm, but combined with the authoritarian character of the political context in which they are inserted (military dictatorship).

53 ‘Defensive re-structuring’ means a situation when no new plants or equipment/machinery are heavy involved, but rather changes in organizational and management aspects of existing plants. This re-structuring was strongly influenced by the Japanese model of lean production (Gitahy and Bresciani, 1998). 54 From 1992, ISO 9000 was compulsory for the European market.

37 CHART 5: CHANGES IN THE BRAZILIAN AUTOMOBILE PRODUCTION CHAIN Competition pattern Technological pattern Management pattern Technological and organizational (process) innovations within the companies Inter-firms relations (client/ Company structure Skills structure and labour Industrial relations supplier) management policies Equipments/ maintenance Work organization / Quality production management 1970s • Production aimed • Electromechanical • Assembly lines • Traditional • Vertical plants • Bureaucratic and • Intensive use of semi- • Trade unions kept under for the protected equipment and CNC • Rigid tasks division quality control via • Large number of suppliers with a large number skilled workers control by labor laws and expanding initial adoption and ”routinization” inspection; late in • Conflicts in the production of hierarchical levels • High personnel (CLT) and police domestic market • Corrective • Specialized lines the decade, initial chain • Top-down decision turnover to reduce repression. maintenance, carried • Functional QC experiences making process wages and discipline • Companies resistance to out by specialized organization and • Function-based workers trade-unions and unions departments “routinization” organization • Jobs and wages leadership repression • Inventories (departments divided structures based on • Clandestine groups plus by function) working position and Cipa (Health and Safety tasks (broad range of Plant Committee) wages levels) • Authoritarian direct management 1980s • Domestic market • Electromechanical • Assembly lines • ”Quality • New dedicated plants • Decentralization • Demand for higher • Redemocratization, crisis and equipment, • Introduction of movement” • Large companies start • Downsizing education level active trade-unions contraction; introduction of production cells, intensification downsizing and • Business units • Increased proportion • Strikes, conflicts increasing exports microelectronic group technology • Diffusion and externalization • Management by of skilled workers • New leadership, works to the USA and to automation (robots, • Decreasing abandon of QCC • Introduction of suppliers processes • Changes in the job councils Europe, in a CNC/DNC systems inventories experiences development programmes • Multifunctional and pay structure • Wages question as main context of fierce CAD/CAM) localised • Decentralization • Increasing • Beginning of external Just- ”teams” and/or • Introduction of priority competition in the innovations • Localized diffusion of SPC in-time ”projects” participatory • Centralized collective international • Maintenance experiences with (statistical process programmes; bargaining market decentralization and Just-in-time/Kanban, control) and other management changes integration, plus TPM FMS, semi- pro-quality attitudes autonomous teams techniques • Internal restaurants • Production workers • TQM democratization starts to perform • ISO 9000 • Workforce stability maintenance and certification policies. quality tasks 1990s • Trade liberalization • Extensive use of • Assembly lines • New quality • Focusing (products and/or • Intensification of the • Demand for higher • More complex agenda policy microelectronic • Machining cells policies diffusion clients) restructuring and education level (automotive policies, • Agreements automation • Plants segmentation within all the • Outsourcing policies decentralization • Multiskilling innovation, etc) defined for the • TPM, decentralized • Decreasing automotive chain (externalization and/or processes: • Team work • Decentralized, bipartite automotive support to production inventories (quality internalization) • Hierarchical levels • Lower personnel and tripartite collective complex between • Maintenance tasks • Decentralized movement • Pressure for costs reduction, downsized turnover bargaining processes government, unions externalization support to intensification) to formalize quality systems • Business units • Foremen new roles and companies (outsourcing) production (quality/ and for flexibility throughout • Management by • New wages structures • Domestic market maintenance) the production chain processes • More training and growth, exports to • Suppliers’ development • Multifunctional information Mercosur • External just-in-time ”teams” and/or • Profit sharing • New investments, diffusion ”projects” • Flexible working time new plants around • “Industrial condominiums” • Horizontal structure the country and “modular sourcing” and decision making experiences processes • Global sourcing Source: Gitahy and Bresciani (1998:22). • By the 1980s: a) a competition pattern characterized by the contraction of domestic market and increasing exports to the USA and Europa; b) a technological pattern characterized by defensive re-structuring oriented by the new paradigm of efficiency55; and c) the management pattern changes slowly, oriented by same paradigm, but in a context of political redemocratization and extremely active trade-unions. • Finally, in the 1990s: a) a competition pattern of characterized trade-liberalization policy, agreements defined in the automotive complex between govermment, unions, and companies, domestic market growth and redirection of exports to Mercosur and new investments and new plants around the country; b) a technological pattern characterized by the intensification of the re-structuring process oriented by new paradigm of efficiency; and c) the management pattern changes, oriented by the same paradigm and industrial relations characterized by a more complex negotiation agenda, decentralized bipartite, and tripartite collective bargaigning process, but in a context of reduction of employment . In the past few years there has been an enormous productivity increase in investment and sales and a sharp decline in employment. This is due to an intense re-structuring process, which occurred in a period of crisis and economic recession on the internal market associated with an increase in international competition, fostered by the gradual discarding of the import-substitution policy. In the 1990s there has been a new phase of significant structural changes in the world-automotive industry and in the place occupied by the Brazilian automotive sector in this re-structuring process. In the previous decade, firms used exports as a way out of the crisis on the internal market. This was particularly true in the autoparts industry. In the 1990s, by contrast, the opening was ‘to the inside’ (importing). The last few years have seen a sharp increase in the absolute and relative participation of foreign vehicles in the Brazilian consumer market. The constitution of regional blocs is also very significant, with Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay) increasing its share of the automotive market and redistributing industrial plants among those countries (Gitahy and Bresciani, 1998). In 1995 the automotive industry56 was responsible for approximately 3,8% of total (GDP) and 12,9% of industrial GDP in Brazil (Associação Nacional de Produtores de Veículos Automotores (Anfavea), 1996 and Sindicato Nacional da Indústria de Componentes e Motores (Sindipeças), 1996). It generated a total of 5,4 million jobs directly and indirectly,57 including 214,000 in the autoparts sector and 115,000 in the auto-assembly sector (Anfavea, 1996). In 1989, however, this same sector had been responsible for 7,1% of total GDP and 21,6% of industrial GDP, creating 5,6 million direct and indirect jobs, with 310,000 in the autoparts industry and 143,000 in auto assembly. In absolute terms, sales grew from US$24,4 billion in 1989 to US$26 billion in 1995, with production rising from 1,06 million cars in 1989 to 1,63 million in 1995, while direct employment fell from 453,000 in 1989 to 329,000 in 1995 (Anfavea, 1996). The most important trends over the decade for the automotive production chain in Brazil are as follows: a) economic stability associated with a policy of attracting new investment and the pressure to re-structure as a strategy for facing new international and national competition has resulted in increased investment, associated with a strong movement towards re-location of the industrial plants in the automotive production chain. In a context of increased production, sales, and investment, with a fall in employment, the location of new plants and the closing of old ones have generated intense disputes and growing antagonism between different regions; b) the intensification of competition, both within Brazil and internationally, has led to an intense movement towards

55 In these years it was clear, even in same company, that the convivence and/or the clash of visions and values were based on the two different paradigms. 56 Here defined as motor vehicles, motor-powered agricultural machines, and autoparts. 57 The up-stream and down-stream links of the automotive industry involve more than thirty economic sectors: mining, steel, glass, tyres, chemical products, batteries, alcohol and petrol, services, sales, marketing etc. The auto- parts industry is in a key position between the car assemblers and basic inputs industries.

39 concentration in the autoparts sector, with joint ventures, acquisitions, and the closing of firms; c) there has been a significant increase in imports, especially direct imports by assemblers, which excluded exports in 1995; and d) the Mercosur countries have become more important as markets for autoparts exports.

3.3 Final discussion The process of diffusion of what we are used to call, even today, ”technological and organizational innovations” in Brazilian industry, is already twenty years old. Some time ago I realized that many of the things we call ”new” are already quite old. Just to give some examples I would like to mention, that the first NC lathe, manufactured by Romi (a Brazilian company), dates back to 1978, the first experience with QCC, at Metal-Leve, was carried out in 1975, the first cells at Clark occurred in 1981, and the beginning of the implantation of SPC in these two companies took place in 1983. Thus, researches carried out at the end of the 1990s are dealing with a process of transformation which is almost two decades old. In this period, we witnessed, not only within companies, but also in the most varied types of institutions, a complex social process of trial and error and successive changes, concerning both the size, characteristics, and depth of the innovations adopted, and the actors’ perception of their nature and meaning. These actors are not the same: today, we interview new generations of managers, engineers, and workers; many of our interviewees of the 1980s have already retired, have been dismissed, or become consultants. When we meet acquaintances who survived, they like to tell us what happened after the last time we had been there58. I would like to point out again, that the process of diffusion of this set of innovations implies transformations in the everyday work, in modes of producing, thinking, and feeling. It is important to point out that a constant in the studies carried out from the middle of the 1990s onwards in different production chains is what we call increase in productivity59. Either studying individual companies or analysing sectorial data, using different databases, from the 1990s onwards, we observe that employment decreases, whereas production and/or sales increase with an impressive regularity60. Thus, if new investment and movements of produced a strong positive impact on employment from the 1930s to the 1980s, from the 1990s onwards we observe a huge increase in productivity, which, as a result, has economic growth with employment reduction. Associated with this increase in productivity, we observe an impressive intensification of

58 If, in the beginning of the 1980s, in order to conduct a research on innovations, it was necessary to search for a few companies which were innovating through some indicator (at that stage, we used to search for automation equipment, since both researchers and managers interviewed understood innovation as new machines based on microelectronics), and many of the questions in our questionnaires (made with our colleagues’ support, production engineers, team mates in multi-disciplinary projects) were not understood not even by the engineers interviewed; today, the concepts associated to the so-called new paradigm are part of the common language of any interviewee, independently of company size, from its directors to shopfloor workers (Gitahy and Cunha, 1999). 59 considered ”positive” and synonymous with rise in competitiveness, which does not convince me: when we change the ways of organizing things, it is necessary to modify the performance indicators, or at least their interpretation. 60 Data from RAIS (that contains only information on the formal labour market) can help us to visualize this situation: between 1991 and 1996, GDP grows 94%, whereas employment in all economic activities grows just 4%. Using the same data, between 1986 and 1996, Brazilian transformation industry suffers a loss of 1,096,100 jobs in absolute numbers. As examples, in chemical industries, data from Abiquim (Associação Brasileira das Indústrias Químicas) show that, between 1991 and 1996, to a reduction of employees under CLT regime (Consolidação das Leis Trabalhistas, Consolidation of Labour Laws). CLT-employees/workers hired under these laws are in the so-called formal labour market and therefore protected by these laws as distinguished from other workers not fornally employed) of about 48% (loss of 51,879 jobs) corresponds an increase of 44% in the sales (increase of US$5,063,183). In all sectors in which I have been working, automobile complex (assemblers and autoparts manufacturers) and white-good industry have results similar to the degree of dramaticity, either using data from RAIS or from their respective associations (Anfavea, Sindipeças, Abinee and Eletros). See Gitahy and Bresciani, 1998, Gitahy and Cunha, 1999, and Araújo and Gitahy, 1998.

40 labour, which, among other symptoms, is translated into real epidemic occupational diseases (increase in stress, RSI - Repetitive Strain Injury epidemics)61. This situation, which, on the one hand, generates an immense insecurity among all actors involved (present in all interviews), on the other hand, induces an intensification of the relationship among different kinds of institutions, especially between companies and the education system, and the reconfiguration of the institutional relations in the regions studied. The nature and the rhythm of present changes have been leading to an intense social demand of analyses which goes beyond the ideologies of the ‘neo-laisser-faire’ and the reification of ‘market’, and which allows the formulation of policies which allow us to face new and old challenges. It is in this environment that the debate on the institutional forms, which are more conducive to economic growth and welfare, reappears and is made more intense. In this sense, to understand the process of diffusion of the new paradigm in the Brazilian case, it implies capturing the dynamic of this social process, identifying the actors, their perceptions, and attitudes and their concrete experiences. Therefore, we need to think about the transformations in progress in terms of multiple choices of concrete actors with regard to given social and economic conditions and take up again the debate on the social effects of the ”new technologies”, rescuing the use of terms and their meaning for the actors of concrete processes of re-structuring, be they ”losers” and/or ”winners”, identifying the exclusion and inclusion mechanisms. On the other hand, a convergence effort is necessary, or at least a communication effort with a more ample group of disciplines dedicating themselves to the field of labour studies. Disciplines and research traditions differ both in their objects and the tools used in the study. Each object of study has a set of problems and leads to the development of different concepts, techniques, and approaches. This is not the place to present a history of the evolution of these disciplines, the paths through which we have reached excessive ”specialization”, and even a ” hermeticism of disciplinary languages”, to the point of making the experts in each area ”blind” to the phenomena which belong to the area of competency of the neighbour expert62. The fact is that, in the last two decades, the need to think of the change on the macro and micro levels took us to a resurgence of classic issues in the human sciences, themes for which the disciplinary boundaries are fainter. An important element for such convergence was the accumulation of empirical studies in many disciplines, closely following processes of innovation and, por ende, mapping relations. Little by little, studies on companies, research institutions, and relations among them were accumulated and the reality was revealing itself simpler and more complex than our arsenal of reified concept. The scientific work often takes us to find out the obvious through complex paths. However, in this process of convergence, in which several disciplines start to borrow concepts among them, we have to face new types of communication problems: concept A’ reappears next as A”, an operation which, when made carefully, can be very interesting, but, if used carelessly, can only promote even more confusion (e.g., when someone, sometimes involuntarily, uses A’ in the sense of A”, creating A’’’). The situation gets more complicated when the concepts produced in our scientific ”laboratories” spread to the media, and are transformed in ”recipes of modernity”, starting to change the everyday life of the most diverse organizations. It has already happened with ”paradigm”, ”flexibility”,

61 ”Data from Centro de Referência em Saúde do Trabalhador (CRST), in Campinas, show that RSI represented, in 1997, 79% of the cases of occupational diseases registered at this centre. The high incidence of RSI both in the service sectors, banks, and in the industry has been characterized by those who study worker’s health as a real epidemics caused by introduction of new technologies, change in labour organization, maintenance of fragmented and highly repetitive tasks, multi-function, and great intensification in the rhythm of work, long working hours, and lack of breaks (Barreto, 1997; Oliveira, 1998)”, in Araújo and Gitahy (1998). 62 For a discussion on the effects of specialization in scientific work, see Morin (1982).

41 ”Fordism and Taylorism”, ”quality”, ”competencies”, ”employability”, ”qualification”63, and now with ”networks”. Dealing with an extremely polemic, attractive, and current theme, we, as researchers, have faced in our everyday work the difficulties of our double role of scholars and actors in this process of transformation (of which we are not always aware), and dealt with a material in which not only our perceptions and expectations are mixed up, but also those of our interviewees.. The great merit of the studies on networks and productive chains, governance structures, and other paths we started to take in the last few years is that they have been allowing us several research exercises and designs, which allow us to identify, map, and even hierarchize a really ample set of social and economic relations (e.g., relations among companies, relations with other kinds of institutions and the local society, power relations within globalized productive chains, etc.), identify diffusion paths, articulated changes within companies with changes in the relations with their surroundings, etc. The risk is to use such concepts in a reified way. In our field and in our society, it is almost natural and unconscious to reify the ”new” and ”more” as synonymous with good and positive, ”first world” as more advanced (whatever its meaning), qualification as technical education, etc., ”flexible specialization” and ”industrial districts” as models to be pursued, and even to call new institutionalities phenomena, which have always been there and which our theoretical perspectives and views prevented us from seeing. Thus, it is a case of, on the one hand, analysing the principles that guide the ”models” under debate and their similarities and differences from the principles that guide the former paradigm in the light of the social, political, and economic process that has induced its dissemination, and on the other hand, analysing its dissemination in the Brazilian case. I believe, like Schuman (1992), that a new vision of the form of use of labour in the scope of the changes in progress and that their concrete social effects cannot be analysed, be it within the straitjacket of the ”positive” or ”negative” aspects or in the criticism with emphasis on the continuity argument (Neo-Taylorism), or even in that of the solution to all problems, do adhere to survive à la MIT. On the one hand, it is a case of trying to understand the changes that are taking place in Brazil in a context of globalization and regional integration associated with the dissemination of a new technological and organizational efficiency paradigm. On the other hand, the complexity of this process, be it by the structural heterogeneity that characterizes it, be it by its history and the performance of the diverse social actors. It is necessary to distinguish between different rhythms of dissemination of innovations, the differences between the ”discourse” and the practices in a process of trial and error, and permanent tension between conservation and innovation, breaking off with technological determinism and the straitjacket of the polarization of the debate between the ”positive” or ”negative” effects of the new technologies. It is also necesary to demystify the simplifying generalizations present in the most diverse forms of orthodox and technocrat discourse, independently of the political-ideological orientation, pointing at the importance of the democratic forms of negotiations of the changes. In this sense, I think that this disquieting and fascinating moment is a moment of great transformation for humankind, a moment which began in the crisis of the 1970s, and it is also extremely useful for us collectively to make an effort of systematic reflection and search for meaning or meanings in our global village. It is a matter of trying to answer the question asked by Touraine (2000 [1997]) in ‘Can we live together?’, i.e., how to ”escape from the disquieting dilemma between the uniform model of world globalization, which ignores the diversity of cultures, and the isolation of communities, which

63 This is a term much used by all of us and with an immense variety of meanings, especially at the moment in which we start to try to order something in terms of more or less.

42 confirms the exclusion of the other”64. It involves an effort to retrieve the links between changes in daily practices and the construction of new economic and social institutions oriented to solidarity, which takes us, using the terms employed by the Zapatists in Chiapas, to ”a world where there is place for many worlds” [”un mundo donde quepan muchos mundos”]. In order to achieve that, it is necessary to overcome all traces of what Bettelheim (1991:264) called ghetto mentality, understanding that ”all of us need to expand the feeling of community beyond our own group... not because all men are essentially good, but because violence is so natural in men as their tendency to order”. Latin America in general, and Brazil in particular, given, as Touraine (1989:16-17) observes, their extreme political, economic, social, cultural, ethnic, and religious heterogeneity and complexity (Morin, 1998:11), on the one hand, and, on the other, the great temptation of populism, i.e., ”the desire of change within continuity, without the violent rupture that capitalist and socialist industrialization went through” (Touraine, 1989:17), are fertile fields for considering the transformations which we are facing on our planet65.

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64 What implies, for this author, the reconstruction of a conception of social life based on institutions (back cover of the Spanish edition, CFE). 65 For this author (Touraine, 1989, back cover of the Brazilian edition): ”In face of a West obsessed by its and pleasures, and an East confined in political totalitarianism or in religious integrism, Latin America experiences with more force and imagination than whatever other part of the world the search for a new modernity, a new renaissance”.

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44 Competencias Laborales”, Red Latinoamericana de Educación y Trabajo, Mtb, OIT/Brasil, Brasília, abril. (Networks and Flexibility: the concept of "networks" and their utility in studying the productive restructuring process in Latin America. In Portuguese). Gitahy, Leda (1999) ”Redes e flexibilidade: da mudança das práticas quotidianas a uma nova trama produtiva”, work presented at the 1st session of the Seminário Temático Interdisciplinar Os Estudos do Trabalho: novas problemáticas, novas metodologias e novas áreas de pesquisa (Studies on Work: new problems, new methodologies and new areas of research )1999-2000. (Networks and flexibility: from changes in daily practices to a new productive scheme, in Portuguese). In: http://www.sociologia- usp.br/seminari.htm Gitahy, Leda and Bresciani, Luís Paulo (1998) ”Reestruturação Produtiva e Trabalho na Indústria Automobilística Brasileira”, Textos para discussão nr24, DPCT/IG/UNICAMP, Campinas. Gitahy, Leda and Cunha, Adriana Marques (1999) ”Redes y flexibilidad: reestructuración productiva y trabajo en la industria de línea blanca” in Montero, C.; Albuquerque, M. & Ensignia, J. (eds) Trabajo y Empresa entre dos siglos, Ed. Nueva Sociedad, Caracas (ISBN 980-317-155-0), pp 79-103. (Networks and flexibility: Industrial Restructuring and Labour in The White Goods Industry, in Spanish) Gitahy, Leda and Fischer, Rosa (1996) "Produzindo a flexibilidade: algumas reflexões sobre as aventuras e desventuras da gerência pós-moderna", paper presented at II Congreso Latinoamericano de Sociologia del Trabajo, GT13, Águas de Lindóia, december (Producing Flexibility: some comments on the adventures and misadventures of post-modern management, in Portuguese). Gitahy, Leda; Humphrey, John; Lobo, Elizabeth et Moyses, Rosa (1982a) "Luttes Ouvrieres et Luttes des Ouvrieres a São Bernardo do Campo" em Cahiers Des Ameriques Latines 1982 serie Sciences de l"Homme n.26, Institutte des Hautes Etudes d'Amerique Latine. Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris III, Paris, pp 11-38. Gitahy, Leda; Hirata, Helena; Lobo, Elizabeth e Moyses, Rosa. (1982b) ”Operárias: Sindicalização e Reivindicações (1970-1980)” in Revista de Cultura e Política n.8, junho, 1982, CEDEC/Cortez Editora, São Paulo pp 90-116. Gitahy, Leda., Leite, Márcia and Rabelo, Flávio (1993) “Relações de Trabalho, Política de Recursos Humanos e Competitividade” in Study of the Competitiveness of Brazilian Industry Study, Thematic Block V, Theme 3, Campinas, IE/Unicamp-IEI/UFRJ. (Industrial restructuring and the firm: quality programs, policies of human resource management and industrial relations, in Portuguese). In: http://www.mct.gov.br Gitahy, L. and Rabelo, F. (1988) "Os Efeitos Sociais da Microeletrônica na Indústria Metal Mecânica Brasileira: o caso da Indústria de Informática" in Anais do Seminário Padrões Tecnológicos e Políticas de Gestão: Processos de Trabalho na Indústria Brasileira, DPCT/IG/UNICAMP, Depto de Sociologia/FFLC/USP, FEA/USP, São Paulo. Granovetter, M. (1990). “The Old and the New economy Sociology: a History and an Agenda” in Friedland, e Robertson, F. (eds) Beyond the Marketplace: Rethinking Economy and Society, Aldine de Gruyter: New York. Hill, Stephen (1991) "How do you manage a flexible firm? The Total Quality Model" in Work, Employment & Society, Vol. 5 Number 3, september pp 397-415. Hobbsbawn, Eric (1995) A Era dos Extremos - O Breve século XX 1914-1991, Companhia das Letras, São Paulo. Hoffman, K. and Kaplinsky, R. Hoffman, Kurt and Kaplinsky, Raphael (1988) Driving Force: The Global Re-structuring of Technology, Labour and Investment in the Automobile and Components Industries, Westview Press, Boulder. Humphrey, John (1982) Fazendo o milagre: controle capitalista e luta operária na indústria automobilística brasileira, Vozes/CEBRAP, Petrópolis. Langlois, R.and Robertson, P. (1995). “Innovation, Networks and Vertical Integration”, in Firms, Markets and Economic Change, Routledge: London & New York. Leite, Elenice (1994) ”Trabalho e Qualificação: a Classe Operária vai à Escola” in Gitahy, L. (org.) Reestructuracción Productiva, Trabajo y Educación en America Latina, Red Latino Americana de

45 Educación y Trabajo CIID/CENEP, Buenos Aires and IG/UNICAMP, Campinas, (Lecturas de Educación y Trabajo, n. 3), pp: 215-225. Leite, M. (1992) “Modernização tecnológica e relações de trabalho no Brasil: notas para uma discussão” in Outras Falas.....em Processo de Trabalho, Escola Sindical 7 de Outubro, Belo Horizonte. Littler, C. (1978) "Understanding Taylorism" in British Journal of Sociology, Vol. XXIX, nr 2, June, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. Lobo, E; Humphrey, J; Gitahy, L. and Moyses, R. (1984) "La Pratique Invisible des Ouvrieres" in (Collectif d'auteurs), Le Sexe du Travail: Structures Familiales et Systeme Productif Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, pp 255-275. (ISBN 2.7061.0225.x). (The Invisible Activities of Women Workers, in French). Mayer, Arno J. (1981) A Força da Tradição - A Persistência do Antigo Regime (1848-1914), Companhia das Letras, São Paulo, 1987. Merkler, Judith A. (1980) Management and Ideology - the Legacy of the Internacional Scientific Management Movement, University of California Press, Berkeley. Morin, Edgar (1982) Ciência com Consciência, Publicações Europa-América Ltda, Portugal. Morin, Edgar (1991) O Método 4. As idéias Habitat, vida, costumes, organização, Editora Sulina, Porto Alegre, (edição brasileira de 1998). Oliveira, Eleonora M. (1998) ”Corpos saudáveis e corpos doentes na nova organização social do trabalho”, Trabalho apresentado no Seminário Trabalho e Gênero: mudanças, permanências e desafios., ABEP, Campinas, 14 e 15 de abril. Peliano, J; Gitahy, L.; Cassiolato, M.; Bicalho de Souza, N.; Neder, R & Carvalho, R. (1987) Automação e Trabalho na Indústria Automobilística, Ed. UnB, Brasília. (ISBN 85-230-0245-6). (Automation and Work in the Automobile Industry, in Portuguese) Perez, Carlota (1985) "Microeletronics, Long Waves and World Structural Change: New Perspectives for Developing Countries" in World Development, Vol. 13, nr. 3, pp. 441-463, Pergamon Press, Great Britain. Piore, Michel and Sabel, Charles (1984) The Second Industrial Divide - possibilities for prosperity, Basic Boks, New York. Rachid, Alessandra and Gitahy, L. (1995) ”Programas de Qualidade, Trabalho e Educação” em Em Aberto, nr 65, pp 63-93, Brasília. Ruas, R. (1994) “Reestruturação socio-econômica, adaptação das empresas e gestão do trabalho”, in Gitahy, L. (ed. ) (1994) Reestructuracción Productiva, Trabajo y Educación en America Latina, Red Latino Americana de Educación y Trabajo CIID/CENEP, Buenos Aires and IG/UNICAMP, Campinas, (Lecturas de Educación y Trabajo, n. 3), pp 95-107. Sabel, Charles F. (1982) Work and Politics - The division of labor in industry, Cambridge University Press, Cambrige, Massachusetts. Sabel, C. (1993a) “Reading the Writings on Economic Development”, in the SSCR Group on Economic Development and Labour Flexibility “, New York. Sabel, C. (1993b) “Learning by Monitoring: the Institutions of Economic Development”, in Handbook of , Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ Santos, G. V (1999) Novas tecnologias e formas de gestão da produção e do trabalho na indústria capixaba de celulose de mercado, Master dissertation, DPCT/IG/UNICAMP, Campinas. Schmitz, H. (1992) "On the clustering of small firms" in IDS Bulletin, Vol. 23, n. 3, july, Brighton. Sengenberger, W. and Pyke, F. (1992). “Industrial districts and local economic regeneration: research and policy issues”, in Pyke, F. & Sengenberger, W. (eds.) (1992). Industrial Districts and Local Economic Regeneration, International Institute for Labour Studies: Geneva Stutzman, Elizabeth Bortolaia Silva (1981) Política Empresarial de Controle da Força de Trabalho: Rotatividade como Dominação, Masters’ dissertation, FFCL/USP, São Paulo. Touraine (1997 [2000]) Podremos vivir juntos? La discusión pendiente: El destino del Hombre en la Aldea

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47 Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Social Sciences Editor: The Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences

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