Contrast the Role of Labour as a Major Factor Influencing the Nature and Location of Industrial Activities in the Core and Peripheral Eu Regions Within a Fordist and Neo-Fordist Regime of Capital Accumulation.
Essay title: Contrast the Role of Labour as a Major Factor Influencing the Nature and Location of Industrial Activities in the Core and Peripheral Eu Regions Within a Fordist and Neo-Fordist Regime of Capital Accumulation.
Contrast the role of labour as a major factor influencing the nature and location of industrial activities in the core and peripheral EU regions within a Fordist and Neo-Fordist regime of capital accumulation.
Labour has been a critical, defining influence on the development and spatial geography of Europe in the modern age. I will demonstrate this by defining and giving a brief history of Fordism and exploring the impact of labour on its nature, paying particular attention the development of the new industrial division of labour (NIDL) and the feminisation of the labour force.
Secondly, I will discuss industrial restructuring and the move from Fordism to Post-Fordism. I will then explore the nature of labour under Post-Fordist, the importance of flexibility, and the emergence of the highly skilled urban elites and cluster economies and their impact on the new geography of the EU.
Fordism (1900-1975) is an organisation of production, characteristic of multi-national corporations, which requires a vast number of de-skilled or semi-skilled workers to run mass production lines and operates on a �just-in-case’ principal of stock accumulation in relatively closed economies.
Fordist spatial divisions of labour emerged due to locational and functional separation of mental and manual labour (Perrons 1981) , The national spatial hierarchy was re-organised whereby a small pool of highly skilled, non-manual labour organised management and R&D from the core, basic manufacturing operations were carried out in the semi-periphery by skilled and semi skilled workers and mass production was moved to the periphery to be completed by large supplies of de-skilled, automatic assembly lines workers.
As a result of the spectacular rise in the demand for durable customer goods and construction industries and the development of the welfare state allowing everyone to consume, the post-war era (from 1950 to the mid 1970’s), sometimes called the �Golden age of Fordism’, saw levels of unprecedented fast economic growth, near full employment and regional convergence in Europe as a result of the spectacular rise in the demand for durable customer goods and construction industries and the development of the welfare state allowing everyone to consume. The economic climate in Europe began to change rapidly during the 1960’s to the 1980’s as a result of increased international competition from Japanese (with a new, highly-efficient “just-in-time” mode of production) and American firms, technological innovations, increasing cost of labour and decline in profits. To counter these difficulties, there was a systematic rationalisation of production, a heightened decentralisation of manufacturing from the core and semi-periphery to the periphery (to cheaper labour supplies) within Europe, along with fragmentation of firms’ activities and global relocation to peripheral Europe. Globalisation was a significant influence on the organisation of production and so too was the emergence of the EU as a supranational state and the process of Europeanization. This re-structuring could be observed on a macro level through out the world (particularly in South East Asia), but also within Europe, for example, the “hollowing out” of the former clothing industrial districts in North East England, retaining design, marketing and HQ functions while relocating routine production to the Southern Europe (Spain, Southern Italy) or Eastern Europe during the 70’s and 80’s.
This emerging �New International Division of labour’ (NIDL) was an economic re-structuring according to the needs and dictates of Trans-National Corporations (TNC’s). These firms obtained maximum benefits from differential supplies of resources throughout the world in the form of cheap labour (which was numerically and financially flexible), mineral wealth & good infrastructure and this had major implications for regional development.
A key aspect of the NIDL was the role female workers played in these TNC branch plants. The traditionally subordinate position of women in patriarchal rural areas or declining industrial areas in the periphery was easily exploited by the incoming firms. Employed mainly in textiles, clothing and the electronics industry, women (mostly young, single and uneducated) were specifically targeted as workers, despite simultaneous high employment among the male workforce. Certain characteristics attributed to these women (such as manual dexterity, a keen eye for detailed work, high boredom thresholds, docile behavioural traits and lower rates of pay) made them attractive for the unskilled, repetitive work in the TNC’s. Far from being an objective economic fact, skill is often an ideological category imposed on certain types of work by virtue of sex and the power of the workers
The gender of the worker was important in ensuring the long-term development of the TNC. The central issue was the lack and lack of gender equality in certain areas during the TNC’s economic life span. The lack of social structures built up through the TNC and a lack of knowledge of the technical aspects, skills and attitudes that were necessary to enter and maintain the company were central to ensuring the continued profitability of its workforce.
The workers who were given the opportunity to develop the TNC under conditions of a high labour productivity and employment in TNC production were provided with jobs for some of the production cycles that was important in the production of the products. The number of people working in the production process, as well as a greater number of staff and employees with different skills were important factors in the management of the industry.
For many of the workers, it was very difficult to find jobs in the TNC. These were mainly the young and non-elite workers: they had the same occupations as the average TNC workers in the TNC’s main division, but were not hired directly, they were hired directly by the production plant manager for the TNC. The employees in the TNC-related branch were highly specialized and the production process was complex requiring a long-term commitment from workers. In addition, they were asked to work part-time in various jobs, including the labouring jobs, they had long-term involvement with the production plants and staff and were expected to be satisfied with their employment. The workers who had access to the resources of the industry were required to stay open continuously for the whole duration of their work, working at the factory during the day.
The first years of the TNC’s management were dominated by the production process that was largely the product of the TNC’s workforce. This had a major impact on the production of the products, because during the period the TNC was dominated by female and male workers, the product was usually only produced during the winter months, but by the summer days, there was relatively little labor activity. The production process involved a certain production capacity of some TNC workers.
In order to keep up with the demand for products and the production of the TNC machinery, the industry managers were under a lot of stress with regard to their workforce. As a result production began to take a back seat to the quantity of available working time. Also under pressure was the demand for quality TNC machinery. The TNC machine industry experienced a growth gap between the production area of production machinery and the size of the factories in the industrial area.
In order to protect the production of products and the products of the industry, manufacturing areas had to develop a much stronger set of regulations, the use of fewer and lower priced equipment (often the most expensive equipment in the country) was required, low labour prices for the machines and a constant level of security was required by the industry management and the quality of products were not only important but were very important. The production process was dominated by women, primarily their high school age students, from the rural regions of the country but also from the coastal regions of the world.
From a structural and institutional level, with regard to the construction, the production process involved construction of the factories of different size and quality. The manufacturing process was also dominated by the production of the workers of the TNC. The industries which benefited the most from the production and that were the most under the control of the TNC management were the construction and agriculture