Local Labour Control Regimes: Uneven Development and the Social Regulation of Production

Abstract

JONAS A. E. G. (1996) Local labour control regimes: uneven development and the social regulation of production, Reg. Studies 30, 323-338. The apparent demise of Fordist consensus-seeking institutions of labour regulation raises questions concerning which, if any, forms of labour market governance will dominate localities in the future. Without providing the answers for these questions, this paper addresses at a theoretical level the social need for capital to foster reciprocities between places of production and sites of consumption and labour reproduction in local labour markets. This need emerges from a contradiction between, on the one hand, capital's abstract interest in the global exchange of labour power and, on the other hand, the concrete interest of particular capitals in the local context of that exchange. A local labour control regime amounts to a stable local institutional framework for accumulation and labour regulation constructed around local labour market reciprocities. Different factions of capital are more or less dependent on local labour control regimes. The decision to restructure through space is contingent on the level of that dependence and assessment of the incorporation and adaptation costs of entering a new labour market environment. Locally dependent factions may choose to become more locally involved when local institutions of labour market governance are threatened. The paper discusses different community ideologies arising from the local involvement of capital factions and concludes by placing uneven development centre-stage in a theory of local labour regulation and control. JONAS A. E. G. (1996) Systemes de controle du travail locaux: developpement irregulier et regulation sociale de la production, Reg. Studies 30, 323-338. La disparition apparente des systemes de controle du travail du type Fordiste qui cherchent le consensus, met en doubte l'existence des systemes de controle du marche du travail susceptibles de dominer les regions a l'avenir. Sans fournir des reponses a ces questions-la, cet article aborde au niveau theorique le besoin social du capital pour promouvoir de la reciprocite entre les zones de production et de consommation et la reproduction du travail dans les bassins d'emploi locaux. Ce besoin releve d'une contradiction entre d'un cote l'interet abstrait du capital pour l'echange mondial du pouvoir de la main-d'oeuvre et de l'autre cote l'interet concret des capitaux particuliers pour le contexte local de cet echange-la. Un systeme de controle du travail d'envergure locale constitue un cadre institutionnel local stable quant a l'accumulation et la regulation du travail, construit autour des reciprocites des marches du travail locaux. Diverses factions du capital dependent plus ou moins des systemes de controle du travail locaux. La decision de reconstruire dans l'espace depend du niveau de cette dependance et de l'evaluation des couts d'incorporation et d'adaptation de l'entree dans un nouvel environnement du travail. Il se peut que les factions dont la dependance...

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