1st Edition

Work, Locality and the Rhythms of Capital

By Jamie Gough Copyright 2003
    336 Pages
    by Routledge

    by Routledge

    This theoretical and empirical study examines the relationship between the organisation of work, industrial relations, production spaces and the dynamics of capitalist investment. Jamie Gough explores the connections between labour process change, products, local economy and society, spaces and forms of competition, and firm's locational strategies. In a path-breaking analysis he shows that these are closely bound up with the business cycle and other rhythms of investment.
    Differences within the labour process are central to the argument. Gough explores the divisions between workers arising from these differences and from spatial flows of capital, and suggests strategies through which these divisions might be overcome.

    1. Introduction Part One: Work in Localities 2. Local Economies 3. The Dynamics of Labour Processes in Place 4. Locating the Workplace Part Two: Manufacturing in a Metropolis 5. Making Things in a Capital of Capital 6. From Rags to Radar: A slice of London manufacturing Part Three: Changes of the Labour Process in Space and Their Rhythms 7. Struggles Over Increasing Productivity 8. The Product Matters 9. The Costs of Cutting Costs Part Four: THe Labour Process, Capital Accumulation and Beyond 10. Changing Labour Processes and Changing Place 11. Rhythms of Capital, the Labour Process and Scale 12. Working on the Roller-Coaster: The business cycle and space 13. Difference, Fragmentation and the Associated Producers Appendices

    Biography

    Jamie Gough has worked in academic and policy research and is currently Senior Lecturer in Economic Geography at Northumbria University. He has published extensively in international journals on industry and industrial relations, local economies and societies, and their governance, and on the theory of spatial political economy. In the 1980s he worked at the Greater London Council under the Livingstone administration on policy for manufacturing industry, and has a continuing research interest in London.

    'Jamies Gough's book is recommended reading for all who want to engage with that analytical and political challenge' - Journal of Australian Political Economy