1st Edition

The Evolution of Industrial Systems The Forking Paths

By Timothy Leggatt Copyright 1985
    270 Pages
    by Routledge

    270 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book, first published in 1985, tackles simultaneously three major questions about the course of industrial evolution: what are the features of the industrial systems that have developed outside Western capitalism? What are the salient evolutionary developments now occurring in all advanced capitalist systems? What light can social theory throw upon the evolution of industrial systems thus far and in the future? In answering these questions the author provides an exposition of how the Soviet system works and how the Japanese system developed; a critical analysis of three issues of major contemporary concern – the control of giant corporations, the impact of automation, and the shift to service employment; and a commentary on the theories of classical and contemporary social thinkers. Concluding with his own conceptualisation of the determinants of industrial evolution, the author also offers his own evaluation of the needs of the advanced industrial societies.

    Part 1. The Framework of Analysis  1. Introduction  2. Theories of Industrial Change  Part 2. Issues for Advanced Capitalist Systems  3. The Control of Corporate Power  4. The World of Work: The Impact of Automation and the Shift to Services  Part 3. The Industrial System of the USSR  5. The Planning Process and the Cycle of Reform  6. Institutional Interests and the Challenge of Change  Part 4. The Japanese Industrial System  7. The Process of Development up to World War II  8. The Japanese Way  Part 5. The Forking Paths  9. The Evolutionary Trends and the Needs of Humanity

    Biography

    Timothy Leggatt