New Capitalism? E-Book

Kevin Doogan

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 463

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

In this stimulating and highly original work, Kevin Doogan looks at contemporary social transformation through the lens of the labour market. Major themes of the day — globalization, technological change and the new economy, the pension and demographic timebombs, flexibility and traditional employment — are all subject to critical scrutiny.

We are often told that a new global economy has emerged which has transformed our lives. It is argued that the pace of technological change, the mobility of multinational capital and the privatization of the welfare state have combined to create a more precarious world. Companies are outsourcing, jobs are migrating to China and India, and a job for life is said to be a thing of the past. The so-called ‘new capitalism’ is said to be the result of these profound changes.

Kevin Doogan takes issue with these widely-accepted ideas and subjects the transformation of work to detailed examination through a comprehensive analysis of developments in Europe and North America. He argues that precariousness is not a natural consequence of this fast-changing world; rather, current insecurities are manufactured, emanating from neoliberal policy and the greater exposure of the economy to market forces.

New Capitalism? The Transformation of Work is sure to stimulate academic debate. Kevin Doogan's account will appeal not just to scholars, but also to upper-level students across the social sciences, including the sociology of work, industrial relations, globalization, economics, social policy and business studies.

Leseprobe

New Capitalism?

New Capitalism?

The Transformation of Work

Kevin Doogan

polity

Copyright © Kevin Doogan 2009

The right of Kevin Doogan to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2009 by Polity Press

Polity Press

65 Bridge Street

Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

Polity Press

350 Main Street

Malden, MA 02148, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-5769-1

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Typeset in 10.5 on 12 pt Monotype Plantin

by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire

Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall

The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

For further information on Polity, visit our website: www.polity.co.uk

This work is dedicated to Frank Doogan

Contents

List of figures and tables

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1   From Post-Industrial Society to New Capitalism: The Evolution of a Narrative of Social Change

2   Technological Change: Autonomization and Dematerialization

3   Globalization: Mobility, Transnationality and Employment

4   Theorizing the Labour Market

5   Globalization, Demographic Change and Social Welfare

6   The Flexible Labour Market and the Contingent Economy

7   Long-term Employment and the New Economy

8   Job Insecurity, Precarious Employment and Manufactured Uncertainty

9   Conclusion

References

Index

Figures and Tables

Figures

  3.1.    Global FDI Inflows and Developed Economies’ Share

  3.2.    The Consolidation of Overseas Investment in the Developed Economies

  3.3.    The Balance Between Domestic and Overseas Operations of US MNCs 1977–2005

Tables

  7.1.    Total and Long-term Employment Change in the United States, Europe and Canada by gender 1991–2002

  7.2.    Total and Long-term Employment Change in the United States and Canada by Gender 1983–2002

  7.3.    Total and Long-term Employment Change in the States by Age between 1983 and 2002

  7.4.    Employment Decline and Long-term Employment in the European Union (thousands)

  7.5.    Expanding Sectors and Increasing Long-term Employment in the EU 1992–2002 (thousands)

  7.6.    Employment Change and Long-term Job Loss in the United States 1991–2002 (thousands)

  7.7.    Employment Expansion and Long-term Employment Growth in the United States 1991–2002 (thousands)

  7.8.    Occupational Change and Long-term Employment in Europe 1992–2002 (thousands)

  7.9.    Occupational Change and Long-term Employment of Men and Women in the United States 1991–2002 (thousands)

  7.10.  Part-time, Full-time and Long-term Employment in the US and the EU by Gender 1992–2002 (thousands)

Preface

It is more common to find a preface in the subsequent editions of a book which helps to update the discussion presented in earlier work. In this case the need to write a preface has arisen in the gap between submission of the manuscript and the printing of the edited copy. Truly the crash of 2008, that some have described a ‘financial tsunami’, marks an event of historical proportions and, in the short space before the printer puts the book to bed, a brief commentary on recent developments might be helpful. In the first instance it is necessary to answer the obvious question: to what extent does the present financial crash alter this analysis of new capitalism? There are several risks in this regard. At a time of market panic it is impossible to predict the extent of forthcoming global recession, or depression as the IMF suggests. One year after publication the world might look a very different place. The combined efforts of central governments and central banks, the ‘global fire fighters’ of the financial collapse, may have brought about some stability. Alternatively Margaret Thatcher’s adage that ‘you cannot buck the market’ may, in the wake of billions of wasted dollars, yen, Euro and pounds, be proved on this occasion to be grimly prophetic.

While the form and consequence of financial collapse was not forecast by the analysis presented here I would suggest that the crisis is not some ghastly aberration in the normal running of the new economy. The financial crisis is a far deeper and more malevolent episode, but it can be situated in the recent history of financial speculation and over-production that is exemplified in the bursting of the dot.com bubble and most importantly the telecoms crash in the early years of this decade. Economists often refer to ‘exogenous shocks’ that upset the natural workings of the market, but to see the current crisis as some ‘deus ex machina’, a device to solve the narrative plot of the new economy, lacks credibility. A special report for The FinancialTimes on the ‘World Economy 2008’ has suggested that ‘if the crisis can be contained, the outlook remains relatively bright. Benefiting from the forces of globalization, the world has enjoyed its most successful period for nearly forty years and abject poverty has been eliminated from swathes of the poorest regions, especially in Asia’.1The impression is given that if it were not for the excesses of the housing market, where commission-driven lenders created the sub-prime collapse which caused the international credit crunch, then the ‘real economy’ would have enjoyed continuous expansion and unprecedented wealth creation. Not only does this falsely portray the historical record of capitalism over the last four decades, airbrushing the return of mass unemployment, multiple economic recessions and growing global income inequality, it fails to get to grips with the structural weaknesses and imbalances at the heart of contemporary capitalism.

The present account of new capitalism stresses the growth, and until now, the triumph of neoliberal policy. Three factors are offered in the opening chapter to explain the rise of a more irrational and intensely ideological form of capitalism that emerged in the last quarter of the twentieth century, namely: deregulation, financialization and the reconfiguration of the ownership and control of corporations. With the events of 2008 these factors emerge with even greater explanatory significance. The collapse of Lehman Brothers is a particular case in which the greed of corporate executives provides eloquent testimony to the analysis offered here. In early October 2008 a US Congressional Committee called CEO Richard Fuld to account for the bankruptcy of the 158-year-old investment bank and also asked why he had earned $484 million in salary, bonuses and stock sales since 2000. A fairly unrepentant Fuld explained to the committee that it was company policy ‘to align the interests of corporate executives and employees with company shareholders’. This speaks volumes about corporate leadership that has prioritized increasing share values over company profitability. In the midst of financial market collapse there is considerable interest in city bonuses, but there is little recognition that this practice cuts across Wall Street and Main Street. The corporate appropriation of wealth lies at the heart of what Robert Brenner has called ‘the bubble economy’ and suggests that the divisions between the so-called ‘real economy’ and finance are in this regard exaggerated.

Finally the analysis of new capitalism has emphasized the importance of ideology, and the way in which new capitalism is represented and understood. The debates considered in this book, whether in relation to pension reform, welfare restructuring, corporate mobility or labour market change, will only intensify. What is clear is that the current period portends a sea change in economic policy debate. Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times has suggested that the conservatism of economic ideas, evident since the early days of Reagan and Thatcher, has gone bust. He suggests a pendulum swing in economic thinking, ready to embrace state control, regulation and planning. If the utterances of world leaders are anything to go by, then he seems to understate the shift in the ideological landscape that has gripped policy makers. In this regard the prize for the greatest volteface might well go to the French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

A certain idea of globalization is drawing to a close with the end of a financial capitalism that imposed its logic on the whole economy and contributed to perverting it,’ Sarkozy said. ‘The idea that the markets are always right was a crazy idea.2

Hardly surprising in these days that several observers of the current scene have reminded us that ‘those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad’. If we do not want to share the same fate it behoves those critical voices, who have long argued from the sidelines about a different set of economic priorities and the restoration of rationality in social affairs, to step up to the plate and come forward with alternatives.

Kevin Doogan

13 October 2008

1   Chris Giles in The Financial Times Special Report, 10 October 2008 (www.ft.com/world-economy-2008)

2   ‘Sarkozy attempts to soothe the French on economy.’ International Herald Tribune, 25 September 2008

Acknowledgements

It is usual to thank a large number of people who helped, encouraged or supported the author in the writing of the book. In this particular case I am struck by the fact that a number of people will probably be surprised to be included in the list of acknowledgements. But there are people who, out of sense of public service, collegiality or friendship, offered help, advice or data without fuss or favour, in ways that were more helpful than they would have expected. There are statisticians in Europe and North America who have greatly assisted in generating labour force survey data for the analysis of long-term employment. I was given access to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the United States and I am especially grateful to Ryan Helwig, who supplied the Job Tenure Supplements to the Current Population Census, and Ray Mataloni, who supplied data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis on the operations of American multinational corporations. Jonny Johansen and staff at the European Labour Force Survey also supplied detailed statistics on long-term employment in the European Union.

There are a number of people with whom I have shared ideas or received help or encouragement. Special thanks are owed to Gary Bridge, Dick Bryan, Allan Cochrane, Brian Corrigan, Marcel Erlinhagen, Ray Forrest, Mike Gonzales, Alaister Hatchett, Matthius Knuth, Hilary Land, Ruth Levitas, John Lovering, Gregor MacLellan, Theo Nichols, Diane Perrons, Teresa Rees, David Shonfield, Gerry Stoker and Leah Vosko. I am greatly indebted to Peter Fairbrother, who read the whole work and provided extensive comments to guide its development. I was very pleased to take up the visiting scholarship at the School of Economics and Political Science at the University of Sydney where Australian colleagues listened with good grace while an outsider offered a different take on job stability and casualization in Australia. I am grateful to Emma Longstaff, the commissioning editor at Polity, for her patience, and to friends and colleagues in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol, and research students on the Doctor of Social Science programme.

It is also commonplace to mention, finally, the nearest and dearest, and there is pressure to think of something appropriately grateful for the support that they have offered during the writing process. There is a risk that it turns out like a message to the backroom staff, who were heroic in their own way, and without whose help etc. etc. But it is probably best in this instance, simply to apologize. To say sorry for hogging the study, or for working late at night or early morning, but the biggest mea culpa is for the distraction. Sorry for the number of times that I have been asked a question and offered nothing other than a glazed expression as I chewed over the rise of the student labour market in Canada or casualization in Australia, while vaguely hearing background noise that requested me to pass the ketchup, clear the table or help with homework. With love and thanks to Alison, Michael and Liam.

Introduction

In the 1960s it was the young radicals who sang that ‘the times they are a-changin’. Dylan’s lyrics spoke to a range of protest movements concerned with the questions of the day, from civil rights to the Vietnam War, and to a radicalization that imbued the universities and workplaces with a sense of resistance and raised expectations of social and political possibilities. In subsequent decades ‘the changing times’ is a refrain that is taken up by preachers of a very different outlook. The proselytizers of change today are increasingly found amongst the sharp-suited government spokespeople, spin doctors, management consultants, business gurus, financial analysts and think tank experts, all flanked by an array of journalists and academic commentators.

In the 1960s Dylan sang of the aspiration for changes to be made by groups and movements while the current anthems present firms and workers as victims not as the agents of economic transformation. Today, the mantras of modern life depict change as the outcome of technological development and institutional restructuring that affects firms and employees, economies and governments. Competitive pressures are perceived to operate outside the realm of negotiation and regulation and they countenance only adaptability and flexibility of response. These are exogenous forces for change that are survived rather than harnessed. Survival is offered to those companies who can keep apace with the breakneck speed of technological innovation, who stay ahead of the competition and ‘reengineer’ to meet new market conditions. This is dehumanized progress, not the product of the great inventions of a second industrial revolution, but a seemingly alien transformation of society. Global forces, apparently outside the control of nation states, determine the pattern of industrial development and transform the fabric of society both nationally and internationally.

Over more than four decades it is possible to discern a narrative of social development that has evolved both politically and substantively and now embraces the idea of societal transformation. Earlier accounts of social change highlighted industrial restructuring within national economies. Daniel Bell’s depiction of the rise of ‘postindustrial society’ in 1960s America was relatively modest in its ambition, pointing to a structural shift in the economy due to the growth of the service sector. Bell was reluctant to draw any wider socio logical inferences and repeatedly warned against exaggerating the significance of technological change and the emergent notion of the ‘knowledge economy’. Contemporary transformation is played out on a far broader canvas embracing global processes that transcend national boundaries, extending discussion from structural change to disruption of the life course, from institutional fragmentation to cultural practices and values and expectations. Many of today’s commentators appear much less inclined to temper their accounts or to limit the significance of their observations. A world of change is presented increasingly devoid of any continuity with the past, in which the new is unprecedented rather than merely contemporary.