Labour in a Global World Case Studies from the White Goods Industry in Africa, South America, East Asia and Europe

This book gets behind much generality about globalisation to examine the production of relatively familiar commodities such as refrigerators and ovens in different countries. By considering a range of countries - China, Taiwan and South Korea, South Africa, Brazil and Turkey - it makes a substantive contribution to the understanding of the diffusion of management methods, the role of the state in employee relations, the nature of trade unionism and the impact of social structure on production relations.

List of Tables and Figures Preface Acknowledgements The World of White Goods - Markets, Industry Structure and Dynamics The View from the UK: Mature Markets, High Imports and Other Problems South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe: White Goods in Post-Colonial Societies China: The Rise of the Foreign Investment and the Transformation of Labour Relations Taiwan: The Disappearance of the 'Golden Tale' - Employment Relations in a Japanese Joint Venture Turkey: White Goods in the 'EU Periphery' Brazil: Between Global Trends and National Politics - Restructuring and Workers' Responses Labour in a Global World - Some Comparisons Index

THEO NICHOLS is Distinguished Research Professor, in the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, UK. He has written widely in the general field of economic sociology, including ownership and control, management and management ideology, class consciousness, productivity and industrial injuries. His latest book, on Turkish workers and modern industry, Global Management and Local Labour (written with Nadir Sugur) was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2004.

SURHAN CAM was formerly Research Fellow at the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. He is currently Research Fellow at the Working Lives Research Institute, London Metropolitan University, where he is engaged in a survey on the problem-solving strategies of unorganised workers in Britain. He has a special interest in neo-liberalism.