Invisible Factories

Download or read book Invisible Factories written by Lauren A. Benton and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1990-07-05 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Invisible Factories analyzes the role of the informal economy in national development and weighs alternative claims about its impact on industrial development. Detailed case studies of the electronics and shoe industries in Spain demonstrate the restructuring process. Benton examines the transformation of ideas about work and gender, the shifting lines of conflict between workers and employers, and growing tensions between national and regional interests. She shows that these elements of the workplace and national politics, rather than the logic of economic development, command the new industrial order. Benton asks how decentralization of production has affected workers, industrial growth, and the recasting of industrial policy. Explored in depth are the plight of women outworkers, the history of regional labor conflicts, and the evolution of national-level bargaining among unions, employers, and the state.