New Technology and the Workers′ Response: Microelectronics, Labour and Society

The rapid development and widespread use of new technologies, particularly those based on microelectronics, have brought about radical changes in people′s lives the world over. New technologies have also altered production conditions, organizational structures, organizational behavior, and employment trends. Although there are numerous studies on the impact these new technologies have had in developed nations, the problems that countries such as India and Brazil have faced in the same context have received little attention. The contributors to this volume analyze the problems faced by both management and trade unions in tackling new technologies and harnessing them in the cause of promoting growth and social welfare. They also conceptualize issues of distribution and the shares of labor and capital in making the transition from old-fashioned to new. This volume relates macroeconomic problems to the use of new technologies, analyzes the strategic behavior of different economic agents in the transition phase, and compares the experiences of East Asian economies (Korea and Taiwan) with those of developing countries such as Brazil and India and advanced economies such as Sweden. This volume will attract a wide readership among those interested in economics, management studies, labor relations, sociology and the trade union movement. "The essays in this volume offer vastly differing perspectives on technology and society. . . . A welcome addition and in the absence of many works which critically examine the role of microelectronics technology in developing nations this book will serve as a useful work, particularly for labor unions and scholars working on issues related to microelectronics and society." --Science, Technology, and Society "This volume makes an important contribution to understanding the dynamics of technological change in a variety of specific end-use conditions. . . . The volume is a valuable addition to the limited literature on the effects of, and responses to, new technology in developing countries. It should make interesting reading not only for managers and policy-makers, but also for students of business and social sciences and trade union leaders in developing countries." --International Labour Review "The success of this book lies in raising some important questions and in trying to explain how in some instances around the world industrial establishments have reacted to the increasing availability of microelectronics interventions. In that, this book presents some very well-articulated arguments based mostly on macro-economic data which should be useful to a students of technological change. . . . Raise[s] contemporary issues and provide[s] new insights." --Journal of Entrepreneurship "Bagchi′s and Samaddar′s work is important for several reasons. Despite the fact that neither book is explicitly concerned with the social shaping of technological change in India, and both are, rather, concerned with the social and economic impacts of new technologies, they provide critical insights into the behaviour of Indian industrial management and into the process of effects of technological change there. This sort of material tends to have very poor visibility in the West, and this makes their contribution all the more valuable for our understanding of they dynamics of capitalism at a global level in this era of information technology. The work of Bagchi and his colleagues in particular underlines, in the Indian context, the claims of economists of technology who have examined the reasons for success and failure of technological change in other countries in the Asian economic bloc. Furthermore, Samaddar′s insistence on the importance of linking labour market to labour process dynamics in fact makes a valuable contribution to the social shaping of technology approach." --Work, Employment & Society "The high academic standard of the book will be well received by the community of researchers in the field as well as planni