Doctoral Dissertation Research in Sociology

正在出现的国家经济边界不断缩小的局面的一部分是外国公司的转移，不仅进入了目前的工业化国家，如美国，也进入了第三世界国家。当我们观察日本和美国公司进入相同国家的情况时，情况尤其如此，这些公司在电子和汽车零部件等竞争激烈的行业使用类似的工人。当这些公司在熟悉的社会和劳动力市场环境之外进行生产操作时，令人兴奋的社会学实验自然也会发生。这些努力具有巨大的潜力，可以向社会科学家、第三世界政府官员以及这些作业的管理者和所有者传授许多令他们惊讶的有效组织生产工作的替代方法。这篇论文的研究将应用两个高度甚至是唯一合格的个人(Portes和学生Koido)的技能来研究一个第三世界国家的当地劳动力市场、国内劳动力市场和跨国公司。这里特别令人感兴趣的是美国和日本公司在以不同方式重组在美国的业务时的业务比较。这笔助学金将支持研究生在现场收集数据，主要是通过对工厂经理和与日本和美国公司有关联的工人进行密集采访。该教员具有丰富的研究经验，能够指导第三世界国家的一流研究。这位博士生精通英语、日语和西班牙语，是唯一有资格从事这项研究的学生。

Part of the emerging picture of diminishing national economic boundaries is the movement of foreign firms, not only into presently industrialized countries such as the U.S. but into Third World countries as well. This is especially true when we look at the movement of Japanese and American firms into the same countries, using similar workers in highly competitive industries such as electronics and auto components. When these firms undertake production operations outside of familiar social and labor market environment, exciting sociological experiments naturally take place as well. These endeavors have great potential for teaching both social scientists, Third World government officials and the managers and owners of these operations much that will surprise them about alternative ways of effectively organizing production work. This dissertation research will apply the skills of two highly and even uniquely qualified individuals (Portes and student Koido) to a study of local labor markets, internal labor markets and transnational corporations in a third world nation. Of special interest here is a comparison of the operations of U.S. and Japanese firms as they differently restructure their operations in this country. This grant will support the graduate student's collection of data in the field, primarily through intensive interviews with plant managers and workers associated with Japanese and American firms. The faculty PI is qualified by extensive research experience to guide first rate studies in Third World countries. The doctorial student is uniquely qualified to do this study, being affluent in English, Japanese and Spanish.