Doctoral Dissertation Research in Sociology

正在出现的国家经济边界逐渐缩小的现象之一是外国公司的迁移，它们不仅进入像美国这样的工业化国家，而且也进入第三世界国家。当我们看到日本和美国公司进入同一个国家，在电子和汽车零部件等竞争激烈的行业使用类似的工人时，这一点尤其正确。当这些企业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。这些努力具有很大的潜力，可以教会社会科学家、第三世界政府官员以及这些企业的管理者和所有者，让他们对有效组织生产工作的其他方式感到惊讶。本论文研究将运用两个高度甚至独特的合格个人（Portes和学生Koido）的技能来研究第三世界国家的当地劳动力市场，内部劳动力市场和跨国公司。这里特别感兴趣的是对美国和日本公司的运营进行比较，因为它们在这个国家的业务重组方式不同。这项资助将支持研究生在该领域收集数据，主要是通过与日本和美国公司的工厂经理和工人进行密集访谈。学院PI拥有丰富的研究经验，有资格指导第三世界国家的一流研究。这位博士生是唯一有资格做这项研究的人，精通英语、日语和西班牙语。

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.