Doctoral Dissertation Research: Globalization and Job Movement in the Automobile Industry, 1970-2006

博士论文研究：全球化与汽车行业的就业流动，1970-2006

• 批准号: 0726836
• 负责人: Beverly Silver
• 金额: $ 0.75万
• 依托单位: Johns Hopkins University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-08-15 至 2009-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0726836&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Globalization; Job

Title: Doctoral Dissertation Research: Globalization and Job Movement in the Automobile Industry, 1970-2006Institution: Johns Hopkins UniversityPrincipal Investigator: Beverly SilverCo-Principal Investigator: Nicole AschoffA recurrent theme expressed in academia, policy circles and the popular media is that globalization has a 'devastating and inescapable' impact on high-wage manufacturing jobs. Scholars argue that manufacturing jobs are moving to low-wage sites at breakneck speed, leaving behind a wasteland of joblessness and insecurity in countries like the U.S. Yet, the case of the global auto industry belies this stark picture. Automobile manufacturers are both moving into and out of high wage countries. In particular, foreign auto firms are investing heavily in the U.S. where wages are among the highest in the world. What explains this anomalous pattern of job movement in the auto industry? Why are companies continuing to build and expand plants in the U.S. despite the close proximity of low wage sites like Mexico? This dissertation will address these questions through a detailed study of capital mobility in the U.S. auto industry. Drawing on research in historical sociology, labor, geography and political economy of the world system, this dissertation will produce a detailed picture of the overall pattern of automobile job movement into and out of the U.S. over the past three decades, and provide the most plausible explanation for the pattern uncovered. The project will utilize a mixed-methods approach that includes the construction of a time-series database that tracks plant movement into and out of the U.S. since 1970, and the completion of two extended case studies of automotive component manufacturers. The findings of this research will be of interest to sociologists, and to workers and policy makers in both developed and developing countries for three main reasons: First, the project will provide much needed empirical evidence for evaluating current debates amongst social scientists studying job movement, globalization and labor movements. Second, it will provide a conceptually grounded framework for analyzing job movement; this framework challenges the primacy of wages and labor costs in determining where jobs move by considering the complex interaction of local, national and global factors in shaping the geographical trajectories of auto firms. As a result, the dissertation will help automobile workers to assess the possibilities and constraints in organizing for better working conditions in today's political-economic climate. Finally, the project has important policy implications, given that job movement and outsourcing are of crucial interest in both developed and developing countries. By studying broad patterns of job movement and the inner mechanisms of agency that determine these patterns, the dissertation will provide a better understanding of where jobs are moving and the reasons why they are moving there. This is an essential step in developing policies that attract and sustain quality jobs in an increasingly competitive global economy.

题目：博士论文研究：全球化与汽车工业的就业运动，1970-2006机构：约翰霍普金斯大学首席研究员：Beverly silver联合首席研究员：Nicole AschoffA在学术界，政策界和大众媒体中反复表达的主题是全球化对高工资制造业工作的“破坏性和不可避免的”影响。学者们认为，制造业的工作岗位正以极快的速度转移到低工资的地方，在美国等国家留下了一片失业和不安全的荒原。然而，全球汽车行业的情况掩盖了这一严峻的局面。汽车制造商正在进出高工资国家。特别是，外国汽车公司正在美国大举投资，因为美国的工资水平是世界上最高的。如何解释汽车行业这种反常的工作流动模式？为什么公司不顾墨西哥等低工资工厂的临近，继续在美国建厂和扩建工厂？本文将通过对美国汽车行业资本流动的详细研究来解决这些问题。通过对世界体系的历史社会学、劳工学、地理学和政治经济学的研究，本论文将详细描绘过去三十年来美国汽车行业就业流入和流出的总体模式，并为所发现的模式提供最合理的解释。该项目将采用混合方法，包括建立一个时间序列数据库，跟踪1970年以来工厂进出美国的情况，并完成对汽车零部件制造商的两个扩展案例研究。这项研究的结果将引起社会学家的兴趣，发达国家和发展中国家的工人和政策制定者的兴趣，主要有三个原因：首先，该项目将提供急需的经验证据，以评估目前研究工作运动、全球化和劳工运动的社会科学家之间的争论。其次，它将为分析工作流动提供一个概念基础框架；这一框架挑战了工资和劳动力成本的首要地位，通过考虑塑造汽车公司地理轨迹的地方、国家和全球因素的复杂相互作用，决定了工作的转移。因此，这篇论文将帮助汽车工人评估在今天的政治经济气候下组织更好的工作条件的可能性和限制。最后，该项目具有重要的政策影响，因为工作流动和外包对发达国家和发展中国家都是至关重要的。通过研究工作流动的广泛模式和决定这些模式的机构的内部机制，本文将更好地理解工作在哪里流动以及它们在那里流动的原因。这是在竞争日益激烈的全球经济中制定吸引和维持高质量就业的政策的重要一步。