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

职务名称：博士论文研究：1970- 2006年全球化与汽车工业的就业流动机构：约翰霍普金斯大学首席研究员：贝弗利西尔弗联合首席研究员：妮可阿肖夫学术界、政策界和大众媒体反复表达的主题是，全球化对高薪制造业工作产生了“毁灭性的和不可避免的”影响。学者们认为，制造业工作正以极快的速度向低工资地区转移，在美国等国家留下了一片失业和不安全的荒地。汽车制造商正在进入和离开高工资国家。特别是，外国汽车公司正在美国大量投资，美国的工资是世界上最高的。如何解释汽车行业这种反常的工作流动模式？为什么公司继续在美国建造和扩建工厂，尽管美国靠近墨西哥等低工资地区？本文将通过对美国汽车产业资本流动的详细研究来解决这些问题。本文将借鉴历史社会学、劳动力、地理学和世界体系政治经济学的研究成果，对过去30年美国汽车业就业流动的总体模式进行详细描述，并对所揭示的模式做出最合理的解释。该项目将采用混合方法，包括构建一个时间序列数据库，跟踪自1970年以来工厂进出美国的情况，并完成两个汽车零部件制造商的扩展案例研究。这项研究的结果将感兴趣的社会学家，工人和政策制定者在发达国家和发展中国家的三个主要原因：首先，该项目将提供急需的经验证据，以评估目前的辩论之间的社会科学家研究工作的运动，全球化和劳工运动。其次，它将为分析工作流动提供一个概念性的基础框架;该框架通过考虑当地，国家和全球因素在塑造汽车公司地理轨迹方面的复杂相互作用，挑战了工资和劳动力成本在决定工作流动方面的首要地位。因此，本论文将帮助汽车工人评估的可能性和限制，在组织更好的工作条件，在今天的政治经济气候。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至关重要。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，本文将提供一个更好的理解工作在哪里移动，以及他们为什么会在那里移动。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机会的政策的一个重要步骤。

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.