Does disciplinary practice by employers evolve over time? Not only conventional analyses of discipline but also Foucauldian theories assume that it does. Three features may be tested: the rate of discipline (which should fall); the types of behaviour punished (which should reflect the...

This book brings together leading academics from important schools of social and economic theory to make a pressing, spirited, and highly engaging case for the relevance of these particular perspectives in contributing to the analysis of contemporary work.. The schools covered are: Weberian,...

This paper defends a materialist analysis of employment relations against two recent critiques, by Peter Ackers and Patrick McGovern. 'Radical pluralism' is Ackers's preferred term. The critiques are useful in exposing some ritualistic uses of terms such as conflict, contradiction, and...

The concept of the Low Skills Equilibrium (LSE) denotes a mutually reinforcing set of mechanisms that generate a pattern of low skills and low productivity. The idea has been a powerful one in both analytical and policy terms. There is growing emphasis on the need to study the LSE at the level...

Small firms account for a substantial proportion of employment in advanced economies; yet understanding of the quality of jobs in them remains poor. Studies using national-level data find that indicators such as autonomy are high but find it hard to say why. Analyses within small firms stress...

The importance of multinational companies (MNCs) in the UK economy is not inquestion. One way in which this is evident is that Britain is a major recipient offoreign direct investment (FDI) by MNCs, accounting for 8.7% of the inward stockof global FDI. In addition, large numbers of...