Labour, environment and industrial change

The rapid transformation of production processes is having a considerable impact on the organisation of industry and its workforce. The chapters in this book focus on the ways in which people, households, trade unions and firms create and respond to changing economic, social, working and physical environments, and on the spatial implications of these processes.
Several of the chapters examine aspects of the much-neglected supply side of labour markets such as the increasing concerns about working (and living) conditions, the growing involvement of two-income households, and the changing strategies being adopted by organised labour.

The new computer-assisted technologies require the workforce to be more flexible but the adaptability and skill of a firm's internal labour force differ from those available in the external labour market. The notion of the 'skill pool' is introduced and emphasis is placed on the need for attention to be focused on the characteristics and responses of the workforce at the local level as this, essentially, is where the main interaction between firms, people and households takes place. Together, these chapters recognise that what happens inside a factory affects society outside and that what society does influences what happens within a factory.